Vagrant Video Reviews - Knockout (2011)

Check it out everyone! Here's our review of the film Knockout starring Stone Cold Steve Austin!

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The Basement Vagrants Podcast - Episode 7 - "Four Angry Men"

Episode 7 is here! Woo hoo! D-Roc and Punga from The Ring Crew show are with Matt and Shweitzer this time to talk about Blockbuster shutting down, the merits of wrestling and boxing, FOX's Sunday Night Snorefest and lots of other stuff.


Click here to download the podcast.

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My Retro Gaming Room

Hi everyone, this is Matt from The Basement Vagrants. I wanted to make a short post today showing off a project that I started working on this week. It's not finished yet, and I'm hoping that it's only going to improve as weeks go by, but here is what I've got so far.

I present, my retro gaming room!

All the consoles you see here are hooked up and working. There are a few consoles I have that I haven't been able to hook up yet for various reasons (Sega Mastersystem, Intellivision, Genesis etc.) And yes, I was watching Spawn.

I'm working on getting more poster, older ones in particular to keep with the retro theme, but these will have to do for now. Posters will cover the walls eventually.

More pics to come when it looks even awesomer.

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The Basement Vagrants Podcast - Episode 6 - "Stop the World of Warcraft, I want to get off!"

It's time for episode 6 of The Basement Vagrants Podcast! This week we talk about George "The One Destined to Bring Bullshit to the Force" Lucas, everybodys favorite robotic police officer, The Expendables 2 and of course, World of Warcraft.

Download the podcast here

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Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Review

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark Review
By Matt Recker

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is quite possibly the most aptly named movie to come to theaters in recent memory. Not only was it very easy to not be afraid, but it was very very dark.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (which will henceforth be known as D’BAD) is about a young girl named Sally who comes from L.A. to live with her father in the Adam’s Family’s house and soon find out there are tiny little monsters living inside the basement who want to kill her and eat her teeth. It stars Guy Pierce, Katie Holmes and Bailee Madison, and while none of the performances were bad, none of them really stood out either. Twelve-year-old Bailee Madison is pretty good as Sally, performing well above what is commonly expected from a child actor. The acting is competent, but does nothing to add to the quality of the picture.

Ok

D’BAD is a movie that takes absolutely no risks. The plot is fairly simple and straight forward, there is no twist ending or big reveal and all of the events play out exactly as you would expect them to. It’s safe to say that if you’ve seen more than a handful of horror movies in your lifetime, you’ve seen this movie before. Every scene feels like it was borrowed from some other below average horror flick, there is nothing unique or interesting at all on screen here and by the end it makes you feel tired and bored, at least it did to me.

As far as visuals go, if there is anything to see on screen worth noting the movie is so dark I could not see it. The creature designs look alright, and it’s really nice to see monsters return to the big screen in theaters dominated mainly by ghosts and aliens, and I thought they looked fairly unique but there are only a couple moments where you can get a decent look at them. For the most part, this is intentional to build suspense and fear but even in the scenes where you’re supposed to be able to see them it’s difficult due to the films extremely dark tone. The house itself looks good, which is a good thing since the entire movie takes place there, and the scenes in the creepy basement are for the most part… well, creepy. The movie never dares to do anything different visually, instead it settles into a cozy little corner of cinematic cliché where there is no fear of taking a chance and failing.

