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When a new 007 movie opens I'm always eager to watch it on the opening weekend – yes, I'm a bond fan of old and love the series. However, with this entry I've waited until only now to view it - unlike other Bond movies, I won't be paying to see this again at the cinema. Sadly, since Daniel Craig came onto the scene I've felt increasingly alienated from the franchise. Undoubtedly Craig is a fine actor, but then again so is Bob Hoskins, but I'd imagine he has never been a serious contender for the part! Really if Craig were to appear in a Bond flick, he'd be best suited to either the Robert Shaw 'Red Grant' character in From Russia With Love, or that of 006 in Goldeneye. To have him playing the great man himself is frankly laughable. Anyway, that aside, there's very little in this film to affiliate it with its predecessors, QOS is simply an action movie and not a very good one at that. If we're to have countless set pieces with very little story in-between, at least make the action watchable. The camera filming the proceedings may as well have been placed in a cement mixer – don't get me wrong, from what I could make out, it looked pretty decent fair – although we'll never know because director, Marc Forster, insists on adopting this increasingly annoying practice of shaky camera work in a vain effort to make the viewer feel part of the action. For the record, this style of film making is woeful and the sooner this trends dies away the better – incidentally, Forster's previous films weren't action driven and boy does this show! So, a Bond movie without any opening gun barrel, no Q; no gadgets, no moneypenny, minimal use of the Bond theme, an actor who doesn't resemble the pre-conceived image the majority of the audience has of 007 and no utterance of the immortal line "Bond, James Bond" – I'm all for a change of direction in the series, the last two Pierce Brosnan efforts were tired and clichéd. Instead of working within the world of 007, the producers seem to have thrown in the towel and opted simply to make action movies with a character called James Bond instead of making actual James Bond movies. This is a fundamental mistake and only goes to affirm the notion that, where once 007 dictated the action movie genre, now it simply follows the rest.

Well as a Bond fan, all I can say that this is a very poor addition to the series. We're heading back to the bad old days of ‘Moonraker' where the character of 007 was engulfed in a mass of nonsense laughingly called a script. The movie moves just too quick at times, not enough is developed, the action scenes in particular demonstrate this. The most outstanding and memorable scene is the fencing duel – perhaps the only ‘human' element the movie has. David Arnold's score is lacking originality and after an acceptable pre title sequence, Madonna's truly awful title track provides the audience with a flat feeling of anti climax – as a dance track this song is fine, for 007 it's simply painful. The acting is questionable to say the least; Michael Madsen has not exactly enhanced his reputation by playing American agent ‘Damian Falco' - his scenes are totally wooden and embarrassing to watch. Already the special effects look dated and cheap, Bond films usually stand the test of time fairly well, this one has already fallen at the first hurdle. The ending is poor and bores the audience, we know Bond escapes, theres no tension or suspense in watching how he does it, especially when the aforementioned special effects are going haywire around the proceedings. All in all, too much is crammed into this film, the producers are loosing the plot yet again, time to drag Bond's feet back firmly onto the ground.

One of the best movies of the series, From Russia With Love can without a doubt be considered as a classic. Sean Connery provides a sterling portrayal of 007 that only Brosnan has came close to emulating since. The supporting cast is truly outstanding and the film consists of the finest set of actors a Bond film has ever managed to ensemble. Forget the loss of direction the series underwent during the Roger Moore years - there is no dependency on wooden acting and gadgets here. Lotte Lenya and Robert Shaw are 007's foes here and formidable villains they make to! Spikes coming out of the formers boots, whilst the latter is content on dispatching Bond by attempting to garrotte him! One of the main plus points that the movie has is characterisation. The characters are good because the story allows them to develop. The action in comparison to latter entries in the series is somewhat subdued. However, the fight between Bond and Red Grant (Robert Shaw) has yet to be bettered. Points of interest: Desmond Llewelyn's first appearance as 'Q'; John Barry's first score for the series and the first glimpse of Ernst Blofeld!

The nineteenth 'official' 007 opus sees Bond leaving the twentieth century in style. After so many adventures the audience more than knows what to expect. With this in mind, it still baffles me when people complain about the tiredness and sameness the series lapses into. A simple fact should be noted here, a review stating that a Bond movie is unoriginal ain't a review in the first place!! Unoriginality is part of the series' charm and the audience does not take kindly to major changes to the proceedings. 'The world is not enough' is a great action movie in its own right. A superb pre-title sequence takes place on the river Thames in London - death defying stunts reign supreme. Bond movies are the benchmark for cinematic action. The contribution the series gives the industry in this field is immeasurable. Well where's the review of the movie I hear you ask! If you've seen one then you have the blueprint for many. Here Bond is sent to protect 'Elektra King' a wealthy heiress to an oil empire. En route he encounters various baddies who have their own vested interested in Ms King, primarily 'Renard' played by Robert Carlyle is top of this list. Sadly the film marks Desmond Llewelyn's last appearance as 'Q'. Ironically in this film 'Q' is all set to retire and is provide with an assistant - 'R'. Therefore future generations will deem this as the way 'Q' is written out of the series. However, tragically Mr. Llewelyn was killed in a car crash not long after the film had been released, - he will be missed greatly. The Brosnan era has returned 007 to the forefront of cinemagoing audiences. Both Pierce and his alter ego are a success. Future predictions, the aforementioned actor will stay with the franchise until 2007 thus clocking up seven bond films, after which some other actor will take over for a few movies but won't be accepted in the role, following this a long-term replacement is found, thus the cycle continues. In short, Bond movies are just like diamonds - they are forever!

