"I certainly understand why people say this, but I respectfully disagree. It's not so much that I think it's "good," but it does have assets that I think are overlooked by casually-thought-out criticism. Said assets aren't sufficient to catapult it to a top spot, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for DAD.

I find the "Bond Formula" irritating after awhile. The first half of DAD broke out of this on a massive scale. I think it was a ballsy move, but you can mess up a ballsy move. They didn't. It was well done all 'round.

I really like it when Bond is betrayed by an ally. Yes, it wasn't an award-winning mystery, the signs were all there and so forth. But good guys turning bad makes the installment interesting. It hasn't been done often enough. And as I've noted elsewhere, she is really, really hot.

I liked the way Bond dealt with that tired old Reuter's line about terrorists and freedom fighters.

I liked the sword fight. I really liked it.

MIND you, I'm not arguing that DAD deserves a spot in the top five or anything like that...I'm simply arguing it should be lifted out of the sewer. It has a lot of things that make Bond movies good, and it's missing a lot of things that make Bond movies bad."