James Bond movies: From great to not-so-great!

[Vortigern99]

Greetings from MI6! I've been watching a LOT of 007 movies lately, having gotten quite a few on DVD for Christmas. I've always been a fan, but now I'm IMMERSED. I hope you'll all list your favorite Bond actors, favorite Bond movies, favorite Bond villains, and so on, in this thread, and just generally talk 007 with me (since my wife is about as interested in the subject as I am in The Nanny Diaries! ) So without further ado...

My favorite Bonds in descending order of preference:

1. Sean Connery (SC)
2. Daniel Craig (DC)
3. Timothy Dalton (TD)
4. Pierce Brosnan (PB)
5. George Lazenby (GL)
6. Roger Moore (RM)

My favorite 007 movies in descending order:

1. Casino Royale (2006) (DC) - 5 stars
2. Thunderball (1964) (SC) - 5 stars
3. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) (GL) - 5 stars
4. Dr. No (1961) (SC) - 4 stars
5. From Russia with Love (1962) (SC) - 4 stars
6. Diamonds are Forever (1971) (SC) - 4 stars
7. Goldfinger (1965) (SC)- 4 stars
8. Quantum of Solace (2008) (DC) - 4 stars
9. Licence to Kill (1989) (TD) - 4 stars
10. For Your Eyes Only (1981) (RM) - 4 stars
11. You Only Live Twice (1967) (SC) - 3.5 stars
12. The World is Not Enough (1999) (PB) - 3.5 stars
13. GoldenEye (1995) (PB) - 3.5 stars
14. Octopussy (1983) (RM) - 3 stars
15. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) (PB) - 3 stars
16. Die Another Day (PB) - 3 stars
17. The Living Daylights (1987) (TD) - 3 stars
18. A View to a Kill (1985) (RM) - 2.5 stars
19. Live and Let Die (1973) (RM) - 2 stars
20. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) (RM) - 2 stars
21. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) (RM) - 2 stars
22. Moonraker (1979) (RM) - 1 star

[Mikey]

My fav Bond movies in order .......

1. Goldfinger
2. Live and Let Die
3. Diamonds Are Forever
4. Octopussy
5. You Only Live Twice
6. The Man With The Golden Gun

all others, I could take or leave.

[Gorn Captain]

1. From Russia with love
2. Goldfinger
3. Casino Royale
4. Spy who loved me
5. Man with the golden gun

That's just my top 5.
Anything from Moonraker to View to a Kill and the Brosnan era can disappear into oblivion, thank you very much...

[Gorn Captain]

I'm a Bond Sideshow collector, and can't help but wondering: no Goldfinger, Pleasance Blofeld, Rosa Klebb?
Come on, guys!

They made frigging Robert Davi, who is just a guy in a suit, with no special gadget in sight. But no Robert Shaw!

[raider5gt]

1. You Only Live Twice
2. Goldfinger
3. Thunderball
4. From Russia with Love
5. The Spy Who Loved Me

I grew up watching S.Connery so he is my favourite bond.

I put #5 the spy who loved me because of the submersible Lotus Esprit,well mad,you got to love the Bond gadgets.

[Mikey]

I still never seen any of the Daniel Craig movies so I don't even count him in the mix.
I always thought both Dalton and Brosan were boring as hell ...

That leaves my top picks just Connery and Moore.

Lasenby was like a meh.
A puppet could have acted better then him
I'm glad he didn't last

[Werewolf]

I liked Moore's Bond flims and I think he gets judged unfairly. His light hearted less sexist take on Bond was a good fit for the time.

[Vortigern99]

There is no film series that better proves the adages: "To each his own" and "There's no accounting for taste"! Everyone has a different take on what makes a good Bond movie and a good Bond actor -- which is what makes discussing them so much fun!

I'm amazed that two of the 007 movies I consider utter drek -- Golden Gun and Spy -- wind up on people's favorite lists! Good heavens but those movies are silly. I'm also rather surprised that Thunderball -- undoubtedly Connery's best -- is not getting more attention so far.