Do yourself a favor and watch this instead

There are also a lot of times when the characters in the movie behave like complete idiots, or seemingly important points are completely glossed over. In one scene, Sally is attacked by hundreds of the monsters in the library of her mansion during a party, and manages to actually kill one of the creatures just before her father and his guests burst in the room. Her dad rushes in to comfort her and then the scene ends. Sally doesn’t think to show the dead monster to her dad to finally prove that they’re real? Even if her dad did believe her at that point, wouldn’t it be an important plot point for him to actually see one of the creatures that has been terrorizing his daughter? I guess not, because despite deliberately showing her kill one of the things it is never shown or mentioned again. Another thing that bugged me is that the creatures are afraid of light (real original) but everyone in the movie, including the girl, insists on keeping the lights off at all hours of the day, and only doing anything at night. I understand that if they kept the place lit up like Vegas 24/7 then the monsters wouldn’t get any screen time, but do they have to practically invite them to ruin their lives. Even when the entire family finally realizes that the house is swarming with demons that want to eat their daughter and kill her stepmom, they decide to stay in the house just one more night, then leave in the morning. Yeah, that makes sense. Also, I’m not going to spoil the ending, but it makes absolutely no sense either. Characters are attacked for no reason, the monsters purpose is explained but their actions make no sense in regard to their overall goal, plot points are glossed over or forgotten about completely, it’s really just a mess. The whole film suffers from the classic horror movie syndrome where the characters act completely illogically so that the evil force can prevail, despite its incompetence.

Bottom line, D’BAD isn’t completely offensive to the senses. It isn’t the worst thing I’ve seen in theaters, not even close, but it’s just not that interesting, scary or original in any way. I’m hard pressed to find any redeeming value in it other than the fact that it wasn’t horribly painful to see. It’s a movie that has no reason to exist, and is destined to lie forgotten in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart in a years time.

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The Basement Vagrants Podcast - Episode 5 - "It's The Wallace Grisby Show!"

This time Schweitzer and I are alone and talking about James Bond. We even manage to stay on topic this time, mostly.

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Thunderball Review

The James Bond series started off very strong with a fantastic trilogy of films, but the silver had to start to tarnish eventually, and it all started with Thunderball. I wouldn't say that Thunderball is a bad entry, but it's the distinct point in the series where cracks would start to show in the franchises armor, and is a major step down in quality after the first 3 films.

Fuck Aquaman!

In Thunderball, 007 must try to recover two nuclear bombs stolen by Emilio Largo, head of extortion and "Number 2" of the criminal organization SPECTRE. Largo plans to use the bombs to hold the world hostage for £100 million by threatening to detonate them in either the United States or England. Thunderball is a largely water themed movie, with many scenes taking place on a beach, underwater, or on Largo's luxury yacht, the Disco Volente.

One main problem with Thunderball is that there is very little action, and what action there is isn't very exciting. There is one main action sequence near the end, one that's become rather infamous among Bond fans for being one of the slowest, most boring in the history of the series. Near the end of the film, a battalion of US Coast Guards, led by Bond's pal Felix leiter, attempt to storm Largo's boat and meet up with all of Largo's soldiers and fight for what feels like 20 minutes underwater. A battle at the bottom of the sea is pretty interesting idea for an action scene, and on paper it seems very exciting, but unfortunately it doesn't translate well to the screen. The only weapon used are harpoons, which are a nice change of pace from bullets, but there's only so many times you can see a man get stuck in the chest in slow motion before it becomes tedious. The plot is also not exciting enough to keep the audience engaged and interested in the why the action is happening, or providing any consequences to it's conclusion.

Largo is visually an interesting villain. He's an older, charismatic man with an eye patch and a beautiful island mansion, complete with killer shark pool. Along with Blofeld (Number 1) he probably has one of the most iconic looks in the franchise. He reminds me a lot of Fransisco Scaramanga from The Man With the Golden Gun, one of my all-time favorite villains. His plan to extort the world with nuclear warheads seems pretty standard and ordinary, for Bond anyway, and it never seems to bring any tension into the movie. He makes his demands early on and we see M and other heads of British Intelligence and the government worry a little about paying the ransom, and then the threat is forgotten about for most of the movie. It never feels like any of the events and situations James is in relate much to the plot, or are working to resolve the conflict at all. Despite his appearance, Largo is the first forgettable villain of the James Bond series.

