Todd’s Movie Blog

With the new Bond film coming out in a week, I’ve been keeping myself pumped by watching DVDs.  From reading that sentence you could assume I’m watching Sean Connery in Goldfinger, Roger Moore in For Your Eyes Only, Pierce Brosnan in The World Is Not Enough or Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.  Well… no I’m not.  I went out to the library and grabbed up season one of Robert Culp and Bill Cosby in I Spy and Michael Caine’s first two Harry Palmer films, The Ipcress File and Funeral In Berlin.  How can I get primed for a Bond film by watching non Bond product?  And if I’m going to watch secret agents who aren’t Bond why wouldn’t I watch the direct imitations like Robert Vaughn in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. or James Coburn as Dereck Flint in Our Man Flint and In Like Flint?  Simple, Daniel Craig’s Bond is not the Bond of old, going after maniacal super villains in their volcano lairs, armed with blow gun cigarettes and remote control cars.  Like Kelly, Scott and Palmer, this Bond is in the real world, dealing with more realistic villains and participating in the darker side of espionage, where you do things you’re not proud of but can maybe learn to live with, sans pocket size, super cool gadgets.  Of course knowing my luck the new film film will trot out a flame throwing fountain pen or a tic tac size nuclear missile, completely destroying the arguments in this post.