James Bond
Dr. No/Dvdby Sean ConneryDvd Video Edition |
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Released in 1962, this first James Bond movie remains one of the best, and serves as an
entertaining reminder that the Bond series began (in keeping with Ian Fleming's
novels) with a surprising lack of gadgetry and big-budget fireworks. Sean Connery was just
32 years old when he won the role of Agent 007. In his first adventure James Bond is
called to Jamaica where a colleague and secretary have been mysteriously killed. With an
American CIA agent (Jack Lord, pre-Hawaii Five-O), they discover that the nefarious
Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman) is scheming to blackmail the U.S. government with a device capable
of deflecting and destroying U.S. rockets launched from Cape Canaveral. Of course, Bond
takes time off from his exploits to enjoy the company of a few gorgeous women, including
the bikini-clad Ursula Andress. She gloriously kicks off the long-standing tradition of
Bond women who know how to please their favorite secret agent. A sexist anachronism?
Maybe, but this is Bond at his purest, kicking off a series of movies that shows no sign
of slowing down. --Jeff Shannon
From Russia With Love/Dvdby Sean ConneryDvd Video Edition |
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Directed with consummate skill by Terence Young, the second James Bond spy thriller is
considered by many fans to be the best of them all. Certainly Sean Connery was never
better as the dashing Agent 007, whose latest mission takes him to Istanbul to retrieve a
top-secret Russian decoding machine. His efforts are thwarted when he gets romantically
distracted by a sexy Russian double agent (Daniela Bianchi), and is tracked by a lovely
assassin (Lotte Lenya) with switchblade shoes, and by a crazed killer (Robert Shaw), who
clashes with Bond during the film's dazzling climax aboard the Orient Express. From
Russia with Love is classic James Bond, before the gadgets, pyrotechnics, and Roger
Moore steered the movies away from the more realistic tone of the books by Ian Fleming.
--Jeff Shannon
Moonraker/Dvdby Roger MooreDvd Video Edition |
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This was the first James Bond adventure produced after the success of Star Wars, so
it jumped on the sci-fi bandwagon by combining the suave appeal of Agent 007 (once again
played by Roger Moore) with enough high-tech hardware and special effects to make Luke
Skywalker want to join Her Majesty's Secret Service. After the razzle-dazzle of The Spy
Who Loved Me, this attempt to latch onto a trend proved to be a case of overkill, even
though it brought back the steel-toothed villain Jaws (Richard Kiel) and scored a major
hit at the box office. This time Bond is up against a criminal industrialist named Drax
(Michel Lonsdale) who wants to control the world from his orbiting space station. In
keeping with his well-groomed style, Bond thwarts this maniacal Neo-Hitler's scheme with
the help of a beautiful, sleek-figured scientist (played by Lois Chiles with all the
vitality of a department-store mannequin). There's a grand-scale climax involving space
shuttles and ray guns, but despite the film's popular success, this is one Bond adventure
that never quite gets off the launching pad. It's as if the caretakers of the James Bond
franchise had forgotten that it's Bond--and not a barrage of gizmos and gadgets (including
a land-worthy Venetian gondola)--that fuels the series' success. Despite Moore's passive
performance (which Pauline Kael described as "like an office manager who is turning
into dead wood but hanging on to collect his pension"), Moonraker had no
problem attracting an appreciative audience, and there are even a few renegade Bond-philes
who consider it one of their favorites. --Jeff Shannon
The Spy Who Loved Me/Dvdby Roger MooreDvd Video Edition |
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The best of the James Bond adventures starring Roger Moore as tuxedoed Agent 007, this globe-trotting thriller introduced the steel-toothed Jaws (played by seven-foot-two-inch-tall actor Richard Kiel) as one of the most memorable and indestructible Bond villains. Jaws is so tenacious, in fact, that Moore looks genuinely frightened, and that adds to the abundant fun. This time Bond teams up with yet another lovely Russian agent (Barbara Bach) to track a pair of nuclear submarines that the nefarious Stromberg (Curt Jürgens) plans to use in his plot to start World War III. Featuring lavish sets designed by the great Ken Adam (Dr. Strangelove), The Spy Who Loved Me is a galaxy away from the suave Sean Connery exploits of the 1960s, but the film works perfectly as grandiose entertainment. From cavernous undersea lairs to the vast horizons of Egypt, this Bond thriller keeps its tongue firmly in cheek with a plot tailor-made for daredevil escapism. --Jeff Shannon
by Sean Connery
Dvd Video Edition
DVD
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occasionally go out of print or publishers run out of stock. We will notify you within 2-3
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To own Goldfinger (1964) on digital video disc is to have at your fingertips the
proof that Sean Connery is the definitive James Bond. Dry as ice, dripping with deadpan
witticisms, only Connery's Bond would dare disparage the Beatles, that other 1964
phenomenon. No one but Connery can believably seduce women so effortlessly, kill with
almost as much ease, and then pull another bottle of Dom Perignon '53 out of the fridge. Goldfinger
contains many of the most memorable scenes in the Bond series: gorgeous Shirley Eaton (as
Jill Masterson) coated in gold paint by evil Auric Goldfinger and deposited in Bond's bed;
silent Oddjob, flipping a razor-sharp derby like a Frisbee to sever heads; our hero
spread-eagle on a table while a laser beam moves threateningly toward his crotch. Honor
Blackman's Pussy Galore is the prototype for the series' rash of man-hating supermodels.
And Desmond Llewelyn makes his first appearance as Q, giving Bond what is still his most
impressive car, a snazzy little number that fires off smoke screens, punctures the tires
of vehicles on the chase, and boasts a handy ejector seat. Goldfinger's two
climaxes, inside Fort Knox and aboard a private plane, have to be seen to be believed. --Raphael
Shargel