# Rank the Bond movies from best to worst. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884 "2010-08-02T13:41:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/1 "2010-08-02T13:41:59Z")
Despite the that [I may well be pushing 50 before the next installment makes it to theatres](http://www.cinemablend.com/new/The-Next-James-Bond-On-Hold-Indefinitely-18162.html), I figured I’d start rewatching all the Bond movies again, which has prompted me to start this thread wherein the EON films are ranked from best to worst (or, more accurately, from most to least favorite). So, here goes: [ol] [li]**Dr. No[/li][li]From Russia With Love[/li][li]On Her Majesty’s Secret Service[/li][li]Casino Royale[/li][li]Thunderball[/li][li]You Only Live Twice[/li][li]Goldfinger[/li][li]Licence To Kill[/li][li]For Your Eyes Only[/li][li]The Spy Who Loved Me[/li][li]Live and Let Die[/li][li]GoldenEye[/li][li]The Living Daylights[/li][li]Diamonds Are Forever[/li][li]The Man with the Golden Gun[/li][li]Tomorrow Never Dies[/li][li]Octopussy[/li][li]Quantum of Solace[/li][li]Moonraker[/li][li]The World Is Not Enough[/li][li]A View to a Kill[/li][li]Die Another Day**[/li][/ol] (I didn’t include the original **Casino Royale** or **Never Say Never Again** as I’ve never seen either all the way through.) How would you rank them? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/2 "2010-08-02T15:02:43Z")
Damn-there’s been 22 of them? :eek: I swear we had a poll on this, but a quick search says no. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/3 "2010-08-02T15:08:43Z")
Have only seen about half of all of them, mostly the Roger Moore - forward ones, but I would have to put many of those old Roger Moore ones at them bottom, particularly “Live and Let Die” with its terrible blaxploitation- and southern-archetype cliches. It doesn’t even work as camp. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/4 "2010-08-02T16:39:16Z")
Sean Connery Timothy Dalton Goldeyene George Lazenby Roger Moore I am a busy man I don’t have time to list all 20 movies ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/5 "2010-08-02T16:57:46Z")
I stopped watching the films midway through the Brosnan years. The general ranking given that would be: 1. Diamonds Are Forever 2. Goldfinger 3. Thunderball 4. You Only Live Twice 5. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/6 "2010-08-02T17:07:14Z")
Here are my top five: 1. From Russia With Love 2. Goldfinger 3. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 4. Casino Royale 5. Dr. No ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/7 "2010-08-02T18:20:03Z")
> [@MTCicero](#): > > Despite the that [I may well be pushing 50 before the next installment makes it to theatres](http://www.cinemablend.com/new/The-Next-James-Bond-On-Hold-Indefinitely-18162.html), I figured I’d start rewatching all the Bond movies again, which has prompted me to start this thread wherein the EON films are ranked from best to worst (or, more accurately, from most to least favorite). > > So, here goes: > > [ol] > [li]**Dr. No[/li][li]From Russia With Love[/li][li]On Her Majesty’s Secret Service[/li][li]Casino Royale[/li][li]Thunderball[/li][li]You Only Live Twice[/li][li]Goldfinger[/li][li]Licence To Kill[/li][li]For Your Eyes Only[/li][li]The Spy Who Loved Me[/li][li]Live and Let Die[/li][li]GoldenEye[/li][li]The Living Daylights[/li][li]Diamonds Are Forever[/li][li]The Man with the Golden Gun[/li][li]Tomorrow Never Dies[/li][li]Octopussy[/li][li]Quantum of Solace[/li][li]Moonraker[/li][li]The World Is Not Enough[/li][li]A View to a Kill[/li][li]Die Another Day**[/li][/ol] > > (I didn’t include the original **Casino Royale** or **Never Say Never Again** as I’ve never seen either all the way through.) > How would you rank them? Here is the quick ranking: Non Sean Connery Bond films = all shite. No need to rank. Sean Connery Bond films = all #1, cuz Sean is allllllllll that! ---
**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 3, 2010, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/8 "2010-08-03T06:32:00Z")
1. Goldfinger 2. From Russia With Love 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. You Only Live Twice 11. Live and Let Die 12. The Living Daylights 13. Diamonds are Forever 14. Quantum of Solace 15. Licence to Kill 16. Tomorrow Never Dies 17. The Man With the Golden Gun 18. Moonraker 19. The World is Not Enough 20. A View to a Kill 21. Die Another Day 22. Octopussy There are some close calls there, but I think that’s a ranking I can live with. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/9 "2010-08-03T06:36:10Z")
