Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

We wrap up our spooky season of horror movies starring iconic Bond women with Halle Berry in the psychological supernatural thriller Gothika.

Enter the Theater of Blood for a camp horror classic starring Dame Diana Rigg and Dame Vincent Price!

For October we're checking in with three horror movies starring iconic Bond women, starting with the Famke Janssen 1989 action horror Deep Rising!

Timothy Dalton dons the bow tie for a confusing dip into the 80s, and Shane and Andrew offer an in-depth critical reappraisal of Necros the henchman.

Our attention turns to the work of John Le Carre in the 60s spy classic starring Richard Burton!

A special bonus episode looking at the Bond-themed runways in the third episode of the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars!

Shane and Andrew check out the last Bond novel completed by creator Ian Fleming and ask the key questions: Could Christopher Lee have played Paco 'Pistols' Scaramanga? And which Mary Goodnight is better, the book or the movie?

Akiko Wakabayashi played a thankless role in You Only Live Twice, but she gets to shine in Toho's 1964 kaiju classic Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster. Shane and Andrew wade into the monster mash to check out the most spy-adjacent kaiju movie!

Alfred Hitchock's take on Scottish writer John Buchan's adventure hero Richard Hannay serves as a prototype of sorts for the movie version of Bond. Shane and Andrew offer their best Mae West impressions (it sort of makes sense in context) as they climb the 39 Steps.

Roger Moore's second outing as Bond is Ian Fleming's last novel starring the super spy. It's a party in the South China Seas with Christopher Lee, Herve Villechaise, Britt Eklund, and you!

For the annual Pride episode, Shane and Andrew revisit one of Daniel Craig's trashiest movies, the 2003 Angelina Jolie action movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider!

Shane and Andrew dive deep into the last Bond novel completed in Ian Fleming's lifetime, You Only Live Twice.

Content warning: This episode contains mention of suicide and racism.

And Shane wept, for there were no more Austin Powers movies to cover. For his birthday episode this year, Shane made Andrew watch the James Bond homage episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; "Our Man Bashir."

James Bond heads to Japan in the movie that introduced the West to ninjas -- and perpetuated the awful tradition of yellowface.

Shane and Andrew check out The Ipcress File, the first of the "anti-Bond" spy movies, starring Michael Caine as Harry Palmer.

Shane and Andrew check out four episodes from the fourth season of 60s action comedy series The Avengers, starring Bond veterans Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee.

Shane and Andrew fan-cast new movie adaptations of three more Ian Fleming Bond novels; Thunderball, The Spy Who Loved Me, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

George Lazenby is back, back, back, albeit very briefly, in this wild and trashy 80s Bond-inspired spy thriller starring John Stamos, Vanity, and Gene Simmons.

He might never be Bond, but Henry Cavill gets to play a very Bond-adjacent character in the 2024 box office bomb Argylle. Shane and Andrew share their thoughts on this very strange confection for better (Catherine O'Hara) and worse (The Beatles?).

Shane and Andrew explore the novel version of On Her Majesty's Secret Service -- and talk Traitors!

With the announcement of a new James Bond actor expected to take place in 2024, Shane and Andrew count down their list of their favorite contenders for the role.

Shane and Andrew celebrate the holidays with everyone's favourite Christmas movie, 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. George Lazenby's only outing as Bond is a very different type of Bond movie and one of the franchise's most stylish, but is Lazenby as bad as he's reputed to be?

Also in this episode, our hosts discuss 007 Road to a Million on Prime, and review Bowmore's Aston Martin whisky!

Shane and Andrew revisit the classic (?), iconic (?), feminist (!?) action movie Charlie's Angels, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang takes a Halloween horror detour with 1986 camp classic Vamp, starring one of our favourite Bond women, Grace Jones!

Angelina Jolie almost had her own spy franchise with Salt, a movie and role that nearly went to Tom Cruise. What went wrong?

Shane and Andrew unpack the many problems in Ian Fleming's least popular Bond novel and find themselves staring at the thesis at the heart of this whole podcast.

