[supercat]

Now Bond movies are basically cartoons. I guess they are entertaining to some but I hate them. In Dr. No and Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball, Bond did not do anything that a well trained agent couldn't do.

This may sound like an odd perception, but my personal view is that the Bond movies went downhill when they started having totally different theme music on the opening and end titles. To be sure, some of the older Bond title musics have been pretty lackluster (e.g. Thunderball) but for me, the music does a lot to set up the movie. The Man with the Golden Gun may have been a lackluster movie, but the title song was great [actually, perhaps because of the theme song, I wouldn't criticize tMwtGG as severely as some, though I would give it an award for worst sound effect (slide whistle)].

[bigghurtt]

Bond should have died when Mr Connery took a walk.

It's like having Clooney play Batman, it just ain't right. Everyone knows Quahog's own, Adam West, is Batman.

[supercat]

BTW, one habit which Bond movies got into which I rather liked was delaying the appearance of the title until its occurrence in the opening song. I believe almost every movie until View to a Kill did that, with the exception of The Spy Who Loved Me (whose song doesn't use the title until the second verse), Octopussy (whose song doesn't use tht title at all), and Doctor No, From Russia with Love, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (whose opening title music has no lyrics). I don't know why they got out of that habit--I thought it was kinda neat.

[yarddog]

It is hard to put a finger on exactly what caused the decline in the Bond movies, but it seems to be pretty closely aligned with how well they stay with the story as written by Fleming.

Dr. No which imo was the best went almost exactly by the book. I recall a very minor scene with the government official in which he taps his match box which is shown exactly as described in the book. From Russia With Love and Goldfinger got a little further away but were still excellent.

The last dozen or so had virtually nothing to do with the story except for the title. Now even the titles are made up.

[yarddog]

It is hard to put a finger on exactly what caused the decline in the Bond movies, but it seems to be pretty closely aligned with how well they stay with the story as written by Fleming.

Dr. No which imo was the best went almost exactly by the book. I recall a very minor scene with the government official in which he taps his match box which is shown exactly as described in the book. From Russia With Love and Goldfinger got a little further away but were still excellent.

The last dozen or so had virtually nothing to do with the story except for the title. Now even the titles are made up.