Ranking every major Bond film

 

A ranking by Brooks Rich

I have been meaning to do this forever. James Bond is my favorite film series. I have been watching them steadily since I was about seven or eight and have seen every new Bond film in the theater since Goldeneye. I know them all by heart and most of them have at least something I can enjoy. Most.

The series has evolved over the years, even managing to survive after the Cold War ended.  Ranking the films seems the best way to break the series down. I don't need to rank the actors, Connery wins. So fix a martini and strap in. This is a long ranking. 

Note: I do not count Never Say Never Again, the unofficial Bond movie made by Connery that was a remake of Thunderball. Also, these are not the most in-depth write-ups but some of them will get a deeper analysis later on. 

24. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

This is one of the two films in the series that I despise. Sean Connery returns to the role after George Lazenby's one and done outing and turns the struggle between Bond and Spectre into a borderline cartoon. Connery looks bored half the time, the film is lifeless through most of it, the action is uninspired, and the film marks the beginning of a period kind of frowned upon by most Bond fans. When the series gained a more comedic element through the Roger Moore era. Diamonds Are Forever ranks so low because it drops the ball after the gut-punch ending of the criminally underrated On Her Majesty's Secret Service. This is the only Bond film that actually angers me. 

23. Quantum of Solace (2008)

I understand that Quantum of Solace was affected by a writer's strike. But it's still the most nothing Bond film of all time. Daniel Craig follows up his stunning debut in Casino Royale with this lifeless film that never quite gets into second gear. The villain is forgettable, the song is garbage, and the plot seems unimportant towards Bond's odd quest for revenge in this film. The film does feel like the creators are just making things up as they go along, which in fact they were because of the writer's strike. Craig is sleepwalking through this movie and is never able to fully embrace the character. A dull, forgettable Bond film that I never need to see again. 

22. A View To a Kill (1985)

If I was ranking the Bond theme songs, this would be nowhere near the bottom. Unfortunately, the theme song is the best thing about Roger Moore's seventh and last outing as James Bond. Despite insane performances from Christopher Walker and Grace Jones as Bond's two main adversaries, A View to a Kill is a dreadful film. Moore was fifty-seven when he made this film and so he did none of the action. He looks ready for retirement from MI6 through most of this. In any action scene Bond is clearly played by a stuntman. There is a good way to do an aged, veteran Bond film but this is not it. 

21. Die Another Day (2002)

The first half of this film is great. Bond is captured by the North Koreans, tortured for more than a year, is burned by MI6 upon release, and then sets off on a mission of revenge after giving his government the slip. This could have been a great dark Bond film in the style of Goldeneye. Instead, it turns into a cartoon in the second half with a ridiculous villain and one of the most absurd moments in the series, Bond parasailing on a wave. The saving grace of this movie is Brosnan, who is the best actor to play the role next to Connery, who will always be the best. But the film is a failure in the end. Brosnan deserved better for his last outing and we deserved better as Bond fans. 

20. Skyfall (2012)

Here's where I make people mad. This is one of the most beloved Bond films. I just don't get it. There are good ideas being explored here but for the most part, Skyfall just doesn't work for me. M is playing the role of the Bond girl and Bond is caught in a rivalry between M and a former agent, Silva. Giving Judi Dench more to do as M is always great but in my opinion, it doesn't work here. Silva's plan is almost a MacGuffin and Bond seems like an afterthought in the fight between M and Silva. Sam Mendes directs the hell out of this movie to be sure but Skyfall pales in comparison to what was to come for Craig and Mendes. 

19. License To Kill (1989)

Timothy Dalton is a cool guy. As Bond though he is kind of boring. Dalton plays him totally straight for his two movie run, overcompensating for the goofiness of the Moore era. License To Kill is his second outing and is the film I think of as, James Bond if it was an episode of Miami Vice. The film does have some things going for it. Dalton's gritty take works for Bond being rogue here and the final action scene with the tanker trunks is great. Also, Robert Davi is awesome as our Bond villain, Franz Sanchez, a powerful Latin American drug lord. But like the Dalton films, License To Kill is kind of forgettable. 

