Sixty years ago, on October 5, 1962, audiences were first introduced to the British secret service agent, James Bond, the screen adaption of author Ian Fleming's "blunt instrument," a man just as much a promiscuous playboy as he was a capitalist cold warrior crisscrossing the globe on a a whole host of adventures. For a variety of different reasons, the first Bond film was not an adaption of Fleming's first novel,
Casino Royale, but
Dr. No, an adaptation of the sixth novel. More on that later.
Premiering at the London Pavilion and then the rest of the United Kingdom a few days later,
Dr. No, produced by Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli, directed by Terrence Young, and starring Sean Connery, made its way to North America seven months later. That first Bond movie wasn't as critically successful as one might imagine, with
Time calling James Bond a "
hairy marshmallow" (whatever that means). The film also predictably found enemies at both the Vatican and the Kremlin. But it had just enough fans, including President John F. Kennedy, who had it shown at the White House.
Dr. No was the fifth-highest grossing film of the year.
The world's most famous Scotsman, Connery, went on to play the character six more times (including an unofficial entry that's included in the ranking below). He was followed by actors from Australia, England, Wales, and Ireland. Everyone has their favorite (most usually say Connery), but for me, they were all terrific. The films they appeared in, not so much. Some were good, some were bad, and some were ugly. They have been ranked frequently over the past decade or so; below is mine:
28. Casino Royale (1967)
Believe it or not, but
Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel,
has actually been adapted for the screen three times, not one, with the second being when producer Charles K. Feldman got his hands on the film rights for the novel in 1962. Feldman failed to come to an agreement with Broccoli and Saltzman on adapting the story for the screen, and by that time, the Bond franchise had already taken off without the very first story, so Feldman felt he couldn't compete with the official Bond films starring Sean Connery as 007. The result is that this
Casino Royale is a spoof of James Bond films and not a faithful adaptation; it is also one of the least funny, most non-sensical, and most arbitrary motion pictures in history, coming across like a mismanaged collection of four bizarre films squished into one (with no less than five directors). Beyond that, while it would be an understatement to call James Bond a creep, never before had the character (played here by 56-year-old David Niven) gotten into a tub with a 17-year-old who bathes him. Even without the creepiness (and racism) of the film, none of the story makes any sense. For a reason I cared little in investing any amount of brainpower to understand, this "Sir James Bond" Niven plays becomes the new M and has a host of other spies be remained James Bond, including one played by Peter Sellers and another played by Ursula Andress (who was also in
Dr. No). While the legends surrounding the
on-set rivalry between Orson Welles as Le Chriffe and the chaos-causing Sellers are intriguing, nothing else of the film is.
Best part: Orson Welles?
27. Casino Royale (1954)
It may come as a surprise to Bond lovers, but Sean Connery technically wasn't the first James Bond (and the first James Bond wasn't even British). That honor goes to U.S. actor Barry Nelson, who (with a square face and aw-shucks personality) gave Bond (played here as a CIA agent and often called "Jimmy") more of a self-effacing rather than dapper persona. The first adaptation of the novel
Casino Royale was on an episode of the CBS anthology series
Climax!, which was able to adapt the novel after CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000. Nelson (who later jokingly called himself "
00-one-and-a-half") took the part so that
he could play opposite Peter Lorre, who more or less phones it in as Le Chiffre but is still more interesting to watch than everyone else. Nelson also noted years later that "the Bond thing wasn't all that well known" at that point (only one year after the novel's release and eight years before the cinematic release of
Dr. No). That's ultimately the problem with this hour-long adaptation, a live, sometimes clunky Bond lookalike before Bond was a thing. It's probably a must-watch for Bond fanatics and possibly pop culture buffs; for everyone else, it's a bore and should be skipped.
Best part: Peter Lorre, even though he doesn't appear the least bit interested
26. Die Another Day (2002)
The
Batman and Robin of the Bond franchise,
Die Another Day is an outlandish, absurd, and pathetic entry to celebrate what was then Bond's fortieth anniversary. Why is it so bad? So many reasons. It starts, though, with some interesting stuff about the geopolitics of the West's missteps in places like North Korea and Cuba, though it all brings back uncomfortable memories of the Bush administration's hawkish neoconservative policies. But at around minute forty-five, things go haywire. That's when we get lots of goofy stuff about face transplants, invisible cars, lasers, glacier-surfing, and ice palaces. Much of the acting leaves a lot to be desired, as well. Toby Stephens as Gustav Graves is quite possibly the worst Bond villain ever, and he probably would have been better suited in a spoof of Bond films.
Die Another Day is Rosamund Pike's first film, so she shouldn't be blamed for such a forgettable performance, but Halle Berry (as the NSA agent Jinx, who nearly got her own spinoff) literally won an Oscar during the filming, so it's disappointing that she's also so uninteresting in the film. This is the final of Pierce Brosnan's four Bond films. From there, he went on to distance himself as much as possible from the Bond image in an eclectic arrangement of films like
Mamma Mia!,
The Matador,
and
The Ghost Writer.
