James Bond Day

Google+ has a trending topic right now, #007riday.  I guess today is James Bond Day, the 50th anniversary of something... probably the release of the film version of Dr. No?  I guess.  Who cares.


I am going to throw out a question to the internets today.  How old should a kid be before exposing him/her to the James Bond movie series?  I am about 55% sure that my step son, who is nine, will flip with glee over Bond movies.  I think my step daughter, who is 11, will like them too although I am unsure if I want to expose her to a movie hero who is such a blatant sexist.  Let's just say that attitudes toward male/female relationships were very different in 1962, you know?


I often go to commonsensemedia.org with questions like these.  Commonsense says 12-13 years old for the Sean Connery Bond films.  I think that site might sometimes be a tad over-conservative.  I know my step kids have seen much, much more violent movies, and while sex is an undercurrent of all Bond movies, it is not blatantly depicted, even in the more recent films.  Sean Connery kisses and flirts with every woman he sees, but you never actually see Bond getting down to business, as it were.  I think the most overtly sexual aspect of any of the films is just the name Pussy Galore from Goldfinger.  


I freakin' love Bond movies.  I love them all, even the crappy ones are fun for me.  I want to share them with the kids, especially the Connery films... I don't want their first exposure to be Roger Moore like mine was.  It's amazing that I became a big fan when the first one I saw was Octopussy.  


So what do you think, internets?  Are the kids too young for Bond?  Remember, I'm just talking about Connery Bond here.  The Moore movies are, for the most part, too silly.  Dalton and Brosnan are both okay, but Craig is just too violent.  Lazenby... if Connery had played Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" it would have been the best movie ever.  As it is... it's not bad.  Tell me what you think.