Five Favorite James Bond Movies For You To Enjoy

Overall, I really like the James Bond movie series. Did you know that it's the second most-successful movie franchise ever created? (Although it may be time to look that statistic up again....)

ThevJames Bond movie series has been in near-constant production since 1962. So far there have been twenty-four official Bond movies, and three unofficial ones, and undoutedly a twenty-fifth movie is being planned by someone somewhere. That's six different Bond actors (seven if you count the unofficial ones), a few dozen villains, a gaggle of Bond girls and enough high-tech gadgets to put the Sharper Image catalog folks out of business. Come to think of it, Bond may have a lot to do with them staying in business...

If you've never seen a Bond film, or if you've only seen a few, here are my top five recommended favorites.

(Much like cookies or potato chips, you often can't stop at just one! )

In this installment, James Bond (Sean Connery) is on the trail of industrialist and gold bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger, trying to figure out how the businessman is smuggling gold internationally. What he then uncovers is a plot to contaminate the entire gold supply at Fort Knox.

Villains - In addition to Mr. Goldfinger, who tries to laser Bond in half, there is his trusty man servant Odd Job, who never talks but wields a steel-edged bowler as his Frisbee-like weapon of choice.

Bond Girl - Actress Honor Blackman (which is like a Bond girl name in itself) plays Goldfinger's personal pilot, Pussy Galore. There is also Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton), an associate of Goldfinger's who Bond seduces and is forced to pay the price: she is found dead, painted over entirely in gold.

With Roger Moore taking up the reins as the Britsh agent, 007 must track down Kanaga (Yaphet Koto) and find the source of his massive herion supply before it hits the world market. His chase takes him from Harlem to New Orleans to a Caribbean island.

Villains - In addition to Kanaga, there are his henchmen Tee Hee (who has a nasty steel claw for one hand), the voodoo priest Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) and a literal heavy named Whisper.

Bond Girl - This movie features then-21-year-old Jane Seymour as the psychic, tarot card reader Solitare. The only catch is that if she loses her virginity, she'll lose her powers... (I think you can all guess what James Bond did with that piece of intelligence)

Pierce Brosnan's first foray as Bond was the series' biggest grossing entry up to that point. It opens with 007 and his fellow agent 006 (Sean Bean) on a mission at a Russian chemical factory. 006 is captured and shot but Bond manages to escape. Nine years later, M (Judi Densch) sends Bond to investigate who is trying to take over the Goldeneye satellite, and Bond learns his old friend is alive and now his foe.

Villains - Sean Bean is excellent as 006/Alex Treveylan, Bond's former best friend. He also gets classic bad guy dialog such as "Why can't you be a good boy and just die?!" Famke Jansen gets to wield "killer" thighs as Xenia Onatopp, Treveylan's henchwoman.

Bond Girl - Bond gets Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco), a former Russian satellite programmer.

After the movie makers decided to go with a new actor for James Bond, they also decided to re-energize the franchise by going back to Bond's roots, to his days as a new double-O agent. Actor Daniel Craig got the part, and they went right back to Ian Fleming's first novel, CASINO ROYALE, where 007 must try to stop a terrorist banker/financier from winning a high-stakes poker match.

Villains - Mad Mikkelsen plays Le Chiffre, who has the distinction of being able to bleed tears of blood. He likes high-stakes poker, and he'll go right for your balls if there's some info you have that he wants.

Bond Girl - Bond loses his heart to Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), the treasury officer assigned to keep an eye on the money Bond is waging. She also gets to break his heart at the end, thus ensuring our hero will become the cynical hardened agent we know and love.

After one of the longest lapses between movies since the Bond franchise started, SKYFALL proved every naysayer wrong by blowing records for the entire series out of the water. This movie has had one of the best critical and fan receptions and has the box office receipts to boot.

Villains - It's not often that you get a blond villain (there hasn't been once since Max Zorin in the 80s) nor an Academy-Award-winning actor playing the bad guy, but in SKYFALL, you get both. Javier Bardem plays Raoul Silva, a former top agent who now has some Mommy issues with M after a cyanide suicide pill didn't do the trick. Best teeth since Jaws in Moonraker.

Bond Girl - There are a few Bond girls in this one. Bérénice Lim Marlohe is Sévérine, the girl on the inside who wishes Bond could get her out, which of course doesn't happen. Naomia Harris is Eve, who learns she's not cut out for fieldwork and takes on a more important role in the Bond mythology.