Issue date: 3/26/09 Section: Showcase

When I was younger, I always thought the life of James Bond was just that - The Life. At least two hot women every movie with no attachments to the previous movie's vixens, fast cars with guns in the headlights, expensive suits, sweet gadgets and silenced guns equaled a masculine way to thwart a terrorist/communist plot. Then I realized I had a girlfriend, a 1992 Mercury Tracer, a 1981 plaid suit and had never shot or held a gun that wasn't spewing paintballs.

But I've always been a fan of James Bond movies and have seen all but one - "Octopussy." I've even read a couple of creator Ian Fleming's original books, which are pretty different from the movies in plot and character personalities. The Bond franchise has seen more downs than ups over the past 20 years, but the series has begun its slow crawl back to relevance.

Spanning 22 movies, there have been six different actors to call themselves Bond… James Bond. Sean Connery was the first and easily the best. He could bed a woman one second and pull the gun from under his pillow and kill someone the next. To use an economics analogy, Connery produced the perfect guns-to-butter ratio, whereas everyone after him either shot too many Walther PPKs or flashed too many Trojans.

Roger Moore was third in line, and his first few movies were decent, with "Live and Let Die" and "The Spy Who Loved Me" at the top of this very short list. When he started the role in 1973, Moore was already 45 years old and would end up looking like Bond with a cane by his final movie 12 years later. He didn't drink the Bond-favorite "vodka martini; shaken not stirred," which is automatically another strike against him. And as much as I enjoy watching Bond get it on with some girl he'll probably kill 15 minutes later, Moore spent too much time schmoozing.

Pierce Brosnan was actually supposed to star as Bond instead of Timothy Dalton in "The Living Daylights," but conflicts in his television schedule prevented him from accepting the role. But Brosnan got another chance and starred in "GoldenEye" in 1995. Along with the definitive first-person shooter game that spawned from the movie, "GoldenEye" was easily his best effort. Brosnan was closer to Moore than anyone else, although his chest hair rivaled Connery's. I think part of Brosnan's problem was the Cold War had ended about six years prior to his debut. As much fun as it is to pretend we're still fighting Russian Cossack winter hat-wearing communists in snow, modernizing plot lines became a challenge in the '90s Bond films. The ice castle in "Die Another Day" serves as proof.

Four years after Brosnan vacated the role, the controversial Daniel Craig took the stage with a bang in "Casino Royale." Although he was more Aryan in looks than Bondian, Craig managed to resurrect some of Connery's traits by showing his ability to commit to a relationship while killing foreigners over poker. Craig actually looked more like Jason Bourne than Bond in "Quantum of Solace" because it was based more on revenge than saving the world. Despite this, Craig has done a good job of beginning Bond's slow crawl back to relevance.

Although the actors change, James Bond movies have consistently centered around ridiculous villains and plots for world domination, beautiful women and always having an escape plan. Its leading spy always defines the movie, and the franchise is currently in its best position since Sean Connery left 35 years before Daniel Craig took over. There were a few gems in between, but Bond's return to popularity will increase if the new additions continue to take notes from Connery precedence.

McCormick is a senior print journalism major and editor in chief of The Spectator.

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