Rating: 
Summary: underneth the mangrove tree
Review: Its bonds first outing as bond. He is a suave gentleman agent in dr.no. It has the beautaful/sexy Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder. who was first seen in a white bikini singing UNDERNETH THE MANGROVE TREE. Last Jack Lordas the first Felix Liter. It is a 4 and a half star adventure.****1/2 I THOUGHT IT WAS AWESOME SOOO[...]!!![...] CCC[...]OOO[...]LLL[...]L!!![...]
Rating: 
Summary: "Dr. No": Bond's first adventure that started it all!
Review: One of the best 007 films I have seen would have to be Ian Fleming's masterpiece, "Dr. No". (along w/"On Her Majesty's Secret Service".), which obviously came pretty close to the novels. I'll admit, it does lack some action & gagetry later shown in the sequels but has plenty of exitement and thrills and is without question, one of the BEST! Originally made in 1962, the movie was filmed in the exotic locales of Jamaica, where Bond's mission awaits... A SPECTRE member known as Dr. No is a sinister mad-scientist who'll stop at nothing to destroy the U.S. Space Program with missles. Now, it's up to James Bond 007 to thwart his plan and save the world from domination! Ursula Andress plays as the first Bond girl, and the most beautiful of them all. Sean Connery did a fine job playing as Bond, himself. Want MORE Bond??? I also recommend "Goldfinger", "Thunderball", "The Man With The Golden Gun, and "The Spy Who Loved Me".
Rating: 
Summary: A good start to a great tradition
Review: For those who want to know how James Bond was played before he became an action-and-gadget-focused hero, "Dr. No" is a good choice. You see the basics established pretty quickly: Bond's weakness for women, his intense focus on his mission despite his womanizing, and his fearlessness. You also see formidable adversaries, and there seem to be villains at every turn on his mission in Jamaica -- the chauffeur, the "blind" assassins, the photographer, geologist Professor Dent (the excellent Anthony Dawson), and the big guy himself, Dr. Julius No (Joseph Wiseman). Sean Connery plays 007 with a bit of a ruthless, angry edge, one unseen in the rest of his Bond performances. But his intensity and determination come through as he probes the disappearance of John Strangways, the British Intelligence agent who'd come close to discovering the source of interference with NASA rocket launches. Wiseman is brilliant as Dr. No, the SPECTRE operative whose radio waves sent from his Crab Key base mess with the rocket launches. He's witty, charming, convincing and eccentric without being cartoonish -- a trend that continued with the villains of the next two Bond movies. Bond's fellow good-guys give stand-up performances, too. Bernard Lee plays 007's boss, M, with an authority and reserve that's endearing. Same too with M's lovelorn secretary, Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), whose flirtations with Bond are heartwarming and funny. Jack Lord is icy but knowledgable as Felix Leiter, the CIA man. My big problem is with Bond's treatment of the native Jamaicans that surround him. While in later films 007 would perfect the art of being comfortable wherever he is, he sometimes seems a fish out of water in Jamaica and compensates with an icy authority -- witness his master-servant relationship with CIA operative Quarrel (John Kitzmiller), the Cayman Islander who's his sidekick through much of the film. "Dr. No" is a good film -- closer to Ian Fleming's idea than the later pictures, and an exciting movie that sets the stage for the classic James Bond films to come.
Rating:
Summary: "Make sure he doesn't go anywhere."
Review: Its hard to believe it has been forty years since Sean Connery first introduced himself as James Bond at the blackjack table. But he did, and for that reason alone, this being the first installment in the James Bond series, this film is worth seeing. The classic tune even kicks it off. Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a British opperative named Strangways. Once he gets down there and starts checking things out it becomes apparent that this will not be routine. Of course not, that's why its Bond! And so the formula takes over (it starts here, not in Goldfinger as some would argue). The formula: sexy women, bizarre henchmen, villian trying to rule the world, great names, dry wit, and lots of action. I mean, whats there to say? Bond is great. And for that matter so is Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder, the first Bond babe (my favorite next to Barbara Bach as Triple X in The Spy Who Loved Me). Like Bond? For all you fans of the new series with Brosnan (I like him too), its time to go back to the series root and see Connery take it away. He is Bond. Additionally for all you Bond fanatics, this is a great DVD. The making of video and the commentary are interesting and full of facts I never knew. Personally, I love it when I can actually learn from watching special features. And while I'm on the subject I have seen several of the 007 special edition DVD's and they are all great and worth owning. So, see Dr. No. For the first time or the twentieth time, it doesn't make any difference. After all, if it did Bond would not have thwarted countless scemes to take over the world, been in more fights than Mike Tyson, bedded more women than Hugh Hefner, drank a million martinis, and age forty years and not a day in the process. All he has to do is get up and dust of his suit, no matter what decade, no matter what Bond. He is still, and forever, Bond.
Rating:
Summary: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship...
