Favourite and Least Favourite James Bond films?

[Bones2]

Ello all. I was thinking about James Bond the other day, and I'd be interested to know what all your favourite and least favourite Bond movies are.

My favourite: A View to a Kill
Much maligned, and very unfairly I think. Most of the criticism seems to be about Roger Moore being old. To be honest, I hardly notice his age, and I think the mix of a serious story and his usual humorous performance makes for a winner. Also a terrific score and theme song, great stunts, and a fantastic climax. I love it all over.
Other favourites: Live and Let Die, Goldeneye.

Least favourite: Quantum of Solace
So, I thought Casino Royale was a decent motion picture, but it was a shame they had to call it a James Bond film considering the character wasn't in it. This was just an awful film. Pretty much plotless and him wandering between locations while Carry On-style local-sounding music plays for each one, and then he leaves someone to die in a desert. Or something. To be honest, I only saw it once and that was a while back, but I thought it so pathetically awful that it immediately went straight to the bottom of the list. The song was shite as well.
Other crap: Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever.

Do share your favourites and least favourites

 

[scotpens]

Other crap: Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever.

Do share your favourites and least favourites

Diamonds Are Forever was pretty dismal, and it certainly wasn't helped by an overweight Sean Connery phoning in his performance. But Goldfinger? That one's a classic! Best of the Connery Bond films. Best villain, some of the best lines (“Do you expect me to talk?” “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!”), one of the best songs, and two of the best Bond babes -- Honor “Pussy Galore” Blackman and Shirley “The Chick Who Got Painted Gold” Eaton.

Least favorite: Any of the Bond flicks with Roger Moore. ANY of them.

 

[Admiral Shran]

My favorite: For Your Eyes Only
A very down-to-earth outing for 007. The whole point is that he has to stop the Russians from getting their hands on a decoding machine. He doesn't have to avert nuclear war or save the entire the planet in some fashion. The only other film that has this level of down-to-earth-ness is From Russia With Love. Given that this film came immediately following the most ridiculously over-the-top plotted movie in the franchise, Moonraker, I give it perference over From Russia With Love.

Other favorites: From Russia With Love, Octopussy, The Living Daylights, License to Kill, Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace

My least favorite: Die Another Day
This movie was shit, pure and simple.
1.) It's just as ridiculous as Moonraker, but at least that film had some good humor in it.
2.) I thought Bond was supposed to be a secret agent, not a special forces commando. I know the movies started showing him as something of a commando starting with Connery, but this film took it to mind-numbing heights.
3.) Aren't these supposed to be spy movies? Not science fiction movies? I mean seriously.... AN INVISIBLE CAR?!?! I can accept something like that in Star Trek, but not Bond!
4.) Brosnan's movies didn't really impress me all that much on the whole. The only good one was Goldeneye. Brosnan himself did a pretty good job portraying the character. It's a shame he didn't get better films to shine in.

Other least favorites: Moonraker, A View to a Kill, The World is Not Enough

 

[sidious618]

My favorite: Casino Royale
This is James Bond. This is what I wanted to see after reading the Casino Royale book. No stupid humor or lame innuendo. This was a film about an angry, frustrated man trying to come to grips with himself and just as he does it has his world turned upside down. It wasn't just a fantastic Bond film; it was a fantastic film.

Least Favorite: Die Another Day
Not even worth writing about.

 

[cardinal biggles]

Favorite: On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Some of the best photography, the best John Barry score, the best Bond girl, and the only time Blofeld seemed like a worthy opponent. Lazenby's performance is a bit rough, but there's something refreshing about his raw performance, especially considering that it's bookended by two films starring a half-bored Sean Connery.

Least Favorite. The Man with the Golden Gun. How do I hate this film? Let me count the ways.

1. Bond vs. a midget. Seriously?
2. Clifton James returns as J.W. Pepper.
3. Britt Ekland: Second-Worst Bond Girl Ever (Tanya Roberts out-awfuls her every time)
4. Bond vs. the karate school. Or should I say, Bond runs away from the karate school, then lets two teenage girls do his fighting for him?
5. A really cool car stunt is ruined with the addition of a totally ridiculous slide whistle.
6. Beating us over the head with the oil crisis of the 1970s dates this movie far more than any fashions, cars, or references to the Cold War.
7. Bond kills Scaramanga by posing as his own wax dummy. If this doesn't perfectly sum up Roger Moore's tenure as 007, I don't know what does.

Sadly, Christopher Lee's performance is totally wasted here. Scaramanga was one of the best villains in one of the worst films.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Favorite : On Her Majesty's Secret Service. George Lazenby is not my favorite Bond, but this is my favorite Bond Movie. Runner up: Casino Royale

Least favorite: Quantum of Solace. This movie bored the hell out of me. I was hoping it would be about the same quality as Casino Royale. Runner up: Tomorrow Never Dies

 

[T'Baio]

Favourite; Thunderball. Worst; Die Another Day.

 

[tomalak301]

Favorite: GoldenEye or Tomorrow Never Dies

Least Favorite: Quantum of Solace

 

[Admiral Shran]

What's with all the hate for Quantum of Solace? Granted, it certainly wasn't the best, but it wasn't bad, at least in my opinion.

 

[Evil Twin]

My favourite: A View to a Kill

Wow, pass me some of whatever you're smoking there.

Least favorite: A View to a Kill

Favorite: From Russia with Love, narrowly edging out Goldeneye.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Least: Moonraker and Live and Let Die

Favorite: From Russia With Love.

 

[Bones2]

Other crap: Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever.

Do share your favourites and least favourites

Diamonds Are Forever was pretty dismal, and it certainly wasn't helped by an overweight Sean Connery phoning in his performance. But Goldfinger? That one's a classic! Best of the Connery Bond films. Best villain, some of the best lines (“Do you expect me to talk?” “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!”), one of the best songs, and two of the best Bond babes -- Honor “Pussy Galore” Blackman and Shirley “The Chick Who Got Painted Gold” Eaton.

Nah. Goldfinger's a fat moron who instead of killing Bond keeps him alive throughout the film so he can ruin his plans. I mean, that's terrible writing. Not a fan of the song either; it's not even anything like the man himself. The whole score's pretty jarring (which made it no fun at all having to study it in revision for A level Music Tech), and Honor Blackman does nothing for me. I really don't understand why it's considered a classic.

Least favorite: Quantum of Solace. This movie bored the hell out of me. I was hoping it would be about the same quality as Casino Royale. Runner up: Tomorrow Never Dies

Ah yes. Definitely boring too.

On the subject of Tomorrow Never Dies, I think it's alright, but I remember discussing it with a friend, and he said when he was a child it always seemed to him just like a made for TV type film. Very true I thought.

Least favorite: A View to a Kill

But, but...why?

 

[Lord Garth]

Favorite: GoldenEye
Least Favorite: Diamonds Are Forever

I'm a Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan 007 fan.

I've only seen half of Roger Moore's movies (deliberately) and neither of Timothy Dalton's in full. I'm dead neutral on George Lazenby and lukewarm to Daniel Craig.

 

[Orac Zen]

Favorite: On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Some of the best photography, the best John Barry score, the best Bond girl, and the only time Blofeld seemed like a worthy opponent. Lazenby's performance is a bit rough, but there's something refreshing about his raw performance, especially considering that it's bookended by two films starring a half-bored Sean Connery.

Agreed. OHMSS is by far my favourite Bond movie, for pretty much all the reasons biggles mentioned.

Least favourite: Any of the Moore ones, but particularly Moonraker - one of the most incredibly stupid movies ever made, IMO.

 

[Valin]

Best Bond film : Goldfinger --Connery at his best as Bond. Great villian and henchman. Good action. Good story--actually improved on Fleming's novel. Hot Bond girl with the best name ;-)
The perfect Bond film.

Worst: Die Another Day --after Bond escapes from the hospital, the movie crumbles fast.

 

[Lonemagpie]

BEST: Some options here.

FRWL- faithful, improves on the book where it deviates, and the cast is perfect.
Goldfinger- sets the basic format of the series, and markedly improves on the book.
OHMSS- faithful, Lazenby isn't as bad as people think.
TSWLM- Incredible screen entertainment
Casino Royale - gets the book character, and the right mix of grit and action.

WORST:

TMWTGG- Despite a career-best performance from Christopher Lee, it's just rushed, dull, and stupid. JW Pepper going shopping for a new car while on holiday in Thailand is a real movie-killer.

AVTAK- Utterly utterly boring. Sir Roger Mortis is far too ancient and creaky, the plot is dull, the action flat, when there's any at all. Lots of opportunities for greatness are set up and then ignored ("Has James Bond finally met his match?" Steed and Bond together!). Christopher Walken is clearly having great fun, but the audience doesn't...

 

[Deckerd]

Don't really have a favourite since they're alright actioners rather than memorable.
Quantum of Solace was utter shite, though. If I thought I could get my money back I would have tried.

 

[Starkers]

My favourites:

From Russia with Love, OHMSS, The Spy Who Loved me, The Living Daylights, Goldeneye.

The worst:

Thunderball, For your eyes only, The World is Not Enough. All are incredibly dull.

Underated gem: Die Another Day. I recently rewatched this and frankly I love it right up until the end, an invisible car I can deal with but Toby Stephens in a robot suit? I love how people moan about how unbeleivable an invisible car is...but obviously a hollowed out volcano, rockets that eat other rockets, secret nuclear rocket toppling bases and huge lasers in space made the Connery era so believable

Overrated gem: Casino Royale. It's good, but most of its strength is Craig. OVerlong, badly paced...

My absolute favourite if I only had one Bond film to watch for eternity?

OHMSS, fantastic film. Would have stunk with Connery in it!

 

[Orcus]

Best:
I'm torn between From Russia with Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service (incidentally, both my favourite books in Fleming's series). Pure class, both of them.

Honourable mentions go to: Dr No, The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only

Worst: definitely Die Another Day, closely followed by The Man With The Golden Gun and Tomorrow Never Dies

Dishonourable mentions go to: Moonraker, A View to a Kill and Licence to Kill

 

[AdmiralGarak]

From Russia With Love is my favorite by a wide margin. Every thing about that movie is as close to perfect as Bond will ever get.


A View to a Kill is so remarkably boring that it even Christopher Walken somehow managed to be boring in it.