philosoraptor42

As I was growing up James Bond movies would be played on TV fairly often; not least because ITV owned the rights to the entire series and running the occasional Bond marathon was a great way to get people watching that channel. Before I get to the review and say just how much I loved the new James Bond movie, I'm going to express my feelings on the series so far first. (Though if you are in a hurry, I absolutely blooming loved "Skyfall" - so there's that.)

First of all I have to admit that there are three Bond actors out of seven which I have never seen perform in the role. I've seen the four major Bond actors: Sean Connery (the original), Roger Moore (the one I remember most from growing up), Pierce Brosnan (my first Bond in the cinema) and Daniel Craig (the current one).


However, I have never seen George Lazenby (who my friends all dissed when I was following a Bond marathon on tv while still in school), Timothy Dalton (whose run as Bond has always been rated pretty low) or Peter Sellers (whose unofficial spoof of James Bond, titled "Casino Royale", is generally recognised as dire).



When I say "official" James Bond movies, I mean the 23 that were produced by Eon. There are two full movies and a tv episode that weren't produced by Eon. The 1960s "Casino Royale" spoof, the 1980s movie that brought back Sean Connery titled "Never Say Never Again" and the tv episode from the 50s (apparently part of a dramatic anthology series called "Climax Mystery Theatre") is also titled "Casino" marks the first ever on screen appearance of James Bond, except on that occasion the character was played an American. I have not seen any of the unofficial works, not because I need my Bond to be official, but because these are shown less often (with the tv episode for a long time pretty much unknown by most people) and are generally not rated very highly.

The films I have seen and enjoyed oddly often seem to come from directors who have made more than one Bond movie. So without further ado here are my top four James Bond directors....

4. Guy Hamilton:


Don't think of the number as indicating my opinion of the director. In fact, instead you can think of it as indicating the number of movies that director has made (since it rather neatly fits that pattern). So first up is Guy Hamilton who made no less than 4 James Bond movies, starting with perhaps the most iconic:

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3. Lewis Gilbert

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2. Martin Campbell

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1. Roger Spottiswoode

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So without further ado here is my review of this year's Bond movie: Skyfall (2012)

Admittedly after "Quantum of Solace" expectations were not high. Sure Sam Mendes was on the case, but his last film "Away We Go" had left me a little nervous on that front (and to be frank, nothing from him had really blown me away since "Road To Perdition"). The first scene jumps into the action and it's pretty cool stuff, though not so different from what we've seen before. It's exciting and well put together and it definitely gets us back into the Bond spirit in spite of any misgivings when entering the cinema. The final climax of that opener kind of knocked me for six though. And while I was reeling from that, the film hits me with possibly the most gorgeous opening titles song and imagery sequence in the entire history of the Bond franchise.

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Summary on Bond movies....
Above I shared my top nine of the twenty five Bond movies released so far. By mentioning the Bonds I haven't seen, plus my ignorance on both unofficial titles, that accounts for fourteen of the Bond films. I also discussed another two that I wasn't so keen on and I've never seen "Octopussy" (in spite of the intriguing title), so that leaves another 8 undiscussed. For that reason I am wrapping this up with a neat little list of all the bond movies in chronological order accompanied by a very quick comment in each case. This probably isn't entirely necessary, but it puts the above discussion into context showing you exactly what order the films were released.
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If you are interested in more in-depth consideration of the Bond movies, I can highly recommend the Now Playing retrospective series of podcasts on the Bond franchise. They do not refrain from spoilers at all, so if you want to enter the films fresh you'll need to watch them first. (So when they get to "Skyfall" DEFINITELY watch the movie first.) However, the podcasts are entertaining and the discussions often include some neat little interesting facts about each film.

It's my opinion that a director is wholly responsible for the quality of their film. They may be limited by the requirements of the studio or budget limitations, but the best directors will (with any luck) overcome these limits and make something truly wonderful. People often attribute the quality of movies to their stars and, while better actors have the potential to provide better performances, in the end they are puppets for the director. After all, performances seem to be put on film in little bits with many different takes involved at a variety of angles, often in no particular order. I think an actor would be hard-pushed to provide a good on-screen performance over an entire movie without a good director.

So it's long been a tendency of mine to look out for the director name and the following is a list of director's which have managed to catch my attention.

Prolific Directors
Perhaps it makes sense to start with these guys. Sometimes following a particular director can be a punishing process. They won't always come up to scratch. But even if half their movies are disappointing the other half often make them worth following. I'll start the list with someone who most people will tend to want to keep their eye on:

Steven Spielberg
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Werner Herzog
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John Carpenter
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David Cronenberg
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Terry Gilliam
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Robert Rodriguez
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The Coen Brothers
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Honourable Mention:
Alfred Hitchcock

Though I've only seen "Psycho" and "North By Northwest", I can tell this is someone whose extensive works I'm going to need to check out. Any recommendations on which of his movies to see first would be highly welcome.


Less Prolific Directors (Or Directors Still Early In Their Career)

Matthew Vaughn
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Darren Aronofsky
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Guillermo Del Toro
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Christopher Nolan
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Sam Mendes
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Andrew Stanton
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Quentin Tarantino
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Alejandro Amenabar
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Directors Who Let Me Down
Kevin Smith
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James Cameron
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David Fincher
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