Rank the James Bond movies

2.  Never Say Never Again

1. Casino Royale (1967)

There are three elements that are required for a great James Bond movie: Connery, Broccoli, and Saltzman. You can shuffle the six titles they made almost in any order, except of course for "Goldfinger" which is the greatest of all the Bond films.

@The Old Man posted:

2.  Never Say Never Again

1. Casino Royale (1967)

There are three elements that are required for a great James Bond movie: Connery, Broccoli, and Saltzman. You can shuffle the six titles they made almost in any order, except of course for "Goldfinger" which is the greatest of all the Bond films.

Well, that's a very curious statement given that you listed Casino Royale as #1.

Anyway, I was going to say that this would be a hopelessly subjective list. After all, what is it that an individual values most in a Bond movie? Action? Suspense? Twists? Innuendo? The play-in credits? A credible plot!?!

@sd-wineaux posted:

Well, that's a very curious statement given that you listed Casino Royale as #1.

It's the one with David Niven, it was a joke. And NSNA is just a poor man's Thunderball and really not very good.

Ranking Bond movies is right up there with rating wines and critiquing a painting.

@wineismylife posted:

Ranking Bond movies is right up there with rating wines and critiquing a painting.

But less fun.

I recognize my 10 through 12 will be controversial. But…

1) From Russia With Love

2) Thunderball

3) Casino Royale

4) Dr. No

5) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

6) The Spy Who Loved Me

7) The Living Daylights

8) You Only Live Twice

9) Goldeneye

10) Quantum of Solace

11) Never Say Never Again

12) Goldfinger

13) Tomorrow Never Dies

14) Spectre

15) Skyfall

16) License To Kill

17) For Your Eyes Only

18) Moonraker

19) Die Another Day

20) Live And Let Die

I genuinely dislike the remainder, but:

21) The Man With The Golden Gun

22) Octopussy

23) Diamonds Are Forever

24) The World Is Not Enough

25) A View To A Kill

How do you rate the new movie?

Easy anything with Pierce Brosnan - bad

@jcocktosten posted:

Easy anything with Pierce Brosnan - bad

That, I agree with.  But, um, this is a Daniel Craig movie.

I just read an Esquire article on Bond's drinks of choice. According to the author, the movie Bond drinks barely a third of what the Flemming books Bond did. He wrote that a decision was made by the producers to downplay the drinking for commercial reasons.

Pretty sure I've seen every Bond movie, but how you can keep them all straight to rank them is beyond me (although I'd agree Pierce Bronson's were the worst).  I prefer more civilize methods, as in, ranking the hottest Bond girls.

1. Monica Bellucci

2. Ursula Andres

3. Barbara Bach

4.  The girl in from Russia with love made quite an impression on me as a youth....

Best song:

1.  Nobody does it better

2.  Skyfall

3.  Live and let die

I won't argue Sean is the best Bond, but Daniel Craig is a peerless second.

@jabe11 posted:

Pretty sure I've seen every Bond movie, but how you can keep them all straight to rank them is beyond me (although I'd agree Pierce Bronson's were the worst).  I prefer more civilize methods, as in, ranking the hottest Bond girls.

1. Monica Bellucci

2. Ursula Andres

3. Barbara Bach

4.  The girl in from Russia with love made quite an impression on me as a youth....

Best song:

1.  Nobody does it better

2.  Skyfall

3.  Live and let die

I won't argue Sean is the best Bond, but Daniel Craig is a peerless second.

Ok, so the second half of your post isn’t crazy. Connery is the GOAT, easily. But Craig is also easy number 2. And songs, “Skyfall” is my #1, “Live and Let Die”, is my #2. I think “Goldfinger” is my number 3.

But… your taste is Bond women is just plain wrong. I haven’t seen the new one yet, though I’m sure Ana will be top 2 for me.  But, leaving her aside:

1) Dianna Rigg - *easy* GOAT

2) Claudine Auger - easy #2

Barbara Bach, Daniela Bianchi, Ursula Andress, Eva Green were all great Bond girls.  Jane Seymour was gorgeous.

You might have liked all the Bond girl's looks but it was often, in the early years, a Jewish woman's voice you were hearing. Nikki van der Zyl, who died this year in March at 85, was the voice of all the women listed below and with at least over another 100 other credits to her name.  I caught her the other day in the God-awful "Sodom and Gomorrah" doing her Ursula Andress voice for one of the slave girls.

"Dr. No (1962; dubbed Ursula Andress and all other female voices except Lois Maxwell, Zena Marshall, Eunice Gayson, Yvonne Shima and Michel Mok)

From Russia with Love (1963; dubbed female hotel clerk in Istanbul)

Goldfinger (1964; dubbed Shirley Eaton and Nadja Regin, was also on-set English-language vocal coach to Gert Fröbe)

Thunderball (1965; dubbed Claudine Auger)

You Only Live Twice (1967; dubbed Mie Hama)

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969; dubbed Virginia North)

Diamonds Are Forever (1971; dubbed Denise Perrier)

Live and Let Die (1973; partially dubbed Jane Seymour)

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974; dubbed Francoise Therry)

Moonraker (1979; dubbed Corinne Cléry and Leila Shenna)"

-Wikipedia

@The Old Man posted:

You might have liked all the Bond girl's looks but it was often, in the early years, a Jewish woman's voice you were hearing. Nikki van der Zyl, who died this year in March at 85, was the voice of all the women listed below and with at least over another 100 other credits to her name.  I caught her the other day in the God-awful "Sodom and Gomorrah" doing her Ursula Andress voice for one of the slave girls.