Best part: I have no idea.
25. Never Say Never Again (1983)
Never Say Never Again was writer and producer Kevin McClory's long-awaited swing at a Bond movie once the courts sided with him. The whole legal drama is a long, complicated story, but the gist of it is that Ian Fleming went to work on creating the first Bond film with Jack Whittingham and McClory. Eventually, however, Fleming decided to put the story the three of them created onto page with Thunderball, his next novel, without informing McClory or Whittingham, who tried to stop the publication. After a lengthy court battle in which Fleming's health deteriorated, Fleming was ordered to credit Whittinngham and McClory, with McClory gaining hold of the film rights (including the rights to SPECTRE, which is why the organization stopped appearing in Bond films until McClory's heirs sold the rights to Eon Productions). McClory came to an agreement with the Bond producers in which he would be credited as the sole producer of Thunderball but would not be allowed to adapt the story for another ten years. Then, after another legal win, McClory was free to make his own Bond movie. Yet another win was scoring Sean Connery to return as Bond eleven years after he stated he never would play the character again (hence the title). Finally, Warner Bros. released the film in the summer of 1983, pitting it against Eon's Octopussy, starring Roger Moore. Octopussy would be the winner at the box office, but Never Say Never Again was more of a critical darling, then and now. Why? I have no idea. Thunderball is boring as hell, but not as boring as Never Say Never Again, which ultimately just feels as if someone sat McClory and Irvin Kershner (the director) down and explained to them what Bond films were, and then they tried to replicate it. Never Say Never Again is monotonous, the acting is awful (especially Edward Fox as an over-the-top M and Rowan Atkinson showing up for comic relief), and it really makes you appreciate the formula of the Eon films.
Best part: Other than the somewhat engaging final showdown between Bond and Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera), the only remotely interesting thing about this movie is the behind-the-scenes legal drama. Fun fact (I guess): Connery was trained by Steven Seagal, who
broke Connery's wrist.
24. Thunderball (1965)
There isn't all the much to write about
Thunderball that wasn't just covered in its remake (see above). I felt almost an equal amount of boredom with both films. I will share one personal anecdote, though: Luciana Paluzzi as Fiona Vulpe being shot in the back during her dance with 007 is the first memory I have of James Bond. (Quite a morbid memory of the franchise.) Years later, I watched the whole thing. I didn't like
Thunderball the first time; I didn't like it the second time, either. Despite its high praise (it is currently ranked the
sixth best in the franchise on Rotten Tomatoes), this is probably the most overrated installment. As is the case with
Never Say Never Again, the five-decade history of the legal battle behind it is far more interesting than anything in the final product. Aside from that drama, there's nothing special about
Thunderball. The opening scene is absurd, the jet pack is laughable, the villain is forgettable, and there's nothing there that we hadn't seen in the previous three movies (except a bunch of underwater stuff).
Best part: the theme song sung by Tom Jones
23. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
There's only so many ways one can write "this franchise is offensive," but it is a reoccurring theme when discussing these films. In particular, essentially every early Bond film (especially the Connery ones) was insulting in some ways; sometimes, the movie would be racist, sometimes it was sexist, sometimes it was offensive in other ways, and sometimes all of the above. Here, in Diamonds Are Forever (Connery's first time back as Bond since 1965 and the first Bond of the 70s), it's all of the above. Even if it weren't for that, it is increasingly dull and nonsensical as it moves along. The plot is something about a diamond smuggling operation that Bond has to investigate being run by Bond's arch nemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (who's not in the source material), here played in a very camp performance by Charles Gray (who also appeared in a different role in You Only Live Twice). Diamonds Are Forever definitely was a big swing back in the direction of silliness after the much more somber On Her Majesty's Secret Service; at the time, Saltzman and Broccoli (who considered other actors—including Roger Moore—before acquiescing to the studio's request to bring back Connery for a then-record of $1.2 million) probably felt that it was necessary course correction after the cool reaction to the previous installment. A more recent consensus, however, has emerged and totally disagrees.
Best part: Putter Smith and Bruce Glover as the henchmen Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint, respectively, and Lana Wood as Plenty O'Toole
22. Octopussy (1983)
There are some good parts of the goofily titled Octopussy (adapted from the series of short stories by Fleming called Octopussy and the Living Daylights): There's a fight on a train, the return of Maud Adams (in a new role as the titular character), and Bond traveling to India and cleverly outsmarting the villain, an exiled Afghan prince (awkwardly played by non-Asian French star Louis Jourdan) who is working to disrupt the detente between the West and the Soviet Union. Other than that, it's a weird movie. If Steve Birkoff chewing up the scenery as a Russia general intent on implementing Soviet superiority is your thing, you've got plenty of that here. There's a new M in the film, too: Robert Brown, who played Admiral Hargreaves in The Spy Who Loved Me; it's never stated if this is the same character. Brown took over the role after Bernard Lee, who played M in eleven films from 1962 to 1979, died in 1981. Brown provides just as good a job in the role as Lee did before him. Unfortunately, though, most of the film is a bore, with Bond doing the Tarzan call being a particular low-point in the franchise. The film's jaw-dropping stunts that feature Bond pitted against henchman Gobinda (Kabir Bedi) on top of an in-flight airplane are tempered with fight choreography that's comically bad. Ultimately, Octopussy is the worst Roger Moore Bond film.
