As previously mentioned, I'm going to begin posting 'archive' reviews of the films I've so far watched on my Bond from the Beginning undertaking. Here's the first:
James Bond movies have always been utterly escapist, despite what some might claim. No film shows this better than the first -- the series didn't slide into crazy plots and fantastical creations, it began there! Dr No and his secret base are as mad as anything that follows, and Honey Ryder (in that bikini) is still the defining image of a Bond girl (almost a genre unto themselves).
The story slowly draws you in to its fantasy of villainy; the Technicolor excess must surely have made for a beautiful break from the bleak 'kitchen sink' dramas of British cinema at the time, or the bleak Cold War threat in the real world. Connery is perfect from the start, and amongst the rest of the cast only Felix Leiter feels like a mistake. The action sequences are exciting, the villains are evil, the girl is eye-catching and Bond is properly ruthless. What more do you need?
Dr. No is oft forgotten behind some of the films that follow it, but it really shouldn't be -- if this hadn't been so good we wouldn't have any more.
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