1.) _Casino Royale_ (2006) 2.) All the others. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/10 "2010-08-03T16:14:22Z")
I think I see a certain consensus forming here. For what it’s worth, here’s how I see them: _Casino Royale From Russia With Love Goldfinger Dr. No On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_ On a given day in a given mood, any of these could be #1. \*Casino \*really marked a renewed effort to tell a story and show aspects of the main character. \*Russia \*is probably the closest the series ever got to real espionage; NATO vs. Warsaw Pact is all a sham, SPECTRE (much like many third world nations of the time) plays them off of each other. \* Dr. No \*shows Bond at his most responsible and territorial. Connery either hasn’t found his voice here yet, or he absolutely has and all the subsequent films are compromises. \*OHMSS \*is the first attempt at a sea change, and the character takes on a more human dimension; Lazenby has been thoroughly screwed by history. Goldfinger set the mold for every film afterward, with a singular focal villain and a spectacular massing of forces at the denouement. If you like the Bond series as it played out, this is the best Bond film. _The Living Daylights The Spy Who Loved Me Licence To Kill_ Dalton was able to put a rough edge back on the character after years of Moore’s cuteness. The films are good, but EON had gotten too lazy to make them great. Barbara Bach makes The Spy Who Loved Me; FINALLY we get a woman who’s halfway interesting (well, since Diana Rigg). _Quantum of Solace Thunderball You Only Live Twice_ Near misses. \*Thunderball \*marks where the series settled into a formula; I find it forgettable, not unlike _YOLT_. Quantum of Solace may have marked a return to that formula; we shall see. _Live and Let Die GoldenEye The Man with the Golden Gun Diamonds Are Forever The World Is Not Enough Die Another Day_ Misses, though they have their redeeming parts. \*LaLD \*is plotted well, but a little too cute to be a good film. \*GoldenEye \*showed real potential, but isn’t really impressive. \*Golden Gun \*is kind of a dumb movie, but a must-see because it pits Bond against Dracula/Sauron/Count Dooku and Tattoo. \*Diamonds \*has enough dead spots to fill a family cemetery–does Connery standing on an elevator really impress anybody? Why the hell doesn’t Blofeld just shoot the guy already instead of ordering him to reinsert that damn cassette? Partial redemption comes in a great opening sequence and the luscious Jill St. John–but my God, that character is too dumb to live. Likewise, the actresses in \*TWINE \*are appealing (Marceau is singularly sexy and exotic), but the story falls flat, and Denise Richards, for all her attributes, is the opposite of convincing. _Die Another Day_ is an interesting idea for a movie, with the homages throughout tempting a smile, but the innuendo and cameos are forced and distracting. _Tomorrow Never Dies Moonraker A View to a Kill Octopussy For Your Eyes Only_ Not good. The kung-fu in \*Tomorrow \*is kinda neat, and you gotta love Walken, but everyone involved in these is just phoning it in. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/11 "2010-08-03T17:58:49Z")
Her’e how I would rank them as of today: 1. Goldfinger 2. From Russia With Love 3. Casino Royale (2006) 4. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 5. Dr. No 6. Licence To Kill 7. The Living Daylights 8. Casino Royale (1967) 9. Thunderball 10. Quantum Of Solace 11. For Your Eyes Only 12. Tomorrow Never Dies 13. GoldenEye 14. The World Is Not Enough 15. Never Say Never Again 16. The Spy Who Loved Me 17. Octopussy 18. You Only Live Twice 19. Die Another Day 20. Moonraker 21. A View To A Kill 22. Diamonds Are Forever 23. Live And Let Die 24. The Man With The Golden Gun ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/12 "2010-08-03T18:00:45Z")
Why is Casino Royale so popular James Bond doesn’t play Poker ---
**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 3, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/13 "2010-08-03T18:22:47Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > I think I see a certain consensus forming here. For what it’s worth, here’s how I see them: An excellent synopsis, overall, but I would quibble with a couple titles. _GoldenEye_. Some nice character touches, Bond in the Aston Martin (wicked cute babe riding shotgun), the new M’s no-nonsense attitude, and Q without the stick in his ass. And one of my favorite bits of Bond dialog: “Ah, an ex-KGB guy. Tough mother. Got a limp in his right leg. Name’s Zukovsky.” “Valentin Dmitrovitch Zukovsky?” “Yeah, you know him?” “I gave him the limp.” _For Your Eyes Only_. Dialed back some of the excesses of the Moore era; no army of henchmen in a supertanker or orbiting space station. Not so many clever quips, either. When the bad guy’s car is teetering on the edge of a cliff, there’s no punch line, Bond just kicks it over the edge. Moore’s most badass moment as Bond. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/14 "2010-08-03T18:27:24Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > Why is Casino Royale so popular The opening scene with the bomb-maker was just too cool, sorry. It got me totally pumped for the rest of the movie. The torture scene near the end was fantastic, too. “Left, left!” ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/15 "2010-08-03T20:35:30Z")
**1. Goldfinger** The unquestioned best Bond movie ever. **2. Casino Royale** I didn’t think this would be number two, but going back over the list I kept saying to myself “Well I like Casino Royale better than that movie” and it kept moving up. **3. GoldenEye** My first Bond. For all its faults, it is one of the best _movies_ on this list. Also, Brosnan is a better Bond than he gets credit for. 1. Licence To Kill 2. From Russia With Love 3. Tomorrow Never Dies **7. The Man with the Golden Gun** As someone else said. Bond versus Sauron and Tattoo, sure it’s hokey, but what’s not to love? 1. The Living Daylights 2. For Your Eyes Only 3. The Spy Who Loved Me 4. Dr. No **12. Die Another Day** See GoldenEye, Brosnan is underrated and the winking homages were fun. 1. Live and Let Die **14. Quantum of Solace** Totally drops the ball from Casino Royale. What a disappointment. 1. Moonraker 2. The World Is Not Enough 3. A View to a Kill 4. Diamonds Are Forever 5. You Only Live Twice 6. Thunderball 7. Octopussy 8. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/16 "2010-08-03T20:59:43Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > **1. Goldfinger** > The **unquestioned** best Bond movie ever. Oh, I’d say there’s plenty of debate/question on this point. It’s good, but frightfully overrated. > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > **3. GoldenEye** > My first Bond. For all its faults, it is one of the best _movies_ on this list. Also, Brosnan is a better Bond than he gets credit for. I’d say he gets too much credit, especially with younger people (which is understandable, as he _was_ Bond for the better part of a decade). As it is, I find him too much of a fop to be a believable cold-blooded killer in the British government’s employ. And for anyone about to sputter Roger Moore’s name at me in righteous indignation, I refer you to both the previously mentioned kicking-the-car-off-the-cliff scene in **For Your Eyes Only** , and to Moore’s surprisingly rough, Connery-as-Bond-like treatment of poor doomed Andrea Anders in **The Man with the Golden Gun**. > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > 1. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Really? **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service** , a movie that, had it starred Sean Connery as originally planned and not George Lazenby, would be a _serious_ contender for best Bond film of all; that, even as is, starring Lazenby, is in most serious Bond film fans’ top five or ten list; despite the fact that it features the finest performance of a Bond girl actress of all… you’ve _really_ ranked it _dead last_? ---
**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:** [August 4, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/17 "2010-08-04T03:13:48Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I stopped watching the films midway through the Brosnan years. The general ranking given that would be: > > 1. Diamonds Are Forever > 2. Goldfinger > 3. Thunderball > 4. You Only Live Twice > 5. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service > Everything else. Someone likes _Diamonds Are Forever_? Even as a Connery film, it falls near the bottom. (It doesn’t help that in this film Connery resembles an future aging Lee Majors, and his toupee slips several times.) > [@MTCicero](#): > > > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > > > **1. Goldfinger** > > The **unquestioned** best Bond movie ever. > > Oh, I’d say there’s plenty of debate/question on this point. It’s good, but frightfully overrated. _Goldfinger_ is a film that is as illogical as it is iconic. It is sort of the _Gilligan’s Island_ of Bond movies. Bond does nothing right in the entire film. He nearly gets killed in the pre-title sequence despite an associate warning him not to go back to his hotel room. He then gets caught cheating Auric Goldfinger (who he’s just supposed to be keeping an eye on), getting himself knocked cold and Jill Masterson killed. He’s then identified by Goldfinger as an infiltrator at the golf club, and proceeds to get Tilly Masterson killed and himself captured despite his Aston Martin DB5 which Q Branch, which has spent “tireless years perfecting”. He’s then flown to Goldfinger’s Kentucky ranch, which is the headquarters for his scheme to blow up Fort Knox and allowed to discover Goldfinger’s secret plan (which he can’t help but divulge in order to justify all the time he spent building a diorama, even though he immediately executes his cohorts) only to completely fail to get a message to the CIA agents waiting just outside the compound. He is then trapped inside Ft. Knox with a ticking atomic bomb, managing to defeat Oddjob only by the most narrow luck, and still can’t disarm the bomb. Really, the only thing he does right the whole film is seduce Pussy Galore from her lesbian ways, and then, I think she just wanted the hell away from Goldfinger and his insanity and was looking for the best deal. Great Ken Adam design, moronic plot. > [@MTCicero](#): > > > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > > > 1. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service > > Really? **On Her Majesty’s Secret Service** , a movie that, had it starred Sean Connery as originally planned and not George Lazenby, would be a _serious_ contender for best Bond film of all; that, even as is, starring Lazenby, is in most serious Bond film fans’ top five or ten list; despite the fact that it features the finest performance of a Bond girl actress of all… you’ve _really_ ranked it _dead last_? I’m not even certain Connery would have improved it. Connery was droll and sanguine, and so careless about women one would have almost sworn he was as gay as Rock Hudson. Lazenby, for all of his faults as a would-be actor, did manage to convey a degree of seriousness to the role when Bond was in jeopardy of his life or losing the attention of Tracy. In a few instances, as when he is being pursued through the alpine skating village, he manages to look scared for his life. Connery has never been a romantic lead, and I don’t know that he would have actually fared well in this role. For me, the top five are: [ol][li]_Casino Royale_[/li][li]_On Her Majesty’s Secret Service_[/li][li]_From Russia With Love_[/li][li]_Dr. No_[/li][li]_The Living Daylights_[/ol][/li] _Quantum of Solace_ misses the list by being half a good film, marred by being slender on plot and too much Lara Croft+Shakycam in the action sequences (though the knife fighting sequence in the hotel room in Port-Au-Prince is thirty seconds of unmatched cinema). _For Your Eyes Only_ would have been a good film if not for having one of the screechingest Bond girls ever and a disco soundtrack that was horribly dated thirty seconds after the film was released, plus one of the silliest chase sequences filmed since _Herbie: The Love Bug_. The less said about the Brosnan films, the better; the best of them failed to serve as an adequate vehicle despite Brosnan’s obvious suitability for the role. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/18 "2010-08-04T04:25:04Z")
My top five: 1. From Russia With Love 2. Goldfinger 3. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 4. Casino Royale 5. GoldenEye Then everything else. The Roger Moore films hold up least well for me, but that’s due more to truly dire scripts and direction than Moore himself, although he definitely was way too old by the end of his run. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/19 "2010-08-04T04:34:07Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Someone likes _Diamonds Are Forever_? Even as a Connery film, it falls near the bottom. It’s set in Vegas, it has Jill St. John and Jimmy Dean, Bambi & Thumper, and a chase scene with a lunar rover. What more can you want? \ ***James Bond** : I tend to notice little things like that - whether a girl is a blonde or a brunette. **Tiffany Case** : Which do you prefer? **James Bond** : Well, as long as the collar and cuffs match… \* ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884/20 "2010-08-04T04:35:57Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > > > Someone likes _Diamonds Are Forever_? Even as a Connery film, it falls near the bottom. > > It’s set in Vegas, it has Jill St. John and Jimmy Dean, Bambi & Thumper, and a chase scene with a lunar rover. **What more can you want?** A hollowed out volcano? 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rank-the-bond-movies-from-best-to-worst/548884.md?page=2)