Best part: the plane stunts
21. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Tomorrow Never Dies is about as forgettable of a Bond film as possible. While it's a neat idea to have a Bond villain who makes many think of real-life villains like Rupert Murdoch, it's considerably less interesting to watch the usually brilliant Jonathan Pryce do a lot of mustache twirling while playing such a character, in this case a media mogul named Elliot Carver who wants to create military havoc between the UK and China in order to eventually get exclusive broadcasting rights in the latter for one hundred years. It's a rare, almost pathetically bad performance as he waltzes around detailing his plans to whomever will listen. The only saving grace for the film is Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin, a Chinese Ministry of State Security agent who works with Bond to stop Carver. Yeoh and Pierce Brosnan make a pretty good team, but they're not enough to save the film from being anything more than a hackneyed action flick of the 1990s.
Best part: Michelle Yeoh
20. License to Kill (1989)
License to Kill, the first original title for the series and the last Bond film for a variety of those who had worked in the films, such as director John Glen, actor Robert Brown, and producer Cubby Broccoli, took the series into terribly gritty territory. The movie, far from the science fiction adventure of
Moonraker or the romance of
The Living Daylights, sees such gruesome scenes of sharks chewing off legs, explosive decompression, and the act of a man being shredded alive. Thus, the movie makes for a humorless, dull, excessively violent two-hour slog. Timothy Dalton, in his second and final outing as James Bond, looked like he was as disinterested as the audience, or (as Richard Corliss at
Time put it) "for every plausible reason, [Dalton] looks as bored in his second Bond film as Sean Connery did in his sixth." The film struggled in the United States, where it was up against other major summer blockbusters like
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and
Batman. Who could blame audiences for staying away? At its core, it's just a bad attempt at an 80s action flick.
Best part: Benicio Del Toro as the henchman Dario
19. The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)
The good news is that The Man With the Golden Gun, Roger Moore's second outing as Bond, is not nearly as bad as I remembered it. However, it is still a flawed film. Like Moore's first Bond film (Live and Let Die), the plot is mediocre, the chase scenes are boring, and this film (the ninth in the series) doesn't add much to a franchise at a time when it must have been feeling stale. True, there are some neat things, like the martial arts fights and the shipwrecked RMS Queen Elizabeth serving as covert headquarters for MI6. There's also the best part of the film: Christopher Lee as Scaramanga (more on him later). Much of the specific criticism has been about Britt Ekland as Goodnight, Bond's assistant in the field (who, of course, is seduced by him). Goodnight is meant to be comic relief (Clifton James as a vacationing J.W. Pepper from the previous film for some reason also returns for comic relief that misfires), but the humor about Goodnight often materializes in the form of "women, amiright?" type of jokes, as Goodnight clumsily messes up practically everything. Other criticism has been made in the way Hervé Villechaize as Nick Nack only serves the film as one ableist joke after another. I would also add that this is one of the male gazeiest of all the Bond films, with several scenes of Bond creepily gazing upon naked or nearly naked women. Now, about the good things: it's mainly Christopher Lee as Scaramanga. Lee, a step-cousin of Bond author Ian Fleming, is incredibly suave and debonair here in one of his most celebrated roles. He's the first villain to challenge Bond's ego and arguably false sense of justice and morality. To Scaramanga, both he and Bond are assassins, and talented ones at that. "To us, Mr. Bond," he says. "We are the best."
Best part: Christopher Lee
18. Live and Let Die (1973)
With Sean Connery out of the official Bond films for good, Roger Moore (who had been considered for the part two previous times), entered the franchise as the third official James Bond. It's a night-and-day difference between Connery's last official showing and Moore's first. In
Diamonds Are Forever, Connery was out of shape and charismatic but apathetic. In
Live and Let Die, Moore was a breath of fresh air, possessing noteworthy chemistry with his costar, Jane Seymour as Solitaire, and beginning the films' approach to treating the character and all his adventures in a lighter way. Moore would claim that none of these situations in the films are realistic, so why pretend that they aren't? For some, this was blasphemous, but for others, it really worked. Regarding
Live and Let Die, the film can be a bit boring (particularly those chase scenes, which are usually boring in Bond films), and there are other problems, as expected, such as what Zina Hutton
called "the stereotyping of Black people, the co-opting of and misappropriation of diasporic religions and cultures, and the ridiculous preoccupation with virginity and women's sexuality." Critics then and now have also complained that Yaphet Kotto as Dr. Kanaga, the Caribbean prime minister who plans on flushing Harlem with heroin for free to create a monopoly, is uninteresting. Kotto, however, while being a bit uneven from start to finish, is a joy to watch, in my opinion, as are his henchmen: Julius W. Harris as Tee Hee, Earl Jolly Brown as Whisper, and Geoffrey Holder as Baron Samedi. The role of Kanaga is a step away from a more hackneyed villain like Blofeld.
