The Best of BOND; Let's get this over with

over all, The Spy Who Loved Me has always been my favorite Bond film. it's just great in every sense...everything a Bond movie should be.

i think the worst Bond movie is License To Kill. In fact, i really dislike any Bond film with Timothy Dalton. He was just so badly miscast that it felt like Bond-ish films rather than Bond films. Though Die Another Day is at the top of the list too.

My favorite Bond opening credit sequence is A View To A Kill. Granted, the Day Glow girls are mostly cheese, but the very first few beats from the song and we see a girl unzipping her parka, revealing a neon 007 as her boobs spread apart...GENIUS!

i think my favorite Bond Girl is Holly Goodhead from Moonraker. For that matter, the worst Bond Girl...and i challenge anyone to try and debate this...is Grace Jones as May Day in A View To A Kill.

I know I'm in the minority, but Roger Moore was my favorite Bond growing up. Probably because he was the Bond in the movies i saw first. But i think Pierce Brosnan was a great Bond...though all the movies he was in sucked.

Agree, agree, agree. I loved Roger Moore also, I grew up with him. Dalton was bad, and your also right about Grace Jones.

I can't think of a favorite Bond girl. I enjoyed many though.

I guess Brosnan is my favorite Bond overall, even though I agree the films he got to be in weren't that great. I also like Connery though, he's the great classic Bond and Brosnan is the great new classic Bond. I'll always have that soft spot for Roger Moore though.

I wish Daniel Craig the best of luck though, I think he could be very solid as Bond, not the best ever, but solid. His work in Road to Predition, Layer Cake, and Munich show that he has range and that he could pull off some Bond.

Dalton played the serious Bond (closest to how Fleming portrays the character in his books).

And Licence to Kill is not the worst Bond film at all.

I really liked Diamonds are Forever, and i though Goldeneye was a really, really good film, the only of Brosnan's films that i really liked even though i think he is a fabulous Bond, second only to Connery.

My least favourite would be the Dalton bonds, he really seemed to talk Bond seriously and approach it as a proper acting assignment and not just a bit of fun.

Agreed the Barbara Bach was the bestest Bond girl, but my vote for the Uber-Fox in the Bond universe goes to Famke for her riveting potrayl as Xenia Onnatop ( i dont care enough to make sure this is the correct spelling. You know who i mean)

I can't believe my eyes! How dare you insult my beloved Grace Jones! You are obviously a girly-man who cannot handle a strong, vicious woman. Sir, I challenge you to a duel! Pistols at dawn I say! We shall each walk ten paces, and then a midget with a boom-box will play a recording of Grace Jones' timeless ode to doggy-style sex: "Pull Up to the Bumper"- and we shall have a disco dance-off the likes of which God himself has never seen!

Best Bond Girl: Surely Pussy Galore (the name alone is legendary).

Best Bond film: From Russia with Love, the other films seem to enjoy the campy elements but this is the only mature Bond film (except Living Daylights)where the campy elements aren't there and it has a brutal fight at the end between Connery and Robert Shaw.

Best Henchman: Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera), yeah, the movie sucked but she was still a memorable henchwoman.

Sorry, not that creative.

Best overall film: Goldfinger
Have to agree here. The very essence of the Bond franchise. I'd put You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, and The Living Daylights close behind though.

Best villain line: Uh, I haven't seen the films THAT many times. Give me a little more time.

Best henchman: Serious props to Oddjob, but the hat thing is a tad corny. Jaws was the one who scared the heck out of me as a kid. The Spy Who Loved Me version, not the cheesy Moonraker one that is.

Best score: Um, they all rock.

Best Bond Girl: Bibi Dahl (For Your Eye Only). Come to daddy sugar. Honorable mentions to Pussy Galore, Holly Goodhead, and Plenty O'Toole, because, well, you know.

Best theme song: A View to a Kill. Totally badass (I'll just forget that it's by Duran Duran). Second place to Love and Let Die, and I also love The Living Daylights.

Worst pun: All the worst puns are in Die Another Day. The scene where Bond meets Jinx made me want to puke. "Ornithologist, huh? Wow. Now there's a mouthful." To whoever wrote that gem: Fuck you and die.

Worst overall film: A tough one, but I'll say A View to a Kill. After the super cool opening it's just nothing but crap. Close behind are Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die, License to Kill, and Tomorrow Never Dies.

Actually Smokey and the Bandit came out 3 years after Man with the Golden Gun, so I don't think that counts as a cash-in unless they could see the future. Trendsetter perhaps?

