Wednesday, February 1, 2012

New image of Daniel Craig as James Bond in Skyfall reminds me I need to shave today (plus thoughts on the early Connery 007 films).

Among my various New Year's Resolutions for 2012 is a personal pledge to shave more often.  While I get the peach fuzz pretty much 12-16 hours after a full facial shaving, I still find it occasionally irritating to my skin to shave every day.  But as a result, I will occasionally let it grow for a week.  There are two problems with this.  First, when I finally do shave, I have enough of a beard that it takes me a good twenty minutes to be able to see my cheeks.  Secondly, pretty much everyone in my household, from Wendy to Allison to Ethan, prefers me clean-shaven.  Since I agree with them and I do try to make them happy when possible, I really am trying to make an effort to shave at least every few days.  Fortunately I did plug in my razor today, so I will probably give it a go later today after I get some work done.


Where was I again?  Oh, the picture above.  Right, that is the first 'official' image from the next James Bond film, titled Skyfall.  As it happens, Wendy and I watched some of the Sean Connery 007 films over the last week and, quite frankly, they haven't aged well.  I've whined about the passive nature of Goldfinger before, but Dr. No is frankly only noteworthy for being the first in the series.  And even for a 1960s 007 film, You Only Live Twice is dripping in racism and misogyny while Diamonds Are Forever is just-plain terrible and notable only acknowledging the continuity of On Her Majesty's Secret Service and some surprisingly graphic violence.  Bloefeld may be a 'fun' villain, but he is earth-shakingly stupid in his now patented 'don't kill Bond quite yet!' routine.  Quite frankly, among the first seven pictures From Russia With Love, Thunderball (whose underwater finale has still never been topped), and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (which I find quite overrated, but at least it earns points for playing around with the formula) really hold up in the 007 pantheon.  So yes, if you want my honest opinion, License to Kill, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Quantum of Solace > Dr.No, Goldfinger, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Scott Mendelson            
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2 comments:

  1. RickFebruary 1, 2012 at 11:49 AM

    I've long held that From Russia with Love is the best of Connery's Bond output, it's really the only one of his movies that gets the action and political intrigue of Cold War espionage right while still having that "popcorn movie" feel of most good Bond movies (of which there are very few, when you honestly look at it).

    As for shaving, a blade razor requires no plug in

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  2. DarioLunaJune 9, 2012 at 12:17 AM

    And The MIracle of Morgan's Creek..one of the funniest movies ever. And seeing my two favorite stars Boston Legal Seasons 1-5 DVD Carole Lombard and Cary Grant top your list of most watched actress and actor brought a smile to my face.

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