"Dr. No (1962; dubbed Ursula Andress and all other female voices except Lois Maxwell, Zena Marshall, Eunice Gayson, Yvonne Shima and Michel Mok)

From Russia with Love (1963; dubbed female hotel clerk in Istanbul)

Goldfinger (1964; dubbed Shirley Eaton and Nadja Regin, was also on-set English-language vocal coach to Gert Fröbe)

Thunderball (1965; dubbed Claudine Auger)

You Only Live Twice (1967; dubbed Mie Hama)

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969; dubbed Virginia North)

Diamonds Are Forever (1971; dubbed Denise Perrier)

Live and Let Die (1973; partially dubbed Jane Seymour)

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974; dubbed Francoise Therry)

Moonraker (1979; dubbed Corinne Cléry and Leila Shenna)"

-Wikipedia

I never knew that!  Though I always thought Honey Rider and Domino had similar voices. Now I know why!

@winetarelli posted:

I never knew that!  Though I always thought Honey Rider and Domino had similar voices. Now I know why!

For the record, there was no one hotter than the undubbed Eunice Gayson. She set the tone for the entire series. Though as a teenage boy I certainly had a thing for Ursula Andress.

@The Old Man posted:

For the record, there was no one hotter than the undubbed Eunice Gayson. She set the tone for the entire series. Though as a teenage boy I certainly had a thing for Ursula Andress.

I'm always surprised that she isn't considered the first Bond girl.  She did set the tone.  As I mentioned a while back, I didn't realize until recently that the famous "Bond.  James Bond" line was actually a snarky reply to Sylvia Trench's introducing herself as "Trench, Sylvia Trench."

Unless I'm wrong, she's the only Bond girl to be in two films (as the same character), until the latest Bond film.

Bond Girl. Hands down Eva Green. When I was a kid it was Britt Ekland.

@steve8 posted:

Bond Girl. Hands down Eva Green. When I was a kid it was Britt Ekland.

+1 for Eva Green.

I love all the Bond movies but the best were made with Daniel Craig, Roger Moore and Sean Connery as James Bond. End of story.

@mimik posted:

+1 for Eva Green.

I love all the Bond movies but the best were made Sean Connery as James Bond. End of story.

Fixed it for you.

1. Connery

2. Craig

The rest? Meh.

@mneeley490 posted:

1. Connery

2. Craig

The rest? Meh.

Agreed. Though I think Dalton, especially in The Living Daylights, is underrated.

Very interesting conversation with Daniel Craig on "The New Yorker Radio Hour" this morning.  A very ebullient personality.

@The Old Man posted:

Fixed it for you.

Haha.

Independent of this thread, my wife suggested watching all the Bond films in chronological order .  We are through On her majesty's SS, which was better than expected.  In fact, damned good....we tend to note the vintage décor, vintage cars, mods and mops and cheesy lines and it did not disappoint.  Lazeby is neither here nor there, but the recipe was to a tee.    Thunderball is, as of now, top of my list, and I have to say, Claudine Auger has rocketed up to 2nd, still behind Ursula.

@jabe11 posted:

Thunderball is, as of now, top of my list, and I have to say, Claudine Auger has rocketed up to 2nd, still behind Ursula.

And remember Nikki van der Zyl was the voice for both.

@jabe11 posted:

Independent of this thread, my wife suggested watching all the Bond films in chronological order .  We are through On her majesty's SS, which was better than expected.  In fact, damned good....we tend to note the vintage décor, vintage cars, mods and mops and cheesy lines and it did not disappoint.  Lazeby is neither here nor there, but the recipe was to a tee.    Thunderball is, as of now, top of my list, and I have to say, Claudine Auger has rocketed up to 2nd, still behind Ursula.

Thunderball and From Russia With Love are my two all-time favorites. And, yes, Claudine Auger is also my #2. But I’m surprised you didn’t mention Diana Rigg, as you just finished OHMSS. To me, she steals that movie. Even though she is off screen for a long time, she is a stronger female character than any who had come before her, imo. While I don’t know the resumés of the other earlier actresses, I believe they were not already established in the way that Rigg was.

i like this one a lot cos of it was time to kill the chauvinism but kind of over celebrated it with the huge send off at the end.

yah i thought it was funny too that they were killing off old bond tropes but glorified it so much at end. like god bless misogyny.

wonder if his daughter will become new bond one day haha end up like star wars.

I'll sing the praises of Honor Blackman in the role of Pussy Galore from Goldfinger and also Lana Wood (sister of Natalie Wood) who played the part of Plenty O'Toole in Diamonds Are Forever.

James Bond movies are arguably more popular now than ever, especially in the wake of No Time to Die. As for me, it is hard to choose only one best movie. I've recently rewatched Goldfinger (1964). As I installed an MX Player from this site, I enjoyed it even more than ever. It is really good.

@winetarelli posted:

Thunderball and From Russia With Love are my two all-time favorites. And, yes, Claudine Auger is also my #2. But I’m surprised you didn’t mention Diana Rigg, as you just finished OHMSS. To me, she steals that movie. Even though she is off screen for a long time, she is a stronger female character than any who had come before her, imo. While I don’t know the resumés of the other earlier actresses, I believe they were not already established in the way that Rigg was.

We gotta talk one day.  We made it though all of 'em, but my memory is clouded now.  If you ever head down to SD, look me up.  Or rather, you have an open invitation anytime to visit!  We can get the SD crew out.

@jabe11 posted:

We gotta talk one day.  We made it though all of 'em, but my memory is clouded now.  If you ever head down to SD, look me up.  Or rather, you have an open invitation anytime to visit!  We can get the SD crew out.