18. Octopussy (1983)

Octopussy is a terrible movie. It has Bond swinging on a jungle vine and giving a Tarzan yell. But it does have one of my favorite Bond villains. Louis Jourdan is everything I want in a Bond villain, slimy, charismatic, totally ruthless. He's one of the last classic Bond villains and unfortunately, he's in one of the weaker films. Octopussy is saved from a lower ranking by Jourdan's Kamal Khan. Besides him, there's an okay action sequence with trains in Germany and that's about it. 

17. You Only Live Twice (1967)

Connery is usually always solid in his Bond outings, save for Diamonds Are Forever where he looks bored. You Only Live Twice is the film that was supposed to be the end of Connery's run Bond. He did not enjoy his time filming in Japan and so he stepped away from the role. You Only Live Twice is a middling film with a culturally insensitive moment where Bond is turned into a Japanese man. Oof. The film is really just one action set piece after another and it's perfectly serviceable. It's always felt a little uneven to me. The story is barely held together. But it does have the late great Donald Pleasence as Bond's nemesis Blofeld. 

16. Moonraker (1979)

Bond! In! Space! Moonraker is a bizarre film. It's notoriously one of the most hated films due to the goofball comedy and the pigeon doing a double-take. Yeah, that happens. It's also the return of Jaws, one of Bond's most popular villains. I'm fine with Jaws. He's a hulking bad guy for Bond to fight. That's fine. I do have a problem with the humor in Moonraker. Because in my opinion, this film has some of the darker moments in the series. A woman gets eaten by dogs and the scene where two doctors get poisoned by the gas that the villain Drax wants to use on the earth is very effective. Michael Lonsdale as Drax is one of my favorite villains in the series. He is the perfect blend of suave and sinister like a good Bond villain should be. Moonraker is the most bipolar of the Bond films. The comedic moments' that were widespread in the Moore years don't fit here as the story is trying to take itself seriously. 

15. The Living Daylights (1987)

Timothy Dalton's first outing as Bond is a perfectly serviceable Bond film. Dalton's films are generally forgotten and there's a reason for that. They're pretty forgettable, even the previously mentioned Miami Vice inspired License To Kill. Living Daylights is a better film and it's fine. I like it. It's the Dalton I rewatch the most. But nothing really stands out about it, save for a-ha's badass theme song. We did need Dalton's Bonds to get us to the reboot in the '90s and I don't think he's bad. It's just he never really punches through as Bond. 

14. The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)

One of my favorite Bond villains is in this film so that's why it's up in the top half of the list. This film is goofy and has comedy moments that drive me crazy. A great car stunt is ruined by a cartoon noise in an infamous moment in this film. But the cat and mouse game between Bond and assassin for hire Francisco Scaramanga is why I watch this film. The whole film is leading up to the final showdown between the two of them. The two best killers in the world facing off. It's a brilliant exploration of Bond's character. Scaramanga is Bond without a government job. There's mutual respect between the two men. But there can only be one top killer and so they must decide who is truly best. Man, I wish they had adapted this one in the Connery era to escape the Moore era comedy. I think Moore and Christopher Lee are great together but the Connery years would have serviced the story better. 

13. For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Moore's most serious outing as Bond and the one many consider to be his best. I don't think that but for the most part, it is a very good Bond film. Most every Bond has that moment where they murder someone in cold blood, really using that license to kill. This film has Moore's. He pushes a defenseless man down a cliff. Granted the guy is a murderer himself but he's completely at Bond's mercy. It's a fantastic moment and a hint that maybe better writing during the Moore era would have served him better. The action in For Your Eyes Only is great and Moore is doing some of his best work.  This film would be higher if not for the character of Bibi, one of the most annoying characters in the entire franchise. 

