Frankly, Eon's casting agent should long ago have been fed to the sharks for some of the recruitment decisions made over the years: Jill St John in Diamonds Are Forever, Britt Ekland in The Man with the Golden Gun and Barbara Bach in The Spy Who Loved Me all gave performances that would not have been out of place in the ream of cheap and cheesy Eurospy films that nipped at 007's gilded heels in the 60s. (To my mind, only George Lazenby provided worse value.)Ĭasino Royale also had probably the greatest actor ever to play a Bond girl in its ranks, with only Diana Rigg in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Honor Blackman in Goldfinger capable of holding a candle to her.

Yet so incendiary was Craig's first turn in the role that he instantly cast his predecessor as one of the weaker, lazier Bonds. Prior to his arrival on the scene, Brosnan was often mentioned as the best 007 since Connery. One that many might argue was rather better for eschewing many of the tropes that people connect with the series, and one that on a critical level revived a franchise that most reviewers regarded as long past its sell-by date.Ĭasino Royale also had a new 007, Daniel Craig, a muscular and rather stern-looking chap who brought a damaged determination to the role but had less of the suave flamboyance of earlier incarnations (proving that both he and Bond didn't really need it). That's why the best Bond movie has to be one that is abstracted from the series' heyday and all its attendant cultural gravy one that was required to succeed not just as a great Bond film, but as a great film in its own right.

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