5 out of 5

Director: Guy Hamilton

I get it – I guess I like my Bonds a little more grounded, which totally makes me not the target audience for 95% of the series.  But while I’ve enjoyed the Connery Bonds, the initial Terence Young influence of the style first, spy later seemed to weigh so heavily on Connery’s representation that even from the get-go there’s a dash too much of camp that I have a hard time reconciling with the moments where the stories actually tries to develop… but again, that just confirms that the me of 2013 isn’t for whom those 60s / 70s flicks were made.  I can’t say if it’s the lack of scripter Richard Maibaum (who worked on most of the installments up to this point), or director Hamilton wanting to paint a new picture with a new Bond in the saddle, but this is what I want from this genre – believability fluffed up with comic realism – underground layers, mechanical-limbed villains, multi-rotating panels in one nightclub – and Moore rocks it all with the same debonair attitude as Connery but perhaps due to his Saint training knows to leave that for the ladies and brings a note of seriousness and despair (when appropriate) to the actual agency business.  The stunts in Bond vary between absurdly awesome and just absurd, but here we have an amazing boat-chase that rivals modern action sequences for thrills and wow factor, along with a restrained baddie – the great Yaphet Kotto – whose plans make contextual sense.  I know, Bond fans, I don’t “get” it, but this is one of my faves out of the handful that I’ve seen thus far.