My three: On Her Majesty's Secret Service The Spy Who Loved Me Casino Royale Doing the star rating thing: Dr. No — *** From Russia with Love — ****½ Goldfinger — ****½ Thunderball — **½ You Only Live Twice — ***½ On Her Majesty's Secret Service — ***** Diamonds Are Forever — *** Live and Let Die — ** The Man With the Golden Gun — *½ The Spy Who Loved Me — ****½ Moonraker — ***½ For Your Eyes Only — **** Octopussy — *** A View to a Kill — *½ The Living Daylights — *** Licence to Kill — ***½ GoldenEye — ***½ Tomorrow Never Dies — ***½ The World Is Not Enough — ***½ Die Another Day — ** Casino Royale — ***** Quantum of Solace — **½ You might notice that I also gave 4½ stars to From Russia with Love and Goldfinger. I picked The Spy Who Loved Me over those two because of those three, it's the one I rewatch the most.
I like the way you think. Rating the films overall: Dr. No***1/2 (Good, solid film, but they haven't quite nailed the Bond formula yet. Too bad Jack Lord didn't stay on as Felix Leiter.) From Russia With Love****1/2 (The best pure espionage Bond film. Almost Hitchcockian in places.) Goldfinger***** (Connery at his peak starring in the quintessential Bond film. Almost more fun than should be legal.) Thunderball**** (It's no Goldfinger, but it ain't too shabby. The underwater scenes inevitably slow the film down.) You Only Live Twice*** (The first Bond film that almost completely throws out the book, and it's the poorer for it. Still, that hollowed-out volcano sure is cool, huh?) On Her Majesty's Secret Service***** (A terrific film from beginning to end. Lazenby is the most underrated Bond.) Diamonds Are Forever** (Brings in the self-parody of the Roger Moore films. Tough for me to get through.) Live And Let Die* (Moore is decent in the role, but Bond & Blacksploitation just don't mix.) The Man With The Golden Gun (I'm honestly not sure if I've ever watched this one all the way through). The Spy Who Loved Me**** (Moore's best film & a solid, fun Bond outing in the classic style.) Moonraker** (Despite some good dialogue here & there, another one I find too campy & painful to get through. Bringing back Jaws was a HUGE mistake.) For Your Eyes Only (Another one I don't think I've seen all of. Moore's films are not as much to my taste as the others.) Never Say Never Again*** (Connery returning to Bond SHOULD be a classic. But they didn't have the resources to make it the great film it should have been.) Octopussy (Haven't seen it.) A View To A Kill (Moore proves he should've left the franchise at least one film sooner.) The Living Daylights***1/2 (Dalton gives the series a desperately-needed makeover & makes an impressive debut.) License To Kill **1/2 (Takes the provacative idea of Bond going rogue & then degenerates into a bad Miami Vice episode. Ah, what this could've been with a few rewrites...) Goldeneye ***1/2 (Bond gets another shot in the arm, this time from Brosnan. Solid debut, but doesn't hold up to repeat viewings as well as it should.) Tomorrow Never Dies *** (A good but unremarkable entry.) The World is Not Enough (Somehow missed this one in theaters. Only seen bits & pieces from it when I was working on a Bond video game at my old job. I need to check it out.) Die Another Day ** (Terrific start to a different sort of Bond story with Bond getting captured & coming back from it, dissolves into silliness by the end.) Casino Royale***** (Daniel Craig proves to be the best Bond since Connery. Terrific story, great action and actual character development.) Quantum Of Solace***1/2 (Despite a few great scenes here & there, a big comedown after the previous film. The plot & the action scenes are WAY too confusing.)
My top three are: For Your Eyes Only On Her Majesty's Secret Service The Living Daylights And my star ratings are: Dr. No — ***½ From Russia with Love — ****½ Goldfinger — ***** Thunderball — **½ You Only Live Twice — ** On Her Majesty's Secret Service — ***** Diamonds Are Forever — *** Live and Let Die — ***½ The Man With the Golden Gun — *** The Spy Who Loved Me — ****½ Moonraker — ***½ For Your Eyes Only — ***** Octopussy — ****½ Never Say Never Again — *** A View to a Kill — ** The Living Daylights — ***** Licence to Kill — **** GoldenEye — **½ Tomorrow Never Dies — *** The World Is Not Enough — * Die Another Day — * Casino Royale — ***** Quantum of Solace — ***½
I found this quite easy, actually. On Her Majesty's Secret Service - by far the best, IMO. From Russia With Love Goldfinger The star thing is more difficult and will require thought. That ain't happening for a while.
