In a thread about bad movies, someone mentioned that Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me were the two worst Bond movies. I replied that I thought TSWLM was pretty good, and that A View to a Kill was a close second for worst.
So let’s determine officially, and definitely the exact order of quality for the James Bond franchise, best to worst. Here’s how we’ll do it: You can list your opinion of the best and worst six, or list the entire 19 best to worst (for the scoring system I’m using, it won’t matter which). After a sufficient number of replies, I will average the lists together, and come up with the SDMB Offical James Bond movie ranking.
For the record, the nineteen official movies are, in order of release:
Dr. No
From Russia With Love
Goldfinger
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Live and Let Die
The Man with the Golden Gun
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy
A View to a Kill
The Living Daylights
License to Kill
Goldeneye
Tomorrow Never Dies
The World Is Not Enough
Here’s how I would rate them–as of this morning.
I’m also including the 2 unofficial films. Why? (1) to emphasize my preference of “Never Say Never Again” over “Thunderball” and (2) because even the worst James Bond movie is better than 90% of the action films ever made.
Zenster’s right. Sean Connery. No one else matters.
The James Bond franchise is a product of (and relic of, really) the early 1960s. It was already a goofy self-parody by 1967 and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s rendered “naughty pleasures” like Bond, and PLAYBOY magazine, irrelevant.
The best of the series are:
GOLDFINGER
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
DR. NO
By THUNDERBALL, the quality was already dropping off, and by YOLT, the series wasn’t worth watching. The above three, however, are film classics and worth seeing again and again.
So… what’s so awful about Moonraker? It’s one of the few Bond movies that really kept me glued. No slow spots, a pretty cool villian (Drax) and of course it had Jaws.
I have the whole series on DVD. I’m watching them in order for the second time and I watched them out of order as I got the boxed sets. Of course I’ve seen some of them in the cinema and on teevee and video tape many times. It’s been about a year since I’ve seen them all. One problem is that they’re starting to run together. “Okay, was that the one where he…?” Anyway, I am at least a little bit of a James Bond fan. But since it’s been a while since I’ve seen them all and I’m saturating myself at the moment, I can’t really rank them. But here are some general groupings:
Sean Conneryis James Bond. Period. Of the Connery Bond films I like Dr. No the best because it was the first and it was fresh. I also appreciate low-budget productions. Goldfinger is often considered the best of the Connery Bond films, but I put it at number two because I like Dr. No so much. Connery’s Bond was not a “walking encyclopedia” and didn’t rely on “gadgets” as much as later Bonds. While the gadgets are fun (Gee, I wish I had an ejection seat in my car!), Connery’s Bond used his wits and athleticism very well. Which brings us to…
Roger Moore. “The smirk that swallowed James Bond whole.” Moore’s giggling performance makes me think of an over-sexed adolescent. Still, I liked Live and Let Die*.
I think George Lazenby did a competent job. Better than Moore.
I’m still watching the Roger Moore series, so I have not refreshed my memory regarding Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan. The later Bond films are pretty exciting and are filmed, while still keeping to The Formula, with a more modern aesthetic. I am disappointed that Bond now wears an Omega. Everyone knows that James Bond wears a Rolex. (I have my vintage 5513 Submariners – like Moore wore in Live and Let Die – on “James Bond” NATO straps – like Sean Connery wore in Goldfinger. People notice the straps and I’ve had positive comments. Now if only I can find a Rolex 5508 Sub as in Goldfinger for a reasonable price!) One thing that bugs me about the newer films is the commercial tie-ins. Product placement is one thing, but I’m tired of seeing “Get your Official James Bond Big Mac now!” commercials. (Speaking of product tie-ins, Moore wore a digital Seiko in Moonraker. Anyone notice the large Seiko billboard he drove by?)
So ranking by actors, I’ll say: Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, George Lazenby, and trailing way behind, Roger Moore.
Being a child of the 80’s, Roger Moore was James Bond while I was growing up. Through diligent treatment, I’ve almost managed to overcome this affliction.
Favorites (in no particular order):
Goldfinger
For Your Eyes Only (as my first Bond ever, it holds a special place in my heart, regardless of its faults)
Moonraker (One word: Jaws)
The Living Daylights (why does everyone hate this one? For once, Bond is actually being a secret agent, and not the wrinkled teenager that Moore had turned him into)
I also think that any James Bond movie is better than most other action movies, and I have a hard time deciding the “worst” ones.
My favorites:
1.) The Living Daylights. I don’t understand why no one else seems to like it… it has the right mix of guns, girls, and gadgets. Scenery shifts from Vienna to the desert. Plausable villain motives: They want money. No “take over the world” scheme. They’re in it to get rich, and neither one trusts the other all that much.
2.) Goldfinger. The Bond film where everything really clicks. First serious gadget use, but nothing especially exotic… just the tracking systems and the ejector seat in the car.
3.) From Russia with Love. Nearly as good as Goldfinger, and the introduction of Spectre as a major villain organization. (I know that Dr. No was a part of Spectre, but it wasn’t emphasized at all).
4.) Thunderball. Just another good combination. I refer to Bonds 2-4 as the “Good Trio.”
5.) Goldeneye. Not sure why it ranks 5, as I can’t point to anything specifically… It’s just an overall feeling.
The ones I liked the least were:
The Man with the Golden Gun.
A View to a Kill.
License to Kill.
I’m the one who placed the two Christopher Wood-written Bonds (The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) at the bottom of the heap. I stand by that decision. Richard Maibaum wrote the best Bond flicks, of that I have no doubt (if you do, then look at You Only Live Twice – written by Roald Dahl, for gosh sakes! Even with Dahl and Connery, it’s not among the best). But I will grant that A View to a Kill is the worst canonical non-Wood Bond movie.
