What We Like & Dislike About Each Actors' Bond

chrisisall

Simple & direct. Main plus & minus. Ancillary discussion at your own risk.

Connery- Absolute star power & screen presence/ disinterest in later films.
Lazenby- Ease in the role & physicality/ lack of Thespian skills.
Moore- Likeability & screen presence/ lack of physicality.
Dalton- Thespian skills & dedication to Fleming Bond/ bad with bad one-liners.
Brosnan- Enthusiasm & wit/ bad with bad dialogue.
Craig- Intense & physical/ a bit blunter than needed at times.
Bieber- Very ambitious/ kind of young for the role, and a bit silly with the ladies.

Oh wait- I jumped ahead! Sorry.
)

Brosnan_fan

Connery

Positives - Confidant and commanding performances. Negatives - Rather sexist in today's climate.


Lazenby

Positives - Nice warm and romantic manner. Negatives - of the six, the least believable as Bond.


Moore

Positives - Provides a light-hearted touch to proceedings, and good delivery of one-liners. Negatives - Can veer to much into comedy.


Dalton

Positives - Really good with the serious, no-nonsense approach to Bond. Negatives - We never got to see how his Bond turned out (Not his fault, really).


Brosnan

Positives - Good with the action, not bad as an actor. Negatives - As one-liners go, he had some clunkers (Again, probably the fault of the writers and producers).


Craig

Positives - Takes the material and acting seriously, and is not bad in the action sequences. Negatives - Needs to inject some fun into his performances.

Gassy Man

Connery: The real deal/nothing.
Lazenby: Physicality and romantic scenes/uneven line delivery.
Moore: Charm, confidence/camp
Dalton: Commanding presence/uncomfortable with humor and having a good time.
Brosnan: Hair/Too lightweight for brooding to be taken seriously and not enough humor.
Craig: Most masculine Bond since Connery and a bonafide actor/scripts make him one-note and humorless.

AlphaOmegaSin

Connery - Rough and Tumble, Entertaining and serious at his Job.
Lazenby - Put more Human Emotion into the Role
Moore - Had a lot of funny and Entertaining Moments
Dalton - Played the Character close to the Books
Brosnan - Suave and Sophisticated
Craig - Human like Lazenby and Dalton's Portrayals

Thunderpussy

Connery. Loved him as Bond, can't find anything to dislike. -{
Lazenby. Great in the fight scenes, as for dislikes, not much had to tell from one film.
Moore, Master of the one-liner, can come across a little smarmy at times.
Dalton, Loved his take on Bond, a little awkward in the fights ( Never liked how he made a fist )
Brosnan, He was a blend of Connery and Moore ( IMHO), not a huge dislike but I never liked how
He'd bite the shoulder of some of his leading ladies. For me at least There are better places
To nibble on a lady. :v
Craig, Best since Connery, has Made Bond cool again -{ , as for dislikes I agree with Gassy Man in that
" scripts make him one-note and humorless." Although with Skyfall I think they have started to make
the changes needed to give him a little more humor.

Blackleiter

Thunderpussy wrote:

Connery. Loved him as Bond, can't find anything to dislike. -{
Lazenby. Great in the fight scenes, as for dislikes, not much had to tell from one film.
Moore, Master of the one-liner, can come across a little smarmy at times.
Dalton, Loved his take on Bond, a little awkward in the fights ( Never liked how he made a fist )
Brosnan, He was a blend of Connery and Moore ( IMHO), not a huge dislike but I never liked how
He'd bite the shoulder of some of his leading ladies. For me at least There are better places
To nibble on a lady. :v
Craig, Best since Connery, has Made Bond cool again -{ , as for dislikes I agree with Gassy Man in that
" scripts make him one-note and humorless." Although with Skyfall I think they have started to make
the changes needed to give him a little more humor.

I know this is getting tiresome but, again, I basically agree with you. I would add the lack of physicality and a sense of danger to Moore's negative column. Also, I don't think Dalton was particularly comfortable with the one-liners, and it showed.

Thunderpussy

No, BL. Agreeing with Me shows Great wisdom. ) I never get tired of anyone agreeing with me. )

chrisisall

Thunderpussy wrote:

I never get tired of anyone agreeing with me. )

I agree.

Manxman

Sean Connery — amazing screen presence and leonine grace / sometimes feels a bit too invulnerable
George Lazenby — great versatility and vulnerability / couldn't pull off humour
Roger Moore — quintessentially English and unflappable / struggled with bad material
Timothy Dalton — suitably Fleming-esque and saturnine / occasionally too much so?
Pierce Brosnan — interesting fusion of Connery and Moore styles / derivative fusion of Connery and Moore styles
Daniel Craig — captures the dark side of Bond / completely fails to capture the charm and elegance

BIG TAM

Difficult one this as I don't dislike any of the actors. They all have their own wonderful array of pros. Too many to mention in fact.

Cons? Okay, here are one or two things that stick out for me:-
Connery - None really.
Lazenby - Occasionally sounds a bit wooden, especially in the first meeting with Draco. But he's a non-actor so it's perhaps a bit churlish to criticise this aspect.
Moore - Comes across a bit unathletic, especially in his last two films.
Dalton - Sometimes says his lines as if he's appearing at The Globe Theatre. LTK especially features a lot of Shakespearean breathiness.
Brosnan - None really.
Craig - None really.

chrisisall

BIG TAM wrote:

Brosnan - None really.

This here is quite refreshing to read! -{

BIG TAM

chrisisall wrote:

BIG TAM wrote:

Brosnan - None really.

