Browse Tag: sean connery

RECAP: Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds Are Forever (1971): Guy Hamilton

George Lazenby had one go at James Bond and said sayonara, welching on a seven-picture deal, which seems insane, but you have to consider he went on to appear in [three bad movies].

Sean Connery decided that maybe Bond wasn’t such a bad character to play, so he came back. Helping sway him was a then-record salary of £1.25 million.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: James Bond battles his arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld, for we swear is the final time, who is at the apex of a diamond smuggling outfit and determined to make the great powers cower with them.   Continue Reading

RECAP: You Only Live Twice

You Only Live Twice (1967): Lewis Gilbert

James Bond spends his fifth jaunt onscreen delving into Asia, especially Japan, portrayed as a sleepy nation with a glitzy capital but still attached to its past. More stuck in the mud than Britain, can’t you tell? Even M, Moneypenny, and company get out in the field, working from a submarine patrolling East and South China Seas and maybe the Sea of Japan.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: Bond heads to Japan to investigate a crazy theory that someone, maybe arch nemesis SPECTRE, is launching rockets from there that capture astronauts and cosmonauts and threaten to ignite a world war.  Continue Reading

RECAP: Thunderball

Thunderball (1965): Terence Young

The iconic, canonical Goldfinger defined James Bond for generations of fans. Its followup was Thunderball, an terrific jaunt in the tropics, with huge explosions and fight sequences few movies have ever tried again.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: James Bond travels to the Bahamas to foil a SPECTRE plot to steal nuclear bombs and destroy Miami.  single mom dating a childless man

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Goldfinger (1964): Guy Hamilton

Still the-ahem-GOLD standard of James Bond movies, the third Bond movie in as many years catapulted the character and its star into icon status. If From Russia with Love left any doubt, Goldfinger erased thoughts that Bond would fade in years to come.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: James Bond counters a gold-mad villain named Goldfinger, a man determined to nuke the bulk of America’s gold supply.  Continue Reading

RECAP: From Russia with Love

From Russia with Love (1963): Terence Young

Following the modest success of Dr. No, United Artists gave Eon Productions twice the budget for its sequel. The movie barley made it to theaters in time, but the audiences didn’t care. They embraced the movie with glee.

Everything about From Russia with Love is more than its predecessor. More run time, women with more beauty and more women with beauty, more locations, more characterization, more gadgets, more one-liners, and more explosions. And yet, in nearly every way, the movie supersedes the original Bond installment. That’s a feat in and of itself.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: Global criminal syndicate SPECTRE, seeking vengeance against James Bond for the death of one of its agents, uses the spy and Britain in a plot to steal a coding machine from the Soviet Union.  Continue Reading

RECAP: Dr. No

Dr. No (1962): Terence Young

Dr. No is not the first book in the Ian Fleming franchise. When Albert Broccoli and Eon Productions set to make a James Bond film, they chose Dr. No for its ease of filming. The budget was low, and that shows up with the small scale of its action sequences and use of sets in England.

The filmmakers cast an unknown named Sean Connery as Bond, primarily because he would sign on for five films. Five deuces later and the series remains in the shadow cast by those Connery films.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: A British spy travels to Jamaica to foil the plot of a deranged megalomaniac to foil American rocket launches and launches the most successful film franchise in history.  Continue Reading

RECAP: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): Steven Spielberg

Five years after the slight letdown of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford return to their franchise’s roots: Nazis, Christian artifacts, and lusting co-eds. We have ’em all.

The Nazis still haven’t started their war, but are only months out. Indy manages to travel to Berlin, and even meets Hitler, in case you didn’t believe he was running things.

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: Indiana Jones teams up with his father to find the Holy Grail before the Nazis do.  Continue Reading

RECAP: The Rock

The Rock (1996): Michael Bay

The first of a trio of Nicolas Cage action films, The Rock fell second in a string of four movies that represent the apex of Cage’s career.

Following his Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas, Cage starred in The Rock, Con Air, and Face Off. That, folks, is called a winning streak.

Sean Connery, long-haired and cagey, appeared in his final great movie. That was 20 years ago, Sean. We need you back!

ONE SENTENCE PLOT SUMMARY: A green G-Man and a gray Brit fight through Alcatraz to stop a Silver Starred general from killing San Franciscans with chemical weapons.  Continue Reading