# I'm going to watch all of the James Bond Films \[Please avoid Spoilers for Goldeneye or later Bond movies\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 17, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001 "2019-12-17T18:58:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**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:** [March 18, 2023, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/342 "2023-03-18T05:18:17Z")
> [@Pavelb1](#): > > Skyfall? The Bond film usually held to be in the top five Bond films? No, Skyfall the one whose plot hinges on everybody doing exactly the stupidest choice at precisely the exact time so that the clockwork-precision plan, which could be stopped by even a simple action like Bond talking two extra seconds to walk across the room, or Q not committing a rookie mistake like plugging in a strange computer into the freaking network where it can run roughshod over defenses fer cripessake!, where M manages to get herself killed by walking across a pitch dark moor with a flashlight while being pursued by trained killers. Is there another Skyfall? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/343 "2023-03-18T05:23:15Z")
Well I can’t argue with that. But I wouldn’t say that makes it the worst film and it’s unwatchable. Edit: You left out “Oh you accidentally shot Bond? How bout you keep shooting?” ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/344 "2023-03-18T06:06:24Z")
Am I the only one here who slightly prefers The World is Not Enough to Tomorrow Never Dies? I just find the latter a bit too cheesy at times. And yes that is even allowing for Denise Richards. She’s really not that bad. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/345 "2023-03-18T06:12:20Z")
The silliest thing for me about Skyfall is not the crazy Joker-esque Silva plan, or Q’s inexplicably careless treatment of the laptop, it’s the fact that Bond’s plan to draw Silva out by using M as bait is totally reckless and leads directly to her death. And then he gets the ok to continue with his job! He should’ve been sacked on the spot, minimum! Fair enough leaving the ‘trail of breadcrumbs’ for Silva, but why not actually have M stashed somewhere safe, rather than on a plate for him in a deserted old house in the middle of the Scottish Highlands?! All that being said, I do very much enjoy Skyfall. I think perhaps it suffers the wrath of some viewers because it doesn’t live up to the ‘Best Bond Ever’ tag that some critics were crowning it upon release. It’s certainly top 10 material in my opinion, but top one? No chance. ---
**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:** [March 18, 2023, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/346 "2023-03-18T07:26:55Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > The silliest thing for me about Skyfall is not the crazy Joker-esque Silva plan, or Q’s inexplicably careless treatment of the laptop, it’s the fact that Bond’s plan to draw Silva out by using M as bait is totally reckless and leads directly to her death. And then he gets the ok to continue with his job! He should’ve been sacked on the spot, minimum! Fair enough leaving the ‘trail of breadcrumbs’ for Silva, but why not actually have M stashed somewhere safe, rather than on a plate for him in a deserted old house in the middle of the Scottish Highlands?! In the middle of Silva’s escape, Bond has his gun trained right on him, but he starts monologuing and gets away. Bond has a license to kill, he has every reason to use it at that moment, but he doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/347 "2023-03-18T07:27:14Z")
@Wheelz hopefully you’ll get this as an email notification - you might want to avoid the thread for a bit as it contains some big spoilers for the films you haven’t got to yet, especially Skyfall. I apologise to everyone for junior modding but I don’t think this is really a moderation matter - the OP has respectfully asked more than once if we could avoid discussing films they haven’t got to yet. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/348 "2023-03-18T09:31:12Z")
Sorry about that, is it possible to delete it? I have flagged my post and asked if a moderator can delete it. Wasn’t thinking… apologies to the OP if you did read it. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/349 "2023-03-18T16:53:37Z")
Moderating: Hey, i added spoiler tags for the original post and the quote of it. Going forward, please spoiler anything you might not have wanted to know before watching. 😉 If anyone has trouble with the spoiler tags, DM me or report your post, and i or another mod can help. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/350 "2023-03-18T17:16:33Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Am I the only one here who slightly prefers The World is Not Enough to Tomorrow Never Dies? I just find the latter a bit too cheesy at times. And yes that is even allowing for Denise Richards. They’re both pretty dumb, but I’ll take Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh over Golden Raspberry-winner Denise Richards any day. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/351 "2023-03-18T17:26:09Z")
Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/352 "2023-03-18T17:28:48Z")
Can’t disagree with that! ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/353 "2023-03-18T17:42:51Z")
