It's the 50th anniversary ... not of James Bond himself, who was invented by
author Ian Fleming in 1953, but it is the 50th anniversary of the first official
Bond movie, 1962's "Dr. No," which also marked actor Sean Connery's debut in the role.
It's not too well known, but the first Ian Fleming Bond novel, "Casino Royale," had already been adapted for the
screen -- the small, black-and-white TV screen -- some years before. You'll find
out more about that below. With a new official Bond film (that is, a Bond film
produced by Eon, the production entity founded by then-partners Harry Saltzman
and Albert "Cubby" Broccoli back in the day) opening soon and a massive
DVD/Blu-ray disc box set collecting all the films in the series, it's an
opportune time to look at the action-espionage franchise that, at various
points, set the bar for its genre. For this assessment, we enlisted MSN Movies'
chief film critic, Glenn Kenny , to put his license to judge on the line and
actually rate the Bond pictures from worst to best. We've also thrown in two
Bond movies that are not part of the official series, for reasons that will
become clear. Agree? Disagree? Hopefully the ranking will leave you not shaken,
but rather stirred to check out the best of the Bond movies one more time.
Bing: TK | TK
(Daniel Craig in "Skyfall"/MGM) |