Yay, the same as mine! Rating them alll: Dr. No — 7/10 - A little slow, but has a great atmosphere, great cinematography, and a script that gets wittier with every viewing. From Russia with Love — 10/10 - the final boat explosion is a bit iffy, but otherwise great, with excellent location work and a brilliant cast. Goldfinger — 9/10 - the seminal Bond movie, finally setting the format. Thunderball — 8/10 - the pace is a little off, but still very good. You Only Live Twice — 7/10 - OTT, and Connery is clearly not happy, but good harmless fun On Her Majesty's Secret Service — 10/10 - believable, great fights, wonderful atmosphere, good cast... If Connery was in it would be the best ever. Diamonds Are Forever — 6/10 - an amusing diversion, but no more than that. Live and Let Die — 7/10 - reasonable, and Sir Rog makes an immediate likeable impression as Simon Tem- er, I mean as Bond. The Man With the Golden Gun — 5/10 - a fantastic performance from Christopher Lee doesn't quite save this. It's dull and lifeless. The Spy Who Loved Me — 10/10 - it's a bit of remake of YOLT, but it gets the balance between the two extremes of Bond-movie style just right. The stuff at the pyramids, for example, is dark and gritty, and the big battle scene is amazing. Moonraker — 8/10 - Bears no real connection to the literary Bond, and a pretty thin connection to the movie Bond, and is ludicrously OOT - *but* every penny of the budget is up there on screen and it's great cinematic escapism. For Your Eyes Only — 10/10 - brings Bond down to earth but still as a Bond movie. Again, a great cast, and John Glen's fresh touch at the helm is refreshing. Would have been a great swan-song for Sir Rog's Bond Octopussy — 7/10 - A bit silly, but harmless fun, with a too-old Bond. A View to a Kill — 3/10 - Utterly boring, with an ancient Bond, no decent action sequences after the precredit, and it downright avoids fulfilling the stated promise of Bond Vs Grace Jones. Walken is good fun in it, but Glen's direction has already grown tired (there should be a two-consecutive-film limit on directors for the series) and Walken isn't enough to save it from being the worst in the series. The Living Daylights — 9/10 - Dalton makes a good intro, with John Glen recovering a bit as well. Good action, good score, good cast, though Dalton can't get a handle on the wit. Licence to Kill — 7/10 - Glen is well-past his sell-by date. WTF is with that that slow mo jogging shot in the PCS, and how the fuck did that delivery of "his name was Sharkey" ever make it through. Dalton has settled into the role, and Robert Davi is great. There's great action, but... it's really just an extended episode of Miami Vice. Bond used to set trends, not slavishly follow them. GoldenEye — 9/10 - Martin Campbell and Pierce Brosnan reinvigorate the franchise. Brilliant reinvention, with great action both in spectacle (the tank chase) and grit (Bean Vs Brosnan at the end). Only the awful score and some wobbles in the pacing let it down. Tomorrow Never Dies — 8/10 - Great fun, plenty of action, but it's strangely low key and more linear than most Bonds, with Bond basically going straight to the villain to say "I know your game" and then waiting to get attacked. Pryce and Yeoh are great, but Teri Hatcher really lets the side down. Fabulous score. The World Is Not Enough — 10/10 - gets the balance between actions, investigation, coolness etc just right. Easily Pierce's best. Die Another Day — 8/10 - a fun anniversary romp with plenty of action and fanwank, albeit done surprisingly on the cheap (no Moonraker-style globehopping for Pierce this time out). Halle Berry's a bit rubbish. Casino Royale — 10/10 - Martin Campbell does it again. The perfect mix of literary Bond, big screen action, dark wit, grittiness, and a perfect cast. Best Bond movie ever, case closed. Quantum of Solace — 8/10 - Marc wossname brings some style, and the cast are fun, but it suffers a little from basically being the conclusion of the previous movie's story rather than a standalone, and the studio/producers' decision to have the original cut sped up and trimmed to hyperkinetic mode. But, TBH, *anything* that followed the genius of CR was bound to be a let-down by comparison. Never Say Never Again - 7/10 - Connery, like Moore, is too old by this point, but, vitally, the movie takes that into account and makes a point of it. Irvin Kershner (who's previous movie was The Empire Strikes Back) does a good job, Brandauer is a good villain... If it had the gunbarrel opening and a more Bond-ish score it'd get a higher rating than Thunderball.
Hmmmm. Live and Let Die cashed in on blaxploitation movies. TMWTGG cashed in on the popularity of Bruce Lee and kung fu. TSWLM came after Jaws and featured a shark and a villain named, er, Jaws. And Moonraker was rushed into production to cash in on Star Wars (IIRC, the end of TSWLM says that Bond will return in For Your Eyes Only). Hardly fair to blame LTK for following trends!
Not to mention the fact that at the end of TMWTGG Bond suddenly swaps his PPK for a fuck off .44 magnum revolver ala Dirty Harry! Bond basically only set the trend in the 60s, from then on it's always adapated itself to the times. Anyway, tricky to pick three but... OHMSS The Living Daylights Goldeneye It would be easier to pick my three worst to be honest! (Thunderball, FYEO and TWINE)
That was Live and Let Die. He most definitely had his PPK for his duel with Scaramanga at the end of TMWTGG.
Why no love for Octopussy? Ok, Moore was starting to show his age and it can be bit silly at times, but I thought it was an excellent movie. It's certainly nowhere near as bad as A View to a Kill, The World is Not Enough, or (the offensively bad) Die Another Day.
I like Octopussy alright, but It just doesn't reach top 3 potential for most folks. I agree it's better than those. ugh, A View to a Kill IS the worst Bond movie IMO.
I suspect that nostalgia sometimes colors these choices. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER was possibly the first Bond movie I ever saw, so I remember it fondly--even though I know, intellectually, that it's far from the best.
It's not in my top three either, it would probably be my number six or seven pick. But a lot of people are saying how Moore should have stopped after For Your Eyes Only. I just don't see why.
I'll agree, because even when the movies were bad, Moore was a good Bond. It's not his fault View to a Kill sucks. My own prejudice towards the series is that I adore the Sean Connery entries way above the rest. I'll take a bad Connery entry over any of the others.
Me too. I have a soft spot for it, Connery's paunch and obvious toupee bedamned. Because he was far too old. He was older than Connery, who had quit because he was too old, then joked about 'making way for an older man.' Moore was born in 1927 and was thus 54 when FYEO came out and 58 by the time of VTAK. Looking every inch of it too. He just looked too old to be credibly carrying out those stunts. Connery had first played the role aged 32 and Bond really should be played by someone reasonably vigorous and sprightly, if not youthful. As has been said, Connery's Bond of Never Say Never Again (released at much the same time as Octopussy) was supposed to be an older spy brought out of retirement. But Moore just looked old and silly. No wonder they had to bring Patrick Macnee as his sidekick in VTAK - it was the only way to make Rog look relatively youthful by comparison.