Thanks, @Dead_Cat, for the warning, and thanks, @puzzlegal, for adding the spoiler tags. I usually just kind of scroll past discussions of future films, so no big deal. (I did see Skyfall when it came out and remember liking it; we’ll have to wait and see what I think the next time around.) But yeah, folks, please try to bear with me as I make my way through the catalog excruciatingly slowly. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/354 "2023-03-18T17:43:00Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I’ll take Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh over Golden Raspberry-winner Denise Richards any day. Michelle Yeoh (along with Judi Dench and Samantha Bond, of course) are about the only parts that make _Tomorrow Never Dies_ watchable. (Vincent Schiavelli‘s “Dr. Kaufman” is entertaining but has only a single scene that seems to exist in an entirely different comedic film, and while the car park scene with the BMW is enthusiastic it is entirely pointless, literally going nowhere.) Watching a fine actor like Jonathan Pryce chew scenery by the bowlful is just painful, and putting Brosnan on screen with a real action star like Yeoh just shows how much the production has to do to make him look like he’s capable of doing the stunts and fight scenes his character is engaging in. And yet, _Tomorrow Never Dies_ is _Citizen Fucking Kane_ compared to _The World is Not Enough_, which takes a great title and marries it to one of the most disjointed, incomprehensible stories of any Bond film save for the successor, _Die Another Day_. Denise Richards gets a lot of hate for ‘ruining’ the film but she’s honestly adequate in a thankless role, and it isn’t as if they’d cast Kate Winslet instead as “Dr. Christmas Jones” it would have become a top tier Bond film. I do love the villain who they cannot locate but they know down to sub-millimeter resolution the location of the bullet that is migrating through his brain, making him stronger every day until it kills him, but that belongs in a parody film with Rowan Atkinson. > [@Pavelb1](#): > > Skyfall? The Bond film usually held to be in the top five Bond films? This film, along with the entire Brosnan Bond canon, just begs for a redub by the cast of _Archer_, although without Jessica Walter to voice M it is kind of pointless. You wouldn’t even have to retool the dialogue other than adding copious swearing and the occasional, “Phrasing!” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/355 "2023-03-18T20:43:47Z")
I actually enjoyed that Die Another Day was some 40 minutes in and I still had no idea what the film was about. It helped that I didn’t know the baddie was the same baddie we’d seen earlier ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/356 "2023-03-18T20:51:59Z")
> [@Pavelb1](#): > > actually enjoyed that Die Another Day was some 40 minutes in and I still had no idea what the film was about. You may be the only person who enjoyed that film after ten seconds into the opening titles. Stranger ---
**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:** [March 18, 2023, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/359 "2023-03-18T21:43:03Z")
> [@Pavelb1](#): > > You may be the only person who enjoyed that film after ten seconds into the opening titles. As noted, I think it’s the best Brosnan Bond. I put it solidly in the middle quality-wise. I honestly don’t understand the hate. I mean, in a world with Moonraker, Live And Let Die, Man With the Golden Gun, Skyfall!, what is so bad about DAD? Madonna? ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/360 "2023-03-18T21:58:25Z")
I will happily answer this, but out of respect for the OP’s request, I’ll wait until he gets to that movie. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/361 "2023-03-18T23:07:46Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Michelle Yeoh (along with Judi Dench and Samantha Bond, of course) are about the only parts that make _Tomorrow Never Dies_ watchable That movie convinced me that Michelle Yeoh needed to the next James Bond. I’m even fine with Pierce Brosnan, based purely on fond memories of _Remington Steele_, but why let him make another Bond movie when such an obvious better choice is around? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2023, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/362 "2023-03-18T23:50:04Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > I’m even fine with Pierce Brosnan, based purely on fond memories of _Remington Steele_, but why let him make another Bond movie when such an obvious better choice is around? Brosnan was a very popular Bond even if the quality of movies he was in varied from acceptable to garbage (and his portrayal was kind of insufferable in a typical ‘Nineties action hero sort of way that only Ryan Reynolds is still trying to pull off), and if _Die Another Day_ hadn’t been such a dumpster fire combined with the unexpected pull of the _Bourne_ movies they probably would have made at least a couple more with Brosnan. Brosnan is actually a pretty good actor in cosmopolitan, espionage-ish roles as shown in _The Thomas Crown Affair_ (a rare remake that was distinctly superior to the original) and _The Tailor of Panama_ so it wasn’t as if he just dined on his Bond role the way Roger Moore did, but in the post-_Bourne_ (and post-9/11) the fatuousness of Brosnan era films was a storytelling style that was waining. There was a rumor that the Eon Productions team was looking for some way to do a spinoff film starring Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin, and given the rising prominence of the Chinese cinema market at the time is seems plausible that it may have been considered, but frankly while Yeoh is an outstanding action star, she’s also a really good actress who was clearly interested in taking on more diverse roles, and championing a film with a female action lead—much less one that is Asian—has always been an uphill battle with American and European studios. I guess you can point to the _Charlie’s Angels_ film that came out in 2000 (and had an Asian woman in one of the principal roles) but it did enough box office to justify a sequel it didn’t really pave the way for female-led action films, and Eon has generally been pretty conservative about the direction they went with the Bond property, even if it is kind of cringy in retrospect (i.e. _Live and Let Die_). Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2023, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001/363 "2023-03-19T02:44:22Z")
I agree. Like I said in my rightly blurred comment (Frigging didnt see the spoiler warning. I’ve been splattering spoilers all over the place. Sorry.)… Bond is out of MI6. Chilling out. Sleeps with Halle Berry (I think)…and I’m going…“What is happening??” As for Madonna…she was fine. I’ve heard worse accents. And she didn’t have to do a lot. Side note: Madonna’s best acting was in “A League of Their Own” (Sorry Debra Winger. You’re a bit of a snob) and her best song was the theme from At Close Range. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-going-to-watch-all-of-the-james-bond-films-please-avoid-spoilers-for-goldeneye-or-later-bond-movies/845001.md?page=19)