Live and Let Die may be boring at times, but with its delightful new star, its utilization of blaxploitation, and its electrifying rock and roll opener, it all feels so new.
Best part: the McCartney song, one of his best in a long list of exceptional songs over the past sixty years
17. Spectre (2015)
How can a Bond film start so spectacularly and end so spectacularly dull?
Spectre pulls off such a feat. With an epic, wonderfully choreographed and executed opening during the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City,
Spectre starts like few other Bond films before or since. It ends, however, with a gigantic yawn, punctuated by a villain and backstory nobody wanted. Christoph Walz (five year's after winning an Oscar for playing a terrifying Nazi in
Inglorious Basterds) was a natural choice for the next Bond villain, but he had big shoes to fill and didn't fill them. Dave Bautista is an effective henchman, but for an actor who so brilliantly uses his voice in the
Guardians of the Galaxy films to be lacking any dialogue is a missed opportunity.
Spectre also inches its way towards the problematic treatment of women that was largely lacking in
Casino Royale. In the case of
Quantum of Solace, Bond's creepy sexual manipulation of Fields is so inappropriate that Gemma Arterton now
regrets taking the role, while in
Skyfall, it was the film's (and Bond's) treatment of Sévérine (Bérénice Maralohe) and his cold reaction to her death that reminded us of his lack of humanity. In
Spectre, the initial excitement of having a woman close to Bond's age (played by Monica Bellucci) was quickly dashed when we saw how spine-chillingly horrid his behavior towards her is. Beyond that, like most Bond films,
Spectre, at almost two and a half hours, is way too long, and it really grows stale after Bond and Dr. Madeleine Swan (Léa Seydoux) escape from Austria. There's still more than an hour to go after that.
Best part: the Day of the Dead opening
16. No Time to Die (2021)
If
Spectre left me feeling like the franchise was scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas,
No Time to Die simply confirmed it. To be clear,
No Time to Die is a finer film than its immediate predecessor, and it's not necessarily a bad one. But at two hours and forty-five minutes, it really pushes the limits for an audience member's patience to watch essentially the same formula and the same beats and the same basic schtick that had been employed twenty-four previous times for the past sixty years. Fortunately, there are some slight innovations and some "big swings," if you will. For one, Lashana Lynch takes over the 007 title in a fine performance but one that Jourdain Searles
wondered why existed at all, comparing her to being "lit like a ghost haunting the movie," which seemed especially unnecessary given Searles' (accurate) prediction that Lynch would not be the official new 007. Yet it's refreshing that with Lynch, Ana De Armas, and a returning Léa Seydoux performing more complex (or at least less objectified) women, Bond here is finally not the creep he was in literally every one before it. He's still an assassin, however, as villain Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) frequently reminds him, and he's still in a movie that doesn't realize how badly it is overstaying its welcome, and the gratuitous violence only increased my desire to see this never-ending franchise end.
Best part: Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell's Oscar-winning song
15. For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Trying for a more serious and realistic plot after after some far-fetched adventures in previous Moore-as-Bond films is For Your Eyes Only, the first of five Bond films directed by John Glen, who also edited On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker. Unfortunately, like most Bond films, the plot is overly convoluted and the film drags from time to time, with numerous different action sequences—some involving sharks, some involving ski chases, and some involving rock climbing—appearing better on paper than on film. Julian Glover (who was previously considered for taking over the role of James Bond) plays the bad guy here, a Greek smuggler working for the KGB, but he was ultimately a more interesting villain in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter films than he was here. By this point, however, Moore was fitting seamlessly in the role, and every bit of dialogue he delivers is how it should sound. He wasn't as agile as Daniel Craig, but by this point he very much was James Bond, charming, intelligent, handsome, but very much a cold-blooded killer. Another highlight is the humorous ending scene involving Margaret Thatcher (played by comedian Janet Brown, who often impersonated Thatcher).