Our Bond girl this time is Domino, played by Claudine Auger, Largo's mistress. Like her employer, Domino is a forgettable companion to Bond. She is involved with the situation solely because of her relationship with Largo and although she plays a pretty big role in Largo's defeat at the end, she does not contribute much to the success of Bond's mission. Domino is much like Largo in their contributions to the film, they are involved in the plot but never seem like they are having much effect on the movie. They are both largely forgettable and do not in any way live up to their predecessors.

I do not hate Thunderball, but I don't particularly like it. At 130 minutes it is one of the longest Bond films, and due to the lack of action or excitement, you feel every minute of it. There are some good scenes, like when Bond first meets Largo in the casino, and the opening scene featuring Bond using a jetpack (admittedly quite silly, but in a fun way). Also the marti-gras sequence is entertaining visually. Thunderball was the most financially successful movie in the James Bond franchise, but for my money it was the first disappointment, but thankfully it's one small bit or tarnish on an otherwise beautiful piece of silver.

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The Basement Vagrants Podcast - Episode 4 - "Bangin' It"

We've got a big show for you this time. In this episode, Derek and Punga from The Ring Crew Show join us to talk about, what else, wrestling! Plus some other stuff, but mostly WRESTLING! Don't miss this episode, ya jabroni!

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Shark Night 3D Review

Here’s a quick math question: What do you get when you have a cheesy horror movie about killer sharks, plus the director of Snakes on a Plane, plus 3D? The answer may surprise you. I it was a fun, cheesy, wink-at-the-camera horror movie with some awesome gimmicky 3D scares. It turns out I was wrong. The correct answer is a boring, cliché, tired horror retread with limited 3D and cringe worthy dialogue and characters. Who knew?

This is about as 3D as the movie gets

In Shark Night, a group of teenage horror movie clichés decide to spend summer break at the island home of one of their friends. But, unbeknownst to everyone, the lake that surrounds this island is infested with sharks. That’s about all you get a for a plot, other than a needless, tacked on twist ending which isn’t even worth spoiling because really, they could have left it on the cutting room floor and it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference. Actually, scratch that, it would have made it better. Coming from the director of Snakes on a Plane, the plot seems fitting. Sharks in a Lake would have made a great sequel, but one thing this movie does not do is play up the simplicity for laughs. In fact, the film seems to be taking the whole killer shark island thing rather seriously. Even scenes that could easily be played completely for laughs are taken with a rather serious tone. An example being when the character Malik (played by who fucking cares) has his arm bitten off and his girlfriend killed by the sharks, grabs a harpoon and goes back into the lake to take revenge. At first I wasn’t quite sure whether they were making a joke or doing it with a straight face, I’m still not exactly sure, but since it’s the only goofy, lighthearted moment in the whole film, I have to believe that that isn’t what they were going for. The original planned title of the movie was going to be Untitled 3D Shark Thriller, but apparently someone higher up than director David Ellis made him change the name to Shark Night 3D. Maybe that’s what the movie was originally going for, but all of that has been cut from the finished product.

As far as characters go, there isn’t any. Donal Logue has a couple funny moments as the laid-back, small town sheriff, and there’s a couple laughs between the hillbilly boaters that attempt to rescue the stranded 90210 rejects from the island, but every member of the gang of soon-to-be-chum are completely bland and uninteresting. This tends to be a standard for movie characters in the killer animal/slasher genre, since they are basically set up as meat puppets to be killed off in gruesome ways, but the gore and horror elements of this flop are not good enough to endure their generic stock dialogue and cut and paste character traits.

Also, for a movie about killer sharks, you’d think there would be some pretty gory stuff going on, but you’d be wrong. Most of the gore takes place underwater or after the camera cuts away. This is likely due to the fact that this is a PG-13 movie, a big mistake for a movie that’s trying to do violence and gore and actually be serious about it. This also means that there is very little foul language and absolutely no nudity, two important staples of the genre. The cgi sharks all look lifeless and bland and despite the fact that there are supposed to be multiple breeds of shark on display, it looks like the animators only bothered to render 3 different models and change the size to suit the situation. There are some decent looking aerial shots of boats speeding along swampy waterways and some of the camera views from underwater look alright, but it’s even a stretch to say that these are that good. I think I’m just desperate to find something good here.

