Dave’s Top 5: James Bond Films

It took me a while to get used to Craig as Bond. Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace build up to Skyfall. The 2012 adventure has a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's a great movie with a great villain. Silva is creeptastic! It's a comeback for Bond. The movie opens with his apparent death. It's weird that after only a couple films, Craig is a bit past his prime. Skyfall gives a little more background on Bond as a person, too.

1995's GoldenEye is another comeback story for Bond. After the two forgettable Timothy Dalton Bond films - 1987's The Living Daylights and 1989's License to Kill - Pierce Brosnan was cast as Bond. His Bond films were a mash-up of the outrageous Roger Moore formula and the seriousness of Sean Connery. Of the four he made, GoldenEye is the best, earning a 77% Rotten Tomatoes score. The stunts are amazing. It also features one of the many deaths of actor Sean Bean, who plays 006, gone rogue. There are some good parts in the other ones he made, but more and more they became ridonkulous.

My parents first date was dinner, and Dr. No. Probably the one thing my dad and I had in common. Connery's films as Bond were like Craig's - they built up to Goldfinger. The 1964 film has a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score. It has everything: an awesome villain, powerful henchman, the femme fatale, an amazing death-trap - and that scheme - stealing the gold in Fort Knox! All that, plus that theme song by Shirley Bassey! "Gold-FINGUH!"

2006's Casino Royale was yet another comeback for Bond.  After Die Another Day, Brosnan was let go from the role. The franchise was rebooted and Craig was cast. Casino Royale is more like Batman Begins. Craig hits the ground running as Bond and except for a few, brief moments, the action never lets up. Craig's Bond is much, much closer to what Connery was doing than any other actor in a Bond film before. The film gets a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's a great Bond film. It continues in the sequel, Quantum of Solace.

Model turned actor George Lazenby made only one James Bond film, 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He was cast after Connery left the role. Although the film only has an 82% Rotten Tomatoes score, it is hard to imagine the film with Connery. Lazenby's Bond becomes domesticated with co-star Diana Rigg, while hunting down arch-nemesis, Blofeld. The film is a bit wacky, but then most Bond films are. It has one of the greatest endings. Connery was persuaded to come back one final time, for Diamonds Are Forever, which opens with him taking his revenge on Blofeld.