Ranking the James Bond Films 24 to 1

Sure, I’m a week or two behind all the dudes and dudettes that write reviews for a living, but no one pays me to write this blog, do they? I got a chance to see Spectre on its second weekend here in the U.S. and decided it was as good a reason as any to let my James Bond fanboy flag fly high. I’ve ranked all 24 of the official movies in the series. Want to know where the latest film slots in? Read on…

24. A View to a Kill (1985)

The last film of the Roger Moore era that clearly ran two films longer than it should have. This one boasts Christopher Walken as the main villain, but Moore was too old for the part at this point and the casting of Tanya Roberts as his love interest was perhaps the worst in the series’ history.

23. Moonraker (1979)

James Bond in space. That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? Like just most of the Roger Moore films, this one is hokey and full of gadgets, but somehow Moonraker manages to outdo all the others in terms of kitsch. I’m a big fan of the James Bond series, but this film put that appreciation to the test.

22. The Living Daylights (1987)

By the time they finally retired Roger Moore’s turn as Bond, it felt like any change would be a good one. Timothy Dalton managed to challenge that theory. He certainly looked the part, but his Bond lacked charisma and this, the first of his two entries in the series, lacked excitement in just about every other aspect as well.

21. Octopussy (1983)

While not as bad as A View to a Kill, Roger Moore’s penultimate turn as Bond wasn’t much better. From the ridiculous title, to the opening chase sequence with Bond disguised as a clown, this one was just hard to take seriously. It improves a bit as the film progresses thanks to a solid supporting cast, but it still ranks as one of the lesser movies in the Bond series.

20. Die Another Day (2002)

I liked Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, but his last spin as the classic British spy was definitely hit or miss. After a great opening sequence and despite the casting of Halle Berry as his tough-as-nails love interest, this film features not only one of the series’ dumbest gadgets (an invisible car) and one of the worst set pieces (an ice castle), but a finale that’s so over the top, you can’t help but laugh at it.

19. License to Kill (1989)

Dalton’s second attempt as Bond is superior in every way to his first, but he still goes down in history as the least successful of all the actors to take on the iconic role in the official series. License to Kill gives him more of a chance to show off his tough guy side, but it spends too much time on the silliness of Wayne Newton’s comical drug money-laundering televangelist.

18. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

This is the one and only film with George Lazenby playing the iconic role of James Bond. No one will mistake him for the man he replaced, Sean Connery, but he benefitted from a solid story that focused on the character and plot instead of extravagant set pieces.

17. Live and Let Die (1973)

Roger Moore’s initial take on James Bond was better than some of his later ones thanks to his youth, the menacing villain of Kananga played by Yaphet Kotto, and the beautiful Jane Seymour as his love interest. However the film’s better points are largely outdone by its insistence on spending time with the Smokey and the Bandit-type comical bad guy, Sheriff Pepper.

16. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Roger Moore’s second time out as James Bond is better than his first despite the inclusion once again of comic relief, Sheriff Pepper. This one features the wonderful Christopher Lee as the villain and title character and also includes one of the series’ more unique sidekicks, Herve Villechaize’s Nick Nack.

15. Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Sean Connery’s last official appearance as James Bond (he also starred in the unofficial Never Say Never Again in 1983) is probably his weakest entry in the series, but it’s still highly entertaining. This time Bond teams up with the conniving Tiffany Case, played by Jill St. John, to retrieve a load of stolen diamonds that might lead the spy to his long-time nemesis, Blofeld.

14. You Only Live Twice (1967)

Parts of this film are pretty over-the-top and a sign of things to come once Roger Moore got on board, but it’s still an enjoyable adventure starring Connery when he was at the top of his game. Both the villain and the big finale of this movie were hilariously mocked 30 years later by comedian Mike Myers in the first of his Austin Powers trilogy.

13. