# Grade/Review all the James Bond films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 21, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250 "2017-08-21T03:57:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reddy\_Mercury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@Reddy\_Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reddy_Mercury)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/1 "2017-08-21T03:57:02Z")
Another love of mine is the James Bond films…What is your grade/ranking/review? My ranking: 1. Goldfinger 2. You Only Live Twice 3. Casino Royale 4. Live and Let Die 5. From Russia With Love 6. Diamonds Are Forever 7. The Spy Who Loved Me 8. Goldenye 9. For Your Eyes Only 10. On Her Majesties’ Secret Service 11. Thunderball 12. Dr. No 13. Moonraker 14. The Living Daylights 15. Skyfall 16. Octopussy 17. Quantum of Solace 18. License to Kill 19. The World is Not Enough 20. Spectre 21. Tomorrow Never Dies 22. A View to a Kill 23. The Man With the Golden Gun 24. Die Another Day ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/2 "2017-08-21T05:11:07Z")
Well, here’s mine: 1. Goldfinger 2. From Russia With Love 3. For Your Eyes Only 4. Casino Royale 5. You Only Live Twice 6. Goldenye 7. The Man With the Golden Gun 8. Thunderball 9. License to Kill 10. Diamonds Are Forever 11. Dr. No 12. Live and Let Die 13. The Spy Who Loved Me 14. The Living Daylights 15. On Her Majesties’ Secret Service 16. Skyfall 17. Octopussy 18. Spectre 19. Moonraker 20. The World is Not Enough 21. Tomorrow Never Dies 22. Quantum of Solace 23. Die Another Day 24. A View to a Kill ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/3 "2017-08-21T05:28:55Z")
We’ve [done this before](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=573136), but I don’t mind revisiting the subject. And I will make some changes to my old list. 1. From Russia With Love 2. Goldfinger 3. Casino Royale 4. Thunderball 5. Dr. No 6. GoldenEye 7. For Your Eyes Only 8. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 9. The Spy Who Loved Me 10. Quantum of Solace 11. You Only Live Twice 12. Live and Let Die 13. The Living Daylights 14. Diamonds are Forever 15. Licence to Kill 16. Tomorrow Never Dies 17. The Man With the Golden Gun 18. Skyfall 19. Moonraker 20. The World is Not Enough 21. A View to a Kill 22. Die Another Day 23. Octopussy I’m not sure where I’d put _Spectre_ in that list. I’ve only seen it once; liked it but wasn’t blown away, so maybe insert it at 11, 12, or 13. Ask me again in seven years. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/4 "2017-08-21T05:31:24Z")
How about the original _Casino Royale_ and _Never Say Never Again_? ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/5 "2017-08-21T07:05:15Z")
Having re-seen them all within the last month (except the Craig films, holding off on them until I get all the blu-rays) I have some very strong opinions Great 1. Goldfinger 2. From Russia With Love 3. The Spy Who Loved Me 4. Moonraker 5. Licence To Kill 6. Live And Let Die 7. For Your Eyes Only 8. Dr. No 9. The Living Daylights 10. You Only Live Twice Okay 1. Octopussy 2. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 3. Diamonds Are Forever 4. A View To A Kill Terrible 1. Thunderball 2. The Man With the Golden Gun 3. Goldeneye 4. Tomorrow Never Dies 5. The World Is Not Enough 6. Die Another Day Thoughts upon rewatch 1. The Brosnan films are way worse than I remember, even after last seeing them about 10 years ago. They’re all either incredibly dry and bland or full of “comic” lines that completely fall flat. 90% of Brosnan lines are terrible jokes that don’t land, as opposed to Moore who could at least salvage a groaner with his mannerisms. 2. Connery as always is King, but his latter ones are just good enough and don’t top the heights of some of the other Bonds. I found Thunderball very boring and actually liked Never Say Never Again way better, if I replaced it with Thunderball it would jump four positions. 3. Lazenby I like but Majesty’s Secret Service has serious pacing problems even earlier Connery films don’t suffer from. Cut 30 minutes and you got a really great Bond film but there’s just so much stuff that doesn’t go anywhere. 