Not as bad as this, but close.

For a movie with 3D in its title, and especially one using it as a complete gimmick, you would assume that the 3D is going to be done well right? Wrong again. There are two types of 3D typically in movies these days: post-production “layer” 3D where the movie is digitally altered after being filmed to give the impression of 3D layers, and “real” 3D where special cameras are used to film in 3D from the very beginning. Shark Night 3D is the former. This can be noticed when things are coming at the camera, which happens pretty infrequently. In a proper 3D movie, if a shark is swimming towards you, it will appear to come out of the screen and close to your face, in the movie the shark faces bulge out a little bit, but there is nothing even close to a shocking 3D shark attack to be seen. There is one or two times when things appear to come out of the screen and actually make you react, and they’re both near the end of the movie, and only elicit a slight shutter. This is not good enough! When you have a lame, boring, cliché and uninteresting movie, 3D can actually make it good if it’s done right. My Bloody Valentine 3D is a great example of this. Bad plot, bad characters, warmed over 80s slasher schlock; great 3d, great movie. This movie is a cake without the icing, a vegetable without the dip, a massage without a happy ending.

I wasn’t going into this movie expecting anything deep or interesting, but what I was expecting was to have some fun, like the fun you have watching a Friday the 13^th or Nightmare on Elm Street, or if you want to scrape the bottom of the barrel, maybe even a Saw movie, but there is absolutely nothing to grab onto in this film that’s even remotely entertaining. Shark Night 3D is the biggest disappointment I’ve had at a movie theater in a very long time. I went into this movie expecting one thing, and got the old bait (pun intended) and switch. Maybe it’s my fault for not reading reviews, maybe it’s my fault for not paying more attention to the internet and its endless stream of spoiler-laden info, but I guess that’s what I get for wanting to see a movie and be surprised and have fun.

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Goldfinger Review

Goldfinger is widely considered to be the best that the James Bond series has to offer. It’s certainly the most iconic Bond film and it set the standard that all subsequent entries in the series would attempt to reach. Homage has been paid to this films many memorable scenes and characters in Hollywood, in movies, television, comic books, music and many other mediums. It was the first Bond film to receive an Academy Award (sound editing) and one of the most financially successful Bond films of all time.

The Plot

The movie opens with James Bond 007 relaxing at a luxurious hotel in Miami, where he just happens to run across the wealthy, gold obsessed, Auric Goldfinger. Bond and his partner Felix Leiter soon receive word from M, the leader of MI6 British Intelligence that they are to monitor Goldfinger and try to gain some information about his means of international gold smuggling. Bond conducts surveillance on Goldfinger eventually learning of his plan to rob the United States Gold Repository of Fort Knox.

Out of all the movies so far, and perhaps all in general, Goldfinger has the most exciting, creative and unique plot, settings and characters. Some of the greatest scenes take place in a beach resort in Miami, an exciting midnight car chase in a munitions factory, Goldfingers Kentucky ranch and Fort Knox, including some fantastic scenes in an airplane, the shootout in the gold vault and the entire Operation Grand Slam master scheme to rob the biggest bank in the world. This is the point in the series where the action and espionage aspects are starting to hit their full stride and really set the gold standard for the genre.

The Villain

Goldfinger is one of the most recognizable Bond villains of all time, and it’s no secret as to why. He’s smart and witty, cocky and yet modest at the same time, and most of all for a villain, he’s actually very likable. Goldfinger isn’t a madman bent on destroying the world, or ruling it, or killing people in any way. Goldfinger loves gold, and his sole plan in the movie is to acquire gold and make it more valuable. Like Bond quips in one of their meetings “You’re nothing but a common bank robber”. In fact, if Goldfingers plan to break into Fort Knox had gone off without a hitch; nobody would have died at all. The United States economy would have tanked, sure, but there would have been no bloodshed. Goldfinger has a simple, endearing charm and even though he straps 007 to a table and attempts to separate his left half from his right, in a way you want him to succeed with his plan, because after all, who doesn’t love a good heist.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why Goldfinger is such a good villain, all I can say is that everything about him works. He’s just as funny, sinister and clever enough to be a criminal mastermind without turning into a caricature. He’s just innately entertaining to watch.