Best part: the pre-title sequence, the one in which a man in a wheelchair bearing striking resemblance to Blofeld (who couldn't be called that because the producers had lost the rights to the character in court) and is deposed of by Bond in a helicopter, signifying what must have been producer Cubby Broccoli extending a middle finger to Kevin McClory, as if to say Bond films could easily survive without Blofeld
14. The World Is Not Enough (1999)
The best part of The World Is Not Enough (the Bond family motto, according to On Her Majesty's Secret Service) is Sophie Marceau as the manipulative, cunning oil heiress Elektra King. In her performance, she hits all the right notes. To date, King is the (spoiler alert) only lead female Bond villain in its history, and it's a pity because the relationship between her and Bond is so intriguing. After King exits the picture, it's hard to stay motivated to finish the film, mainly because Robert Carlyle as Renard, the other main villain (a man who feels no pain because of a bullet lodged in his brain), isn't particularly interesting. Other than Marceau, The World Is Not Enough is about as mediocre of a Bond film as there can be. It's not bad like Die Another Day or Tomorrow Never Dies, but it's not as good as GoldenEye.
Best part: Other than Marceau's performance, the best part of the film is Desmond Llewelyn's final moment as Q, the part he played seventeen times.
Q: "Now pay attention, 007. I've always tried to teach you two things: First, never let them see you bleed."
Bond: "And the second?"
Q: "Always have an escape plan."
13. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Using the title of a Fleming story but not the story under his orders (Fleming was reportedly stung by the negative reviews of his book, one in which Bond does not show up until two-thirds of the way through), The Spy Who Loved Me, while better than the previous two, goes on for a bit too long and has an increasingly bland climax. Other parts of the film, however, work. For example, Curd Jürgens as Karl Stromberg does his best to infuse at least something interesting into a somewhat stale Bond villain, this one a rich man who aims to create a new world by destroying the old one with nuclear weapons. The villain, a repeat in many ways of villains of Bond past, works because Jürgens works. Otherwise, Stromberg is forgettable, like much of the film. However, the film is still watchable, and watchable doesn't necessarily mean bad. One segment of The Spy Who Loved Me that has remained one of the most notable moments is Bond's famous ski jump performed by Rick Sylvester. All is quiet as he spectacularly descends for twenty-one seconds off Mount Asgard, and then the Union Jack parachute bursts open as the scene is punctuated by Marvin Hamlisch's brassy arrangement of the famous theme. Note the danger of such a stunt, too. One of his skis nearly sliced the parachute, which would have severely jeopardized Sylvester.
12. You Only Live Twice (1967)
Of all the Bond films that served as inspiration for the first
Austin Powers movie in 1997,
You Only Live Twice is probably the largest source. With flesh-eating pirañas, peculiar character names like Kissy Suzuki (Hama Mie), and Donald Pleasence as Blofeld (the first time we see his face, sporting a pronounced scar and a bald head), this film continued Bond's adventures away from the the slightly more realistic and low-key drama of
From Russia With Love and into farcical territory. Critics at the time, too, seemed to have started to grow tired of the Bond stuff, with Roger Ebert
complaining that "the formula fails to work its magic." Beyond that, it's just as patriarchal and naturally sexist as the previous films (with a screenplay from Roald Dahl, of all people, who included lines like, "Why do Chinese girls taste so different from the others?" and moments of Bond getting a soapy bath by a few Japanese women after he's told that "in Japan, men come first, women come second"—another
thing Austin Powers had fun with). Still,
You Only Live Twice is an improvement over
Thunderball, and all the Japanese scenery is lovely. Fun fact: At one point, Bond fights a henchman played by Peter Maivia, the maternal grandfather of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Best part: the car chase involving a metallic helicopter followed by a rooftop fight
11. The Living Daylights (1987)
The story of how Timothy Dalton came to be James Bond is almost legendary. Dalton had once been considered to replace Connery as Bond, but he decided he was too young. After Moore was ready to leave, many actors were considered to replace him, including Sam Neill, but Cubby Broccoli chose Pierce Brosnan, whose show
Remington Steele was about to end. When the announcement of Brosnan as Bond had brought a sudden new interest in the show, NBC decided to renew it, thereby ending Brosnan's chances (temporarily) and finally allowing Dalton to take over. Dalton's Bond is a fascinating one, and he told interviewers at the time that he went to the source material to find a Bond audiences hadn't seen before. Whereas Moore was more than willing to smirk and almost wink at the camera, Dalton looked like a stone-cold killer. Given how much audiences have appreciated Daniel Craig's ruthlessness as the character these past years, it's fair to say that Dalton was ahead of his time. Additionally, Dalton here occasionally has the jokes of the Moore Bond as well as the sensitivity of the Lazenby Bond. He has genuine chemistry with Maryam d'Abo as Kara; for once, it seems Bond actually has a crush on someone and wants to be with them longer than one night. And other than a possible fling that's hinted at in the beginning, Kara is the only woman Bond spends time with. Rita Kempley even
guessed in the
Washington Post that Bond "probably also practices safe sex." This isn't to say he's not a "sexist misogynist dinosaur" like he was called in a later film; he very much is, especially (in one of the series' most despicable moments) when he forcibly removes a woman's top in order to distract a guard. The villains also are a series low-point: Jeroen Krabbé as a renege Soviet general is a weird, bumbling attempt at comic relief, and Joe Don Baker (who was much more interesting later in the series as a cagey CIA agent) is odd as a war-mongering arms dealer. Finally, the film's romanticizing of the mujahideen hasn't aged so well decades later.
