My mother was British, so I read all of Fleming's stuff as a kid before the first movie was made. (I was also a fan of The Saint before the TV series.) I had a toy Aston Martin that would likely be worth big $$$ today. The turn-signal guns worked, you ejected a passenger through the roof, it had 3 different license plates that cycled through when you pulled up & down on the antenna. Probably other stuff that I forget. Regarding the real Aston Martin...I did not watch the entire video. I put those same silver bullet side view mirrors on my Bugeye (thank you, J.C. Whitney.) I just can't imagine driving any British car. Every time I saw Bond go through a rain puddle I tensed up, waiting for his car to die. But seriously, is the DB5 known for its performance? It is "Ferrari-like" or more "Rolls sedan-like"?
Which Bond was it who plummeted from a cliff in some sort of car, and clambered back over the trunk to get out a parachute, just in the nick of time? Is that even a real memory, or am I just making stuff up?
When Goldfinger was released in 1964, I watched it at Fort Knox, while in the midst of basic training. It was a surreal moment for sure! Sean Connery will always be James Bond, to me....the others, just part of the franchise. I found the earlier movies more entertaining, before they became predictable re-hashes.
You only live twice is my absolute favourite. The Daniel Craig movies are too hard to figure out for me