The Girl

Honor Blackman plays Pussy Galore, an ace pilot and flight instructor, and personal employee of Goldfinger. She is quite possibly the strongest female character in the Bond series, and to this day remains one of the only women able to resist 007’s manly charms, well, for the most part. In the end she plays a key role in the foiling of Operation Grand Slam and even more so than Tatiana Romanova in From Russia With Love assures James Bond’s victory over his nemesis. Throughout the movie there isn’t even much of a romance built up between Bond and Pussy, she’s strictly business and in the end her good heart triumphs over her allegiance to evil. She is one of the best Bond girls in the franchise and is also one of the most memorable.

My Thoughts

Goldfinger is quite simply one of my favorite Bond films. If I were to rank all of them it would definitely be in the top 3. I gladly watched Dr. No and From Russia With Love for these reviews, but I was actually looking forward to watching Goldfinger again for what would probably be the tenth time. There are some interesting faults with the plot that I want to mention though, they don’t take away from the quality of the movie, but they always stick out in my mind. Goldfinger uses the help of about 20 or so businessmen in order to get the resources he needs for his heist and in the middle of the film he invites them all to his ranch and gives a long elaborate presentation on his plan and how it could benefit them. He explains that they can all take the money he owes them and leave or stay and increase the amount ten times. One man decides to cash out and leave, and Goldfinger sends him on his way in an expensive car. When the man is leaving, Goldfinger then locks the room and pumps in poison gas, killing all of his investors, then drives the other man in the car to an impound lot, has him shot and has the car crushed. What’s the point? What’s the point in explaining his whole plan to a room full of men he’s just going to kill anyway, and what’s the point of ruining his Rolls Royce killing the one man who disagreed with the group he’s just going to kill anyway?

What’s worse is how Goldfinger treats Bond. Bond sleeps with Goldfinger’s woman and causes him to lose a large amount of money during the beginning of the movie, so he sends Oddjob (former wrestler Harold Sakata) to kill the girl, but doesn’t kill Bond. Then, later when Bond and Goldfinger are playing golf, Bond cheats in order to make Goldfinger lose even more money in the wager they made, again Goldfinger lets him go. Then, after Bond follows him to the factory, he is captures and about to be killed by Goldfiner, finally. So, Bond very easily tricks Goldfinger into letting him live, but keeping him imprisoned. Of course, Bond escapes and learns more about the heist, then is captured again. Does Goldfinger kill him now? Now that he knows every detail of his plan? Nope. He brings him with him to Fort Knox to be handcuffed to the bomb (which literally has an on/off switch inside of it that James pretty easily gets to). Goldfinger may be one of the best villains in a Bond movie, but he is nothing if not a bit bumbling.

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From Russia With Love Review

From Russia With Love is the second movie in the James Bond franchise, and can be considered a direct sequel to Dr. No. The film came out in 1963, only a year after its predecessor and with double the budget.

The Plot

SPECTRE is at it again, this time planning to steal a cryptographic device called a Lektor from the Russians and sell it back to them, and exact revenge on James Bond for killing their operative Dr. No. SPECTRE’s leader, referred to only as Number 1, enlists the services of ex-counter intelligence officer Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) to trick Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) a cipher clerk working in Istanbul, Turkey, into defecting to British Intelligence with the device, and luring James Bond into their web.

