Review of Dr. No (1962) by Derek D — 04 Jan 2013

What really surprised me about this film is how goofy it is. Growing up with later bonds in the franchise, I did not expect it to have so many intentional, and unintentional, corny aspects.

I mean, you have gigantic enlarged fish being green screened (or projected or whatever) into a scene and passing as a magnifying glass fish tank. You have incredible low grade green screen during a car chase scene - making it both thrilling and hilarious at the same time. The intro credit sequence has three blind men dancing to salsa.

Oh and Bond fights a tarantula.

But that's not to say any of this is bad. It was just unexpected. But that is what I love about it - it's just raw James Bond. I don't mean gritty though. I mean just the raw base ideas puked out into this first installment. Sure, everything becomes more refined by Goldfinger - and resembles what we have all known to expect. But Dr. No has it's own sort of charm because of it's enthusiastic first go. And it's all held together by Connery's undeniable smooth moves.