Pierce Brosnan begins what I hope will be a very long association with James Bond in Martin Campbell's "Goldeneye". However, its good but not great. The movie is shamelessly commercial (something that increases in subsequent movies) product placement is far too high on the agenda! The pre-title sequence is spectacular but perhaps too far fetched even for a Bond movie! Brosnan combines the many great attributes of "Connery" with the wit and charm of "Moore". Here he interprets Bond with a characterisation that is both commanding and refreshing after the "Dalton" era. The trouble with the film is that it promised so much but delivered very little. Alright, there are some of the most stunning action scenes yet to be filmed in a Bond to be found here. Nevertheless, it lacks a certain something. In many ways it reminds me greatly of "Dr No" the first Bond film made in 1962. Goldeneye is the rebirth of the Bond franchise. Not since the sixties had 007 caused quite a stir. I think one of the biggest reasons I don't get that "Bond feeling" from Goldeneye is largely due to Eric Serra's woefully poor soundtrack. It's simply awful. Electronic sounds substitute the classy brass sound given to Bond by "John Barry". Tina Turner provides an adequate title track, but not since "A View To A Kill" have we heard a truly great Bond song. Sean Bean dumps his heavy Yorkshire burr in favour of a typical English upper class accent in order to play baddie "Alec Trevelyan". Scottish born "Robbie Coltrane" does likewise in order to play the Russian, "Valentin". In fact I'm pretty sure there's not one native Russian in the film. A pity really since the Russians hadn't been the enemy for a number of films prior to this one. For me its difficult to accept such well known British actors with accents other then their own. Brosnan returns two years later in the superior "Tomorrow Never Dies - 1997".

Roger Moore's penultimate and best Bond movie. Filmed on location in India the movie has the usual fair share of exotic scenery - commonplace throughout the series. The plot involves Russian, General Orlov (Steven Berkoff), attempting to detonate a nuclear bomb on a US military base in West Germany with the intention that the US will be held responsible for the explosion. As a consequence of this, America will be forced to withdraw its military support leaving European borders open to attack from Soviet forces. Main villain of the piece though is prince Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan), who is in league with Octopussy (Maud Adams) in a jewellery smuggling caper. "Orlov" uses these smuggling activities to cover up his plans to start World War III, with "Octopussy" unaware that she is being double crossed. "Rita Coolidge" performs the title song "All Time High" it wasn't commercially successful though personally I'm a great fan of it. Robert Brown makes his first appearance of four as Bond's crusty boss "M". "Maud Adams" enters the 007 hall of fame as the only Bond girl ever to appear twice. Her other role was as the ill fated "Andrea Anders" in 1974's "The Man With The Golden Gun". Octopussy works because it combines the best elements of "For Your Eyes Only" with that of the few decent qualities of "Moonraker". Sadly the juvenile humour "Moonraker" was fraught with reappears briefly here, most notably when Bond tells a tiger to "sit!". This should have been "Moore's" last outing as 007, unwisely he decided to return one last time in "A View To A Kill" - 1985.

Made on a modest budget of $1 million dollars, James Bond finally bursts onto the silver screen eight years after first appearing in the novel "Casino Royale". At this stage 007 hadn't become acquainted with the benefits of gadgets (presumably budget constraints were one of the factors for this), therefore the script concentrates on Bond using his wits to evade tricky situations. Its a good opener for the series that contains many elements still present today. However, it wasn't until Goldfinger two years later that the archetypal Bond movie was produced. The meagre budget is spent wisely thanks mainly to Ken Adam's set designs that look both lavish and costlier then they actual were. "Monty Norman" provides the rather disappointing score for the soundtrack. It's still a contentious issue as to whether "Norman" or "John Barry" composed the "James Bond" theme that makes its debut here. Whoever did compose it is secondary, the original Bond theme is excellent and is an ever present here and in many subsequent 007 films made in the sixties. The plot revolves around Dr No's (Joseph Wiseman) attempts to topple U.S. missiles, 007 is sent to Jamaica to investigate......... Jack Lord is "Felix Leiter" 007's long time ally, he's the first in a long line of actors to play this role and for me is the best of the bunch. Six years later "Lord" would find success as "Steve McGarrett" in the long running police show "Hawaii Five-0". Interesting if morbid piece of trivia is that Joseph Wiseman is the only actor surviving that played a Bond villain in sixties.

