The Conjuring: Last Rites Turns the Horror Franchise into a Schmaltzy Soap Opera

This post contains full spoilers for The Conjuring: Last RiTES. It all ends with a wedding. In the final moments of The Conjuring: Last Rites, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) dance together at the wedding of their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) and new son-in-law Tony (Ben Hardy), surrounded by […]

The post The Conjuring: Last Rites Turns the Horror Franchise into a Schmaltzy Soap Opera appeared first on Den of Geek.

Only six actors have officially played British secret agent James Bond over the course of 63 years (with apologies to non-canon outliers David Niven and Barry Nelson), and as the world awaits the announcement of the seventh thespian who will don the famous tux, the debate over that person’s status and identity has begun anew: Should 007 be played by an established star, a complete unknown, or someone in between?

Bond has been essayed by all three types over the course of his screen career, and some of the best 007s have been those thought least likely to succeed. As the long-running franchise approaches perhaps its most consequential reboot yet, rumors suggest that young stars like Tom Holland, Jacob Elordi, and Harris Dickinson are on new Bond owner Amazon’s wish list for the role, while old rumor mill standbys like Henry Cavill and Aaron Taylor-Johnson lurk around the edges as well. Other reports suggest that director Denis Villeneuve recently tested an obscure British actor named Scott Rose-Marsh for the part, indicating that he may want to mold a completely unfamiliar face into the next iteration of 007.

Whoever makes the final cut, there’s no question that becoming James Bond changes an actor’s life for all time, as the role almost automatically catapults that person into a stardom they’ve never quite experienced. But what happens after that? How have the half-dozen Bonds we’ve already seen fared once their time in the tuxedo and Aston Martin was over? Based on the evidence below, it’s inconclusive whether playing James Bond becomes a perennial shadow over an actor’s career or a doorway to greater glory.

Sean Connery

The first (and still the best) actor to play James Bond on the big screen, Scotland’s Sean Connery wasn’t exactly a household name when he landed the role of 007, but the rugged charismatic Scot achieved that status with Bond and then some. The role turned Connery into an international superstar and sex symbol, creating a frenzy akin to the same decade’s Beatlemania. It wasn’t a surprise that he tired of it all, however, leaving the series after five films—although he played Bond again in 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, and a final time in 1983’s non-canonical Never Say Never Again.

Connery’s career during the 1970s and early ‘80s was hardly a bust, even if it turned out to be somewhat uneven. He worked several times with legendary director Sidney Lumet in now-forgotten yet underrated films like The Anderson Tapes and The Offence, while also starring in period epics such as The Wind and the Lion, The Man Who Would Be King, and A Bridge Too Far. Then there were his sci-fi and fantasy outings, including the bizarre Zardoz, Peter Hyams’ underseen space Western Outland, and Terry Gilliam’s beloved Time Bandits.

Connery’s career got its second wind in 1987 with his Oscar-winning portrayal of Irish cop Jimmy Malone in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables. Becoming an elder statesman, action hero, and (again!) sex symbol, Connery’s later career included blockbusters like The Rock, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Hunt for Red October. Although he left Hollywood in exasperation after making The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in 2003, his status as one of cinema’s “real men” and as the gold standard for James Bond only grew up to and beyond his death in 2020.

George Lazenby

The man who replaced Sean Connery as 007 for just one movie—1969’s initially