4. Dalton was way better than I remembered, Living Daylights is a great spy thriller but Licence To Kill is a film I absolutely don’t understand the hate for. It’s not really a Bond film (which is a common criticism I see) but it’s a great action movie in it’s own right. Remove the Bond name from either and you’d have an amazing stand-alone franchise that doesn’t have the baggage of the name. 5. Moore has so many films it’s hard to organize them all. At his best he’s equal to Connery, at his worse he’s basically a very boring Brosnan. Spy Who Loved Me is equal to Goldfinger and From Russia With Love in greatness. I’m the rare person who really enjoys Moonraker, it’s completely stupid but I was never bored watching it and its close connections to SWLM made it much better in my mind. Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only are more serious (if you can call Moore serious) outings that work well with incredible stunts. Octopussy is just on the edge of being great but I thought the were a few weird elements that drag it down (the “storming the base” sequence was really dumb, even for Moore) while A View To A Kill is basically an okay Bond film if you skip the entire first hour which has almost nothing to do with the rest of the plot. The Man With The Golden Gun is a film that’s way too slow for its own good, and even after the big bad gets his comeuppance the film drags on for another 15 minutes. The biggest sin of a Bond movie is being too boring. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/6 "2017-08-21T07:07:12Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > How about the original _Casino Royale_ and _Never Say Never Again_? _Casino Royale_ is impossible to put into the list for me. Not only is it different from the other Bond films, it’s different from itself; multiple directors worked on different parts of the movie, so it has huge changes in tone. It’s a classic example of the 1960s throw-everything-at-the-screen-and-see-what-sticks style, and can be appreciated as such, but it’s the Cousin Oliver of Bond films. _Never Say Never Again_ would be somewhere in the middle. Connery still had it, and Klaus Maria Brandauer was good as the villain, but it was missing a certain something from the Eon Bond films. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/7 "2017-08-21T10:59:49Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Dalton was way better than I remembered, Living Daylights is a great spy thriller but Licence To Kill is a film I absolutely don’t understand the hate for. It’s not really a Bond film (which is a common criticism I see) but it’s a great action movie in it’s own right. Remove the Bond name from either and you’d have an amazing stand-alone franchise that doesn’t have the baggage of the name. To be fair, it’s not just Bond going off on a personal vendetta due to Felix Leiter; it’s that Leiter, hospitalized and minus a limb, can’t seek tear-soaked revenge after his wife is _killed on their wedding day by the head of a crime syndicate_. I figure that’s enough of a hook into Bond’s baggage to deserve a pass. (By comparison, there’s a bit in X-MEN: FIRST CLASS where Xavier pleads for mercy from Magneto by saying that, yes, the military personnel were trying to slaughter a bunch of innocents, but, well, they were Just Following Orders – and there _may_ be worse phrases to use on the guy, but none _actually_ come to mind.) ---
**Author:** ![Reddy\_Mercury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@Reddy\_Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reddy_Mercury)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/8 "2017-08-21T18:05:33Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Having re-seen them all within the last month (except the Craig films, holding off on them until I get all the blu-rays) I have some very strong opinions > > Great > > 1. Goldfinger > 2. From Russia With Love > 3. The Spy Who Loved Me > 4. Moonraker > 5. Licence To Kill > 6. Live And Let Die > 7. For Your Eyes Only > 8. Dr. No > 9. The Living Daylights > 10. You Only Live Twice > > Okay > > 1. Octopussy > 2. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service > 3. Diamonds Are Forever > 4. A View To A Kill > > Terrible > > 1. Thunderball > 2. The Man With the Golden Gun > 3. Goldeneye > 4. Tomorrow Never Dies > 5. The World Is Not Enough > 6. Die Another Day > > Thoughts upon rewatch > > 1. The Brosnan films are way worse than I remember, even after last seeing them about 10 years ago. They’re all either incredibly dry and bland or full of “comic” lines that completely fall flat. 90% of Brosnan lines are terrible jokes that don’t land, as opposed to Moore who could at least salvage a groaner with his mannerisms. > > 2. Connery as always is King, but his latter ones are just good enough and don’t top the heights of some of the other Bonds. I found Thunderball very boring and actually liked Never Say Never Again way better, if I