The theme songs for the Brosnan Bonds were great up till Madonna and her ear rape. But in particular, Garbage was just an awesome choice.

Which reminds me, why have we gone so long without Portishead taking a crack at it?

Glad to see love for the Moore.

I have no problem with the early Moore films. Moonraker goes off the rails and he never really recovered. For Your Eyes Only was a step in the right direction, but damn its so long, and then along came Octopussy and that was that. And Moore was never close to being the Bond Connery was.

Robert Carlyle's Victor Zokas in The World is Not Enough had the potential to be a classic Bond villain -- a guy who can't feel pain? Brilliant. But then they botched the execution and didn't really give him much to do.

The best theme song is hands down Tom Jones' Thunderball. That horn kicks in at the beginning and you know you're in a Bond movie.

I've never understood the love for Goldeneye, as I consider it the worst of the Bronsan era. Yeah, I know what that sounds like. I did like Tomorrow Never Dies (could have been better if the villian was more fleshed out).

Die Another Day started well, had a cruddy theme song but a brilliant credit sequence and then went to all hell. The less said about invisible cars, the better.

Dalton may be reviled, but I really like the Living Daylights. Aside from Joe Don Baker and a poor man's Dolph Lundgren, its a very good Bond film.

I don't understand Goldeneye love, either.

I like the first five fairly evenly...I like that there's a semblance of continuity in them. I suppose From Russia With Love is my favorite of those lot.

My favorite post-Majesty's Secret Service film is The Living Daylights.

My least favorite's gotta be Moonraker, though A View To A Kill, Licence To Kill, and Live And Let Die are all down at the bottom...Bond stories that center on America never feel right to me...

Dalton was a damn good Bond. However The Living Daylights was a dull lifeless movie.

License to Kill is an absolute blast.

Here are my picks from the Bond films, official or otherwise...

Best Bond film: GOLDFINGER
Runners-Up: THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

Worst Bond film: A VIEW TO A KILL
Runners-Up: DIE ANOTHER DAY, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, LIVE AND LET DIE, MOONRAKER, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

Underrated Bond film: LICENCE TO KILL
Runners-Up: OCTOPUSSY, TOMORROW NEVER DIES, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, GOLDENEYE

Best Bond: Sean Connery
Worst Bond: Roger Moore*
Underrated Bond: Timothy Dalton

Best Bond villain: Auric Goldfinger, GOLDFINGER
Worst Bond villain: Gustav Graves, DIE ANOTHER DAY
Underrated Bond villain: Franz Sanchez, LICENCE TO KILL

Best Bond girl: Anya Amasova, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
Worst Bond girl: Stacey Sutton, A VIEW TO A KILL
Underrated Bond girl: Pam Bouvier, LICENCE TO KILL

Best Bond ally: Milos Columbo, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
Worst Bond ally: Jack Wade, GOLDENEYE / TOMORROW NEVER DIES
Underrated Bond ally: General Pushkin, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS

Best Bond thug: Oddjob, GOLDFINGER
Worst Bond thugs: Mr. Kidd & Mr. Wint, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
Underrated Bond thug: Xenia Onatopp, GOLDENEYE

Best Bond song: "Surrender" by k.d. lang, TOMORROW NEVER DIES
Worst Bond song: "The Experience of Love" by Eric Serra, GOLDENEYE
Underrated Bond song: "Thunderball" by Tom Jones, THUNDERBALL

Best Bond score: ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, by John Barry
Worst Bond score: NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, by Michel Legrand
Underrated Bond score: GOLDENEYE, by Eric Serra

Best U.S. Bond poster: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
Worst U.S. Bond poster: DIE ANOTHER DAY
Underrated U.S. Bond poster: THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS

Best international Bond poster: THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
Worst international Bond poster: DIE ANOTHER DAY
Underrated international Bond poster: THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

Best Bond car: Aston Martin DB5, GOLDFINGER
Worst Bond car: Aston Martin Vanquish, DIE ANOTHER DAY
Underrated Bond car: Aston Martin Volante, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS

* Sorry, I love Roger Moore and all, and he was the Bond I grew up with, but in retrospect, his interpretation of 007 as a featherweight dandy turned what was conceived as a tough-as-nails, manly secret agent with a licence to kill into a cartoony, limp-wristed jetsetter with a licence to smirk.

Now we're talking.

"Best Bond Film" is hard for me. I think you almost have to say Goldfinger because in my mind, if I had to pick the one film that summed up and encapsulated everything good about the series, it would be "Goldfinger". It's got Connery, the original man, and it balances nicely the more serious, spy thriller qualities of some of the films with the more superhero, outlandish elements of some of the other films. "Goldfinger" is the perfect balance.

