# Let's rank the Bond films! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 24, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682 "2006-11-24T21:20:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/21 "2006-11-27T22:25:42Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42] [Entertainment Weekly](http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,1560072_1_0_,00.html) has published a list of their rankings of the 20 Bond films. I like how they’ve rated On Her Majesty’s Secret Service at number 5. This movie is vastly underrated. Thunderball is rated too high. This movie is very slow paced and the SCUBA scenes are interminable. I really like Live and Let Die, but not sure I’d place it at number 3. Probably around 10 or so. [/QUOTE] You probably didn’t see Thunderball when it originally came out in 1965. It was like going to see the Beatles. The lobby had life size posters of Sean Connery. The news was full of stories the military developing flying backpacks. Every boy had to have the Matchbox Bond Car. This was \*THE \*Bond movie that made him big. Disney even trotted out _Darby O’Gill and the Little People_!! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/22 "2006-11-27T22:57:09Z")
So, having ranked them, when are we going to be able to buy _just the good ones_ on DVD again, instead of those mixed-bag boxed sets? ---
**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:** [November 27, 2006, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/23 "2006-11-27T22:59:53Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] So, having ranked them, when are we going to be able to buy _just the good ones_ on DVD again, instead of those mixed-bag boxed sets? [/QUOTE] Og, please! As if I’m really going to pay $60 for one good Bond film, one halfway decent one, and three clunkers of the Moore and Brosnan era. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/24 "2006-11-28T07:55:42Z")
Update: I have seen _Casino Royale_. It nudges \*The Living Daylights \* out of my \*\*Top Seven \*\* and into the **Middle Seven**. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/25 "2006-11-28T08:21:48Z")
Did you really think you’d get some kind of consensus with this? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/26 "2006-11-28T10:17:10Z")
But let us remember that even the worst Bond film–whatever we each hold that to be–is still leagues ahead of anything starring Stallone, Norris, Seagal, or Willis (except _Die Hard_) or anything directed by Tony Scott, Michael Bay, or any of those hacks who make video game movies. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/27 "2006-11-28T16:48:27Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Rieux] But let us remember that even the worst Bond film–whatever we each hold that to be–is still leagues ahead of anything starring Stallone, Norris, Seagal, or Willis (except _Die Hard_) or anything directed by Tony Scott, Michael Bay, or any of those hacks who make video game movies. [/QUOTE] I wouldn’t go that far. I think \*Enemy of the State \* (the most watchable Tony Scott flick, IMO) is a heck of a lot better than _A View to a Kill_. Of course, so is watching a bowl of cold oatmeal for two and a half hours. Interesting that \*You Only Live Twice \* and the Dalton films seem to generate the most disagreement. I guess my top four would be _Goldfinger_, _On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_, _Dr. No_, and _From Russia With Love_. The rest of the Connery films would follow that, and from there it becomes hard to decide. I’m not a big Timothy Dalton fan, but both of the movies themselves were technically superior to most of the Roger Moore ones. However, I’d be more likely to watch \*Live and Let Die \* or even _Moonraker_ again, just because of the “so bad it’s good” factor. In my house, the easier it is to “do an MST3K” on a movie, the more likely we’ll watch it. Of course, \*A View to a Kill \* fails even that litmus test. ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/28 "2006-11-28T18:52:13Z")
I must be the only person alive who has Diamonds are Forever as his favourite Bond film. Excellent stunts, great theme tune, really quotable dialogue (“the plans changed; we need tree alive!”… “Thats… most annoying”; “Nice shot”…“I dodnt know there was a pool there”) and a hot redhead Bond Girl? Bambi and Thumper? And Blofeld in uber kitty stroking action? Remind me why people hate this? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/29 "2006-11-28T18:59:57Z")
bubastis: The people who hate this like their Bond as a super-serious badass. That view tends to predominate on this message board. For those of us who like Bond to be a little more fun, Diamonds Are Forever is up there with the best. It’s # 7 in my ranking, above. ---
**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:** [November 28, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/30 "2006-11-28T19:41:58Z")
[QUOTE=bubastis] I must be the only person alive who has Diamonds are Forever as his favourite Bond film…Remind me why people hate this? [/QUOTE] Connery was fat (and despite the toupee, clearly balding), Jill St. John was fatuous, Blofeld (this time played by Charles Gray) was fey, the F/X were pretty laughable (even by the standards of the day) and the ending was anticlimactic. Bambi and Thumper were entertaining eye candy (but are we seriously supposed to believe that they kept Willard Whyte prisoner for years on end?) and Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint were parodies of themselves. The whole thing came off as a rather tired affair, with the major appeal being the Shirley Bassey-voiced title song. It doesn’t even have the silly, cartoonish humor of, say, _The Spy Who Loved Me_ or _Moonraker_. It’s just tedious. I’m trying to remember the “excellent stunts”; I recall Bond escaping away in a moon rover (on which the wheel comes off as it goes out of frame) and driving a Mustang on two wheels through a narrow alley (on the other side as it exits, it seems to have somehow flipped to the other side) but I don’t recall anything else. I can easily think of a half dozen other Bond films with more memorable stunt sequences. To each his own, but I rate it as being by far the worst of the Connery Bonds. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2006, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682/31 "2006-11-29T02:36:07Z")
I’m in agreement with most of what **Stranger** said about _Diamonds_, but for me the main reason it ranks as the lowest Connery Bond is that Connery clearly isn’t into the role. I mean, the man couldn’t give a truly bad performance if he tried, but in this movie it’s very clear that he doesn’t really want to be playing Bond again. **cmkeller** mentioned that _Diamonds_ is more for people who like their Bond to be fun, but when the star is clearly not having fun with the role, that detracts a lot from the fun the audience can have. On the other hand, stunts. The fight in the elvator ranks as one of the best fight sequences in any Bond film. The quarters are close, the fighting is intense, and Connery makes it clear that Bond is struggling; he’s not a super-hero that knocks the bad guy out with one punch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-rank-the-bond-films/381682.md?page=1)