How can you tell I'm trying to avoid the huge piles of reading and work that are beginning to build up (besides blogging)? My movie watching is back on track.

My friend Meghann had never seen a James Bond movie! I was shocked, so I made sure her first exposure was a good one with the only real Bond: Sean Connery. We watched From Russia With Love, which was the second film in the Bond series - to put it in perspective, the most recent film (Die Another Day) is number twenty. In this case, the plot involves an elaborate ruse by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to gain a decoding machine, Lektor, from the Russians by involving 007 and a female Russian agent, Tatiana Romanova. Bond engages in plenty of womanizing in this one, including a pair of catfighting gypsies. Robert Shaw (Jaws, A Man For All Seasons) plays the deadly S.P.E.C.T.R.E. agent who's trained to elmininate Bond. Shaw is a great film actor, and it's great to see him in this early role. What's most engaging about this film, however, is Connery's performance. He owns this movie portraying Bond as he was meant to be. Witty, strikingly debonair and yet rough enough that one believes he can hold his own in a fight. Connery embodies Bond in a way that none of his forebearers have been able to do. Hence, over 40 years later he still owns the character in a way few actors have done.

Here's looking forward to the upcoming From Russia With Love video game, for which Sean Connery voiced new dialogue and lent his (young) likeness to the on screen character. Ever since Goldeneye (N64) - which I credit for making me a 007 fan - none of the other Bond games have even come close. Here's hoping that Russia changes that.