The Best James Bond is. . .

Art Noveau or Art Deco?  Peas or Carrots?  LA or NYC?  They all have good points.  How can you possibly pick? 

The movie-loving public has their own impossible scenario.  Who is the best Bond?  Connery? Moore? Brosnan? Craig? Let's not forget Lazenby or Dalton.  Nothing seems to stir up opinions as quickly among 007 fans as naming your favorite Bond.  Give your opinion on the matter and be prepared to participate in a heated discussion. 

I used to think that Connery was the best Bond while Moore was my favorite. No more.   I don't shrink from heated discussions, so let me be clear on my position:  Daniel Craig is the best Bond.  Ever.  End of story.  Of course, that is not the end of the story because the 007 franchise is one in which it's fans get totally emotional over the actor playing the part.  Don't believe me?  Troll people by claiming that Timothy Dalton was the best Bond and watch heads explode.

The first 007 movie I ever watched was For Your Eyes Only and I grew up watching Roger Moore as James Bond.  He was handsome, charming, and smart.  While I didn't understand most of his lines as a child, he was also fairly funny.  I still chuckle over some of the double entendres.  Really, though, what tentacle-porn fetishist came up with Octopussy?  I almost feel embarrassed just typing that title.  And you all must realize by now that it takes a lot to make me cringe!

I was an adult when I watched another actor play Bond.  A boyfriend owned three VHS tapes and Goldfinger was one of them.  Halloween and The Outlaw Josey Wales were the others and I've watched all three movies more times than I can count.  Since then, I've watched plenty of the early Bond films and they are my favorites in the series.  Sean Connery in his youth - RAWR!  It's almost like he was the inspiration for the phrase, "tall, dark, & handsome."  He liked his martinis dry and, as with Ursula Andress, his women wet.  Wink, wink!  His lines were clever and he was so believable in the role.  His portrayal of Bond makes Moore's portrayal almost look like Austin Powers.

I wanted to like Pierce Brosnan as Bond and he seemed like such a perfect choice, but somehow he fell flat.  I realize that shitty scripts and campy dialog aren't an actor's fault, but his movies sucked ass in a most spectacular fashion.  His Bond actually seemed bored.  Some of the dialog quite literally made me wince - it was that bad.  The casting choices were so questionable at times (Denise Richards, nuclear physicist?) that I almost wonder if they were trying to do a parody of James Bond.  The problem with that theory is that these Bond movies were so lame that they were cringe-inducing and they weren't even clever or funny.  Unless you think it's funny that audiences continued paying to see such completely unentertaining movies.

I was taken aback at the notion of a blond Bond, but I gamely gave Casino Royale a try.  I'm glad that I did because I swear that Daniel Craig was born to play this character.  Let's start with his looks.  He packs some major heat; he is like sex in a suit.  I'm normally not a fan of blond hair (but both of my husbands were/are fair-haired), but he is so handsome that it almost made me gasp.  More important than looks, he's manly.  He seems so masculine that John Wayne and Steve McQueen seem like fretting women in comparison.  He's rough, rugged, and he's not afraid to go balls-out.  Oddly enough, I kinda like that he screws up and isn't so suave and perfect.  I know it makes no sense, but his failures serve to make me like him more.  Quantum of Solace wasn't as awesome as Casino Royale, not by a long shot, but Craig played the roll so well that the movie still worked. 

Who is your favorite Bond?  Please share!  For the record, my answers to the first three questions of this post are:  Deco, Carrots, and LA.