The Villains

The main villains in the film are Rosa Klebb and a SPECTRE assassin named Donald Grant, but unfortunately neither of them is used to great effect, from an action standpoint. Grant attempts to kill Bond on a train by pretending to be his British contact, which leads to a pretty exciting fight, but it is one of very few in the movie, and despite being referred to as one of the organizations top assassins, he never really seems very threatening or dangerous. Grant only gets one attempt at Bond before he is killed and while the scene is well done, it doesn’t really make Grant out to be a great killer. Klebb is the most interesting villain in the movie. She is a cold, stern, rock faced Russian woman who brings a sense of menace and steely soviet power into her scenes. She’s definitely more serious and threatening than Dr. No, but she really only has one actual confrontation with Bond near the end. She is basically the “brains of the operation” and it’s understandable that she wouldn’t really get her hands dirty in this matter, but her scenes mostly consist of dialogue between her and her boss. The biggest villain however is the barely seen Number 1, the leader of SPECTRE. This is the character that is most recognizable as the archetypal Bond villain. He is only seen from the chest down, stroking a white cat. Most people would instantly recognize him as the character that the Dr. Evil character from the Austin Powers movies is based on. From Russia With Love is the first time this staple of the Bond series is seen in the films, and does a great job foreshadowing his larger role in the films to come.

The Girl

Tatiana Romanova is a cryptograph clerk who is used as a pawn to deliver the Lektor and to ensnare Bond and bring him to SPECTRE. She goes along with the fake defection plan, under threat of death, but upon meeting Bond and spending time with him, she falls in love, betrays Klebb and SPECTRE and ultimately helps Bond defeat his enemies. This is the classic Bond girl. She’s not just a bystander who gets mixed up in Bond’s adventure by chance, she’s not an empty headed bimbo, she’s a smart, competent, and loyal companion to Bond and she sets the gold standard of what a Bond girl should be. Unlike Honey Ryder from Dr. No who stumbles into Bond’s mission near its completion and flounders alongside him until it’s finished, Tatiana is there from the beginning, and is essentially the biggest part of SPECTREs plan, and it’s only because of her that Bond was able to survive in the end (spoiler alert).

My Thoughts

From Russia With Love is considered by many to be the best James Bond film ever made, and I can see why. It has the smooth pacing of Dr. No, but with more action, stunts, and excitement, but not so much that it seems like a dumb action film. The characters are interesting and memorable and Sean Connery gives an amazing performance yet again. This movie had a much larger budget than the first in the series, and it’s very apparent from start to finish. There are more explosions, the scenery is more exotic and the boat chase at the end is one of the best in the series. At 115 minutes, the movie is the perfect length, and there seems to be more music than in the previous film. The opening credits also begin to resemble more modern Bond openings, with dancing women, psychedelic colors and interesting camera tricks. Matt Monro’s theme song is heard in instrumental only at the beginning, and is played again during the ending with full lyrics, using traditional Russian instruments to give that real soviet feeling.

Unlike the previous film, Dr. No, From Russia With Love’s plot is easy to follow, simple and flows nicely from the start of the movie until the end. The characters motivations are clear, their goals are realistic and logical and everybody acts the way they’re supposed to. This might sound like a cold and formulaic analysis of a story, but it’s a refreshing change from the murky, unclear motivations and actions of the previous film. At this point the James Bond series was off to a strong start, and it would only get stronger with the next in the series, Goldfinger.

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Dr No Review

Dr No is the film that started a legend. James Bond had existed for years in literature but it wasn't till 1962 when the whole world was introduced to Bond. James Bond.

Many of the most memorable Bond trademarks are present right from the start in Dr No. Bond drinks his first vodka martini, encounters SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion) for the first time, and he also receives his beloved Walther PPK. In many ways Dr. No is the quintessential Bond film, it has everything you expect to see from the series, its slick, sleek, exciting, and a great start to an excellent series.