"Best Bond" has to be Sean Connery, but I think it's almost by default. He created our perceptions of the screen character, and every actor inhabiting the role subsequently has at least in some way, tried to emulate Connery. The attitude, the charm, the wit, the movie Bond is different from literary Bond, and Connery created all of it.

"Second Best Bond Actor"? Timothy Dalton, easily. Some of you guys are crazy. He's hard-edged, serious, dangerous, and gave maybe the best acting performances of the series, yes, including Sean Connery's.

"Best Song"? I'm going to break the mold a bit here and cheat. The Bond title songs are usually bad, let's face it. They may have a cheesy charm (I loved A-Ha and "The Living Daylights"), but they are not great music. I absolutely hated Tom Jones's "Thunderball", and I hated it even more when I heard the best Bond song never used. That's right, Johnny Cash's version of "Thunderball". Man, it is so cool, it's basically the story of Bond and what not in that Johnny Cash storyteller vein, it's catchy, and it actually makes some sense, which a lot of the title songs never have. It's a nice treat if you can find it for download.

"Most Underrated Bond Film" has to be On Her Majesty's Secret Service. We had a nice thread on it in Franchises, and it's just a great film. Minus Lazenby, add Connery, it might even be the greatest.

Since we're all putting in our 2 cent's worth...

BEST BOND FILM: 'For Your Eyes Only'. Being born in the 70's, I grew up with Roger Moore as Bond. This was the most serious, least cheesy, and hardest edged of the Moore Bonds. It's the only one that never insults the intelligence of the characters or the audience. RUNNERS UP (In order, for me): 'From Russia With Love', 'Goldfinger', 'The Spy Who Loved Me', and 'Thunderball'.

WORST BOND FILM: 'A View To a Kill'. Pure cheese. Insultingly bad plot and dialog. Tanya Roberts is the absolute worst Bond girl, with Grace Jones as the 2nd worst. Christopher Walken's worst performance. No suspense, no comedy...unwatchable. RUNNERS UP (in order, for me): 'License to Kill', 'Moonraker', 'Die Another Day', and 'Diamonds are Forever'.

BEST BOND GIRL: Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock in 'For Your Eyes Only'. Absolutely the best looking Bond girl, and she has a crossbow. She's involved in good action sequences with Moore as Bond, and is a part of the story, rather than an accessory.

BEST BOND MOMENT: Kicking the car over the cliff in 'For Your Eyes Only'. Mean spirited, vengeful, not out of character for Bond, but pushing it for Moore's interpretation. It was a gutsy move, and it drew cheers in the theater when I saw it.

BEST ACTION SEQUENCE: Climbing the mountain to the bad guy's base in 'For Your Eyes Only'. Suspenseful, looks realistic, and almost devoid of sound. Not a typically overdone action sequence. Well shot and acted, and adds to the overall believability of the entire movie.


WORST BOND GIRL: Tanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton in 'A View to a Kill'. End of discussion.

BEST SONG: Tie between 'Thunderball' and 'Live and Let Die'.

The best Bond film is From Russia With Love, everyone knows that.

Best Bond song: Goldfinger (It's the only one I sing in the shower.)

Best Bond villain: Donald 'Red' Grant - Bob Shaw

Most underrated villain: Kananga/Mr. Big - Yaphet Kotto

Best Bond girl: Solitaire - Jane Seymore (One of the few (only?) Bond virgins!)

Most underrated Bond girl: May Day - Grace Jones (That's right fuckers!)

The best Bond is Sean Connery, the worst is Neal Connery. OK he didn't actually play Bond as such, only "the brother of our best agent"- and was inexplicably called "Connery" in the awful film "OPERATION DOUBLE 007".

Best Felix: Bernie Casey-- "You've changed!"-- Never Say Never Again

Worst Felix: Cec Linder in Goldfinger

Most Felix: Joe Don Baker stuffed into that little Beemer like a pimento. His character wasn't actually named Felix but we know better.

Least Felix: David Hedison, post-shark

I had this on my blog a few weeks ago.

1. Favourite Bond Movie

LICENCE TO KILL

2. Favourite Bond

Timothy Dalton

3. Favourite Bond Girl

Melina from FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

4. Favourite Bond Villain

Ernst Stavro Blofeld from YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE

5. Favourite Bond Car

The Lotus Esprit from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

6. Favourite Bond Gadget

The Magnetic zipper pulling watch from FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

7. Favourite Bond Non-Car Vehicle

The funky helicopter thing from GOLDENEYE

8. Favourite Secondary Bond Girl

Plenty O'Toole from DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

9. Favourite Secondary Bond Villain

Jaws!