Review: I was a bit too young to see this film when first released; "Goldfinger" was the first Bond that i saw in first-run, but i remedied that omissionas soon as possible *after* being introduced to the Bond series, catching a double-feature of "Dr No" and "From Russia With Love". I had begun reading the Bond books even before seeing "Goldfinger", and so i knew the original story of "Dr No"; in some ways, this is one of the more-accurately adapted books of the series (one thing did worry me, though -- the death of a character who also appeared fairly importantly in a book earlier in the series; how were they going to deal with that if they ever filmed the other book?). Though most of the films open with Big Beat or rock themesongs, this one (appropriately enough) opens with a neat little calypso, and one might say that "modest-but-appropriate" describes virtually the entire film -- none of the huge stunts and elaborately-choreographed action scenes that have become the norm in the series, few if any gadgets -- not even a rocket-launcher mounted in his car! -- and a not-too-far-from reality air about the whole production. USAn audiences' previous main (only?) exposure to Sean Connery had been as Michael, the new gamekeeper/romantic lead in Disney's "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" [in which (to quote the old "MASH" joke) he only had one eyebrow. "Over which eye?" "Both"]. If anyone recalled that previous role, this film must have been an interesting contrast. Well-acted and -cast, nicely filmed (on what, by com parison with later films, must have been almost a poverty-row budget), this was quite a nice introduction to the character and the series. ((Incidentally, there was a US comic-book adaptation of this film, published by National/DC; i remember it but didn't read it...))
Rating:
Summary: The one that started it all
Review: This was the first Bond film made all the way back in 1962. The film is now 40 years old yet it still holds up very well. The reason it has stood the test of time is that it focused on story-line and characters rather than gadgets. I enjoy the current films with their stunts, but, what always stays with me the longest is the storyline. If you are a Bond fan you simply have to own the first, the original James Bond; the one that started it all. This film introduced the world to Sean Connery, (and we were all made the richer for it), as well as the quintessential ingredient of all Bond films; the Bond Girl--in this case Ursula Andress. Interestingly enough Ursula has more in common with the modern Bond Girls and their tough, independence than she did with many of the ones that would follow in the series, (especially during the Roger Moore era). I don't own every Bond film, but, I do think you owe it to yourself and your collection to own the one that established the genre and originated a 40 year franchise.
Rating:
Summary: Could Be The Best James Bond Movie!
Review: I find it is quite difficult to find a best Bond movie. Why? Because they're so different. While the first two (Dr. No and From Russia With Love) are the closest to Ian Fleming's version of Bond ever, Goldfinger, and most of the ones after (with the exception of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and propably Licence To Kill) are more gadget laden and cartoony. Roger Moore brought the slapstick style to Bond, and still remains the furthest away from Fleming's Bond ever. Still, his movies are fun. See what I mean? But I've always thought this Bond movie is the most original and tense. This one has COnnery's best performance, too. It also has really cool locations (I wish I was in Jamaica, right now), hot girls (or I should say girl, since the two others in this one are kind of ugly), a great villian, and Bond is very dependant on his with and his brain in this one, while now he's got gadgets, so he doesn't need a brain. This DVD, like the others, rocks. The film is available in an aspect ratio of 1:85:1. This is not actually the way the film was originally shown, but for the benefit of widescreen TV owners (like myself), the picture was cropped a bit and then the aspect ratio got bigger, so when put into anamorphic TV mode, there weren't annoying bars on the side of the screen. Anyway, the picture quality here is excellent! Like all the Bond movies, Dr. No was filmed in super clear 35 MM and the quality here is very pleasing, especially when compared with my old, overwatched, worn out videocassette (which wasn't widescreen). The colors are bright, there's no bleeding or to much fuzz. I can't belive that "Widescreen Review" gave the picture a 2.5 out of 5 stars! If you want to see how good the picture is, watch the little black and white feautrette in the special features section, where the quality is unwatchhable. The sound is pretty good, too. Don't expect this to compare to 5.1 trackes from 1998 and after, because this is a simple mono track from 1962. It would have been nice to have a 5.1 or DTS track, but since I don't yet have surround sound (don't laugh, I intend to!), this soundtrack works fine. Voices are quite clear, but the music is very loud, and that is kind of annoying. The special features on this Special Edition DVD are quite excellent, though. The documentary included (45 minutes) gives out lots of cool information with really nice interviews. The commentary's OK, but certainly not as good as others. Actually, this commentary is very boring and difficult to listen to. I don't know why, but I feel like I'm going to fall asleep whenever I watch this thing. There are tons of trailers (oh, how trailers have changed), a picture gallery, radio spots, and a Terence Young (director) documentary. Overall, this DVD is worth buying.