A classic film, genuinely full of suspense and with more then its fair share of brown trouser moments! The first and by far the best of the series it catapulted Jamie Lee Curtis' career into the limelight. John Carpenter provides a memorable and haunting score that complements the on screen action. Perhaps the only down side to the film is the super human status afforded to killer 'Michael Myers'. This factor sometimes detracts from certain atmospheric moments that the film contains. This guy has every thing done to him as his victims try to escape; yet bullets seem to simply bounce off him. The film actually benefits from not having a copious budget. Script is relied upon to good effect. There is a look to the movie that may have been absent had a big money budget been available. Though most of this can be attributed to John Carpenter's masterful directing.

This movie is lame! Does anyone really find people painted blue and moaning constantly scary? A quote from a critic on the back of the video box went as follows "one of the best horror films ever made". Upon reading this I was foolishly suckered in and rented it out looking forward to having the living daylights scared out of me! Instead, I had a laughing attack not afforded to me since childhood! It really berates the horror genre when this movie is considered a classic. Its boredom all the way as people that look as though they've been face painted at the local church fete pass themselves off as zombies. A man on crutches heavily sedated could outrun these flesh-eating fiends. So to summarise, the make-up is poor, the script works well as a comedy and the film is as about as scary as a rice pudding without jam!

Where do I start? Well, Roger Moore's fourth 007 epic is indeed a poor affair to say the least. After the success of previous Bond movie 'The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)' the Bond franchisers lose the plot completely with this entry in the long-running series. I'm a die hard Bond fan, I love the films and find it difficult to find fault in them. However, whilst the film has certain redeeming features, in general this is bad!! Moonraker contains the lowest point in which the 007 movies have sunk too - steel toothed villain Jaws falling in love!! Its all too formulaic and is no more than Bond by the numbers. Released in 1979 and the first not to be made at Pinewood studios in England, it cashed in on the space craze which hit the silver screen at the end of the seventies (predominately due to the success of Star Wars). At the time the most expensive Bond film ever made, its not difficult to see that the majority of the alloted budget went to special effects rather than to that of the script! The character of 007 has never been so diminished then it is here in this movie. Bond is now merely a tool that demonstrates gadgets and not quick wits. The film can be entertaining if you can over look previous great 007 films such as 'From Russia With Love' and 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'. For its when you compare this offering to those movies you realise how far off the rails the series has gone. Shirley Bassey provides the theme song for the third and final time, its nice enough but not particularly memorable. Bernard Lee makes his final appearance as 'M'. If you're a 12 year-old and you like mindless sci-fi movies that require little attention span, then this is the Bond for you! Sorry to stereotype, but in actual fact most people I've chatted with who like this movie fall into this category. Bond films always provide a sense of deja vu. That's fine by me, its part of the charm of the series, in essence all (bar one or two) follow the same winning story line and it works well. Moonraker stretches credibility way too far without success. Thankfully producer Albert R. Broccoli took heed of this and returned the good commander to earth in 'For Your Eyes Only (1981).

Arguably the greatest of all the American cop shows of the seventies, Hawaii Five-0 ran throughout this decade, though actually started and finished its run outside of this era (1968 and 1980 respectively). At its peak (season five, in my opinion) it was unbeatable entertainment. Though entertainment it was and always will be if you learn not to take the show too seriously and realism isn't your bag! Seasons one to six represent the show's golden age, seasons seven, eight and nine show a noticeable deterioration in quality and the final three seasons aren't worth setting the video for! One of the primary reasons for the show's success can be attributed to Jack Lord's inimitable portrayal of tough no nonsense cop Steve McGarrett. From its inception in the 1968 pilot movie 'cocoon', McGarrett pitted wits with villain 'Wo Fat' and continued to do so on numerous occasions until the series ended in 1980. Other regulars included James MacArthur as Danny 'Danno' Williams (1968-1979) and Chin Ho Kelly played by Kam Fong (1968-1979) The show exuded coolness in every frame shot, the opening title sequence today looks as fresh and as exciting as it ever did - thirty years on! Morton Stevens' pulsating theme tune without doubt is one of the most vibrant pieces of music to ever accompany a television series. In short, the show is pure escapism that has never and may never be rivalled again. Notable episodes are: Over Fifty? Steal (episode #59); No Bottles.....No Cans......No People (episode #74); and the Vashon trilogy from season 5 (episodes #105, #106 and #107).