So I'm Thinking Of Watching Every James Bond Movie, In Order

Cafe Society
1

Prior to Casino Royale, I had never seen a James Bond movie from beginning to end. I have now seen three: Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall.

I’m thinking of going all the way back to Dr. No and watching all of them, in order, just to say I’ve done it.

  1. I’m to understand that there are one or two that aren’t official canon; which ones are they?

  2. Any I should avoid just because they’re utterly awful?

  3. Any other advice for a "Classic’ Bond newbie?

Also: Are the pre-Craig Bond movies episodic, or do the events in one affect the events in the next one?

2

Never Say Never Again is the non-canon one. It was made in a rights dispute between two studios. It is basically a remake of Thunderball. I thought it was sad and pathetic, and my recollection was that Connery acted like he’d had a stroke recently, but there are enjoyable parts.

But this is the SD. I can’t wait for the inevitable posts that place it as someone’s favorite.

3

The events of several movies affect the events of later ones, but not in any serious way. Usually dealt with in the pre-credit sequences, actually. My suggestion would be to run the Connery movies in order, watch the Lazenby, skip the Moore movies completely, then pick up with Dalton and Brosnan.

4

Also, Casino Royale (1967) was non-canon. It was a comedy, and a mess.

But an extra on the DVD is Casino Royale as presented on Climax! in 1954. This is a good rendtion of the book, in my opinion; though it stars Barry Nelson as an American Bond. Peter Lorre portrays Le Chiffre.

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5

The is some continuity. In On Her Mahesty’s Secret Service Bond, played by George Lazenby, marries a woman, who gets killed. In the opening of For Your Eyes Only, Bond, now played by Roger Moore, is seen visiting her grave (I really like the humanity Bond shows in that scene-you rarely see that).

I the SD’s most hated movie (and one of my favorites) Die Another Day, you can see in Q’s lab gadgets from many if not all of the previous movies, but that’s more fan service than a plot point.

You can’t think of the movies as being one character, though. That way lies madness. Just view them as stand alone movies that all give their own interpretation of an iconic character. Like movies about Robin Hood, or Batman, or King Arthur.

You also have to view them as products of their time. There is a huge karate fight (or several, actually) in You Only Live Twice, because that was all the rage at the time. Moonraker is trying to cash in on the Star Wars dollars. The Living Daylights was trying to make Bond more ‘gritty’, because that was the trend at the time. They even made a big deal that Bond was practically celibate in that movie - but I wonder if they were watching the same movie as me.

6

It’s been long enough ago that several new ones have popped up since I did it, but one of the movie channels (most likely TCM) had a marathon as you describe. I watched them all! Fun trip.

Connery is the man! The rest are wannabes.

7

Not Octopussy? I am shocked.

8

And so it begins.

Watch them all, don’t let anyone’s biases (including mine) guide you. See them all and decide for yourself.

Moonraker may be stupid, and the series rightly took a more traditional turn for the next movie, but it is in its own way no more or less stupid than Dr. No.

9

Dr. No was the first Bond film (aside from Casino Royale in 1954), but it’s actually a follow-on of From Russia With Love. In the novels, Bond went to Jamaica for R&R after his run-in with SMERSH. But in the film chronology, there is no connection.

10

I’d forgotten about it.

As should everyone!

11

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was awesome.

12

I’ve watched the Bond films in order, and I think one should.

Many or most people will say Goldfinger is ‘the best’ Bond film, but I like Dr. No. In it, Bond isn’t ‘Bond’ in the sense of later films. He’s human, and doesn’t rely on ‘gadgets’. I also like movies from that era. Of course I like Goldfinger for the Pipers. :wink: Watch the Connery films in order. There’s no reason not to, and it’s interesting to watch how he changes from a very good spy to a spy with lots of ‘gadgets’.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service sticks to the book pretty well. IMO, people didn’t like it because George Lazenby isn’t Sean Connery. Still, the story involves terrorism on a massive scale (contaminating the world’s food supply) and resonates with today’s terrorism concerns.

Diamonds Are Forever is a little silly, but Connery is back.