DVD board games were a thing in the early 2000s. Andrew and Shane unbox a 2004 "007 Edition" of the movie trivia board game Scene It and go head-to-head to test their James Bond knowledge!

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang returns with a tale of billionaires, submarines, and hubris. It's the 1977 Roger Moore classic The Spy Who Loved Me!

Pride Month is here and it's time for another camp classic with a Bond leading man! This time it's Pierce Brosnan's turn to humiliate himself as he honks his way through the ABBA jukebox musical Mamma Mia!

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang rounds out its coverage of the Austin Powers trilogy -- and its spy spoof season -- with 2002's Goldmember, the movie that made Spectre a joke several years before Spectre was even written.

Spy spoof movie season continues on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with Leslie Nielsen's Spy Hard. It's a dumb movie, but is it somehow better than Johnny English, the dumb movie from the actual Bond movie writers?

Spy spoof season continues with Rowan Atkinson's Bond parody -- from the actual writers of the Bond movies. Treason!

We're kicking off our countdown to the last Austin Powers movie by checking out some other classic spy spoofs from the 90s and beyond, starting with 2015's Paul Fiege comedy Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy.

It's the movie that almost killed the Bond franchise, but how does it hold up today? Shane and Andrew revisit the final Brosnan Bond movie Die Another Day to reappraise Halle Berry's Jinx, the campy villains Graves and Frost, and thatMadonna theme.

Shane and Andrew provide live commentary as their gaymer friends Jomar and Levi play the re-released GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo Switch. It was a game that revolutionized the first person shooter, but how does it hold up today, and how closely does it evoke the GoldenEye movie and the world of Bond?

We've watched the movies based on the novel, now it's time for the novel based on the screenplay, Ian Fleming (and friends') 1961 novel Thunderball, perhaps the horniest of the Bond novels.

Shane and Andrew dive deep into one of the weirdest Bond pastiches ever made, the 1960s Italian spy comedy OK Connery, starring Sean Connery's brother Neil Connery as hypnotist plastic surgeon Dr Neil Connery--and co-starring a whole host of Bond movie performers!

Thunderball is such a classic, Sean Connery made it twice. It didn't work out so great the second time. Shane and Andrew explore the strange story of Never Say Never Again, the unofficial Bond movie that almost created a new franchise.

We're back for a new year with an all-time classic, the 1965 Sean Connery movie Thunderball. We hit the highs (Fiona Volpe) the lows (James Bond's spa break) and the Junkanoo too!

Roger Moore is The Chief in the iconic classic of British cinema, Spice World. Is it a Bond movie? Probably not. Is it a good movie? Possibly not. Is it an amazing experience and well worth your time? Listen and find out!

Shane and Andrew count down their picks of the best outfits and fashions in Bond movie history. Suits, swimsuits, beautiful gowns, it's all here -- and inevitably, they disagree enormously and somehow come together in the end.

Henry Cavill may never be Bond -- but maybe he's played the part already, or pretty close to it. Shane and Andrew check out the once-and-future Superman's 60s spy thriller The Man from UNCLE(co-starring aspiring celebrity cannibal Armie Hammer), with Cavill in the very Bond-esque role of Ian Fleming's Napoleon Solo.

For the milestone 50th edition of the queer James Bond podcast, Shane and Andrew revisit Daniel Craig's troubled sophomore effort as Bond, Quantum of Solace. All these years later, will it go down as smooth as a glass of cold water or will they choke on its nonsense like they're guzzling crude?

Bond actors Sean Connery and Ralph Fiennes star in one of the most derided movies ever made, 1998's movie adaptation of the cult British spy series The Avengers. The movie is widely regarded as a disaster, and Shane and Andrew are here to confirm that, yes, it is truly terrible. Listener discretion is advised.

Shane and Andrew make their dream cast suggestions for modern Casino Royale-style adaptations of the novels Dr. No and Goldfinger and the short story collection For Your Eyes Only, and pick a new frontrunner for the role of James Bond!

To mark the official 60th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, we review and recap "Bond Night" on the celebrity dance show Dancing with the Stars on Disney+!

