No Time to Die (2021)

So much for my prior perception that Spectre would be Daniel Craig's last turn as James Bond. Well, it makes sense that an agent like him wouldn't stop having adventures just because he had resigned from MI6 after capturing Spectre leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz). Spectre holds a grudge, for one thing.

Bond's long-time CIA buddy, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), first asks his help to locate abducted MI6 scientist Valdo Obruchev (David Dencik), whose work with nanobots could make it way too easy for terrorists to kill everyone with a genome sufficiently similar to a given target. Bond doesn't sign on until hearing from the new Agent 007, Nomi (Lashana Lynch). Blofeld is indeed still a player from within his prison, but there are more than two sides in play here....

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

Once again, nobody had recommended this flick to me, broadly or personally. Nor was I interested back when it came out, if only because I hadn't really "discovered" James Bond yet. But after some pretty depressing viewings in a depressing period, I wanted to return to a franchise that usually avoided such a feeling -- pre-reboot, anyway. Disappointment was still possible, of course.

In the off chance that you're interested in the plot, it begins with James (Pierce Brosnan) stealing back the cash of old millionaire Sire Robert King (David Calder), only to realize too late that the thieves wanted him to take it back in order to trigger a subtle death trap. King was funding an extensive Southwest Asian oil pipeline that rivals would want to sabotage, so M (Dame Judi Dench) assigns James to stay close to King's daughter, Elektra (Sophie Marceau). We all know how close James likes to get to a beautiful woman, but he may get more than he bargained for....

Spectre (2015)

I've had mixed feelings about the post-reboot James Bond series, just as I've had mixed feelings about the series as a whole. Casino Royale had a lot going for it, but not the story; I could've done without the extensive poker. Quantum of Solace was more Bourne than Bond, mainly for the worse. Skyfall became one of my favorites thanks to Javier Bardem's intelligent villainy, but it still dispensed with a number of elements we've liked about the franchise.

A title referring to the organization that Bond most frequently opposed during the Cold War seems promising for a return to the old ways. Here Bond (Daniel Craig) and his associates on Her Majesty's Secret Service gradually discover the existence of an even more secret yet powerful group, even as its influence on the government threatens to disband theirs. (Reminds me a bit of another movie from 2015.) And once again, the enmity gets personal.

A View to a Kill (1985)

I did not expect ever to bother with this James Bond flick. It's one of the least popular, even among the mere eight I hadn't seen at the time. But as extensive as the Red Cross DVD library is, most movies in it that I hadn't already seen didn't appeal to me, and I was not about to spend several hours in a chair just reading. (Yes, I donated platelets over the weekend. I'm explaining the circumstances, not bragging.)

Now that I've watched it, I'm not sure why other viewers don't like it better. It's all fun to me. My best guess is that people wanted a younger lead, more use of Q gadgetry, more exotic settings (it's mostly in the U.S.), fewer dopey antics, less predictable means of problem solving, better code names (James Stock, really?), and the approval of Roger Moore himself. For my part, I can hardly tell what positive elements Goldfinger has that AVtaK doesn't, besides iconicity.