It's difficult to say "oh yes, it's often appallingly racist and sexist, and very serious about completely ridiculous things, and goofily glib about serious things, and you just need to roll with that!"

I grew up watching old school Bond and enjoying it. I haven't watched one in a while, so I don't know how I'd feel about them now... but current Bond is most definitely Not My Beautiful Cake.

I grew up primarily with the Moore Bonds, but I find him very smarmy now. But my favorite movies are the one in Louisiana with Jane Seymour and the one with Christopher Lee. The redneck sheriff is hysterical.

I grew up primarily with the Moore Bonds, but I find him very smarmy now.

I too grew up with Moore, but that gives me a certain fondness for him. I do like The Man with the Golden Gun (the Christopher Lee one) quite a bit. The Spy Who Loved Me and Live and Let Die are pretty good too.

However, I would put most of the Connery Bonds above them on any list. Thunderball would go on top, but only because the opening sequence (with the jet pack) takes place in my mother’s hometown, at the Château d’Anet, where my aunt’s future husband worked as a butler during the Occupation. You can actually see one of my cousins as a choirboy in the chapel with the coffin.

The count and countess must have needed money back then since the grounds were also used for one of the Pink Panther movies.

I haven't seen all of the post-Moore movies, but I've seen each Bond at least once. I really liked Skyfall and it has made me want to see all of them.

I think only three Bond movies filmed in Jamaica, and it's senseless to have nostalgic or patriotic feelings about a colonial expat who lived a holiday life of luxury there, but damn. It will take a lot to dissociate the two for me.

Bond has never done it for me - my spy tastes definitely run toward either brooding and thinky (Le Carre, book or movie) or brooding and violent (Bourne, movie only, and I will spork my own eyes out if I ever have to read another Bourne book). My favorite Bonds are thus (obviously) On Her Majesty's Secret Service and the Craig Casino Royale. All the others are alternately HULK SMASH or watch from the hall. I don't think I've ever actually seen a Roger Moore Bond film; his tenure coincided with my prime Mad Magazine readership years, so he's probably too tainted by endless rereads of all their most merciless parodies for me to ever give him an unbiased viewing.

He's okay...personally, either "Live or Let Die" or "For Your Eyes Only" are his best ones.

Doctor No and Casino Royale are my favourites. I think I can watch Dr. No an infinite amount of times.

So far, anyway.

I wish the one with Grace Jones wasn't such utter crap, but then again...she isn't exactly a good actress in good films. She's just cool, which isn't enough in and of itself. Especially when paired with batfuck crazy, but at least that part is fun, and doesn't usually require stitches.

his tenure coincided with my prime Mad Magazine readership years, so he's probably too tainted by endless rereads of all their most merciless parodies for me to ever give him an unbiased viewing.

"My assignment is to find 'Mr. Big" of Harlem! I think I'll just lean against this bar with my blond hair and blue eyes, Oxford clothes and English accent, and casually blend in so they won't notice me!"

"What will it be, honky?"

Forgot yesterday but I meant to recommend the retrospective/analysis of the Bond movies at Antagony & Ecstasy: [link]

I just love how he scores the movies in categories like "elegant lifestyle porn," "the fiendish lair" and "the secondary girl who ends up dead."

"elegant lifestyle porn,

Ha! I was just looking for a phrase like this to describe certain passages in Wm. Gibson and Lev Grossman.