Best part: Dalton's debut performance and the stunt work as Bond and Necros (Andreas Wisniewski) fight in and outside of a plane flying high above Afghanistan
10. A View to a Kill (1985)
One of the laziest examples of groupthink in the decades-long discussion of Bond films and their rankings is to dismiss
A View to a Kill, Roger Moore's final outing as James Bond, as one of his worst when it fact it's one of his best. On Rotten Tomatoes, it is listed as the second-worst Bond film, surpassed by only the 1967
Casino Royale. (They're not alone in their criticism. Due to the violence of the film, particularly as the villain massacres a group of men, Moore himself found it to be his
least favorite Bond film.) Moore, who was fifty-seven during the time of filming, may have started to phone it in a little, but he very much still was Bond at that point, from my point of view. He's accompanied by one of the best songs (the title song by Duran Duran and longtime composer John Barry, which is still the only Bond song to have reached number one in the
Billboard Hot 100), one of the best villains (the one and only Christopher Walken as Max Zorin, the corporate head/Nazi experiment/ex-Soviet agent/psychopath who plans on destroying Silicon Valley), and one of the best henchmen (Grace Jones as May Day, Zorin's lover and a deadly assassin). Walken as Zoran, in particular, is a delight. 1985 was a time sandwiched between his work in more serious art films like
Annie Hall and
The Deer Hunter and when he started to become better known for his typical schtick—namely due to his unique voice—after movies like
Pulp Fiction. I'd argue that
A View to a Kill is one of his most enjoyable performances. As for the film holistically, I still don't understand why most people don't like it. As good as
The Spy Who Loved Me and
For Your Eyes Only are, they drag in a way that
A View to a Kill does not. Fun fact: Alison Doody as one of Zorin's henchman and Dolph Lundgren (who was dating Jones at the time) as a KGB agent both make their film debut in this movie.
Best part: Christopher Walken, Grace Jones, and Duran Duran, staples of the 80s
9. Moonraker (1979)
The most controversial choice on this list might putting Moonraker, the spy-fi Bond movie (the one where he goes to space) that is considered one of Roger Moore's worst, as Moore's best. Have at me, haters! Look, Moonraker does have its flaws, with the whimsical nature of Moore's Bond era starts venturing into parody, the gadgets saving him at every turn, and the python scene being totally absurd. But it's also the rare Bond film that really tries something different, and I think it mostly works. Loosely adapting Fleming's novel about Bond trying to stop industrialist Hugo Drax (played in the film by Michael Lionsdale) from destroying London with a nuclear bomb, the film takes the setting not simply from only being in London but also to Italy, Brazil, and (of course) to space as the producers tried to capitalize on audience's post-Star Wars science fiction crave. For those who detest the fact that Bond chases Drax and his henchman, the returning Richard Kiel as Jaws, into space to the Moonraker station, there are still almost two hours of all the stuff they loved in Bond films, including thrilling stunts, like the exceptional skydiving scene that opens the film. And while being a tad boring at times, Moonraker ultimately progresses at a brisker pace than either The Spy Who Loved Me or You Only Live Twice.
Best part: Derek Meddings' Oscar-nominated visual effects, John Barry's score, Ken Adams' sets, and Michael Lionsdale as Hugo Drax
8. Quantum of Solace (2008)
Quantum of Solace, the last Bond film to use an Ian Fleming title (though it has nothing to do with Fleming's story), is usually regarded as one of the least-liked of all the Craig Bond films, probably because it's wedged in between his two best (
Casino Royale and
Skyfall). This is at least partly unfair. Among the strengths of the film are a decent song sung by Jack White and Alicia Keys and an interesting geopolitical plot involving a philanthropist named Dominic Greene (played by Mathieu Amalric) as the CIA (which often comes across in a positive light in Bond flicks) contently watches him destroy Bolivia as long as they get their due. Supporting actors like Olga Kurylennko also do well. And the film's relatively short length at 106 minutes in a franchise of overlong movies is refreshing. But what harms the film is its typical adrenaline; the opera scene in which Bond spies on members of Quantum is far more interesting to watch than any of the action scenes. I first wrote about
Quantum of Solace as a university student for my
school's newspaper. My opinion of it largely has not changed since seeing it nearly thirteen years ago, yet in the long run, it's one of the more underrated entries.