replaced it with Thunderball it would jump four positions. > > 3. Lazenby I like but Majesty’s Secret Service has serious pacing problems even earlier Connery films don’t suffer from. Cut 30 minutes and you got a really great Bond film but there’s just so much stuff that doesn’t go anywhere. > > 4. Dalton was way better than I remembered, Living Daylights is a great spy thriller but Licence To Kill is a film I absolutely don’t understand the hate for. It’s not really a Bond film (which is a common criticism I see) but it’s a great action movie in it’s own right. Remove the Bond name from either and you’d have an amazing stand-alone franchise that doesn’t have the baggage of the name. > > 5. Moore has so many films it’s hard to organize them all. At his best he’s equal to Connery, at his worse he’s basically a very boring Brosnan. Spy Who Loved Me is equal to Goldfinger and From Russia With Love in greatness. I’m the rare person who really enjoys Moonraker, it’s completely stupid but I was never bored watching it and its close connections to SWLM made it much better in my mind. Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only are more serious (if you can call Moore serious) outings that work well with incredible stunts. Octopussy is just on the edge of being great but I thought the were a few weird elements that drag it down (the “storming the base” sequence was really dumb, even for Moore) while A View To A Kill is basically an okay Bond film if you skip the entire first hour which has almost nothing to do with the rest of the plot. The Man With The Golden Gun is a film that’s way too slow for its own good, and even after the big bad gets his comeuppance the film drags on for another 15 minutes. The biggest sin of a Bond movie is being too boring. True story. I have been a James Bond fan since I was 9. I have tried many, many times to watch Thunderball, and I have never once done it without falling asleep. ---
**Author:** ![Reddy\_Mercury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@Reddy\_Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reddy_Mercury)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/9 "2017-08-21T18:09:47Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Licence To Kill is a film I absolutely don’t understand the hate for. It’s not really a Bond film (which is a common criticism I see) but it’s a great action movie in it’s own right. Remove the Bond name from either and you’d have an amazing stand-alone franchise that doesn’t have the baggage of the name. > . When you think about it, a lot of Bond films aren’t really “Bond films” necessarily. I mean, Diamonds Are Forever kind of rides the wave of early 70s action films. Live and Let Die is basically James Bond meets Blaxploitation. The Man with the Golden Gun is Bond meets Bruce Lee films. Moonraker is Bond meets Star Wars. License to Kill wasn’t the first Bond film to jump on a bandwagon. The problem is that License to Kill goes TOO dark, for what people expected out of a Bond film. The Living Daylights was more serious than the Moore movies, but it wasn’t bleak. I think the amount of blood, guts, and what have you just didn’t sit right with a lot of Bond fans. At the same time, a British guy in a tuxedo didn’t fit in with the more off-beat action heroes of the same era like John McClane, Rambo, and Riggs. So the film failed on two fronts - too bloody and Miami Vice for the Bond fans, too stuffy and British for the action fans, with a plot that really was pretty standard for the period it was released in. I enjoy it, personally, but I can understand why it’s generally disregarded. ---
**Author:** ![coolbyrne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@coolbyrne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coolbyrne)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2017, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/10 "2017-08-21T20:52:30Z")
Not that a lead-up is necessary, but I’ll preface this by saying I’ve been a Bond fan for over 40 years. My father was a film projectionist so I got to see most of the Moore stuff onward in the theatre, though interestingly enough, Connery was Dad’s favourite. He didn’t live long enough to see Daniel Craig in the role. 1. Goldfinger (So many firsts happen in this movie, how can it not be #1?) 2. Skyfall (I could look at this all day, every day, thanks to Roger Deakins’ cinematography. The fact he didn’t in the Oscar is a travesty.) 3. From Russia with Love (Train fight w/Robert Shaw is a classic.) 