Stretched.ca

It can’t have been easy being the first actor to step into the role of Bond after Sean Connery decided to leave. In many ways, I think George Lazenby was probably doomed from the start. People loved Connery, and he wasn’t Connery. In order to overcome that the film would have to have been an absolute banger, and it, well, isn’t. Or at least it isn’t that kind of movie.

It’s easy, looking back, to see why people didn’t really dig On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It’s a little melancholy, and it doesn’t have the same air of escapism as the previous entries. There is still tons of sex, but most of the film has Bond surviving on his wits rather than gadgets.

Here’s the thing though: it’s good.

In each of the last few years, I have re-watched a franchise. If you follow my Letterboxd you might have noticed this. One year it was Star Trek, another it was Star Wars, and another it was Mission: Impossible. This year it’s going to be James Bond.

With 24 films in the franchise proper and a 25th due in April of this year, this is no small undertaking, especially if I am going to blog about them as I go. Why haven’t I blogged these in the past? Because I had an idea of what I wanted this blog to be and I have resolved to change that here in this new decade.

So what follows will be whatever I feel it needs to be after watching each James Bond film. I am going to watch them in order, and I am most likely going to stick to the main EON produced films in the franchise. Some of them will get some deep thought, others maybe not so much. I don’t have a real plan besides watch, write about each, and then finish up with some kind of conclusion.

So if that sounds like the kind of thing you’re into then let’s get started on this journey with the first three entries in the franchise: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger