Daniel Craig IS James Bond

I'm looking forward to the cinema release of Casino Royale - the last time I was this excited was when Goldeneye came out in 1995. I'm finding it hilarious all the media speculation about Bond (see here) and whether it has a future in the 21st Century. Of course it does - in fact, all the arguments in the piece highlighted were made in the run up to Goldeneye, and look what Brosnan did back then.

I think all of the actors who've played Bond have bought something to the role, whether it's Connery (the original), Lazenby (underrated), Moore (priceless), Dalton ("my" Bond), or Brosnan. The first Bond flick I saw at the cinema was A View to A Kill in Chester in 1985, but I'd been a B0nd fan before that. I remember being gutted at getting the Aston Martin DB5 for Christmas one year instead of Moore's Lotus Esprit. Clearly I had no class as a youngster!

However, by the time Die Another Day came out in 2002 it felt as if the series had aged once again - it was the first Bond film we didn't bother going to the cinema to see, and we watched it on DVD over Christmas open-mouthed at how much of a parody it had become. To be fair to Brosnan, his first three efforts were fine, but that one was just too silly. Ironically it was the biggest-grossing of all the Bond movies, so why people are questioning the franchise yet again is beyond me.

The biggest regret for me is how poorly Dalton fared in the role. The two films were good, solid fare, and Dalton played Bond with a real menace - this was the Bond of Fleming, not the Bond of one-liners. Connery in particular was unduly harsh to him, while today's critics should remember that Dalton did all his own stunts too. Goldeneye was written for Dalton's Bond - the "safe sex" quip was more in keeping with his comments ("You're bloody lucky to be alive") than Moore's entertaining one-liners ("Absolutely, no sense in going off half-cocked").

The beauty of Bond is that all of the films have their charms - I own them all on DVD, and every one has its special moments, even the less memorable ones (Moore's superbly understated role in "For Your Eyes Only" for example). Yes, I'm looking forward to seeing Daniel Craig tackle Bond, and I thought he'd be a cracking choice to play him before the critics delivered their verdict.