Rating:
Summary: The Beginning of Bond (and one of the best)
Review: The year was 1962. The era of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev, the Berlin Wall, and the ever present threat that communists would attempt to attack the U.S. with nuclear weapons. Enter James Bond, 007, license to kill. At first you think that James is out to beat a communist threat. It is only later that it is revealed that the dreaded S.P.E.C.T.R.E. organization is really who is bankrolling Dr. No. Of course, for the audience of 1962, it had to be the Soviets or the Chinese, so revealing that there was an organization even more dreaded must mean they are truly evil. Sean Connery does an excellent job in this movie. There are minimal special effects, and some would be classed as slightly cheesy, but the movie is played very seriously, with only a minimal amount of tongue-in-cheek. James Bond is clearly yet to be a super-spy. He has weaknesses and is quickly put back in his place by M, his boss, when he steps out of line. Remember that Sean Connery was a relative unknown in 1962, having starred in a Disney movie and a few other places, he wasn't a well-known actor. His performance in this movie is indicative of his nascent talent, played precisely and assuredly. Ursula Andress plays the first Bond girl, Honey Ryder, but is clearly not a blushing beauty. She exudes innocence, and yet she is intelligent and ready to defend herself. She put a black widow spider in the bed of a man who forced her into having sex with him, so she clearly is strong-willed and not to be trifled with. Jack Lord, already a TV star, makes an appearance as Felix Leiter, playing him in a style that would become famous on "Hawaii Five-O" years into the future. The quality of the picture and the sound leaves something to be desired. Both need to be restored. However, in a choice between no Dr. No and Dr. No with less than optimal picture, I choose Dr. No. It's also easy to compare this 40-year-old movie's special effects with those of today and laugh. For example, the car exploding halfway down the cliff without hitting anything. Or the "deadly" tarantula walking on a projection screen that was supposed to be Sean Connery's arm. Minor transgressions that only add to the character of what was even then a relatively low-budget film. As I get older, and today's movies become more sophisticated and special effects dependent, sometimes it's refreshing to look back to the days when you could readily tell the good guys from the bad guys, and it was shocking to see a good guy deliberately kill a bad guy. This movie is solid popcorn fare. Watch and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Bond.... James Bond
Review: This is one of the best Bond films next to Goldfinger. It is the most like a Bond book. It is also the first movie that Connery is seen in. In fact it's the first Bond movie. This movie is great. I like Connery the most because he's not as formal as most Bond's are. The only problem was that the villian should have been in it more. It also drags at parts. This is a Bond film worth having.
Rating:
Summary: "Minnows pretending they're whales"
Review: I always associate the phrase "James Bond movies" with tuxedos, hi-tech gadgets, and (unless "Thunderball" or "The Living Daylights" is on TV) a really keen movie-watching experience. That certainly goes for the DVDs, too... once you plug the "Dr. No" special edition into your player, you know it'll be a good four or five hours before you're standing up again. Seven of the Bond movies have been reissued in a new "special edition" package. "Dr. No", the granddaddy of them all, is first in the set, both alphabetically and chronologically. As far as I can tell, the content of the disc is the same as the "Dr. No" in the last box set, but for those of us who didn't own the disc before (and why didn't I?) this was a great excuse to purchase and watch. "Dr. No" is one of the more compelling entries in the series. It's light on gadgets and locations, but this only allows Sean Connery to dominate the movie from beginning to end, and show why he's still considered THE Bond, so many decades (and actors) later. His wit is dry and acid-sharp, and even on this umpteenth viewing I picked up on barbs I'd never noticed before ("So, does toppling American missiles compensate for having no hands?"). I also enjoy the way the second half of "No" takes place basically in real time, following Bond, Honey and Quarrel along the beaches of Crab Key, and deep into Dr. No's cavernous, stainless steel lair. Dr. No is uncharacteristically muted for a Bond villain -- he doesn't show up until the last 25 minutes -- but he's as chilling as Alaskan wine and his death scene is memorably ironic. The animated, interactive DVD menus are fun to watch, being highly reminiscent of the famed Maurice Binder opening titles. There's a cute 20-minute short on director Terence Young, whose "Bond Vivant" lifestyle is said to have directly influenced Connery's portrayal of 007. The 42-minute "making of" documentary interviews at least a dozen cast and crew members, and the Patrick MacNee narration is a definite plus. There's another dozen promotional spots, and a freaky black-and-white featurette from 1962, which features an American actor in Coke-bottle glasses introducing grainy B&W clips from the film. The DVD's audio commentary track is a cut-and-paste job, linking reminscences from the same actors seen in the making-of, along with some 30 year-old recordings of Terence Young. Lois "Moneypenny" Maxwell and Monty Norman (who sings quite a bit of his score, along with the movie) are the most memorable voices here. The rest are a bit dry, and basically just repeat what's in the documentary. If you can't rest until you know what order the scenes were filmed in, this is all for you. Special kudos to the Photo Gallery. These are usually a chore to get through, but the "Dr. No" gallery is neatly subdivided into nine or so different categories, so you can skip the endless B&W shots of anonymous crew members frowning on location. The stills from the "missing scene" (Ursula Andress menaced by drugged, slow-moving crustaceans) are amusing, as are the various foreign movie posters. El Satanico Doctor No, indeed!
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