Directors Bond Films...Best 3, Worst 3 (1 Viewer)

[Adam_ME]

WORST BOND:

3)Die Another Day - If it weren't for the promising first 30 minutes, this would easily be the worst entry in the series. In fact, the opening act is partly why the remainder of the film is so infuriating. Instead of doing a dark, serious Bond picture, the producers sold out and created an over-the-top mess that damn near killed the franchise. Bad CGI, bad villains, bad Madonna song(and cameo), and bad Bond girl. Just plain bad.

2)Octopussy - About the only cool thing in this movie is the title. I still don't know how they got away with calling it that. Otherwise this film is an embarrassment. Moore was looking way too old for the role at this point, and Bond disguised as a clown was a low point for the series. The only thing that saves it from the top(or bottom) spot is the cool opening and closing action sequences.

1)Live and Let Die - By far the worst of the 20 official movies in the series. The opening song was cool(although I prefer the Guns 'N Roses cover) and Jane Seymour was smoking hot, but aside from that, this film flat out sucked! An interminably long and boring boat chase, Clifton James' embarrassing redneck sheriff, Moore's pathetic introduction as Bond(compare it to every other actor's intro), a weak villain, and voodoo. FREAKING VOODOO!!!


BEST BOND:

3)Licence to Kill - Yes, the budget was low. Yes, Talisa Soto can't act. And yes, Michael Kamen's score was badly out-of-place. But overlooking those flaws, this movie kicked serious ass. Dalton's in top form as a pissed off, vengeful, take no shit Bond. Carey Lowell is one of the few Bond girls who's managed to play tough and resourceful while still remaining vulnerable(compare her to Halle Berry's Jinx). Robert Davi's Sanchez is the most realistic Bond villain. And despite the low budget which forced them to shoot in Mexico and Florida, they still managed to pull off two epic action sequences, the underwater/air fight and the tanker chase. If only a movie like this had followed On Her Majesty's Secret Service. And speaking of which...

2)On Her Majesty's Secret Service - George Lazenby's Bond takes a couple of viewings to adjust to, but I thought he acquitted himself well, especially in the final 40 minutes of the film. And even if you hated him in the role, you've still got one of the best storylines in the series, the best Blofeld, the finest performance by a Bond girl, epic action sequences, and John Barry's greatest score in the series. Plus that ending.

1)From Russia with Love - Had Sean Connery starred in OHMSS, I'd rank that at #1. But only this film combined all the elements of a definitive Bond film and featured the definitive Bond. Red Grant and Rosa Klebb are still the finest tag team duo of Bond villains to date. The action sequences are excellent, especially that fight on the train. The Bond girl is gorgeous(although she was annoyingly dubbed). We see Blofeld for the first time(well, sort of ). John Barry's score was a vast improvement over the Jamaican music in Dr. No. And best of all, it actually references the events of the previous film, a rarity in the Bond series.


As far as the poster who wanted to know my favorite Bond teaser sequence, that would be GoldenEye hands down.

 

[Grant H]

Best:
The Spy Who Loved Me

For Your Eyes Only

The Living Daylights (Showed there was tremendous potential with a strong Bond, Dalton and a decent enough script for his first outing. Too bad the next installment nearly killed the franchise despite a strong performance by Dalton. I'd have definitely been in line for the rumored competing Bond film that didn't happen starring Dalton that was to have come out the same time as a Brosnan entry)

Worst:

The first three Brosnan films.

Hard for me to even consider them Bond films since the tone changed so much. The Brosnan years ushered in a new era of Bond equalling running around with a machine gun for the whole movie.

Had these not been made, I'd say the worst were:

You Only Live Twice

From Russia With Love (Maybe some day I'll give this another chance along with "Hunt for Red October". However, in my youth they helped me form the rule of thumb that Connery + Russia = Cure for Insomnia.)

Live and Let Die (even Moore wasn't at his best thanks to the filmmakers trying to make him like Connery, smacking women around and so forth.)

Have to say that I have trouble remembering many of the older films, and can't remember them very well at all since only the Bond films I liked earned a lot of repeat viewing. I probably haven't seen some of them since I was in my mid teens, if that recently. However, the same Bond flicks that made little impression on me made similar impressions on my father. I still struggle to remember films I remember watching just because I couldn't remember them before. When movies repeatedly put me to sleep, or are that un-memorable, they tend to rank low on my list.

 

[Chris Stainton]

Wow, I can't believe all the negativity for Licence To Kill. This is by far my favorite Bond film although I consider Goldfinger to be the best film made.

Best:
1) Goldfinger
2) Licence To Kill
3) On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Worst:
1) A View To A Kill
2) Tomorrow Never Dies
3) The Man With The Golden Gun

 

[Beau]

Best 3, well, 4 actually. There are 4 Bond films I consider the best and would have too hard a time separating them, so i'll just go in chronological order:

From Russia With Love: Love everything about it. Connery's best by far. The train scenes, in paticular, the fight between Bond and Grant is some of the best stuff in the series.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service: While Lazenby isn't a brillant actor, I think he did a perfectly capable job in this. Some say that if Connery did it, it would be the best, but I disagree. I can't possibly picture Connery doing this movie. The movie is great, and has probably the most exciting last 45 minutes of any Bond film.