The Plot

James Bond is tasked with uncovering the murderer of a British Intelligence officer stationed in Jamaica named Strangways, who has been investigating strange radio signals on the island. Upon arrival, James, after dealing with several assassins, meets up with a sailor named Quarrel, who was one of the last people to see Strangways before his death. Quarrel informs James of the island of Crab Key; a dangerous place owned by a mysterious man named Dr. No, and believes that it is connected with Strangway's death. Bond and Quarrel sail to the island where they meet the beautiful Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) who is collecting shells. Quarrel is killed by Dr. No's security team, and Bond and Ryder are captured and brought to the mad doctor himself. It is revealed to Bond that Dr. No is planning on using an atomic-powered radio beam to disrupt the launch of a space ship at Cape Canaveral. James escapes and foils Dr No's plans just as we all knew he would.

Although there are many strong aspects of this film, the plot sadly isn't one of them. I have to admit that I had to seek the help of Wikipedia while trying to explain the plot because the film does a poor job of making it apparent. It's not clear to me why Dr. No wants to stop the American's space launch, or exactly why it matters. Dr. No, despite being the title character, actually isn't in the movie for very long. He appears about an hour and a half into it and is dispatched of rather quickly. The connection between John Strangways and Dr. No isn't really made clear and events seem to flow into each other without much rhyme or reason.

The Villian

Dr. No as a character seems to be wasted. He's a member of SPECTRE, an organization whose members will cross paths with bond in subsequent movies, he makes vague mention to being "head of one of the leading criminal gang in China" and he apparently has robotic hands (a trademark that was later used for a henchman in Live and Let Die, too much greater effect) but we never really see him use them for anything interesting. In fact other than Bond mentioning it, the only other way we know of his cyborg digits is the fact that he wears gloves.

The Girl

Honey Ryder is the first in a line of beautiful women who would come to be known as "Bond Girls". A Bond girl is traditionally a women met by Bond during his mission who accompanies him, sleeps with him, and often helps him in some way. Honey Ryder does two of these things. She goes along with him after they meet (albeit against her will since they are captured), it's implied that she sleeps with him at the end, but she never really helps him in any way. Her character is largely inconsequential and sadly provides little more than eye-candy for the audience. Though she may be the first of many Bond girls, she's far from the best.

My Thoughts

Some of my favorite highlights from the film take place in the very beginning. The opening title sequence is by far one of the most sixties-ish things I've seen in a movie and it's simplicity and retro feel are superb. The "Three Blind Mice" sequence that takes place right after the opening credits is also a really nice simple song, and it introduces some of my favorite assassins in the Bond series, who are sadly very underused in this movie. Another favorite scene is the one where an assassin releases a poisonous spider into James' room. It turns out to be a completely useless tactic as the spider crawls on James, who waits patiently for it to wander off of him where he precedes to smoosh it with his shoe. It's an exciting, simple little scene where the music really goes a long way into building up tension, and it pays off during the scene's climax where it ramps up louder and more intensely when James kills the spider. It's just a really well done scene where James' cool head and intelligence saves his life, rather than performing some outrageous stunt. This is an element of the early Bond films I like, that Bond isn't as much of a "pulse pounding" action hero, and more of a brilliant spy. In one scene he moistens a hair from his head and places it over the crack in a door as a security measure (if the hair isn’t connected, then the door was opened), and later places pillows under the covers in his bed and sits by the door to capture another would-be assassin. It's moments like these that would become rarer in the later films, instead being replaced by more explosions and motorcycles, and it's a real treat to see in the 60's Connery era.

All in all, Dr. No is a good film. It doesn't get crowded with action scenes and chases, it's subdued and quiet but still interesting enough to keep your attention through the whole thing. Sean Connery is easily the best thing about this movie, taking no time easing into his role as one of the most recognized movies characters in cinematic history. From the very moment he is in shot, cigarette in mouth at the Baccarat table, he is undeniably Bond. There are no awkward scenes or moments where he's still playing with the character, there are no tweaks or alterations to his mannerism or demeanor in following movies. Right off the bat he cements himself as Bond and it's a testament to his superior talent as an actor. When people ask me who my favorite Bond is, I still say Roger Moore (for reasons which I will go into later), but it's a different question than "Who is the best Bond?" Sean Connery is the best Bond.

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