I never really liked any Bond movies either, until Casino Royale and now Skyfall. The thing about those two movies is that they fairly explicitly acknowledge Bond to be a terrible person, who knows he is a terrible person, and who works for the British Government (or, more specifically, M, who seems to have his trust and personal loyalty) because he does not know how to stop being a terrible person, so he might as well be terrible in the name of a good cause. That's not a hero I admire, really, but it is a character I can appreciate.