Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

IMDb lists the date for this short Bond documentary as 2002, but I must have seen an updated version because QUANTUM OF SOLACE was discussed and Gemma Arterton made an appearance. I'm guessing they reused material from the 2002 version of the documentary and cut out some extraneous material to make way for the new, up to date stuff.In any case, this is a rather dull little effort that offers entirely nothing new other than a few sound bites from various Bond actresses. Judi Dench is the most interesting one, bringing to light some of the gender politics from the series, but others like Halle Berry are very dull to listen to. The clips used are predictable and there's no real meat here to get your teeth into; the other Bond documentary shown alongside this one, EVERYTHING OR NOTHING: THE UNTOLD STORY OF 007, was much more interesting. Plus, I didn't like the way the interview footage was over directed, bizarrely going into split-screen at one point; just let the actresses speak for themselves without these over-the-top theatrics.

This 46-minute look at the history of an essential part of the Bond phenomenon is certainly entertaining and at times even wonderful to watch: along with clips from several Bond movies (accompanied by their own music score), we get interviews from several former Bond girls who are now gracefully aging, intelligent women (Honor Blackman, who was around 75 when this was filmed, looks amazing for her age and still has that characteristic toughness in her voice). Most of them fully embrace their long-standing popularity, but there is one (Maud Adams) who seems to want to cut off most connections to the past. The documentary is also a good reminder of how many strong female characters have been introduced in this series; of course there also have been films like "The Man With The Golden Gun", with one bimbo and one victim, but in total the Bond series is not sexist, even if the Bond character himself is. However, there are too many omissions (among the most important ones: Carole Bouquet is not seen at all, and both "Goldeneye" girls are seen only in clips) for "Bond Girls Are Forever" to qualify as the definitive documentary on the subject. (**1/2)

Originally created for TV's American Movie Classics to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the first James Bond film, "Bond Girls Are Forever" (2002) collected film footage and new interviews with the leading ladies of those first twenty or so Bond films. The short documentary was slightly revamped in 2006 to include information about the film "Casino Royale". The documentary was co-created and is narrated by Maryam D'Abo, who played one of the more helpless and overall useless Bond girls in 1987's "The Living Daylights" opposite Timothy Dalton. She tracks down most of her Bond movie sorority sisters (a comparison made in the film) to discuss the significance in their lives and careers of having appeared in the series. There's certain repetitiveness to her discoveries, however for hardcore Bond fans the opportunity to see these women again is both exhilarating and disappointing, given the overarching mystique and fantasy elements of their presence in their respective films. The feminist criticism of the series and the empowerment of female characters within the past several entries is discussed, however the absence of Grace Jones, Roger Moore's adversary in "A View to a Kill", was felt by this viewer (as well as the other Moore era actresses Carole Bouquet, Barbara Bach, and Tanya Roberts). Though "Bond Girls are Forever" is a far more interesting entry into the Bond legacy than many other shows made about the phenomena there's a shallowness about it that's equivalent to many of the characters several of the women interviewed portrayed.

So I'm watching the 007 marathon on American Movie Classics, and along comes this show called "Bond Girls Are Forever". You can imagine my surprise when these women, who played characters with names like "Pussy Galore", "Dr. Good Head", and "Octopussy" started talking about themselves as if they were paragons of the women's lib movement! Each in turns claims that she was the first to portray a "strong female character" in a Bond film. Then the next claims she was the first, then the next one was the first, etc. Somewhat comical, just for the way they contradict each other.Then, even more unbelievably, Judi Dench (M in the Brosnan era movies) shows up. I don't thing there's a Bond fan on the face of the planet who would ever think of her androgynous, politically correct, repellent and repulsive hag character as a "Bond Girl", yet here she is. She's glad that "those days are over", referring to the days when Bond girls existed. Not especially appropriate for a show called "Bond Girls", but again, there it is.Someone comments that perhaps they should be called "Bond Women", as "girl" is degrading. At least one of the actresses has the good grace to laugh at this notion. Overall, this is a show about beautiful women, made by people who apparently think that beauty has no value, with only advancement of the cause of feminism being regarded as a worthy accomplishment. The sort of humorless, clueless imbeciles who, thankfully, weren't around to ruin the first 30 years of Bond films.