The Living Daylights: Dalton is my favorite Bond. I think only him and Connery were able to make Bond complte badass. This movie has a sorta complex plot, but once I figured it out it became one of my favorites. I don't think this one gets enough credit, and out of my 4 favorites, this always seemed to me as the most perfect example of a Bond movie. My favorite Bond song aswell.

GoldenEye: This was the Bond film that got me hooked to Bond films. Brosnan makes a great entrance into the franchise. Sean Bean is one of my favorite Bond baddies. This movie has exciting action scenes, good plot, and is sorta more speical to me since it's what introduced me to the series.

Worst 3, again in chronological order:

Goldfinger: I'm not joking, I refuse to comment without a lawyer.

Moonraker: Ugh. Nothing much at all good about this one. Just boring. Jaws, who was actually pretty cool in The Spy Who Loved Me, is terrible here. Drax is a lame villian. And going into space? Ugh.

Die Another Day: Now I actually don't think this one is nearly as bad as a lot of people say, just enjoy it less over all the other Bonds. In fact I almost don't want to put a third and just have the wrost two, but then I think about the second half of this movie. I enjoyed it up until after the sword fight scene(was that cool or what?), then it turned into a trypical dumb action movie. Though I will say it has my second favorite Bond song. No wait, I've changed my mind, it's tied for my favorite with The Living Daylights. I agree with everything Brandon said about it. It's AWESOME! *Goes and puts it on*

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Best Three:
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
GOLDFINGER
(YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and THUNDERBALL are nearly as good as those three in my book)

Worst Three:
DIE ANOTHER DAY
LIVE AND LET DIE
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN(though Christopher Lee and a good Barry score make it watchable)

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and FOR YOUR EYES ONLY are good films marred by horrible musical scores. Even though they are better than THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN in nearly every respect, I'd rather watch GUN because the music is good.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Best:

1.) GOLDFINGER
2.) THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
3.) DR. NO

Worst:

1.) A VIEW TO A KILL
2.) DIE ANOTHER DAY
3.) ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE *(sorry. I think Lazenby's weak, but my main reasons are mostly because I never buy that Diana Rigg is that unique of a woman for 007, and those little "flings" which she and Bond have throughout the movie don't really stand out as very deep. Therefore, I think the celebrated ending is nowhere near as intense as it could have played out). Way overrated.

Underrated:
MOONRAKER (it's not great, but it's fun in a comic book sort of way).

 

[TheLongshot]

Nice thread. Good for a Bond fan of years to enjoy.

Some interesting choices. There are some in the "Bad" list (Diamonds Are Forever, Live And Let Die, and Moonraker in particular), which I can't argue with, but I like for one reason or another. There are also some which are considered great, that I don't care for. I don't care how great the plot was for "OHMSS", George Lazenby has the charisma of wood, which just kills any Bond film for me.

My ratings:

Worst:

3. A View To A Kill - pretty obvious that Roger Moore had run out of juice at this point. It has some good things that keep it here, but overall, not terribly exciting.

2. The Man With The Golden Gun - Great stunt not withstanding, there isn't much here. The villian isn't terribly exciting, and not much really happens.

1. Die Another Day - As others have said, tons of potential wasted here.

Best:

3. The Living Daylights - It gets here because it feels like the character getting back to its roots. No overload of gadgets, Bond being very hardnosed. Too bad Dalton couldn't do more with the character...

2. For Your Eyes Only - The best of Moore's films, and the only one where I felt he took the role seriously.

1. Goldfinger - The gold standard (pun intended) for all Bond films. It has a little of everything.

Jason

 

[Nick Sievers]

Best 3:

Goldfinger
From Russia with Love
The Living Daylights

Worst 3:

Die Another Day
The World is Not Enough
A View to a Kill

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

My top three:

Goldfinger
License to Kill
For Your Eyes Only

just missing the cut: From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (if only it were a teeny bit shorter it would be perfect)

My bottom three:
A View To A Kill
Moonraker
Thunderball

I watched all of 'em except for Never Say Never Again (which I don't own and haven't seen in nearly 20 years) over a week when I was really ill a couple of years ago. I remember being surprised at some of my likes and dislikes -- when I was younger, I had really enjoyed A View To A Kill and hated Diamonds Are Forever, but something changed over two decades and I found A View To A Kill unwatchable and Diamonds Are Forever surprisingly engaging. And Diamonds has one of the very best scores of the series, IMO. And I remember being really surprised that The Man With The Golden Gun was not anywhere near as bad as I remembered.

Die Another Day is a tough one. Personally, I feel it's two-thirds a really good modern Bond film and one-third doggie poopie. That would be the final third. A friend of mine asked me how it was, and I said it was good until Bond had to fight a weather-controlling cyborg inside a burning airplane.

A running joke with my friends is that we'll be having a James Bond double bill featuring Never Say Never Again and Moonraker, called "Connery vs. Moore: Who's Shit Stinks Worse?"