12. The World Is Not Enough (1999)

So let's get it out of the way. Denise Richards is maybe the worst Bond girl of all time. She's not the best actress and she is completely miscast here. If she wasn't in this film, World is Not Enough would be near the top of the list. Ok, we're all in agreement? Because besides her, this is a fantastic Bond film and in my opinion, the true Bond girl is Elektra King, the only role American audiences known Sophie Marceau for besides Braveheart. The chemistry she has with Brosnan is fantastic and her and Bond's story is tragic. Add to that Robert Carlyle as the calculating villain Renard and some of the best action sequences of the Brosnan era and you have one of the best Bond films, save for Denise Richards.

11. Live and Let Die (1973)

Moore's first outing as Bond has him in a '70s blacksploitation film. No joke. So right off the top, this is maybe the greatest James Bond theme song of all time. Paul McCartney and the Wings song is totally kickass and why the ranking isn't effected by Bond songs, it has to be said. But I like Live and Let Die. Yaphet Kotto is a great Bond villain and there are two fantastic sequences, the alligator farm and a boat chase through the Louisiana bayou. Some people don't like the character of JW Pepper but I've never minded him. I don't think this is Moore's best movie but I don't hate it like some do. 

10. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Moore's final appearance on this list and easily his best film. His third outing in the series The Spy Who Loved me is a solid Bond film, which pairs Moore with the best Bond girl of his run, Barbara Bach as KGB agent Anya Amasova, who actually gets one over on Bond more than once. Of course, he has to save her in the third act but the two have good chemistry together. Their story is more than just Bond falling for another woman as in the cold open he kills Amasova's lover. When she finds out, she tells Bond that she will kill him when the movie is over. Of course, we know this won't happen but it adds some flavor to their relationship. This is just an overall fun Bond movie. The action is solid and the villain Stromberg, played by German actor Curt Jurgens, is a serviceable madman billionaire out for world domination. 

9. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

I don't get the hate for this one. Brosnan's sophomore effort in the series is a balls to the wall action film. Where his first film, Goldeneye, is more of a '70s spy film made for the '90s, Tomorrow Never Dies is almost non-stop action as Bond takes on a sadistic media tycoon inciting a war between China and Britain for ratings. Essentially this film is Bond versus Rupert Murdoch. Jonathan Pryce is having too much fun playing the narcissistic Elliot Carver. He's worth the price of admission alone. The action in Tomorrow Never Dies is always fantastic and the highlights are the car chase through a parking garage, a motorcycle chase through the streets of Saigon, and Bond's final fight with Stamper, Carver's main bodyguard. There are two Bond girls in this film, Michelle Yeoh as the badass Wai Lin and Teri Hatcher as Paris Carver, Elliot's wife and a former girlfriend of Bond's. The relationship between Bond and Paris is great and while Hatcher isn't the greatest actress the character work is so good it doesn't matter. This is one of the most unfairly maligned Bond films and I never get tired of it. Plus one of the greatest villain deaths in the series.

 8. Thunderball (1965)

This is the film Connery remade years later and turned into Never Say Never Again. It got its ass kicked at the box office by Octopussy. Luckily that's not Thunderball's legacy because this film is just pure 007. Bond's off to the Bahamas to locate two stolen atomic bombs that criminal organization SPECTRE is looking to use to hold NATO ransom. Save for a bafflingly over the top action scene with scuba divers in the third act, Thunderball is a near-perfect Bond film.  It's the '60s still so there's still the elements of spy films in it, going along with the fantastic action. Thunderball also has one of the best Bond girls and one of the best villains. Claudine Auger as Domino is a great companion for Bond and we love her as the audience. Then there's Adolfo Celi as the sinister Largo, eye patch and all. He looks like the textbook definition of a Bond villain. Thunderball is the last great Bond film of Connery's run and it still holds up. 

