If Brosnan's Bond had been played more like his Remington Steele, he'd have been far better. And the same goes with Timothy Dalton...a potentially great Bond who was similarly wasted (favorite Dalton role to date was in The Rocketeer). I blame the directors. Books be damned...I want the debonair charming, one-liner-spouting, twinkle-in-the-eye interpretation back, dammit! This dour, pole-up-the-ass, glowering version we've been getting far too much of for the past twenty some-odd years is really old.
Oh, and the "From Russia with Love" background is awesome.