Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 95%
The first Bond film, 1962’s Dr. No, remains a high bar that the series rarely crosses.
Without the success of “Dr. No,” released 64 years ago, we wouldn’t have seen 26 more films about the most suave spy on this side of the Atlantic.
But “Dr. No” was The success was largely due to Connery’s iconic portrayal of the character.
Does the plot, in which Bond teams up with a Jamaican shell diver named Honey Ryder (played by the first-ever Bond girl Ursula Andress) to take down a mad scientist named Dr. Julius No who is determined to stop a rocket launch with a radio beam, make the most sense? No, but we love it anyway.
“[The] Ian Fleming’s Secret Service Agent 007 James Bond’s first screen adventure is a fun, tongue-in-cheek action romp as the tough, fearless, poised, girl-loving Secret Service agent 007,” writes Variety.