Best part: the opera scene
7. Dr. No (1962)
Dr. No is the very first official Bond film, and it obviously set the stage for the next twenty-four films. While lacking some of the more familiar ingredients of the franchise (the movie opening to the Bond theme and then "Three Blind Mice" instead of a big ballad being the most obvious), the film does include elements fans would become used to: exotic locations (in this case, Jamaica), gorgeous women (played here by Ursula Andress, Zena Marshall, and Eunice Gayson), the famous Bond theme—written by Monty Norman or John Barry (
we'll never know)—and a menacing villain (Joseph Wiseman as the titular character). Of course, the film also introduced us to the more ignoble traits of the franchise, like the morbid quips about a violent death ("I think they were on their way to a funeral"), racism (several Chinese characters are played by white people), and Bond's excessive drinking. Finally, for those who have always known the Bond films to be high on adrenaline and action, the unhurried tempo of
Dr. No might come as a disappointment to some, but to others, it may be a breath of fresh air.
Best part: the introduction to James Bond—the very first time he says the iconic line—as he's smoking a cigarette and dominating in a game of baccarat
6. From Russia With Love (1963)
Let's go ahead and get the bad parts out of the way first. It's hard to tell which of the first two Bond films is the one that hasn't aged so well; just as
Dr. No has its issues with the depiction of women and non-white people, so, too, does
From Russia With Love, with probably the most notable example being a bizarre, cringeworthy fight between two Romani women, a scene in which modern-day critics have called out for its "
hypersexualization/objectification of Romani women," while others have called it a "
culturally insensitive sojourn typical in early Bond films." This is not the only objectionable scene in the film, but it's the most frustrating. If you can forgive the film for that and its other sins (like its intricate plot and Bond slapping a woman), you will likely note some of the reasons why it remains one of the most acclaimed of the 25 films. Like
Dr. No, its calmer pace may frustrate some, but to others it's a welcome pause from the non-stop action of later Bond movie, and it gives the film a slightly more authentic, mature vibe, particularly as Bond's stalker Donald "Red" Grant finally catches him on the train. (Robert Shaw's performance as Grant is one of his many iconic performances.) The film's screenplay by Richard Maibaum also wisely erases the homophobia and biphobia of the novel while also depoliticizing the story a bit (remember that the film was released only a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis) by having the fictional SPECTRE and not the real-life SMERSH be the main villainous organization while keeping the book's clever (if confusing) story.
Best part: Bond and Grant's confrontation in the train
5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service immediately reassures us that this Bond universe we've become familiar with will continue. Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, and Desmond Llewelyn all appear in the first moments respectively as M, Moneypenny, and Q (who appears in two scenes, though none of them involve him dishing out gadgets to Bond, as the filmmakers wanted to try a different, more realistic approach that more closely follows Fleming's novel). But from there, we get a much different Bond film. For one, Sean Connery is nowhere to be seen. Instead, he's replaced with the Australian actor George Lazenby, who was a newcomer to acting. In the film, Lazenby is joined by the legendary Diana Rigg, whose performance as Tracy di Vicenzo makes her arguably the finest Bond girl. Telly Savalas replaces Donald Pleasance as Blofeld, who apparently has forgotten that he met Bond in the previous film, as he doesn't recognize him. (The filmmakers scratched a planned scene involving Bond getting plastic surgery and just decided to ignore the continuity error.) Contemporary reviews of the film were harsh, especially towards Lazenby. Modern-day reviews, however, have been much more favorable. Directors Steven Sodenbergh and Christopher Nolan have both called it their favorite Bond film, with the latter using it as an influence for
Inception. I'm totally dumbfounded as to why contemporary critics of the film were so disparaging toward Lazenby. I think it's a terrific performance. In many ways, he's better than Connery (cheekily referred to as "the other fellow" in the opening scene). Lazenby's Bond—when he's scared, when he doesn't know what to do, when he falls in love and then becomes heartbroken—is a far more interesting portrait. Anyway, the story goes that Lazenby's agent convinced him that James Bond would not be able to survive the cinema of the 70s, and so he walked away from the offer to appear in many more Bond films. Lazenby has frequently mentioned that this was a mistake. It's one of the great disappointments of the franchise that he didn't appear in more.
Best part: John Barry's beautiful score incorporating the theme song (sung by Louis Armstrong)
4. Skyfall (2012)
Skyfall was Eon's attempt to start to bring Bond back to the known knowns of the franchise as the Craig era marched its way closer to the "Bond formula." Despite this, the film was still able to find a way (similar to
Casino Royale) of making the whole ride seem much more fresh than it had been a decade before. As of this writing, it was the final time the studio was able to pull off such a trick. This success is perhaps namely due to the direction of Oscar-winner Sam Mendes, who brought along frequent collaborators like composer Thomas Newman and cinematographer Rickard Deakins. Together, the work they created here (such as the opening chase in Istanbul, the fight on the Shanghai skyscraper, the battle at the Macau casino, or the pursuit in the London underground) feel original and exhilarating. What further helps
Skyfall is the swan song performance of Judi Dench as M, a Moneypenny (Naomi Harris) with action, the new Q (Ben Winshaw), Adele's Oscar-winning title song, Ralph Fiennes' first appearance in the franchise, and Javier Bardem's chilling performance as Silva, a frightening psychopath with some serious mommy issues. Furthermore, the winks and nods to
Goldfinger,
GoldenEye, and
others on the series' fiftieth birthday are clever.