Then you get into the Roger Moore films. I once read a quip that Roger Moore was ‘The Smirk that Swallowed James Bond Whole’. Yep, pretty much. Nevertheless, the Roger Moore films are good fun if you can get past James Bond as a cartoon. Definitely worth seeing, if only for a better understanding of the memes.

Timothy Dalton became Bond in The Living Daylights. This is a return to the non-comedic Bond; sort of like Sean Connery, but with more awesome gadgets. Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye through Die Another Day) continues in that vein.

Casino Royale (2006) brings us to Daniel Craig as Bond, and takes us back to the beginning of the story. That is, none of the previous films ever happened, and it’s a reboot of the franchise.

13

Read my thread from 11 years ago on the movie. I believed then it was the best one.

I now think Craig’s Casino Royale is the best one.

Note: I swear there is the actual Octopussy thread floating around somewhere, but that one only links to a duplicate. My bad.

14

There are always exceptions. TSWLM is one of them. But it is countered by A View to a Kill, which is not only the worst Bond movie ever made, but maybe one of the worst movies ever made. Period. The only redeeming factor is that it had the best theme song since Goldfinger.

15

I attempted to do that once. I made it to Live and Let Die before petering out. The earliest ones are the best.

Dr. No may seem a little creaky by today’s standards. But if you go in expecting it to be a bit dated, it’s a decent romp. Sean Connery has the Bond charisma nailed from scene 1.

From Russia, With Love is IMO the best of the series. A tense, focused thriller that remains human-scaled (the fate of the whole world isn’t hanging in the balance.) That one holds up.

Goldfinger was OK, but is (slightly) over-rated. It’s the point at which things begin to take on an over-the-top, cartoonish tone. Still, its pluses outweigh the minuses.

Thunderball, conversely, gets a bad rap. The underwater action sequences are terrific cinematography, the principal Bond girl is not just eye candy - she contributes to the story in a meaningful way, and Sean Connery in shorty-short swim trunks. What’s not to like?

You Only Live Twice is the point when things start going South. The finale offers some great action set pieces, but Blofeld’s master plan is something out of Lex Luthor’s playbook. The story has a formulaic feel to it, and Connery is phoning it in. He can barely hide his contempt for the whole proceedings.

On Her Majesties’ Secret Service is a curiosity. George Lazenby is better than Roger Moore as Bond, but he suffers in comparison to Connery who only just preceded him. There are some nice attempts to shake up the formula in some ways, including adding some gravitas to Bond’s back story, but the series instantly backed off from such changes in the very next movie. On the plus side - Diana Rigg in all her post-Emma Peel glory! That alone makes this one of the best.

Diamonds Are Forever just feels like a tipping point. James Bond has lost all his macho, earthy grittiness and is practically a satire of itself. EVERYONE involved in this outing is simply cashing a paycheck. Jill St. John’s character flips sides so quickly and so inexplicably that I was rooting for her to get shot between the eyes by the end of it. And the two pairs of assassins (Kidd & Wynt and Bambi & Thumper) are rather viscious anti-gay caricatures.

Live and Let Die has a great opening sequence, a great theme song, but it’s a steep downhill slope after that. It has racist overtones, an incomprehensible plot, and just dumb action sequences (Bond hop-scotching over the alligators was funny however.) Worst of all, it has Connery-lite, Roger Moore, in the lead. He just doesn’t cut it. Not even in his first, most important outing.

16

On the other hand, Moonraker is my absolute favorite James Bond novel. Highly recommended.

17

I rate Octopussy as the best of Moore’s movies, and maybe in the top three overall. I’m not fond of any of Craig’s films, in part because I’m not especially fond of him.

18

Incidentally, I think OHMSS would have been the unquestioned best Bond movie ever, had Connery been in it. I don’t want to slight Lazenby, but he didn’t quite have the chops to be starting out in what was a fairly serious Bond movie. Had his debut been Live and Let Die, maybe he would have displaced Moore.

19

Agree on the Craig, but still holding out for TSWLM as the best of the Moore films. Followed by The Man With the Golden Gun (just for Scaramanga’s junk, as it were), and For Your Eyes Only.

20

I can’t defend View To A Kill, but it is worth watching simply for the over-the-top performances from Christopher Walken and Grace Jones.