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Dr. No

Published February 13, 2015

Dr. No

Film info

  • Title Dr. No
  • Director Terence Young
  • Year 1962
  • Run time 1hr 40m
  • Genres Thriller, Action, Adventure
  • Tagline Now meet the most extraordinary gentleman spy in all fiction

In the first James Bond spy classic, Sean Connery is the ever-suave and fearless secret agent 007 on a mission in Jamaica to thwart a fanatical scientist's world-threatening scheme.

Live blog

Time Comment
0:38 The opening shot of James Bond is timeless, then. Spotlight, gunshot, blood rains down. Forever.
6:14 It’s adorable how posh everyone is.
7:36 Never seen that giant paddle for moving cards around a casino table before.
9:25 Less than ten minutes into the whole franchise and he’s hooking up.
11:12 This James Bond is devillishly handsome though. Who knew?
17:31 These are like comedy spies. I’m expecting two little holes in the newspaper.
21:59 Argh, super spies and their suicide abilities.
24:52 “Mixed like you said, not stirred.” Well, at least they didn’t get it all right at the first go.
29:43 They’re just so unsubtle. “Make sure we get privacy,” he yells. Uh, okay. Suspicious.
33:21 That’s a massive camera. And a huge flash. If nothing else, that ages the film!
38:30 The captain is hilarious. “Well, I can’t take you. Oh alright then.” So much persuading.
41:40 As worried as I am for Bond, there’s a slight flaw… the 23 films that follow it.
43:56 Spiders don’t bother me like snakes do but eek, that is a scary spider.
45:09 Lots of pipes in this film.
52:55 Did he just sniff her towel?
1:02:55 I didn’t realise the bikini thing was in the very first James Bond.
1:09:54 Red shirt is not very inconspicuous. Also, is he a red shirt?
1:16:27 It’s so Robot Wars!
1:22:29 Epic bunker.
1:31:51 Spectre. Way relevant.
1:47:33 There goes the bunker.

Conclusions

Our ambitious adventure to work through alllll the Bond films begins here, with the first. It was a surprise to me, how good it was. Of its time, naturally, with a slow pace, a couple of questionable effects and some really dodgy audio. But aging aside, it held up. I thought Connery was good, although he’s not my Bond at all.

The only downside was, and this may be down to a bit of wine I’d consumed beforehand, but I got all the way through the film and then had to turn to Mr C and say: “So, what were the bad guys doing?” There was so much build up, chasing them down, getting to the bay, being captured in the bunker, and I was following all that but I sort of missed what the overarching evil plot was. Didn’t take away from the enjoyment of it, but the big bad didn’t really seem all that big or bad.

Rating: 3/5.

Rating: 3 / 5

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