Review of Dr. No (1962) by Thomas D — 08 Aug 2011

--=[007 BOND WEEK 3: Connery]=--.

Not many people may full on agree with a complete 5-star rating for the retro-spy action thriller 'Dr. No', the very first installment of the 20+ movie franchise of James Bond films. It will be explained why Dr. No is hailed as such an important and majestic installment to the franchise in this review. First off, it was directed by Terence Young who also went on to direct two of the other great Sean Connery Bond epics, 'From Russia With Love' and 'Thunderball'. It is just fair to say that Young jump started and created some of the beloved and signature sequences and action scenes that have become integrated into most of the following films. Although this first film lacks any real Q-gadgets or appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as Q, there is a slight nod to M16's Q-branch at the beginning when Major Boothroyd played by Peter Burton walks into M's office to replace 007's trusty Beretta with his now famous Walther PPK. When I say it has all of those expected themes of the now famous Bond films, I mean the theme song, the 'gun barrel' opening shot, the evil villian with the island base in the tropics, the blonde Bond-girl in the bikini, the action, the adventure the wit, the charm, the stunts...It just has it all. Joseph Wiseman as the villianous Dr. No was just excellent. Even though 'Dr. No' was not Flemming's first novel, It seemed to play out as a great first movie just because Dr. No himself was such a monster. It sort of shocked people at the time I bet. People probably thought "Man, this guy is a real prick!" His evil plan to disrupt western space launches with radio beams is just some downright retro-evil, original World Domination shit! Plus is strange, squinty glare and short temper make him that much more unpredictable. And to top it off, his evil, metal replacement hands make him just a downright ghoul. He kind of reminds me of that evil fucker Han from Bruce Lee's 'Enter the Dragon', the guy with the claw hand that fights Lee at the end. Why do rich, evil Chinese guys with metal claws and hands own huge, tropical, island compounds?? Dr. No reveals later in the film that he is a member of the elusive S.P.E.C.T.R.E (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion) agency which forshadows later films where Bond encounters other members of the evil agency including SPECTRE's notorious leader, Blofeld. Sean Connery just nailed it as Bond for his first run. He was brave, rough, charming, and smart. He defined the character itself for the next generations to come. Thats basically where the 5-stars comes from, even though there are other Bond films that I enjoy more than Dr. No, such as Thunderball or Goldeneye, Dr. No still hails as one, if not the greatest of all of the James Bond films.

Overall: Even though Dr. No contains less special effects and and overall minimized budget compared to later installments, its still hails as one of the definitive 007 films. It was surprisingly successful in box-offices during its time in 1962, which means the film team did something right. Props to Terence Young, Sean Connery, Ian Flemming, Saltzman, Broccoli,and the whole crew for creating such a timelessly unique and dangerously cool franchise.