James Bond films, from best to worst!

[Pinsir]

So I watched all the James Bond films within the span of a month or something. I’m not a huge James Bond fan, even now to be honest, though I was always interested in their cultural influence, particularly the Sean Connery films. I just wanted to know what everyone else thought of them.

Sean Connery – All of these movies are serviceable in some manner, though I found the latter films to be ‘less magical,’ though even they have redeeming moments, except You Only Live Twice, which of the Eon films, is probably the second worst film in the franchise.

• Dr. No – Great
• From Russia with Love – Good
• Goldfinger – Good
• Thunderball – Okay
• You Only Live Twice - Bad
• Diamonds are Forever – Okay

George Lazenby – Lazeby’s singular outing is canonically the most important, Diamonds are Forever is a direct sequel and references to the events of this film occur in For Your Eyes Only and License to Kill. So it is a must watch. I know this film is pretty popular and I can see why.

• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – Great

Roger Moore – A lot of these movies can be described as being ‘comfey,’ they mostly range from okay to good with nothing standing out as exceptional in either extreme. This is the period where James Bond film’s were clearly no longer the cultural vectors they once were and instead started to pursue trends, i.e. Let’s make a space movie because of Star Wars!

• Live and Let Die – Good
• The Man with the Golden Gun – Okay
• The Spy Who Loved Me – Good
• Moonraker – Okay
• For Your Eyes Only – Good
• Octopussy – Bad
• A View to Kill – Bad

[Pinsir]

Timothy Dalton – Both of Dalton’s films are severely underrated, though they suffer the problem that the Roger Moore films did (particularly License to Kill which is obviously part of the broader Reagan era War on Drugs).

• The Living Daylights – Good
• Licence to Kill – Great

Piece Brosnan – Probably the worst James Bond in my opinion, GoldenEye is great but the other three are awful with Die Another Day being the worst film in the franchise.

• GoldenEye – Great
• Tomorrow Never Dies – Bad
• The World is Not Enough – Bad
• Die Another Day – Bad

Daniel Graig – The James Bond of the 21st century, these movies are the first to break away from the ‘by the headline approach’ to story telling (that is, he does not fight Al Queda). As a bundle they are pretty good, even if every even title is a disappointment (reverse Star Trek syndrome).

• Casino Royale – Great
• Quantum of Solace – Okay
• Skyfall – Great
• Spectre – Okay

Non-Eon Films

• Casino Royale – Comedy film, there are some funny skits in the it, though it does drag on a bit too much. Was not expecting a Cabinet of Dr. Caligari joke.
• Never Say Never – Essentially a remake of Thunderball, I’m not sure why Sean Connery agreed to reshoot a film he had starred in. It’s less charming than the original in nearly every facet, though I think Connery can still play the part even as a senior citizen.

Of the 26, I would recommend; Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, License to Kill, Golden Eye, and the entire Danial Craig package (because they all tie into each other, though, you can probably cut out Quantum of Solace).

[Kirby101]

Best Goldfinger or Skyfall. Absolute worst, Diamonds are Forever.

[Dr Quinch]

Well, since you asked...

Best: You Only Live Twice. This movie has literally everything I want in a James Bond film: Connery as Bond, Donald Pleasance as Blofeld, exotic locations, pretty girls and a classic theme song.

Roald Dahl's script is terrifically entertaining even though he apparently hated writing it and the climactic ninja assault on Blofeld's secret volcano base is one of the best action sequences ever filmed.

Worst: Quantum Of Solace. Pretty much the polar opposite of You Only Live Twice. There is literally nothing fun or memorable about this movie and the bad guy is a nonthreatening beta male with a boring plan to bogart the water supply.

[AJBopp]

So I watched all the James Bond films within the span of a month or something. I’m not a huge James Bond fan, even now to be honest, though I was always interested in their cultural influence, particularly the Sean Connery films. I just wanted to know what everyone else thought of them.

Sean Connery – All of these movies are serviceable in some manner, though I found the latter films to be ‘less magical,’ though even they have redeeming moments, except You Only Live Twice, which of the Eon films, is probably the second worst film in the franchise.

• Dr. No – Great
• From Russia with Love – Good
• Goldfinger – Good
• Thunderball – Okay
• You Only Live Twice - Bad
• Diamonds are Forever – Okay

George Lazenby – Lazeby’s singular outing is canonically the most important, Diamonds are Forever is a direct sequel and references to the events of this film occur in For Your Eyes Only and License to Kill. So it is a must watch. I know this film is pretty popular and I can see why.

• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service – Great

Roger Moore – A lot of these movies can be described as being ‘comfey,’ they mostly range from okay to good with nothing standing out as exceptional in either extreme. This is the period where James Bond film’s were clearly no longer the cultural vectors they once were and instead started to pursue trends, i.e. Let’s make a space movie because of Star Wars!

• Live and Let Die – Good
• The Man with the Golden Gun – Okay
• The Spy Who Loved Me – Good
• Moonraker – Okay
• For Your Eyes Only – Good
• Octopussy – Bad
• A View to Kill – Bad

License to Kill and Casino Royal are the only great Bond films. Moore films were campy, Connery never attempted to do the character and the scripts played to him rather than to the material. The first Dalton film was written for Moore and he tried to play a ludicrous script seriously. The second was written for Dalton and proved that he understood the character better than any other actor to take the role. Craig does a wonderful job, but his material lacks the flavor that is Bond.

[Doctor Know]

My ranking.


