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One thing that did make them more fun was that they were standalone missions with just a few nods to previous missions. Brosnan got better with each film and three of them had excellent scores.
I enjoy the Craig films more but in terms of undemanding Bond entertainment they are hard to beat.
I'm willing to concede that Craig in Our Friends in the North was very much unsuitable for Connery, if we want to use that particular BBC series as our yardstick. But to say that Connery hasn't given powerful performances elsewhere was inaccurate, hence the reason why I backed @jetsetwilly's examples. Secondly, the circumstances in which Connery made those two movies is entirely different to how Craig was allowed to flourish in his Geordie TV role. I highlight TV as there is a difference. So Craig wins the TV argument, at least for now, unless anyone wants to argue that Connery's Requiem for a Heavyweight or Anna Karenina were better. Of course The Hill was made at the height of Bondmania when Connery was finding it difficult to shake-off the Bond persona, or "monster" as he called it. On the other hand, Craig had no such qualms or preconceived public perceptions of him when he was making OFFTN as no one knew who he was. Ironically, I even met Craig after he'd made this series and I had no idea who he actually was as I'd never watched the series. I only caught up with that series many years later. The Offence wasn't a project that Sidney Lumet brought to Connery, but the other way round. Connery saw the play during its original run in London in 1968 and bought the rights, getting John Hopkins (coincidentally co-screenwriter of TB) to adapt his own play for the big screen. Connery then brought Lumet onto the project. I just want to establish that as I think some might believe this movie was all down to Sidney Lumet when it wasn't, it was Connery's own pet project to begin with.
Some might want to have a go at Connery for his lack of accents and sticking with the Scottish brogue, but I think that works fine. For instance, Craig's Polish accent in Defiance is pretty ropey and sounds rather comical to me. Fortunately, Craig didn't attempt a Swedish one in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which is quite a schizo movie as Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander does. I'm not an American, so I can't comment on his recent southern American accents in Logan Lucky or Knives Out. However, I'd be interested to know from our American cousins what they think of his attempts. Maybe as a resident of New York, he feels more comfortable performing an American accent? I don't really know.
The Thomas Crown Affair (though I still prefer Steve McQueen's original over this)
The Tailor of Panama
The Matador
The Ghost Writer
And that's it for me.
The Offence is easily Connery's best performance. It takes real guts to play a role like that straight on the back of Bond. A burly, intimidating, angry policeman who hurls nasty abuse at his wife, and is tortured with mental images of paedophilia, due to his job.
A similar performance is in Male of the Species - well worth watching too.
Clearly Connery is the best Bond. But Connery certainly didn’t play Connery. Connery is a rough diamond of a man....reportedly, he’s nothing like Bond in real life. I agree, his acting range is limited. But he is nothing like Bond, so he was a proficient actor in the role.
He is really good as an ageing Robin Hood alongside Audrey Hepburn in Robin and Marian
( and reunites with his old enemy Robert Shaw as the Sheriff of Nottingham!)
Theres also The Man Who would be King and The Wind and the Lion! He's excellent in both of them!
No Willy, and tbh I had never heard of them until yesterday.
My "giggle" is aimed at those who claim that Connery was not a versatile actor.
Plus, he invented the word charisma I think. ;)
I agree with a ton of comments above, even the ones supposedly disagreeing with each other. Connery wasn’t a chameleon, he’s very much in the same league as Jack Nicholson where he’s pretty much the same guy but that doesn’t at all take away from the talent exuded in the performance of the parts. Movie stars like Connery, Nicholson, Hackman, all deserved those Oscars. It takes more than just charisma to get to their level.
Connery's legacy could of grown even bigger if he decided to be in other large franchises but he chose not to; he was wanted by producers.
In terms of non Bond work my ranking follows as below as of now. Craig can someday move to #2.
1. Sir Sean
2. Pierce
3. Craig
4. Dalton (more invested in theatre acting)
5. Moore
6. Lazenby
Ahhh! ;))
You should watch them both, The Offence in particular. For me that is the ultimate showcase for his acting abilities, his Oscar performance, not The Untouchables (even though that is one of his best films).
The Offence is a hard-going watch at times due to the subject matter, its grim and bleak but very intriguing.
I personally found the GWTDT underwhelming. Not a particularly good film. Didn't help that they had a mish mash of Brit and Scando actors all with different accents. Had that euro blamange vibe to it. Not Fincher's finest hour.
I agree The Hill is well worth a watch for anyone who doubts that Connery wasn't also a talented character actor when he could be bothered. He wasn't just "playing a version of himself". Maybe he didn't get enough chances to take on interesting roles.
For my money the Bond actor who has leveraged the role to maximum effect is Brozza.
I will add November Man as well as The Foreigner; Pierce gets more screentime than Jackie Chan if I remember correctly.
"Because death always follows..." or something, lol. Very cheesy. I've not seen The Foreigner, but I really want to, I also really, really love a good Cliff Martinez soundtrack... Do you know if it's any good?
The film is pretty good. The soundtrack is excellent.
I don't share the enthusiasm for his Thomas Crown. He was decent, but the film itself I found underwhelming, particularly with the limp ending and turning the Russo character from tough to whiny in the end. November Man is good fun. I actually saw that in the cinema.
This may sound surprising, but the one film Connery did that I didn't feel I was watching him was his performance as Henry Jones Sr. in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It was built up as James Bond playing Indy's dad and I didn't get any Connery vibes when I first saw it. He really sold the doddering old man without the usual Connery characteristics, so unlike the persona we know.
The Hill is also a great performance and also one that really seems like the real Connery - fiercely independent, defiant around authorities and fighting for what he believes in. I try to catch this whenever it airs.
I really want to see The Offence. It's one of those holy grail films I've always looked for years but it's never been exactly widely available here in the U.S. I was just in a used video store last night and checked on the off chance it may be there, but wasn't.
Brosnan is outstanding in Seraphim Falls. An oft-overlooked modern western. He does really great work there. He's also, of course, great in The Matador. His comic timing is very on-point. There's also some brilliant work from him in The Greatest, where he has some really emotional, tender scenes with Susan Sarandon. They play parents who lose their son in a car accident, and decide to help the son's pregnant girlfriend to full term.
So yeah, anyone who doesn't like his performances as Bond usually have reasonable (even if I don't agree!) logic behind it. However, anyone who says that he can't act is out of their mind.
I wouldn't say deep or complex, but it's a very stellar comedy performance.
And to be fair to his stuff in Mamma Mia, he looks like he was just having a good time. Can't fault him for that, even if I found the film nearly unwatchable.
I'm not a fan of either of those two movies @Agent_47. They're okay, but not to the same standards as the list above. However, I do agree with @CraigMooreOHMSS that perhaps Seraphim Falls should also be on that list as well.
He was brilliant in The Tailor of Panama and The Ghost. He actually does villainy quite well, would have loved him to have brought a bit of that to the table when playing Bond.