My Two Cents - James Bond

It is one of the classic discussions of action movie fans...and that is, who was the best James Bond? To date, there have been seven actors to don the tuxedo of the world's most famous super spy - Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, David Niven, George Lazenby, and Daniel Craig. So...in this post, I will give you my answer as to whom I believe were the top three James Bonds.
I'm pretty much eliminating Lazenby and Niven right off the bat. Mostly because they were each one-shot Bond players...and Niven especially, since his version of "Casino Royale" was more of a spoof than a serious Bond movie. That takes us down to five contenders.
This is probably personal prejudice more than anything...but I was never a fan of the Roger Moore Bond. I always felt that the Moore Bond movies were too light-hearted...it almost seemed like more of a parody than anything else. And I also think some of the worst Bond movies came under Moore's tenure (Live and Let Die and Moonraker come immediately to mind).
Finally, I think you can eliminate Timothy Dalton. Remember that this was when they wanted Pierce Brosnan to take over as Bond (after Moore's retirement from the part), except that Brosnan was still under contract for "Remington Steele". You almost get the feeling that Dalton was an alternate...and he was gone after two turns as Bond.
Which leads us to our final three - Connery, Brosnan, and Craig. So...in order:
3 - Pierce Brosnan. It would probably stun many to see Brosnan as the third pick. But, realistically...Brosnan had one really good Bond movie (GoldenEye) and a decent one (Die Another Day). I wasn't impressed with either "Tomorrow Never Dies" or "The World Is Not Enough". Plus...Brosnan's Bond was almost upstaged by two of his "Bond Girls" in two of these movies (Michelle Yeoh in "Tomorrow Never Dies" and Halle Berry in "Die Another Day"). NOBODY is supposed to upstage Bond.
2 - Daniel Craig. Craig has one thing working to his advantage - This is more or less a prequel to the Bond series. He also adds a blunt, gritty edge to Bond...less humor and more of a "kick butt now and take names later" approach. He is doing another Bond movie...and it will be interesting to see what they do with it.
1 - Sean Connery. Connery's main advantage is a simple one - He was the first person to play Bond. That automatically makes you the measuring stick for the franchise. Plus, some of the best films of the Bond series came during Connery's tenure as 007 (Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice immediately come to mind). Granted, Connery wasn't immune to a stinker (two, actually...Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again). It is interesting to note that the two weakest Connery Bond movies were also the last two (and remember...there were four years between "You Only Live Twice" and "Diamonds Are Forever"). Also consider...Roger Moore had played Bond five times when Connery did "Never Say Never Again" (Connery was in his early fifties when he donned the tuxedo one last time).
So there you have it...my two cents on James Bond.