24. A View To A Kill

23. Quantum of Solace

22. Die Another Day

21. Moonraker

20. Spectre

19. Diamonds Are Forever

18. The Man With The Golden Gun

17. Thunderball

16. The World Is Not Enough

15. Dr. No

14. Octopussy

13. Live And Let Die

12. Skyfall

11. Tomorrow Never Dies

10. You Only Live Twice

9. The Living Daylights

8. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

7. For Your Eyes Only

6. From Russia With Love

5. License To Kill

4. The Spy Who Loved Me

3. Goldeneye

2. Goldfinger

1. Casino Royale

[williamtheday]

Casino Royale (1967) is very good.

[Carabas]

Best Connery: From Russia With Love, Goldfinger
Worst connery: Diamonds Are Forever

Best Lazenby: On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Worst Lazenby: Techically On Her Majesty's Secret Service but I'm going with "not applicable"

Best Moore: The Spy who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only
Worst Moore: Moonraker, and anything with that american Sheriff in it.

Best Dalton: Joe
Worst Dalton: Averell

I think both Timothy Dalton films are pretty tied, but License To Kill doesn't really feel like a Bond movie to me. Bond having a personal vendetta against some South-American drug lord could have been a Lethal Weapon movie with just a slight tinkering of the script.

Best Brosnan: Goldeneye
Worst Brosnan: Die Another Die by a country mile

Best Craig: Casino Royale
Worst Craig: Spectre

Best overall: not a clue.
Best songs: 'For Your Eyes Only' and 'We have All The Time In The World'.
Worst overall: Moonraker, Die Another Day.

[Pinsir]

Best Goldfinger or Skyfall. Absolute worst, Diamonds are Forever.

The only reason why I gave an 'okay' to Diamonds are Forever is because Jill St. John's character is the only James Bond girl I actually like, and not even by that much, and for Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd.

Best Moore: The Spy who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only
Worst Moore: Moonraker, and anything with that american Sheriff in it.

The Man with the Golden Gun has him in on vocation in Thialand

[manymade1]

Best: From Russia, With Love, Skyfall, Goldfinger, Golden Eye, The Spy Who Loved Me

I love the Bond series but only so many of them are memorable.

[Kirby101]

Moonraker is a guilty pleasure of mine (oooh, isn't there a thread for that)
From the amazing skydive opening stunt to the Bond in Space ending it is pure giddy fun.
No excuses, I just like it.

[regg215]

Here would be my list

24. Diamonds are Forever
23. Die another Day
22. Moonraker
21. Octopussy
20. License to Kill
19. For your eyes Only
18. The Man with the Golden Gun
17. A View to a Kill
16.On her Majesty's Secret Service
15.The World is not Enough
14. Quantum of Solace
13.The Living Daylights
12.Tomorrow Never Dies
11.Dr No
10.You Only live twice
9.Live and Let Die
8.Spectre
7.Skyfall
6.Goldfinger
5.The spy who Loved me
4.Goldeneye
3.Casino Royale
2.Thunderball
1. From Russia With Love

[Cyke]

Lately I've been watching any Bond movies I could on Hulu, especially one the ones that were in some way meant for a previous actor and trying to imagine them as such (i.e. Moore in the Living Daylights, Dalton in Goldeneye, Lazenby in Diamonds Are Forever). It's a neat and fun thought experiment, especially trying to picture Dalton in the 90s.

Anyway, I'm in no way qualified to rank them, but among my faves in this outing were Casino Royale, Licence to Kill (imo, perhaps the most underrated of the bunch), Goldfinger, and OHMSS, with Skyfall, Goldeneye, and From Russia with Love in the next tier.

I think both Timothy Dalton films are pretty tied, but License To Kill doesn't really feel like a Bond movie to me. Bond having a personal vendetta against some South-American drug lord could have been a Lethal Weapon movie with just a slight tinkering of the script.

That was my sense too when I watched it a couple weeks ago. Upon further research, a few of the supporting actors as well as the film's composer were in the first two Lethal Weapon movies.

I like it when there's variation in the series, but yeah, since LTK was much smaller scale with perhaps the least globe trotting and all that crossover with other franchises, as much as I love this film it really does feel the least like Bond. At least we got an evil lair! We also had Q playing his largest role up to that point (as an actual field agent, for once), which I very much appreciate.

[Gray Lensman]

A couple trivia bits -

The Man With the Golden Gun casts Christopher Lee as the villain, making it the only instance I am aware of where someone who worked with Ian Fleming in the spy business directly had a role in one of his films - or at least a large role. Another famous (or semi-famous at least) actor who worked with Fleming was John Pertwee - the third Dr. Who. Pertwee's son Sean plays Alfred in the Gotham TV series.

Goldeneye - is the name of Ian Fleming's estate in Jamaica.

Diamonds are Forever - a different guy who plays Blofeld, the actor was also the 'No-neck Criminologist' from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, making the scene where he escapes the hotel in drag a bit of a meta-joke.

[Global Honored]

25. Die Another Day
24. The World is Not Enough
23. Octopussy
22. A View To a Kill
21. Tomorrow Never Dies
20. Never Say Never Again
19. For Your Eyes Only
18. Moonraker
17. License to Kill
16. The Living Daylights
15. Quantum of Solace
14. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
13. Diamonds Are Forever
12. The Spy Who Loved Me
11. Live and Let Die
10. Goldeneye
9. You Only Live Twice
8. Spectre
7. The Man With the Golden Gun
6. Thunderball
5. Skyfall
4. From Russia With Love
3. Dr. No
2. Casino Royale
1. Goldfinger