4. Casino Royale (The Vesper bits after Bond’s torture go on way too long, but what a great re-boot.) 5. The Spy Who Loved Me (‘Nobody Does it Better’) 6. Licence to Kill (I will unashamedly defend Timothy Dalton at every turn.) 7. Goldeneye (The only Brosnan one worth watching.) 8. Live and Let Die (Kitschy in parts, but great villain and theme song.) 9. The Man with the Golden Gun (Christopher Lee, yeah! Too bad about that slide whistle, though.) 10. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Diana Rigg as a Bond girl. And you know, Lazenby was okay. Did what he could with what he had.) 11. Dr. No 12. For Your Eyes Only 13. The Living Daylights 14. Thunderball 15. Spectre 16. You Only Live Twice 17. Quantum of Solace 18. Octopussy 19. Moonraker 20. Tomorrow Never Dies (only this high for Michelle Yeoh) 21. A View to a Kill 22. Diamonds are Forever 23. The World is Not Enough 24. Die Another Day Just about anything between let’s say 15-23 is fairly interchangeable for me; I wouldn’t argue too much if 16 and 23 were switched, for instance. But I will not be moved on #24. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/11 "2017-08-22T05:18:32Z")
Me? I never understand the hate for Die Another Day. So it has an invisible car. So what? EVERY Bond movie has something stupid, even the Connery ones. Same with Octopussy. I think both of them are not only quite fine movies, they are better than Goldfinger and Dr. No combined. Seriously - Bond threatened in Dr No by a (rear projection, no less) tarantula, a spider that isn’t even deadly. And Goldfinger? Bah! ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/12 "2017-08-22T08:00:50Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Me? I never understand the hate for Die Another Day. So it has an invisible car. So what? EVERY Bond movie has something stupid, even the Connery ones. > > Same with Octopussy. I think both of them are not only quite fine movies, they are better than Goldfinger and Dr. No combined. Seriously - Bond threatened in Dr No by a (rear projection, no less) tarantula, a spider that isn’t even deadly. And Goldfinger? Bah! I have a soft spot for Octopussy, the villain and his main henchman are credible threats and great at being menacing, Maud Adams is both sexy and given plenty to do in the film, the plot has some nice twists and turns, and overall it would be an above average Moore film EXCEPT for the ending. Everything after Bond foils the evil plot feels like they didn’t know how to end it so they just threw everything at it to see if it stuck. ---
**Author:** ![irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irritant)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2017, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grade-review-all-the-james-bond-films/794250/13 "2017-08-22T10:11:22Z")
1. From Russia With Love 2. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 3. Goldfinger 4. The Spy Who Loved Me 5. Skyfall 6. Dr. No 7. License to Kill 8. For Your Eyes Only 9. The Man With the Golden Gun 10. GoldenEye 11. Moonraker 12. You Only Live Twice 13. Live and Let Die 14. Octopussy 15. The Living Daylights 16. Thunderball 17. Diamonds Are Forever 18. A View to a Kill 19. Casino Royale 20. Tomorrow Never Dies 21. The World is Not Enough 22. Quantum of Solace Never saw Die Another Day or Spectre. All the Bond films wanted to be, at least at first, were decent imitations of Hitchcock’s North By Northwest, and From Russia With Love comes closest to that Platonic ideal. Goldfinger and The Spy Who Loved Me are great silly fun, while OHMSS and Skyfall are the only entries that attempt to transcend the limitations of the series, not just by being emotional but by being so exceptionally well shot and edited. The Man With the Golden Gun has one of the very best villains in Christopher Lee. Problem is that he’s so much more interesting than Moore, who didn’t grow into the role for one more movie. I do not remember anything that happens in Octopussy or The Living Daylights, but I don’t remember disliking them. The relentless sexism of the later Connerys really bothers me now, but I loved Diamonds Are Forever as a kid. Thunderball and Casino Royale are just so dull. They feel endless, and Casino Royale practically is. Tomorrow Never Dies has a great Bond Girl in Michelle Yeoh and a good villain in Jonathan Pryce (as Rupert Murdoch), but nothing else about it works. TWINE is pretty bad, but it contains one bravura moment for Brosnan: Elektra: You wouldn’t kill me. You’d miss me. Bond [shoots her]: I never miss. Quantum of Solace is just incompetent. Edited by epileptic hamsters. Unwatchable. Cool title though.