Review:

I know I'm risking my Man Card here buy admitting that that Dr. No is only my second 007 film (I saw The World Is Not Enough like 15 years ago). Starting with the first James Bond film, I had low expectations for a 60's action film and Dr. No was better than I expected. Watching it in 2019, obviously the visuals have been remastered and look better now than they did in 1962, but beyond the muted color palette, Dr. No looks better than some films I've seen from the past decade. What doesn't look great is the effects. Right out of the gate we get gunshots. A character is getting into his car when he's shot. At first, I though someone slapped the hood of the car, but then the guy falls and when he's flipped over he has what definitely looks like red paint (and not any sort of fake blood we would use now). I don't know what film making was like in 1962, but they obviously used ADR in the movie (there is a scene where a band is playing and although the song they are "playing" has vocals the entire way, the band's vocalist doesn't start singing until halfway through the song), so I can't excuse the terrible gun shot sound effect. Most of the pyro and explosions are real and are all convincing except the car chase scene (you'll know it when you see it), but at the end, there is a set of explosions that are obviously superimposed. Anytime Bond is driving around, the background is obviously a separate video than Bond in the car. It's clearly added in post. There is a death in the second half of the movie that is very unrealistic and looks terrible. But, considering that this film is from 1962, only the gunshot sound and blood took me out of the film. The story is kind of bland and the pacing leaves a lot of lulls, especially in the first act, but I was never bored. I am confused as to why Bond is told that a Chinese man owns Crab Key (the island that Bond has to get to), but when we finally met said Chineese man, it's Canaidan Joseph Wiseman, a clearly white man. Everything was okay, nothing was great or impressive, but I wasn't really disappointed in anything except on particular character. In general, the acting was okay and I guess the characters are sort of developed. There is one outlier and I'm sure I'll get a lot of disagreement here, but Sean Connery is a problem. He's okay as long as he isn't talking and we don't see his face. Connery is Scottish and instead of just having James Bond have Scottish accent, Connery does a terrible English accent that sounds like he's three bottles of Jack Daniels into the night. Words are slurred and he has these distracting facial distortions when he tries to be English. The facial expressions weren't just related to his shitty accent. I can never tell whether Connery is smiling or grimacing. Honestly, most of the movie he looks like he's in pain. I can buy Connery's "suave" actions, but his face refuses to sell. It's like he's constantly fighting back his Scottish accent that his hiding right behind his lips. Dr. No is fine; it's okay. It's watchable and the beginning of an important film series, but I don't think that makes it a better film.