#jamesbond #dwts #dancingwiththestars #bondnight #007 

The last Roger Moore Bond movie (and the last Lois Maxwell Bond movie) gets the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang whiplash treatment as Shane and Andrew try to decide if they love or hate this movie. One thing is for sure; Grace Jones as May Day reigns supreme.

Shane and Andrew review the short stories From A View To A Kill, For Your Eyes Only, Quantum of Solace, Risico, and the Hildrebrandt Rarity and discover a journey deep into Ian Fleming's evolving psyche and some incredible underrated Bond women!

Did Michael Mann make a secret Bond movie with the 1996 action extravaganza The Rock, starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage? We investigate this popular fan theory, offer our assessment, and make a shocking discovery: Is No Time To Die a Stanley Goodspeed movie?

Shane and Andrew count down their favourite Bond gadgets and cars from across the 25 official Eon movies -- and once again manage to disagree extensively, but never about Goldfinger.

Bond enters the 80s, and it's both everything you feared it could be and also strangely muted after the excess of Moonraker! Shane and Andrew talk stunts, scuba, Topol, and the horrors of Bibi Dahl.

Shane and Andrew break down the Bond novel Goldfinger to see how it compares to the iconic movie. 

For Pride Month we catch up with one of the campest, queerest movies to ever star a James Bond -- 1980's Flash Gordon, starring Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin. It's a sumptuous, ridiculous movie full of glamour, action, and s-e-x.

Michelle Yeoh steals the show and Jonathan Pryce devours the furniture in a late 90s tale of media manipulation, Tomorrow Never Dies. It's one of Shane's favourites. It's one of Andrew's... not favourites. Hit play to pump us for more information.

Our annual dip into the Austin Powers canon continues with the time travel shenanigans of The Spy Who Shagged Me. Pour yourself a warm cup of coffee and settle in.

The greatest song, the greatest style, the greatest henchperson, the greatest Bond woman, the greatest Bond? Shane and Andrew revisit the iconic movie Goldfinger to see if it holds up to its reputation for greatness -- and its reputation for being extremely problematic.

He's the man who almost destroyed James Bond -- and maybe created the roadmap for Bond's reinvention. Shane and Andrew revisit 2002's The Bourne Identity to complain about baggy sweaters, appreciate Matt Damon's twunkishness, and explain how the Bourne movies tie into Zoolander.

Shane and Andrew continue their rundown of Fleming's original novels with Dr. No, the book that became the first Bond movie! There's a centipede, a squid, some crabs, a lot of talk about roseate spoonbills, and a GOSHDARN DRAGON!

How big is Big? Is King our queen? Will we say yes to No? What is the importance of being Ernst?  Join Shane and Andrew as they rate the Bond movie bad guys from worst to best... at being worst.

Shane and Andrew turn their attention to the 1986 Penny Marshall spy comedy Jumpin' Jack Flash, starring Whoopi Goldberg and featuring fleeting cameos by just about every 80s TV comedian. It's a gas gas gas.

Ten years on from the release of the middle child of Craig Bond movies, we look back on Skyfall to see how it holds up, from Academy Award-winning song to dodgy CGI komodos. 

Tamara Dobson returns as Cleopatra Jones in a Blaxploitation spy movie that takes the drugs-busting action to Hong Kong. There are pleasant surprises in store, and some incredible fashions, but the villain is just as problematic as last time!

Continuing the series of dream-casting episodes, Shane and Andrew reveal who they would cast in new adaptations of Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia With Love, taking their lead from the novels but adding some fresh twists!

The second Bond movie is based on the fifth Bond novel, and it's a fairly close adaptation -- but there are areas where the book and the movie diverge. Are they for better or for worse, and are there strengths and flaws that crop up in both? Shane and Andrew continue their review of the books in publication order with the very homoerotic adventures of Shems and Grant.

We're heading back to the 90s for the first Pierce Brosnan Bond movie, GoldenEye, which gave the world the iconic Famke Janssen turn as Xenia, the underappreciated Izabella Scorupco role as Natalya, and the wildly unexpected Minnie Driver as Irina!

