Dr. No: mediocre overall, not bad for a warm up and Connery was good from the get-go, but Ursula Andress is kind of embarrassing to me now and there’s weak stuff like the villain and that dumb flame-throwing tank or whatever it was on the beach.

From Russia With Love: I maintain that this is the one James Bond movie that most feels like actual espionage is taking place, the one where you feel the Cold War the most. I’m grateful that the only goofy thing in it is Rosa Klebb’s stabbing shoe, and that Daniela Bianchi who obviously wasn’t an actress didn’t wreck the movie.

Goldfinger: It’s funny to me to think the final act of the best Bond movie takes place mostly in the US South.

Thunderball: Bloated and overbudgeted. I never cared for the jet pack much, so there goes the best idea in this movie. I’ve gone back to it a few times to see if my mind changed and it never did.

You Only Live Twice: The two women in the movie are interchangeable but the fake volcano set is awesome and you get Donald Pleasance too. This one is the “other decent one.” I don’t return to it much, though.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: This is a mixture of things that work and things that don’t. Most accurately reflected in the final scene, the thing that works best; obviously Connery dwarfs Lazenby as an actor, yet Lazenby may have handled that final scene better than Connery would’ve. Good enough ski chase and Diana Rigg was probably the best performance of any classic Bond girl, but Telly Savalas sucked (the first in a long history of “name” actors blowing it as Bond villains) and there’s passages that just plod the movie out. I give it a neutral rating and would never discourage anyone from seeing it. The people who insist it’s the masterpiece of the series are really pushing it, though.

Diamonds Are Forever: The first campy James Bond movie. Not a good sign. I’m stupefied to look in the mirror every morning now and realize I’m older by one year than Connery was in this movie. How much liquor did he pour down his gullet between 1967 and 1971 to look 59 at 41? Rod Steiger didn’t look that old in In The Heat Of The Night but he was using grey hair and old man makeup!