Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (1975)

The trilogy of A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1967), and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving are probably the most famous of the Peanuts specials and, thus, ensured the series's longevity, just as The Curse of Frankenstein(1957), Horror of Dracula(1958), and The Mummy (1959) ensured the longevity of Hammer films or Dr. No (1962), From Russia With Love (1963), and Goldfinger (1964) ensured the longevity of the James Bond films. Happily, in the case of all three series, there were still other great entires, as well. This is one memorable Peanuts entry for me. To quickly summarize, Charlie Brown is expecting a lot of Valentines this season, while Linus hopes to win the heart of his teacher, Miss Othmar and Sally thinks Linus's gift for Miss Othmar is really for her. Of course, all three end up heartbroken, although I was especially sad for Charlie Brown as both Linus and Sally presumably got Valentines from their classmates. I was prepared to cry until the unexpectedly hilarious ending in which Violet makes amends for not giving Charlie Brown a Valentine by giving him one of hers. What makes this funny is Schroeder sticking up for Charlie Brown with an impassioned speech-only for Charlie Brown to basically tell him to let bygones be bygones as he happily accepts Violet's Valentine. So, it's not surprising that this is another classic in the Peanuts canon.

From Russia With Love (2005)

I've made no secret of my dislike of Never Say Never Again (1983), Sir Sean Connery's final film as James Bond. The main reason I dislike it is because it is basically a remake of a Bond film Sir Sean already did better-Thunderball (1965). Happily, 2005 saw the release of a video game for PS2 and GameCube which proved a much better Bond swan song for the actor.

From Russia With Love, Sir Sean's 2nd Bond film and his personal favorite, captures the spirit of what made the book and movie so great into a wonderful game in which you are playing Sir Sean's Bond. Having Connery return to provide the voice & likeness of Bond was the icing on the cake. The game takes some liberties with the film. For instance, Robert Shaw's Grant has a bigger role. Due to copyright issues, SPECTRE is replaced with a new terrorist organization called OCTOPUS in the game. Some parts of the film have been wisely cut out. For instance, it was wise not to recreate the moment in which Bond angrily lashes out at Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) for her possible role in the death of his friend Kerim Bey (Pedro Armendariz).

Elements of later Bond films are also incorporated, such as Bond's Aston Martin, which he would get in Goldfinger (1964) and the jet pack which he usse in Thunderball. There are also newer characters, such as Grant's right hand Eva, voiced by Maria Menounos.

She and the rest of the voice cast do a nice job, which was somewhat unavoidable as Sir Sean was one of the few actors from the film who was still with us in 2005. Also unlike Never Say Never, the game was put out by the Broccoli empire, which makes it even more enjoyable. Hence, Sir Sean's true Bond finale is a nice one because it gives you the chance to play him!