What’s with all you people who think that On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is among the worst? It’s great! It’s co-written by Maibaum, has great action scenes, grea direction. It as the first attempt by the Bond films to get away from over-reliance on goofy gadgets and make Bond more self-reliant, a very good thing. It had great locales. IT HAD DIANA RIGG!! What’s wrong with you? Lazenby wasnt Connery, but I’ll still take him over Moore.
A partial list of my favorites:
From Russia with Love
Thunderball
Goldfinger
For Your Eyes Ony
The Living Daylights
You Only Live Twice (It was the fist Bond I ever saw – I forgive it)
A big second for Cal’s paragraph above. Yes, I’ll have to say that Mr. Connery is the image of Bond for me but OHMSS was great for me because it staged so many of the scenes exactly the way I’d visualized them when reading the book. (Yep, I’m old enough to remember excitedly waiting for new Bond books to come out). And, of course, it had Diana Rigg.
I used to feel sorry for Mr. Lazenby because he dropped off my radar after the critical panning he took from Bond fans, but a check at the IMDB shows that he’s worked pretty continuously since then, though sometimes in what looks to be Hong Kong produced films. Heck, he was in “Kentucky Fried Movie” and did a lot of cameos and TV work, including portraying Jor-el in a couple of “Superboy” episodes.
As far as the rest of them, I have to go with “From Russia With Love” and “Diamonds Are Forever” (Jimmy Dean - of all people - was GREAT)
Mainly because it doesn’t have that “Bond feel” that I’ve enjoyed since my first Bond (Octopussy, in case you’re wondering). No humor; not even a twinkle in Bond’s eye, much less a flippant quip. (Even Dalton, the most humorless of the subsequent Bonds, at least had Q for comic relief.) No amazing stunts, no cool gadgets. Dr. No himself doesn’t seem to me to have an air of menace…that’s beside the fact that it’s ludicrous for that movie to pass off Joseph Wiseman as Chinese (that would be a minor nitpick). Also, while Ursula Andress certainly cuts a fine figure in her bikini, her role in the film is pretty much eye candy. That can be said for quite a few of the Bond girls, but I prefer the movies in which the leading lady is more than that…fellow/rival secret agents, scientist of some sort, villain’s girlfriend/henchwoman/catspaw…
Doctor No, while establishing many of the standards of the series, is really just a “proto-Bond.” I appreciate it for its place in the history of the series, and I can understand that as the first in the series it can’t reasonably be expected to have all the elements the series would later come to be identified with and enjoyed for, but for pure enjoyment, I personally have to rank it low on the scale.
I think the voters need to state their age or have 2 list. I saw the original 5 when they came out and they defined the genre. anything else is just trash. even his thunderball remake and the diamond one are parodies of the original.
roger moore is a joke. the matt helm/flint movies were more creative and entertaining than the moore films. I would rank the moore films with the UNCLE film.
may I suggest a list of fans over and below 40?
My “over 40” list:
Minor nitpick: Dr. No was half Chinese, half German. But I agree that it would have made more sense to have him played by a man at least partially Asian.
No, it’s not. I believe in Live and Let Die, a bad guy and Bond are on the roof, the bad guy is holding on to Bond’s tie to keep from falling. Bond gets the information he wants, then swipes the tie out of the bad guy’s hand, letting him fall to his death.
My rankings are:
From Russia With Love
Goldfinger
Goldeneye
For Your Eyes Only
Dr. No
You Only Live Twice
Thunderball
Octopussy
The Living Daylights
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
License to Kill
Tomorrow Never Dies
Diamonds Are Forever
The Man with the Golden Gun
The World Is Not Enough
Live and Let Die
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
A View to a Kill
The indestructable Jaws was a good villian poorly executed - and the reason for keeping him alive in so many unbelievable ways through 2 films is so he can switch sides?! Nope, too stupid, this puts TSWLM and Moonraker at the bottom. And in LALD, at the ned, the vilian inflates and floats to the ceiling like a helium balloon and then pops. And hadn’t realized Chuck Jones started directed Bond movies, when did this happen? Man with the Golden Gun and The World is Not Enough was ruined by the female leads, the latter also ruined by poor execution of what could have been a great villian - the couldn’t feel pain angle wasn’t nearly exploited to its full coolness potential.
A View to a Kill was just bad. Not even Christopher Walken could save this one.
Ok people, I love discussing all aspects of Bond, so comments are invited, but please take the time to at least post a list of your 4-6 favorites, so that the poll can produce some kind of concensus.
Crunchy: The scene you refer to is in “The Spy Who Loved Me”. I agree wholeheartedly with you on misusing Jaws in Moonraker. On the DVD documentary, it is revealed that they did this because they got a flood of letters from kids saying they thought Jaws was cool, so why make him a bad guy? But I think he works as a henchman in The Spy Who Loved Me, and I think the movie is solid overall. Mediocre Bond at worst.
After reading the criticism of ranking “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” low, I whipped out the DVD and watched it again. It’s actually not that bad. I still have two problems with it: Lazenby is the first. His performance isn’t terrible, but I could never accept him as Bond. And Blofeld as a physical villain just doesn’t work for me. But it does have the greatest Bond girl. I also went back and tried "The Living Daylights again, and have revised my opinion of it upwards a bit, from bad Bond to mediocre Bond. Dalton is good, but the Bond girl and the villain are both weak. Thus, I have dedided to revise my worst six list. My best six stays the same.