FILM FRENZY

LICENCE TO THRILL: Sean Connery and Daniel Craig (All photos MGM except Never Say Never Again, Warner)

By Matt Brunson

For ample lists about everything 007, including Best Theme Songs, Best Villains, Best Character Names and more, see the accompanying article here.

(Updated to include No Time to Die.)

With No Time to Die finally set for stateside release, now seems an opportune time to offer rankings of all 27 movies in the popular 007 series.

Why the two-title discrepancy? Simple: Although there have been 25 official James Bond outings, there have also been two theatrical movies made by other hands and not included in the accepted canon. But since I tend to be a completist, both works — 1967’s Casino Royale and 1983’s Never Say Never Again — are positioned accordingly in the following list, which starts at the bottom and shoots to number one with a Walther PPK bullet.

27. TOMORROW NEVER DIES (1997). The three lowest-ranked movies on this list all competed for this barrel-bottom-scraping spot, but in the end, this Pierce Brosnan entry — in which 007 basically squares off against Rupert Murdoch (a TV magnate played by Jonathan Pryce) — earns the designation as the worst of the entire series. Bond movies have been campy, they’ve been overblown, they’ve been absurd, but Tomorrow Never Dies manages what always seemed impossible: It makes a Bond movie boring.

26. A VIEW TO A KILL (1985). A wheezing Roger Moore makes his swan song in this poor entry that features a killer Duran Duran theme song but strikes out in nearly every other regard: a terrible heroine (a vapid Tonya Roberts), weak villains (a hammy and ineffectual Christopher Walken and a monotonous Grace Jones), and a laughable plot (microchips in peril! How exciting!). David Bowie had the good sense to turn down the Walken role (“It was simply a terrible script,” he stated); too bad everyone else pressed on.

25. CASINO ROYALE (1967). David Niven plays James Bond, Peter Sellers plays a Bond imposter, and Woody Allen (stealing the show) plays 007’s nephew Jimmy Bond in this tone-deaf spoof that was released the same year as the official series entry You Only Live Twice. This troubled production wastes an awful lot of talent; for those wanting to compare the casting to the Daniel Craig version, Orson Welles portrays the villainous Le Chiffre while a post-Dr. No Ursula Andress tackles Vesper Lynd.

24. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (1999). There are a few things to like about this generally lackluster Brosnan entry, including the poignant final appearance of Desmond Llewelyn, who had played MI6 gadget creator Q in 17 films, and the second (after GoldenEye) and final appearance of Robbie Coltrane, a treat as Russian mobster Zukovsky. But all goodwill evaporates when placed alongside the presence of Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist partial to midriff-baring outfits and wretched line deliveries. It leads to one of Bond’s all-time worst sexual puns: “I thought Christmas only comes once a year.”

23. LIVE AND LET DIE (1973). Moore’s first effort as 007 finds him struggling to fill Sean Connery’s sizable shoes, but he’s not the biggest debit here. Instead, it’s the producers’ misguided effort to get with the times by making a blaxploitation romp as much as a Bond flick, a move that now falls embarrassingly flat. Additionally, this introduces the worst — I repeat, worst — character to be found in any Bond movie: J.W. Pepper (Clifton James), a good ole boy sheriff whose grotesque scenery-chewing makes Jackie Gleason’s later work as Sheriff Buford T. Justice in Smokey and the Bandit look comatose by comparison.

22. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974). Moore’s second try in the part finds him again partnering with Sheriff J.W. Pepper, which automatically knocks this movie down a peg or 20. While this overall ranks as a middling entry, it admittedly features one of the best villains: the world-class assassin Scaramanga, played to perfection by Christopher Lee. It also features one of my favorite character names: Nick Nack, Scaramanga’s assistant (Fantasy Island‘s Hervé Villechaize).

21. THUNDERBALL (1965). Until 1979’s Moonraker, this blockbuster was the most successful Bond film at the domestic box office, and, when adjusted for inflation, it still stands at number one. So consider it my pick for the most overrated movie in the franchise. Of course, it’s not without its merits — starting with the presence of Connery, the best Bond of all — but as SPECTRE mastermind Emilio Largo, Adolfo Celi is ludicrously miscast, looking as if he would rather be inhaling a plate of spaghetti than threatening the world with stolen nuclear warheads. And the climactic underwater skirmish goes on forever.

20. SPECTRE (2015). Daniel Craig’s first three Bond pictures were all of a piece, with plot elements carrying over into each subsequent film and the movies working beautifully as a self-contained trilogy. The decision to shoehorn SPECTRE into that narrative proves to be a poor one, as an engaging two hours are then run into the ground for a wince-inducing final half-hour of unfortunate developments. The subtle references to past entries are pleasant, and the strain of sly humor frequently found in the series is present here. But Christoph Waltz is surprisingly bland as the villain, and his character’s ties to Bond’s past are ludicrous in the extreme.

19. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971). Connery was offered a then-record 1.25 million dollars to return to the series after bailing on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It would be his final appearance in the official series, and he goes out in style by once again battling SPECTRE’s Blofeld (Charles Gray), dallying with imaginatively named beauties (Jill St. John as Tiffany Case and Lana Wood as Plenty O’Toole), and contending with villainous henchmen (the gay couple Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint, played by Putter Smith and Bruce Glover).

18. DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002). This is the first of three movies on this list which I maintain aren’t nearly as bad as their reputations (the others being Moonraker and Quantum of Solace). DAD is actually one of the better Brosnan vehicles, with the actor finally appearing completely at ease in the part. Yes, there are some cringe-worthy moments — the invisible car, the tidal wave parasailing, and a few lame double entendres with Jinx (Halle Berry) — but the pre-credits sequence is smashing and the supporting characters (including Rosamund Pike in her film debut as the aptly named Miranda Frost) make up a strong assortment.

17. MOONRAKER (1979). This gets frequently lambasted for its producers’ decision to snag some of those Star Wars dollars by putting the secret agent in outer space. Yes, the final half-hour — with laser battles among astronauts outside a space station — is utterly ridiculous, but the earthbound portion has much to recommend it. The fine French actor Michael Lonsdale is both elegant and menacing as master villain Hugo Drax, The Spy Who Loved Me‘s popular character of Jaws (Richard Kiel) returns to again tangle with Bond (Moore), and the use of the exotic locales (Venice, Rio de Janeiro) is inspired. But did we really need that pigeon performing a double take?

16. QUANTUM OF SOLACE (2008). Casino Royale was a spectacular return to form, so it’s not wholly unexpected that this follow-up has been tagged by some as one of the low points of the franchise. Nonsense. While it doesn’t possess the depth of Casino Royale, it still offers Craig as a top-tier Bond, and its nods to topicality are clever — I especially like how the CIA, which has helped Bond plenty of times in the past, here is hell-bent on stopping him, since American interests are better served by aiding the villain rather than the hero.

15. GOLDENEYE (1995). After six years of legal travails, the Bond series finally started back up with Brosnan taking over the role from the short-lived Timothy Dalton. This one’s a decent adventure, with Brosnan more in the dapper Moore mold than the tough Connery-Dalton vein. The best bit of casting is Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp, who equates sex and death more than any other Bond character.

14. NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1983). After swearing to never play Bond again, Connery returned for this movie that is not part of the official oeuvre. Producer Kevin McClory owned the rights to Thunderball and nothing else, so this is basically Thunderball under a new moniker. It bests its predecessor in most regards: The script gets a lot of mileage out of cracks involving Bond’s advancing age, Kim Basinger shows early promise as the innocent Domino, and Klaus Maria Brandauer is flat-out terrific as the volatile Largo.

13. OCTOPUSSY (1983). It’s time for a confession: I’ve seen the Bond movies countless times over the decades, and this title above all is the one that fluctuates the most from one viewing to the next. Louis Jourdan’s villain is only slightly less campy than his evildoer in Swamp Thing, and let’s not forget that this is the film that dares to put Moore’s Bond in clown costume and makeup. At the same time, the film’s willingness to play around with the tried-and-true formula should be commended, and, aside from Jourdan, the bad guys here are choice — love that guy with the yo-yo buzz saw!

12. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967). This one’s a lot of fun, even if the sight of Connery pretending to be Japanese merits an involuntary wince/giggle. With a script by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory author Roald Dahl, this features the definitive screen Blofeld in Donald Pleasence, whose portrayal inspired the Dr. Evil character in the Austin Powers trilogy. Bond gets killed (sort of); Bond gets married (sort of); Bond falls into a volcano (sort of); and Bond mixes it up with ninjas (definitely). Added bonus: Nancy Sinatra’s lovely title song.

11. LICENCE TO KILL (1989). After the often smirky Roger Moore years, Timothy Dalton brought a welcome sense of danger back to the series. This was the second of his two outings, and, along with a couple of the Craigs, it qualifies as the most personal 007 adventure, with the agent seeking revenge against those who harmed his friends. Even the presence of Wayne Newton (as a slimy evangelist) can’t prevent this from being the most brutal film from the pre-Craig era.

10. THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987). Dalton’s series debut is classic Cold War Bond, with the agent involved in a complicated plot involving a defecting Soviet general (Jeroen Krabbé) and a beautiful cellist (Maryam d’Abo) who may or may not also be a seasoned assassin. From that grabber of an opening to a terrific aerial sequence (who knew a shoelace could be so important?), this is grade-A spy stuff.

9. DR. NO (1962). The first movie to feature Ian Fleming’s iconic secret agent seems almost quaint when compared to the pictures that followed, but that’s hardly meant as a knock. While there are no fancy gadgets, souped-up cars or flying jet-packs, there is a gripping thriller in which Bond, James Bond (Connery), investigates the disappearance of a fellow agent and winds up tangling with a scientist (Joseph Wiseman) plotting to take down the U.S. space program. As Honey Ryder, Ursula Andress patented the concept of the Bond babe.

8. NO TIME TO DIE (2021). The final (for now) 007 adventure immediately vaults into the Top 10, and with good reason. The nods to past films in the franchise are inspired, none more so than the use of Louis Armstrong’s gorgeous “We Have All the Time in the World” (the theme song from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service). The character dynamics are intriguing, the action is as invigorating as ever, and the powerhouse finale is steeped in ruefulness and reflection.

7. SKYFALL (2012). This exciting chapter does so much right: It humanizes Judi Dench’s M, offers a great villain in Javier Bardem’s fey and philosophical Silva, provides Craig’s Bond with some interesting backstory, and refashions old characters in new ways. It’s also the first film to teasingly suggest that 007 might swing both ways — a definite sign of progress, given the franchise’s storied hyper-masculinity.

6. ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE (1969). Not to pick on George Lazenby, but while he’s far from a disaster as 007, it only took his sole appearance here to expose him as the weakest of all actors essaying the role. Fortunately, the film surrounding him is one of the best, with the agent once again finding a formidable opponent in Blofeld (Telly Savalas) and finally finding a formidable companion in Countess Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg). Until the Craig era, you won’t find a more tragic ending in any Bond flick.

5. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981). After the out-there shenanigans of Moonraker, the series literally came back to earth for this woefully underrated entry that takes Bond back to the basics of espionage. The scripting is strong in this Moore episode, complete with a nifty plot twist, stunning action set-pieces, and one of the best heroines in the crossbow-wielding Melina (Carole Bouquet). And while many have bristled at the character of the Bond-smitten Bibi (Lynn-Holly Johnson), I love that 007 has finally met a woman he considers too young even for him!

4. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963). Connery’s favorite Bond movie is based on John F. Kennedy’s favorite Bond book, and who are we to argue with their tastes? The second movie in the series slowly introduces more gizmos to the template, but the story still takes precedent, with Bond trying to keep a decoder out of the hands of nefarious SPECTRE spooks. It’s hard to ascertain who’s more lethal: Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya), with those poison-tipped shoes, or Red Grant (Robert Shaw), with that hulking frame (and blinding peroxide hair).

3. CASINO ROYALE (2006). By going back to when Bond was first promoted to the level of a double-oh agent with a license to kill, the series rescued itself from possible irrelevancy in this new Bourne world. As intensely played by Craig, this 007 isn’t a suave playboy quick with the quip and bathed in an air of immortality but rather a rough-hewn bruiser who can still fill out a tux quite nicely. That opening parkour (aka freerunning) sequence stands among the all-time best Bond action sequences, with Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd similarly making the grade as among the franchise’s most fascinating characters.

2. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977). In the official series, Moore portrayed Bond more than any other actor (seven times) — initially too awkward and eventually too old, he was perfect in the middle entries, the best of which is this outstanding effort that employed the tagline, “It’s the BIGGEST. It’s the BEST. It’s BOND. And B-E-Y-O-N-D.” There are too many highlights to rattle off, but among them are Barbara Bach’s luscious turn as Russian spy Anya Amasova (aka Agent XXX), Richard Kiel’s imposing presence as the steel-toothed Jaws, Carly Simon’s series-best theme song, “Nobody Does It Better,” the spectacular underwater lair created by franchise veteran Ken Adam, and an incredible pre-credits sequence involving skis, a cliff, and a Union Jack parachute.

1. GOLDFINGER (1964). It’s the easy choice. The obvious choice. The safe choice. It’s also the best choice, a no-brainer. Everything that’s great about the James Bond collection can be found in this movie. The best 007 (Connery). A superb master villain in Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe). A dangerous henchman in the bowler-chucking Oddjob (Harold Sakata). An alluring and brainy beauty in Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman). A knockout theme song (performed by Shirley Bassey). Iconic images (including the sight of a gold-plated Shirley Eaton). And the best snatch of dialogue in all 007 movies: “Do you expect me to talk?” “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!”