Brace yourselves. Shane and Andrew watch the 1967 James Bond comedy Casino Royale, starring David Niven, Ursula Andress, and, theoretically, Peter Sellers. It's an absolute mess, but is it an entertaining, glamorous, queer mess? Listen and find out.

Warning: This episode contains Woody Allen.

To mark 25 years since the release of one of the best Bond parodies of all time, Shane and Andrew pop into Springfield (and Cypress Creek) for a date with Hank Scorpio in the classic Simpsons episode 'You Only Move Twice'.

Following on from our "first reactions" episode, we dive deep into No Time To Die with a full plot breakdown and our highlights, lowlights, and final rating! This episode contains spoilers, obviously! 

For the first time in six years there's a new James Bond movie in theaters! Shane and Andrew went to a late night showing of No Time To Die and are ready to share all their initial reactions. Does it redeem Spectre?Is it a fitting farewell for Daniel Craig? And what were the standout scenes?

If you haven't seen the movie, you can jump out before the spoilers! We'll have our full ratings and review of No Time To Die in a couple of weeks' time!

With No Time To Die just around the corner, Shane and Andrew revisit its immediate predecessor in the Daniel Craig Bond canon, 2015's Spectre. Warning: This episode contains a lot of exasperated sighing.

To Russia, with love. This week, Shane and Andrew check in on the movie adventures of another super-spy, the Marvel Cinematic Universe's own Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson. WARNING! This episode contains full spoilers for the movie! Do not listen if you don't want to be spoiled!

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is back with our breakdown of the second ever Bond movie, From Russia With Love, featuring two iconic queer villains, the glamour of Istanbul, and the wonderfully eccentric Kerim Bey!

In a better world, we might have five decades of great Cleopatra Jones movies to look back on featuring a succession of amazing leading ladies! In this world, we have only two movies to enjoy, and we're going to treasure them both! 

On this episode we unpack the style, action, wit and politics of this Bond-inspired Blaxploitation classic starring the stunning Tamara Dobson!

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang makes its first visit to the 80s with the second Dalton Bond, Licence to Kill, a movie that in many ways marks the end of an era for the franchise. But is it a good movie? Is it a bad Bond movie? Is Talisa Soto underrated? And just how hot is baby Benicio Del Toro? Shane and Andrew will (attempt to) answer all these questions!

Diamonds are still forever as we break down the action in Ian Fleming’s fourth James Bond novel, meet the original Tiffany Case and Wint & Kidd, and see how Diamonds Are Forevercompares to the movie for action, glamour, and queerness.

The gun is good. The penis is evil.

For our second Pride Month episode, we take a look at one of Sean Connery's weirdest, queerest, and campest movies, John Boorman's 1974 cult classic Zardoz. 

It's Pride Month, so Shane and Andrew take on the Bond movie that they believe is the campest and queerest ever made, Diamonds Are Forever! Is this divisive movie the embarrassment some fans say it is, or do its many excesses actually provide its charms? Andrew makes the case for Tiffany Case, Shane unpacks the horrors of Zambora, and together they appraise the movie's iconic villanous duos: Wint and Kidd, Bambi and Thumper, and Blofeld and Blofeld.

Remember to rate and review Kiss Kiss Bang Bang on your preferred podcast platform or you'll never be friends with Ava Gardner.

The Roger Moore version of Moonraker bears little resemblance to the novel. If we were making a more faithful adaptation today -- and introducing Gala Brand to the screen -- who would we cast and how would we change the story? Shane and Andrew break it all down!

Shane and Andrew unpack Ian Fleming's third James Bond novel, Moonraker -- a book that bears almost no resemblance to the movie that shares its name! They discuss what makes Gala Brand a great Bond woman, the strengths and flaws of Hugo Drax's plans, and whether or not England can be glamorous! 

The queer James Bond podcast takes on one of the other famous British movie spies, Austin Powers, in Mike Myers' loving pastiche of Bond. Shane and Andrew have very different relationships with this movie, but can they find some common ground around the performances of Elizabeth Hurley, Mimi Rogers, and Mindy Sterling, and their crushes on Seth Green? 

