Until recently I was not a huge fan of
James Bond. The first Bond movie I
watched (in the theater) was Tomorrow Never Dies. I saw most of those that came after it
(except, thankfully, Die Another Day, in the theater). Finally about four years ago I finally
decided to watch all the movies in a month long marathon. There was a bit of overload, particularly in
the middle, but I definitely liked a good deal of the movies. Now that I have finally seen Spectre, I
wanted to finalize my list of Bond movies.
I think most of them fall into pretty strong categories, so that's how
I'll rank them. But first, the
definitive rank of Bond himself.
1. Sean Connery (the original and still the
ultimate)
2.
Timothy Dalton (I feel most of the hate for him is because people
weren't ready for his take. In many ways
he ways Daniel Craig before Craig.)
3.
Daniel Craig (I have problems with many of his movies, but still I like
him as the character)
4.
Pierce Brosnan (much better than the scripts he had to work with)
5.
George Lazenby (not a great actor)
6.
Roger Moore (cannot stand him, way too comedic)
Aces
1. From Russia with Love (as close to perfect Bond as possible)
2. Casino Royale
3.
Goldfinger
4.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
(the surprise of the series for me)
Solid
5.
GoldenEye
6.
License to Kill
7.
Spectre (lots of great action
scenes, a decent story)
8.
The Living Daylights
9.
Tomorrow Never Dies (probably
higher on my list than most people because it was my first)
10.
Thunderball
Good
11.
You Only Live Twice
12.
Skyfall (can't get past the
overly contrived villain plan)
13.
The Spy Who Loved Me
Not Terrible
14.
Dr. No
15.
The World Is Not Enough
16.
Never Say Never Again
17.
Diamonds Are Forever
No Thanks
18.
Quantum of Solace
19.
Roger Moore
20.
Die Another Day (so bad I could
not finish it)
Bond Songs
1.
Goldfinger (Shirley Bassey)
2.
You Know My Name (Chris Cornell, Casino Royale)
3.
You Only Live Twice (Nancy Sinatra
4.
Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney & Wings)
5.
Nobody Does It Better (Carly Simon, The Spy Who Loved Me)
6.
For Your Eyes Only (Sheena Easton)
7.
Another Way To Die (Jack White & Alicia Keys, Quantum of Solace)
8.
Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Dionne Warwick, Thunderball)
9.
If You Asked Me To (Patti LaBelle, License to Kill)
10.
Diamonds Are Forever (Shirley Bassey)
11.
Surrender (k.d. lang, Tomorrow Never Dies)
12.
Skyfall (Adele)
13.
GoldenEye (Tina Turner)
14.
The World Is Not Enough (Garbage)
15.
Thunderball (Tom Jones)
16.
All Time High (Rita Coolidge, Octopussy)
17.
License to Kill (Gladys Knight)
18.
Moonraker (Shirley Bassey)
19.
If There Was A Man (The Pretenders, The Living Daylights)
20.
Tomorrow Never Dies (Sheryl Crow)
21.
The Man With The Golden Gun (Lulu)
22.
We Have All The Time In The World (Louis Armstrong, On Her Majesty's
Secret Service)
23.
Die Another Day (Madonna)
24.
The Living Daylights (a-ha)
25.
From Russia With Love (Matt Monro)
26.
A View To A Kill (Duran Duran)
27.
Where Has Everybody Gone? (The Pretenders, The Living Daylights)
28.
The Experience of Love (Eric Serra, GoldenEye)
29.
Writing's On The Wall (Sam Smith, Spectre)
Bond Composers
1.
John Barry
2.
David Arnold
3.
Thomas Newman
4.
Michael Kamen
5.
Bill Conti
6.
Monty Norman
7.
Eric Serra
8.
Marvin Hamlisch
9.
George Martin
I'm impressed. Especially as a huge Bond fan who loves the movies (bad and all) and has read every book but the two latest. I respect your opinion on these but one I would argue for is For Your Eyes Only. I was a nice step back to the ground for Bond films after Moonraker (horrible), and actually had Moore acting as an assassin killing a man by pushing his car over the side of a cliff as it teeters on the edge. Not that killing is so great, but that’s what the real Bond would have done. It’s a good film too, but maybe my opinion comes from where yours does with Tomorrow Never Dies (although I do like that film flaws and all); not the first Bond film I saw (Dr. No) but maybe the second and Moore was the Bond of my generation. He’s an acquired taste as Bond if you didn’t grow up with him, and you have to appreciate that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. Not a Bond thing, but he’s got the suave down. I like how you took the time to rank the themes and composers. Love Arnold’s music. Every one a great listen. Once heard him say he scored those how he wanted to hear stuff when watching a Bond film. Perfect placement of the famous Bond theme during his tenure.
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