Calvin Dyson - What a Wally he is

John from Cork

He prefers Diamonds are forever and The man with the golden gun to Dr and from Russia with love.

Barbel

I take it you mean Dr No?

Calvin is, like any of us, perfectly entitled to his opinions. He is prepared to back them up with his reasons for holding such opinions in his long series of videos.

If you disagree with him, there's a way to make that known by commenting on his videos which has the bonus that he is more likely to read it himself and possibly reply than a comment here.

I've corresponded with him and he's happy to discuss things.

Number24

But I did learn the word "Wally" from your post, so I found it really helpful. 😊

Napoleon Plural

We used to have a Favourites item on this website in the days when it was great. It was surprising to learn what some members preferred over others... someone rated Casino Royale 67 over Dr No, for instance, or really hated For Your Eyes Only.

Calvin Dyson is a great laugh, I caught his videos about a decade ago but he updated them. His review of Never Say Never Again - the recent review - is easily better than the film itself.

Golrush007

DAF and TMWTGG are both in my bottom 3 Bond films, and DN and FRWL are up at the top, so certainly I'm not on the same page as Calvin in that respect. But on the other hand I often agree with his opinions on other matters, and most importantly I really enjoy his videos on Youtube. I remember when he first started out, and to begin with his stuff wasn't always to my taste, but it's been fun to watch him mature and I think for at least the last 10 years he has been putting out really great Youtube videos. He's definitely the Bond Youtuber I return to most often.

chrisno1

I have watched a few of Calvin's You Tube presentations. He has to grow on you. I find him mostly annoying and full of pedestrian ideas - then he'll hit you with a goblet of genius and you nod sagely. I disagree with almost everything he says. I have the impression he's quite fluid and, if challenged, would explain his POV and accept other's. He's very committed to the OO7 cause, I'll give him that.

MI6_Headquarters

I actually liked the guy.....

Bond Fandom has diverse opinions.

Number24

I've been a a fan of his videos for years. At the start Calvin disliked Dalton I wasn't a big fan of Moore, but we've both moderated ourselves. He seems positive and enthusiastic, and I like his style.

Higgins

How can you not like Calvin?

Shady Tree

It's been a while since I've watched his videos but I've found them fun and entertaining.

I've often felt I'm on the same page.

SeanIsTheOnlyOne

His reviews are delightful to watch. Do I often agree with him ? No (I love Dalton as Bond...). But his various rankings are relevant considering his tastes. You can quickly notice he doesn't really enjoy the few genuine spy thrillers of the series, while I believe FRWL, FYEO and TLD are masterpieces. He seems to be more comfortable with the fun, the humor and the craziness of some actors/plots/films/novels.

I'm not sure he'll appreciate the last Horowitz as much as I did...

John from Cork

He finds it strange that Blofeld has an American accent in OHMSS but doesn't find it strange that Blofeld has a posh English accent in DAF🤷‍♂️

HalfMonk HalfHitman

Calvin's great. His rankings are chaotic as hell, but Bond fandom isn't a monolith.

Napoleon Plural

On the back of this thread, I remembered to watch his review of No Time To Die.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOK6A5JcsU4

Hate the film, love Calvin's review - though he does still like Craig's swan song a lot more than me! Two hours, though! It rattles by.

Napoleon Plural

Though it's not a good idea to watch it before turning in, or you'll have Calvin and his Bond-themed flat featuring in your dreams...

Silhouette Man

Calvin Dyson - Where's [the] Wally? 😉

I personally think that Calvin's great* and it would be a dull fandom if we all liked the same things in Bond, wouldn't it? Variety is the spice of life and all that jazz! It was nice to see him review the Bond novels more recently too and even move on to continuation Bonds. He clearly enjoys Never Send Flowers as much as I do (I think he even cited it as his favourite Bond novel from Gardner). It's certainly the most Gardneresque of his Bond novels and features many of the tropes and the wonderfully bizarre characters Gardner has been perfecting since his Boysie Oakes days.

* Plus we share the same birthday (which is nice) albeit he's five years younger than me. 🙂

Number24

I agree. I watch is videos (perhaps not the video games ones) and enjoy them a lot.

MooseWithFleas

Calvin is a legend.

Have been watching him since he began the channel and admire such longevity of providing quality Bond commentary.

He is clearly extremely passionate about Bond and never claims his opinions as fact. It would be quite boring if we all operated from the same 'objective' list of rankings and perspectives. Very dedicated and humble individual, who's Bond content keeps me engaged in the brand during this period of inactivity. Hope he continues to churn out the great content.

Also selifshly love that we both have Moonraker in our top 2 :)

hehadlotsofguts

I think Calvin has grown a lot as a Bond youtuber over the years. His early years was just him ranting and swearing at things he didn't like about the films. That style was popular at the time. He's a lot more constructive now.

CoolHandBond

Having seen the name crop up on this site many times I tuned into one of his YouTube videos a few months ago, he was joined by someone else on that one. Suffice to say I was unimpressed by all the hype and I’ve never bothered to search out any more.

But the statement was that Calvin Dyson is a wally. Anyone who can build a successful YouTube channel cannot be considered a wally. Anyone can either like him or dislike him, his opinions have no more or less importance than anyone else who has a point of view. But, at least he’s gone out there and done something. He’s not my cup of tea, but he’s certainly no wally.

emtiem

I struggle a little with his delivery, he’s one of those who speaks as if he’s trying to find the next word and yet it’s clearly all pre-written, so the artifice isn’t something which is to my taste.

I also have watched a couple of his ranking videos on various things and we disagree on a lot; nothing wrong with that, I’m not going to say he’s wrong or anything as it’s all a matter of taste, but it makes the vids less appealing to me.

Good luck to him though, he seems a very affable chap and he’s built a successful channel through being intelligent and thoughtful.

hehadlotsofguts

I do enjoy his collabs with David Zaritsky. They've recently had a debate about TWINE.

IcePak

I love Calvin's videos.

I can see why he likes DAF, but it's a film that's bottom of the official barrel to me. But, as my recent rewatch of Everything or Nothing proved, it was a necessary film given Lazenby had left Harry and Cubby in the lurch and they needed to reestablish the franchise before moving on with a new actor.