 

[Gary Seven]

I'll play too. Having read the books my opinion is also based on how well the character and story line was written based on the books.

Worst
1. A View To A Kill - my goodness, this should have taken place in Del Rey beach Florida with the Golden Girls as Bond girls.

2. Moonraker - Always loved the beginning as he's pushed out of the plane but from there... downhill.

3. Octopussy - this one is not totally bad but just too much corny stuff in there.

Best

While it is easy for me to list three early Connery films, I will choose one from each actor that I think were the best.

1. Thunderball - nice adaptation from the book and just definitive Bond (really this slot is tied with Goldfinger and From Russia With Love)

2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service - a very underrated movie with perhaps the best adaptation from the book. Lazenby did a great job with the character, keeping the same tone as the book.

3. Living Daylights - nice expansion on the short story and Dalton does an excellent job keeping Bond's character in tune with the books.

 

[Ernest Rister]

:frowning:

Looks like I just wasted my time.

For future reference, just to save me the time and aggravation, could someone please answer how this thread is considered a poll, but "List Your Top Ten Films of 2005", "List the Films You Watch", "List the Best Films of the 70's", "2004 Academy Award Predictions", "Wow Moments of 2004", etc. -- why are these not considered polls? What is the distinction between "List the best and worst Bond films" and "List the best films of the 70's"? The Polls section of HTF gets less traffic than a penguin-crossing in the Sahara, so I'd just like to have this answered before wasting my time in the future.

 

[Quentin]

Lame...this very cool thread will be lost in the unloved polls section.

 

[StephenWE]

Best Three:

1) From Russia With Love- I love the bond girl in that. So hot. Not to mention the rest of the film is perfect.

2) Thunderball-pretty much same as above

3) You only live Twice

Worst Three:

1) Die Another Day- This film is horrible. Is it any coincidence that the director moved on to XXX2

2) World is Not Enough- Just Sucks

 

[Patrick McCart]

Best:

1. GOLDFINGER
2. The Living Daylights
3. Goldeneye


As for worst, I can't really say. I actually liked Die Another Day (I'd give it a B+, while Goldfinger would get an A+). Casino Royale is goofy enough that I like it for certain scenes and the overall look. The finale is at least fun. Tomorrow Never Dies is good.

 

[Ernest Rister]

Oh, well. I just bumped 10 threads from the last 10 days that asked people to name "the best" this and the "top 10" that and so on and so forth. Let's see if they get moved into the polls section.

 

[Don Scott]

What a piss off

This should be the official sean connery fan club thread. I grew up with Roger Moore as Bond, so he will always be the ultimate 007 to me.
BEST THREE:
3.Live and Let Die
2.Octopussy
1.For Your Eyes Only

Worst Three
Any Three connery films

 

[Dave Farley]

I can watch any Bond film, although Live and Let Die takes a strong effort.

The Best

1. Goldfinger
2. From Russia with Love
3. Thunderball


Honorable mention goes to:

1. The Spy Who Loved Me, despite the underused villain.
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service - If Connery had done this one, it might have made my top three. Lazenby wasn't bad, considering he really had no acting experience. I remember an old interview with Peter Hunt where he mentioned that they had originally planned a deeper story with more dialogue around Connery. Connery would have improved the love story and the interaction with Blofeld, in my opinion.
3. For Your Eyes Only
4. You Only Live Twice
5. The Living Daylights - Dalton was an underrated Bond. Everybody says that but I think it's true. I think he played it fairly close to the novels.


The Worst

1. A View to a Kill - Moore should have left after Octopussy. Christopher Walken was entertaining. Why Grace Jones? Why? Tanya Roberts was incredibly weak. I almost have to hit the mute button every time she yells 'Jaaamees'. I still watch parts of it when it comes on, though. Great theme song.

2. Live and Let Die - Yaphet Kotto did a great job. Moore was stronger and a little more serious in this one. Good song. Jane Seymour was hot. I've always hated the story. Stories dealing with Voodoo don't do it for me. Sheriff Pepper was unnecessary and just ridiculous, in my opinion. It's a chore for me to sit through this one.

3. Die Another Day - The first 45 minutes weren't bad but then it went into the toilet. The Madonna cameo. Halle Berry. The CGI. The villain that never sleeps with the face altered by 'gene therapy'. The weapon and its intended use. The camera work. Halle Berry saying 'your momma' and the sad invasion of CGI into Bond are the low points of the Bond series for me. Even worse than the Tarzan yell in Octopussy and Sheriff Pepper in LALD and TMWTGG. The small amount of CGI used in TND was fine and understandable considering how dangerous the motorcycle stunt would have been with real helicopter blades. DAD took it to modern-day levels of ridiculousness like so many other films today. Bond movies have had some great stunts in them. It would be a shame to see them take the CGI route from here on out.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

You hit the nail right on the head for DIE ANOTHER DAY, Dave.

 

[Dave Farley]

He's quite mad, you know.

 

[Dave Farley]

Thanks, Joe. The series is sort of up in the air right now. I just hope they get away from the type of movie that Die Another Day was when it returns.