Shane and Andrew skydive deep into the fourth Roger Moore Bond movie, Moonraker, featuring space lasers, orchids, and the return of Jaws! It's a movie with some surprising queer moments, some unsurprising heteronormativity, and something called a "chicken switch". Listen along and tell your friends!

Shane and Andrew count down their favourite Bond henchpeople! The wicked sidekicks, the gimmicky assassins, the femme fatales -- they’ve picked out the very best of the worst!

In this special bonus episode, Shane and Andrew cast a contemporary film adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel Live And Let Die, in the style of the 2006 movie Casino Royale.

For this special April 1st episode we’re discussing a classic British movie inspired by the works of Ian Fleming, featuring a handsome leading man, a famously wicked villain, a suggestively named leading lady, and some truly impressive gadgets.

Produced by Cubby Broccoli for United Artists and filmed at Pinewood Studios, the movie is, of course, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, starring Dick Van Dyke as Caractacus Potts and Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious! It's a little bit James Bond, a little bit Mary Poppins, but how does it rate on our 007 scale and how queer, how glamorous, and how problematic is it?

After unpacking all the problems in the movie version of Live And Let Die, Shane and Andrew dig into the source material and find that Ian Fleming's novel is just as problematic -- sometimes in the same way, and sometimes in completely new ways! It's a bumpy ride.

The women of James Bond are a vital presence in the movies and iconic figures in the history of cinema. Despite the frequently sexist way these characters are presented, they've inspired audiences through memorable performances, compelling stories, and trendsetting style. For this episode, Shane and Andrew count down their favourite Bond women from the Eon movies. They also discuss the Roald Dahl rules for writing Bond women; the "curse" of Bond women; and their high hopes for future of women in Bond movies.

Voodoo, heroin, jazz, Yaphet Kotto in a latex mask -- this place has everything! However, Roger Moore's debut entry into the Bond canon is also one of the series' most problematic movies. Join Shane and Andrew as they unpack everything wrong with Live And Let Die!

Shane and Andrew revisit the very first Bond movie, Dr. No, starring Sean Connery and Ursula Andress. It's a movie that established a lot of what we love about the franchise -- but it also set up a lot of the elements we've come to dread. Join us as we discuss the women, the interiors, the fashion, and the death traps, and answer the all important question, how queer is this movie?

With Daniel Craig's final Bond movie in the can (and hopefully getting a release this year), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang looks at the contenders to take over the role of 007 -- and the ways the James Bond franchise might evolve in a changing media landscape.

Shane and Andrew go back to where it all began -- Ian Fleming’s 1953 novelCasino Royale. How does the very first James Bond story hold up? Is Fleming’s hero still recognizable to us today? How does the book compare to the 2006 Daniel Craig film? They explore it all, including the book’s many problematic elements.

Christmas comes but once a year, so what better time to revisit the only Bond movie with Christmas in a starring role? Shane and Andrew revisit The World is Not Enough, starring Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones!

How do the stunt scenes hold up, does Richards deserve her reputation, who is the real villain of the movie, and just how queer is it? We answer all these questions and more!

As required by podcast law, every James Bond podcast must include an episode where the hosts rank all the Bond songs, and we could not be more excited to do so! However, there are some strenuous disagreements along the way. Will there still BE a podcast by the end of this episode?

To mark the upcoming release of the final Daniel Craig Bond movie, Shane and Andrew go back to the first Craig Bond movie, the modern day classic Casino Royale. The performances, the action, the rampant homoeroticism -- they dive into it all! Does this movie deserve its reputation as one of the greatest Bond movies, and what are its queerest and most glamorous moments?

Villains in drag! Beefcake in swimwear! The flirtatious frisson between nemesis and spy! Shane and Andrew count down the queerest moments from the Bond movie franchise, and reveal which Bond movie is undeniably the queerest of them all!

Welcome to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the queer James Bond podcast! Shane and Andrew are lifelong Bond fans. They're also gay men. With this podcast, they plan to explore why they're fans of a famously sexist, regressive, colonialist franchise, and how they reconcile their fandom with their own progressive politics! They also dive into the queer elements of James Bond, including the women, the men, the glamour, the fashion, and the underappreciated moments of camp!