As to Moore being judged unfairly, I attribute that to his first four films, which were all quite dumb, rather than to his presence or performance. I like him as Bond, but his movies -- with the notable exceptions of Eyes and Octopussy -- are uniformly awful.

There, I said it!

[kingdom warrior]

I'm a Huge Bond fan. Love The Ian Fleming Books. My very first Bond movie that i ever saw was Live and let Die....

Favorite Bonds
1. Sean Connery
2. Daniel Craig
3. Pierce Brosnan
4. Timothy Dalton
5. George Lazenby
6. Roger Moore

Movies
1. GoldFinger
2. Casino Royale
3. From Russia with Love
4. Dr.No
5. Thunderball/Never Say Never Again
6. You only live twice
7. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
8. Diamonds are Forever
9. Quantum Of Solace

Favorite Theme Songs
1. James bond Theme
2. Live and Let Die
3. View To a Kill
4. From Russia with Love
5. The World is not Enough
6. Tomorrow Never Dies
7. You know my name- Casino Royale
8. For your eyes only
9. Thunderball
10.Diamonds are forever

Bond Girls:
1. ***** Galore
2. Honey Ryder
3. Jill Masterson
4. Tatiana Romanova
5. Jinx
6. Domino
7. Vesper Lynd
8. OctoPussy
9. Plenty O'Toole
10.Xenia Onatopp

[Mikey]

The only thing that's bugging me about Daniel Craig being very high on everyones list is I keep wondering if he's there only because he's the new darling.

I remember when Pierce first took over people saying how great he was .... But after a time, his popularity went down because people finally started putting him in the proper perspective.

The new kid and/or movie is always the fan fav on most of these kinds of polls

[kingdom warrior]

The only thing that's bugging me about Daniel Craig being very high on everyones list is I keep wondering if he's there only because he's the new darling.

I remember when Pierce first took over people saying how great he was .... But after a time, his popularity went down because people finally started putting him in the proper perspective.

The new kid and/or movie is always the fan fav on most of these kinds of polls

Craig is the real deal and plays Bond like in the Books. Gritty and Cold and no nonsense. Pierce started out alright but Fizzled.

[Mikey]

I never read the books and the way I hear them described I don't think i'd like them.

[Vortigern99]

The key difference with the Fleming Bond is that he isn't so much of a superhero, but more "real-world", and while good looking he isn't super-animal-magnetically-irresistible to every woman who walks the earth.

EDIT: Re: Brosnan -- It wasn't he who fizzled so much, it was his last movie, which is so super-heroic and over-the-top it defied all credibility. The actor himself is quite good, with the right mix of flippant good humor and grizzled intensity. His third outing, TWINE, is his best, and something of a tribute to OHMSS, which is one of my faves (despite what some fans say about Lazenby).

[Mikey]

For OHMSS

The whole Bond falls in love --- and of course she get's killed at the end of the movie was way too predictable.
Some people say it's one of the best James Bond moments ...
For me it was one of the worst.

The whole plot of OHMSS was very lousy and was made to build up to this crummy climax.

Yes, the movie was slick.
It had a great soundtrack, nice SFX and lots of expensive location shooting....

But it proved you can't make a good Bond movie unless you have a good story and a good actor.

[Vortigern99]

Well, Tracy (Diana Rigg) was only in like 1/3 of the movie, and they don't fall in love until toward the end, so I don't understand how the rest of the movie can be dismissed as "predictable". The plot is ingenious (it's the closest any Bond film has adhered to an original Fleming novel), not lousy, and has very little to do with Tracy and their brief marriage until the end. Most importantly, it has some of THE most exciting and well-crafted action sequences ever filmed.

Maybe your dislike of Lazenby -- who admittedly is a bit milquetoast compared to the others -- has colored your perception of the movie as a whole?