This here is quite refreshing to read! -{

I had a downer on Brosnan for a while, but more as a backlash to his moaning about being hard done by in endless interviews. He really did have it easier than any of the other actors & should have been more gracious in accepting his time was up.
The irony is, rewatching Brosnan makes me realise he could quite easily have fitted into the new era. A good actor with a good screen presence, I honestly can't find anything to fault.
But if it's down to a photo finish, I prefer Daniel Craig's brooding maculinity.

AlphaOmegaSin

Well according to an Interview that Brosnan did, he admitted that he just never managed to Nail down the Charecter.

chrisisall

AlphaOmegaSin wrote:

Well according to an Interview that Brosnan did, he admitted that he just never managed to Nail down the Charecter.

I see a lot of people on different sites use that to help say why they didn't like Brosnan as Bond. I have to ask, does it really matter what Brosnan thinks of his performance? If after Dan gets out he was to say he thought his Bond wasn't very good, would THAT affect your appreciation of his performance? Michael Apted said some dumb things concerning TWINE, should that matter?
What I'm saying is that the movies, once produced & released are rather finite works, and should IMO be judged positively or negatively SOLELY on their content.
George Lucas though his original version of Star Wars was severely lacking back in '78... fans begged to differ. )

Blackleiter

Actually, my only complaint about Brosnan is that he is just a bit too "pretty", but that's not his fault. In fact, I can relate to that problem because I am burdened by the same curse! ) ) )

Thunderpussy

You and ME both. ) )

chrisisall

I am thankfully free of that particular problem. B-)

AlphaOmegaSin

I fell out the Ugly Tree, and smashed into every Branch on the way down )

chrisisall

Seriously though, AlphaOmegaSin, what about my point in post #14? ?:)

AlphaOmegaSin

I've always regarded Brosnan as one of my favorite Bonds, it's just that he seems to put himself down a lot about playing the Role.

Thunderpussy

I always remember in some early interviews ( Before filming on Goldeneye ) he did say
he was hoping to dig into the dark side of Bond, his more human side etc.
Seems he didn't get the chance with the scripts he got, Daniel Craig was luckier as the
Producers decided for the change of direction just as He wanted to portray the more
Human Bond.
Who know's what Brosnan's Bond might have been with better scripts and a chance for him to
get under the sin of Bond. -{

chrisisall

Thunderpussy wrote:

Who know's what Brosnan's Bond might have been with better scripts and a chance for him to
get under the skin of Bond. -{

"Peel back the layers..."
Sounds kinda gross. ?:)

Thunderpussy

Oh, you both have LAYERS. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions. What about cake? Everybody loves cake!
You know what ELSE everybody likes? Parfaits! Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "Hell no, I don't like no parfait"? Parfaits are delicious!

Blackleiter

chrisisall wrote:

I am thankfully free of that particular problem. B-)

It's okay. I also suffer from delusional psychosis (and those of you who have seen my photo have probably figured that out! ) )

chrisisall

Blackleiter wrote:

I also suffer from delusional psychosis

I've heard from an expert on here that most on this site suffer from that. Not seriously disliking Dalton is the initial symptom... ?:)

Absolutely_Cart

Connery - Charm / Complacency
Lazenby - Grounded / Unrefined
Moore - Humor / Creepy
Dalton - Dynamic / Awkward
Brosnan - Balanced / Cringey
Craig - Intense / Inexpressive

chrisisall

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

Moore - Creepy

Like, "Abominable Dr. Phibes" creepy-?
)

002

Thunderpussy wrote:

Connery. Loved him as Bond, can't find anything to dislike. -{
Lazenby. Great in the fight scenes, as for dislikes, not much had to tell from one film.
Moore, Master of the one-liner, can come across a little smarmy at times.
Dalton, Loved his take on Bond, a little awkward in the fights ( Never liked how he made a fist )
Brosnan, He was a blend of Connery and Moore ( IMHO), not a huge dislike but I never liked how
He'd bite the shoulder of some of his leading ladies. For me at least There are better places
To nibble on a lady. :v
Craig, Best since Connery, has Made Bond cool again -{ , as for dislikes I agree with Gassy Man in that
" scripts make him one-note and humorless." Although with Skyfall I think they have started to make
the changes needed to give him a little more humor.

I must admit that Thunderpussy must love me: I agree with him 100%

Thunderpussy

If you're also a fan of women's beach volleyball, then it's on! )

002

Thunderpussy wrote:

If you're also a fan of women's beach volleyball, then it's on! )

Ha! Go on, then... {[]

Agent Lee

Connery- Charisma, physicality, screen presence, style. Made character his own/ lack of Fleming character flaws, phoning it in for his later films

Lazenby- Physicality, style, look, captures Felmingesque posch arrogance of character nicely/ lack of acting skills, didn't have multiple films to develop his take on the character

Moore- Charm, humor, likeability/ completely lacking in physicality, has no 'edge' to speak of

Dalton- Darkness, serious tone, great acting skills, unique take on character/ lacks charm, can't pull off jokes very well, sometimes a bit awkward in a fight

Brosnan- great enthusiasm, great actor, great charm and coolness, very dedicated to the role/ lacks toughness, couldn't elevate the so-so material he had to work with (no matter how hard he tried)

Craig- completely reinvented the role and made his own, excellent physicality, has charm of connery and dark undertones of Dalton, even takes Fleming's Bond further/ somtimes comes off a bit too gruff, but otherwise, I'm sorry, this guy's just the best.