10. Favourite Bond Song

Nobody Does It Better from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

11. Favourite Bond Action Scene

The tanker chase from LICENCE TO KILL. It's ludicrous, but great fun.

12. Favourite Bond Method of Torture/Death/Antagonism

The Tarantula in DR. NO.

13. Favourite Villainous Plot

MOONRAKER. Super race of Amazons!

14. First Bond Girl You Had A Crush On

Anya Amasova from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

15. Worst Bond

Lazenby. Come on!

16. Worst Bond Film

DIE ANOTHER DAY. No contest.

17. Worst Bond Song

If DIE ANOTHER DAY hadn't been released, Lulu's THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN would've been a lock. As it is, Madonna takes it.

18. Silliest Bond Gadget

The Gondola/Hovercraft from MOONRAKER. Grow up, 007!

19. Favourite Bond Quip

'Keeping the British end up, sir." from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

20. Worst Bond Quip

"I thought Christmas only comes once a year." from THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

21. Favourite Q Line

'I think he's attempting re-entry, sir!'

22. Favourite Pre-Credit Sequence

GOLDFINGER. Perfection.

23. First Bond Film You Saw

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

Dalton was terrific. Unfortunately, by the time he came around the idea of a 'License to Kill' was sort of redundant, and John McTiernan's films really raised the bar for action films, demanding a high body count from Bond to satisfy audiences.

He also has my favourite Bond line reading, all time:
"Whoever she was, I must have scared the living daylights out of her."

BEST BAD-GUY WEAPON:
Either Oddjob's bowler or the nifty buzzsaw yo-yo from Octopussy

BEST VILLAINOUS LINE:
"Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him." - Moonraker

BOND FILM WITH THE MOST GRISLY DEATHS:
License to Kill, without question. Heart cut out, decompression chamber, partially gnawed by sharks, burned alive and the rockcrushing death of a future Oscar winner.

BEST BOND VILLAIN THAT'S NOT ACTUALLY IN A BOND FILM:
Hans Gruber - Die Hard
Rene Belloq - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Conal Cochran - Halloween 3: Season of the Witch (Go back and watch it. The second half of that film is pure Bond with some horror/sci-fi decoration.)

Actually, Halloween III is a Quatermass film once removed. But yeah, there is a family resemblance.

best moment: the union jack parachute.
i dont care how jingoistic it is, i cheer every time. i wish i could have seen it in a british cinema.

Nigel, wouldn't you suppose that there are many people here who grew up watching the Moore films in theatres (and even more on cable) than the other Bonds?

New category:

Most Hilariously Sexist Moment - Bond (Sean Connery) sends a bikini-clad woman on her way with the delightful "Run along my dear - man talk" and a loud smack to her bottom in Goldfinger.

I grew up watching the Moore films, and enjoyed them for the most part. And for some reason, as a kid, I avoided the Connery films. It wasn't until THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS that I realized there was much more to Bond than what Moore brought to the role. And thanks to my enjoyment of Dalton's darker take on 007, I went back and enjoyed most of the Connery films. I guess that's when I grew out of the Moore silliness and never looked back -- although I still love FOR YOUR EYES ONLY quite a bit.

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE is an acquired taste but once you get into it, I think it's truly one of the best. Great action, wicked score and an actual emotionally-engaging relationship at its core. If Connery (or Dalton, for that matter) had played Bond in this one instead of Lazenby, this would probably be my #1 favorite Bond film.

I agree. The worst offender in this category is Diamonds Are Forever, which was designed to take advantage of tax subsidies, and winds up lavishing much of its running time the excitement and exotic glamour of... early-'70s Vegas.

In fact, DAF is my candidate for worst overall. It's like a Bond TV pilot. Nothing like watching a fat, gray Connery in a pink tie and Sansabelt slacks lazily chasing thugs around the Golden Nugget. The only good creative decision they made was not to use their original plotline about Goldfinger's diamond-smuggling twin brother.

Favourite Bond Movie: Moonraker.It´s my favourite and will never stop defending it, never.
Yes, i realise that it´s silly and stupid, but that´s the way i like it.

Favourite Bond: Roger Moore.

Favourite Bond Villain: Blofeld from You Only Live Twice.
How can you not love Donald Pleasance? He´s wonderful.

Favourite Bond Song: Paul McCartney - Live and Let Die.

So true. I'll add...

"You're a problem solver?" - Sanchez

"I'm more of a problem eliminator." - Bond

Followed by Dalton's deliciously evil little laugh.