Best part: Bond chasing Silva in the London Underground
3. Goldfinger (1964)
Goldfinger is considered by many to be the
Citizen Kane of the Bond movies. This is the film that established the essential formula that more or less has been used since: start with an opening where Bond needs to destroy something (usually something not related to the main plot), and immediately follow up with a big, loud ballad ("Goldfinger," by John Barry, Anthony Newley, and Leslie Bricusse and sung by Shirley Bassey); get an assignment from M and toys from Q; meet beautiful women (in this, they're played by Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton, Tania Mallet, Nadja Regin, and Margaret Nolan); order a vodka martini—shaken, not stirred; defeat the villain and his henchman while quipping about it ("He blew a fuse"); and save the world. But all of that stuff is less interesting than the finest parts of the film, which are its quieter moments: the golf game, for example, or the drive through the Urseren Valley in Switzerland, and, of course, Bond nearly being sliced in half by a laser. It's one of the few times we really see Bond sweat and not know what to do; indeed, he's panicking. "Do you expect me to talk?" he shouts out to Goldfinger. "No, Mr. Bond," comes the mocking reply. "I expect you to die." That line is perfectly delivered by Gert Fröbe, who gives the franchise its very best villain. Ten years ago, I ranked
Goldfinger as the best of the Bond movies.
Goldfinger currently sits at number one on
Rotten Tomatoes' list of the movies, and Roger Ebert also called it his
favorite. What has changed for me? Likely my awareness of the problems of the movie, namely its racism (while less racist than
the novel and the previous two films) and the single worst moment in all the films: Bond's unquestionable rape of Pussy Galore.
Best part: "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die."
2. GoldenEye (1995)
GoldenEye was the first Bond film I ever watched from start to finish. I was nine years old (a bit young for a Bond movie), and between that and the constant hours playing the Nintendo 64 game adaptation released two years after the film, I was fascinated from the start.
GoldenEye, the first Bond film after the end of the Cold War and the first to be produced by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (the children of Cubby Broccoli), was a breath of fresh air after a long six-year absence of the character. It was meant to be a project for Timothy Dalton, but it fell into development hell as MGM and United Artists got into legal trouble. With the long delays, Dalton parted ways, thereby allowing Pierce Brosnan a second chance at the role. In addition to a perfect debut as the character, Brosnan is supported by a pretty good cast that includes Sean Bean as the villain, a former 00 agent; Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp, the sadistic Georgian henchwoman (with a
very non-Georgian accent) who asphyxiates men to death with her legs; Izabella Scorupco as a programer who survives the GoldenEye blast (and who provides some of the finest acting of all the Bond girls); Joe Don Baker as a crusty CIA agent in Moscow; Robbie Coltrane as a gangster/ex-KGB agent; Gottfried John as a traitorous Russian general; Alan Cumming as Boris, the "invincible" programer; the returning Desmond Llewelyn as Q; Samantha Bond as Moneypenny; and Judi Dench's debut as M. The film also has a killer song written by Bono and the Edge and performed by Tina Turner.
GoldenEye has its flaws, mainly the senseless, sometimes comical violence and the absurd opening, but the film holds up remarkably well almost thirty years later.
Best part: the tank ride
1. Casino Royale (2006)
After Eon Productions was finally able to get its hands on the rights to
Casino Royale in 1999 after Sony exchanged them for MGM's rights to
Spider-Man, Fleming's first novel was finally ready after so many decades. With Pierce Brosnan leaving the role after his contract for four Bond films finished, two hundred actors were considered to replace him, with one of them being Henry Caville, who was seriously considered for the role, but his young age prevented him from landing the part. Despite a bizarre and non-sensical backlash to the casting of Daniel Craig (with fans
throwing a fit over a blond Bond—even though Roger Moore had blond hair), Craig proved that he was a far more toned, athletic, and brutal Bond than what we were used to. Martin Campbell, just as he had helped resurrect Bond a decade earlier with
GoldenEye, was back at the helm, and his direction offered a nice bolt of energy in the arm, even if some of the action pieces (namely the chases in Madagascar, Miami-Daede Airport, and Venice) drag the film on for twenty minutes too long. (As good as Campbell's direction is, it certainly would have been something to have seen
Quentin Tarantino's version.) Beyond Craig's BAFTA-winning performance, Judi Dench's return as M, and the undeniable chemistry Craig and Eva Green as Vesper Lynd had, the other main attraction of the film is Madds Mikkelsen's perfect performance as Le Chriffe, perhaps Bond's greatest foe.
Best part: the poker game
.jpeg)
Posts