7. Casino Royale (2006)

Despite the fact this film has a third act issue, it ends like fifteen times, this is a fantastic Bond film. Daniel Craig's introduction as Bond had a shaky start. He was maligned when he was announced, he was laughed at for stepping off a speed boat with a life jacket on at his introduction, and there was even a website dedicated to hating on him. This was looking like it was going to be a disaster. Then Casino Royale turned into one of the best of the series. The cold open is great, shot in black and white, and showing Bond achieving double o status by killing a corrupt station chief. If that's not enough after the opening credits comes one of the greatest action scenes in modern cinema. I stand by that. The parkour sequence from Casino Royale is action film perfection, a big moment the series used to be known for. It was so good the next two films would try and fail to copy it. Action aside Casino Royale has two of the best characters in the series, Bond girl Vesper, played by the incredible Eva Green, and Bond villain Le Chiffre, played by the awesome Mads Mikkelsen. Points off for the way Le Chiffre goes out and for the third act in general, I get it though, you can't do the book ending because literally, nothing happens in it. Many consider this film to be Craig's best. I disagree with that. Speaking of Craig's best though.

6. Spectre (2015)

I have not seen No Time To Die as of this writing so I don't know if it's better than Spectre. I don't think it will be but I'll reserve judgment for when I see it. In my opinion, this is the film Craig was building to. A throwback to classic Bond films that also finally brings the series into a new era. Bond's greatest villain Blofeld returns to the series, here played by one of the greatest working actors right now, Christoph Waltz. The scenes he has with Craig are incredible and are reminiscent of scenes of Bond and the film's villain coming face to face in Bond films of the past, especially his meeting with Dr. No. Waltz brings that suave and slimy demeanor great Bond villains have. Madeleine Swann, played by the stunning Lea Seydoux, is not my favorite of Craig's female counterparts, that honor goes to Vesper, but she's great and we understand why Bond falls for her. Her story is not complete yet as she features heavily in the next film but what we see in Spectre works. There's a mysteriousness to her that it is alluring. SPectre's action scenes are fantastic and the opening tracking shot in Mexico City is stunning, the best Bond opening in years. The highlight action set piece for me though is a throwback to the famous train fight in From Russia With Love, where Bond fights henchman Mr. Hinx, played by wrestler turned actor Dave Bautista. It honors the previous fight without feeling cheap. 

5. Goldfinger (1964)

Yes I know, Goldfinger isn't number one. It's not even in the top three. But from here on out, these are the gold standard for Bond films. No pun intended. This was the atom bomb of the franchise, the film that made it the juggernaut that it is now. This is most people's favorite Bond film. While it's not mine, I still love it and I understand why people consider it the best. It is full of iconic Bond moments. The dead woman covered in gold, the famous scene with the laser where Bond is legit scared, the incomparable Bond girl Pussy Galore, the legendary Odd Job, Shirley Bassey's unbelievable theme song. All of this is fantastic. The action scenes are great too. Fort Knox gets a little silly but it makes up for that with the tense showdown between Bond and Odd Job as an atom bomb ticks down. For me though, Goldfinger rises above most of the other films because of one man. German actor Gert Frobe as Auric Goldfinger, the titular character and one of the best Bond villains of all time. He might be the best. He is the perfect foil for Bond and any scene they have together is gold. Again, no pun intended. While I think Goldfinger would still be great with anyone in the role, Frobe takes it to another level. 

4. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

This is the film with one time Bond actor George Lazenby. For that reason, it is usually a pretty maligned Bond film. This is wrong because this is one of the best of the series. Lazenby is great as Bond and he gives it his own spin. He's a little cocky but he feels like a veteran agent. Watch this film next to the Moore's or Dalton's Lazenby is the better Bond. It's a shame he stepped away from the role. We deserved at least one more film with him. Telly Savalas is great as Blofeld and brings something new to the role. But in my opinion, this film has the best Bond girl of the entire series. The world recently lost the immortal Dame Diana Rigg. Most people probably will remember her as Olenna Tyrell from Game of Thrones. For me, she will always be Countess Teresa di Vincenzo or Tracy Bond, the woman who married James Bond. At its heart On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a love story and we fall for Tracy as much as Bond does. This leads to the most tragic moment of the Bond series, which is how this film ends. My pure hatred for Diamonds Are Forever comes from the fact that Lazenby wasn't allowed to follow up the devastating ending of this film and that the film that did follow it up is a goofy farce. I adore this film and to me, it's near perfect. In honor of Diane Rigg, watch this film. She deserves that. Rest in peace, Dame Diana. 

3. Dr. No (1962)

The one that started it all. Dr. No is very much paced like a film from the '60s. It might be hard for modern audiences to use it as an introduction to the series now. I understand that. But it's still a perfect Bond film. Ursula Andress emerging from the sea as Honey Ryder is an iconic moment not only in the series but in all of cinema. She is just a damsel in distress as a character but she was the first. Joseph Wiseman as Dr. No is chilling and for me challenges Goldfinger for best Bond villain. His introduction to Bond and the audience is fantastic and while he doesn't have a lot of screentime, he is amazing in what he has. But the highlight of this film is Bond himself. In my opinion, the introduction of Sean Connery as James Bond is the greatest character introduction in film history. There he is sitting in a casino, lightning a cigarette, and with more cool and confidence than anyone in cinema introduces himself as Bond, James Bond. Connery had something none of the other actors did. It's hard to describe. He just walked into a room as Bond and owned it. There's a reason all the other actors say he was the best. They're all chasing a Connery like performance. None of the other Bonds ever come close to being as cool and suave as he was in the role. Except perhaps one of them. 

2. Goldeneye (1995)

I'll be honest. The next two films should probably be tied. Casino Royale is seen as the reboot of the series but really this film was. Goldeneye is actually an outlier in the Bond universe. There's no other Bond film like it. From the music to the aesthetic, Goldeneye is its own animal. It's the darkest and most serious Bond film. The only moments of humor come from the Q sequence, a delightful five minutes of British humor. Besides that Goldeneye takes itself seriously. It still has the feel of a Bond film just without the goofiness of the weakest films. Pierce Brosnan's debut is a perfect Bond film. Brosnan was originally cast back in the '80s but his TV show, Remington Steele, was renewed at the eleventh hour so he had to turn the role down. That's how we ended up with the Dalton films. Connery is the best Bond but Brosnan is a very close second. He has the charm and the brutality when he needs it. The brilliance of Goldeneye comes from the fact that this is the first film after the fall of the Soviet Union. A hero born of the Cold War is now without his greatest adversary. What to do now? Set Goldeneye in a post-Cold War Russia and have the villains be a part of an organization of former KGB operatives, led by a rogue double o whose parents where Cossack. Brilliant. 

1. From Russia With Love (1963)

The best of the best. I adore this film. It's very much a spy film, showing a Cold War struggle between the Soviets and Britain, masterminded by the criminal organization SPECTRE. It also has my favorite Blofeld of the series, who is never seen save for their hands but is heard. It's a classic Bond film and has been my favorite for a long time. Like Dr. No it is slower paced when compared to more modern Bonds but it still has great moments of action, like the gypsy camp fight or helicopter scene. But the highlight is the showdown between Bond and SPECTRE assassin Red Grant, played by a chilling Robert Shaw. It's the only time in the series Bond is beat. Grant has him and without a gadget from Q branch, Bond would probably lose. The fight between the two of them is stunning for 1963 and one of the most brutal moments of the entire franchise. Of course, Bond defeats his adversary but it's the closest call he ever has, save maybe for the laser in Goldfinger. For me this is the film I think of when I think of the Bond series. Connery is at the top of his game and the film has the perfect mix of action, espionage, and fun.