Who is the best James Bond and who was the best animal guest star?

Who is the best James Bond?

  • Sean Connery

    Votes: 6 24.0%

  • George Lazenby

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Roger Moore

    Votes: 6 24.0%

  • Timothy Dalton

    Votes: 1 4.0%

  • Pierce Brosnan

    Votes: 2 8.0%

  • Daniel Craig

    Votes: 10 40.0%

  • David Niven

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Barry Nelson

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    25
DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
2012 is the 50th anniversary of James Bond in the movies and a new Bond movie, "Skyfall" is here in November.

Who do you think is the best James Bond? Why?

Several of the Bond movies have animal guest stars. Which was your favorite? [Had to find a ZooChat connection]

The tarantula in "Dr. No"?

The baby elephant in Circus Circus in "Diamonds Are Forever"?

The leeches in "Octopussy"?

Something else?

What is your favorite James Bond movie and what makes it so?
 
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I think that Sean Connery is the classic James Bond and I thought he would always be my favorite, but Daniel Craig has done a great job of making the character relevant for the 21st century. I was not sure that was possible.

My favorite Bond movie is the 2006 "Casino Royale" because it combined a crackling action movie, poignant love story, and interesting spy plot and origin story for Bond that transcended the Cold War and made it feel relevant for the 21st century. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is also an excellent movie with fun action, suspense, and a great love story.

Best supporting animal goes to the sharks in the swimming pool in "Thunderball".
 
Daniel Craig for me. I thought he was a ridculous choice for Bond when he was first announced as such, but he actually turned out really well.

One of the books had a giant squid as the bad animal, which has to win.
 
Daniel Craig by far the best IMO.

The cat a Turkish Angora,

Appeared in quote from Wikipedia
From Russia with Love (1963), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and For Your Eyes Only (1981) (the pre-title sequence of which marks his final appearance and apparent death). He also appears in Never Say Never Again, the 1983 remake of Thunderball.
 
Silly question - the only James Bond is the one who wrote the book about the birds of the Caribbean. Mr Fleming just used reused his name ;)

I'm so old that Sean Connery has to be the actor for me. My favourite animal guest stars were the bats who flew around the open air cinema in Ghana where I saw Live and Let Die: they made the voodoo scenes work so well (far outshining the wooden performance of Roger Moore).

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
Silly question - the only James Bond is the one who wrote the book about the birds of the Caribbean. Mr Fleming just used reused his name ;)
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the story goes that Ian Fleming needed a name for his hero, and while he scanned his own bookshelf he saw Birds Of The West Indies by James Bond. Every birder worth his salt knows this story. Ian Fleming himself was a keen birder apparently, and that is why he had the book. Also, Pierce Brosnan can be seen looking at Birds Of The West Indies in a scene in Die Another Day!!
 
Timothy Dalton for me, by far :) he did the "Daniel Craig" Bond decades before Craig, but got lambasted for the very things which now get Craig lauded.
 
Roger Moore, because he was the Bond I grew up with (and actually went to the cinema to see). In fact, I went to the premier of A View to a Kill, so there! :p

Moore was of course, Ian Flemming's first choice as Bond.
 
It's a broad question that, and like crisps it varies day to day [depends which one I'm watching :p].

I think Daniel Craig's portrayal is excellent - he's a good actor that plays the part well, but the films are a bit too real to be quality Bond.

Hence, I've picked Roger Moore [my personal favourite, though maybe not the best] - he sort of got what Bond was - an over-the-top super hero with no real weakness. Bond needs odd baddies, outrageous schemes, gadgets that would never work and an audience that can suspend disbelief.

Favourite guest animal? The tiger in Octopussy, that Roger Moore's Bond tells to sit [and it actually listens :o]
 
Although my first Bond-Movie was - as @SMRs - "A View To A Kill" starring Roger Moore, the ONLY ONE can be no-one else then Sean Connery. He has (or had) just everything a James Bond character needs: Strength, cleverness, charm and self-ironic. No other actor is able to fill all of those attributes.

And for those voting for Daniel Craig, I can only shake my head: Okay, he's a good actor, he has the well-trained body (in opposite to Roger Moore) for all those action scenes. That makes him a reliable secret service agent. But he has zero charm and zero manners. It's like putting a street-worker in a suit (nothing against street workers by the way).

So my ranking is:
No 1: Sean Connery
(followed by a lot of nothing between), then Pierce Brosnan, then Roger Moore together with Daniel Craig, then Timothy Dalton and the last and least the Australian model called George Lazenby.

Best animal guest star: Bird-eating spider in "Dr No" followed by the shark-scenes in different JB-Movies.
 
Where is all the love for Barry Nelson's portrayal as James Bond?

I was hoping that someone would ask "who the frak is Barry Nelson and why is he in this poll"? He was the first person to play James Bond. It was in an American television adaptation of "Casino Royale" in 1954. This version is a special feature on the DVD version of the 1967 version of "Casino Royale" which was done as a surreal 1960s comedy spoof of the official James Bond films. David Niven played James Bond in that version.

The 1954 version is actually pretty decent and features Peter Lorre as the villain. I found the 1967 spoof version unwatchable despite an amazing cast featuring Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress (Honey Ryder in "Dr. No"), and Orson Welles.

Zooman: thanks for reminding me about Blofeld's cat. I forgot all about that Bond animal.

Chlidonias: Bond fights the giant squid in the "Dr. No" book.
 
IMO I think Daniel Craig by far - as I'm from the younger generation (Not being offensive to our older members - the older the wiser I say ;)) I have only seen several James Bond's. My favourite was definitely Casino Royale an excellent film and the female actress (Her name escapes me at the moment) was great.
 
zoomaniac said:
the ONLY ONE can be no-one else then Sean Connery. He has (or had) just everything a James Bond character needs: Strength, cleverness, charm and self-ironic.
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....and a Scottish accent? :p
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
IMO I think Daniel Craig by far - as I'm from the younger generation (Not being offensive to our older members - the older the wiser I say ;)) I have only seen several James Bond's. My favourite was definitely Casino Royale an excellent film and the female actress (Her name escapes me at the moment) was great.
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Eva Green if you mean the character Vesper Lynd.

One of my favourite Bond girls is Olga Kurylenko from Quantum Of Solace.
 
I've seen every Bond film except the new one. Many of the films from the 70s are so bad that they're nearly unwatchable. They drift into the realm of fantasy as opposed to spy movies. Give me Connery or Craig any day.

Also, Craig is proof that blonds (at least some of us) can get love too.
 
Chlidonias said:
....and a Scottish accent? :p
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Okay, this point is yours:)
(To my excuse: I was watching the JB-Movies mostly in german synchro and also for an Non-British its hart to distinguish all those accents you have on your Island)

By the way: I spotted a translation mistake in my last post:
Please use "Road worker" instead of "Street worker" (I forgot that this two term have a different meaning in English while in german "road" and "street" is the same).

Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
That is who I meant - cannot wait for the next one, will be going to watch it on my birthday a week today.
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I was watching the new Bond movie one hour ago (media event), and I can promise you that you gonna be excited - an excellent Bond in all terms (story, acting, stunts). It is funny, nostalgic and much, much better then Casino Royale. Best Craig-Bond and imo one of the Top-5-Bonds.
 
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