Don't forget:

"That's a Smith & Wesson, and you've had your six."

KA-BLAM!!

I personally think that Timothy Dalton would have grown into a fantastic Bond, but 'License to Kill' stopped him cold. I think that 'The Living Daylights' is a superior Bond film with good action sequences, a cool car, and some decent bad guys (with the exception of Joe Don Baker). It was an entertaining Bond film and I think that it holds up.

'License to Kill' was killed by its bad acting, in my opinion. The two Bond girls (Cary Lowell and Talisa Soto) put in some of the WORST performances in any movie, much less a Bond film. They're just as bad as Tanya Roberts was in 'A View to a Kill.' When the acting is that bad, it's distracting. Wayne Newton??? It added to the clown factor. Even Benicio Del Toro is bad in it, hamming it up in all of his scenes. Robert Davi is solid, as is Dalton and the regulars who show up, but the rest just suck. The look of the film is wrong too, as it appears too bright and overlit. It looks cheap, especially after coming on the heels of 'The Living Daylights', which had a larger scale and seemed to have better production values.

'License to Kill' isn't a total loss, as some of the action sequences are well done. Most notably, the tanker chase at the end is an excellent setpiece, and kills some of the bad taste of the preceding movie. What absolutely KILLS the movie is that wink in the whale statue at the end.

Dalton played Bond as a dark hero. It's too bad that his final movie wasn't dark as it should have been, given the plot. With the right Bond script, Dalton would have rocked, and I do believe that he could have been the BEST Bond. It's a missed opportunity for the franchise.

Those are my thoughts, anyway.

Wow, I agree completely. I loved Living Daylights, but felt really let down by License to Kill. It looks cheap, the locations are boring, the ninjas are out of place, and like Die Another Day the film does nothing with Bond's outlaw status. And Gladys Knight??? Please.

Um, but Bond films are full of goofy vehicle stunts. Too many to list really. I always thought they were part of the charm. Are you saying you didn't like the Aston Martin driving on the frozen lake inside the shed in Living Daylights either?

They tried to do something different with the Dalton films, but they kept the same director they used on the late Moore films. Does that sound at all similar to the current situation?

As much as I dearly love the work of the late Michael Kamen, I feel that it was his score for LICENCE TO KILL that was the film's second weakest link. It felt like James Bond was guest starring in a LETHAL WEAPON movie. The songs in the film are fairly uninspired as well.

For me, the film's weakest moment was Felix Leiter's final scene. His wife was murdered, he was fed to the sharks, he's missing a leg...and yet, he's all smiles when talking to Bond on the phone, as if nothing happened. Much like Navin Johnson's grieving butler Hobart in THE JERK.

Otherwise, I think it's a more-than-solid entry in the Bondography. I have to disagree with Judas' assessment of the Bond girls in this film. I especially enjoyed Carey Lowell. Or was that my penis doing the thinking? Hard to say.

But LICENCE TO KILL pales compared to THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. I absolutely love that film for every single reason I love the Bond films. For me, DAYLIGHTS is a definitive 007 film, second only to GOLDFINGER in that regard.

Regarding Daylights, I always liked the blond "Cello" girl. I believe she posed for Playboy around the time of the movie's release.

What do you guys think of bringing Jaws back into future installments?

I've seen just about all the Bond films, here's my five best and five worst:

1)From Russia With Love (The only Bond movie that I would definitely consider a "great" movie on its own terms, outside of the Bond genre).
2)Goldfinger
3)On Her Majesty's Secret Service
4)GoldenEye
5)You Only Live Twice (mostly for Pleasence's riveting Blofeld)

*also-rans: The Living Daylights and For Your Eyes Only (the only Moore movie that was worth a damn, IMHO....Spy Who Loved Me is barely passable).

Worst:

1)Diamonds are Forever...oh...my....God.
2)Moonraker....sweet jesus....
3)Die Another Day....*vomit*...
4)A View to a Kill
5)Licence to Kill

I wouldn't want anyone but Richard Kiel playing him, and given his age, I'm not sure I'd want to see him return to the role. But it was a lot of fun seeing Jaws return in EVERYTHING OR NOTHING from EA. Even more surprising was how well the legacy of Max Zoran from the lousy A VIEW TO A KILL was worked into the storyline, resulting in one of Bond's better quips in recent memory: "We played bridge once. He lost."

But if you were going to recast Jaws, who would you give the role to? And please don't say, "Bruce the shark."

Digital Jaws

Dolph Lundgren. And I'm not kidding.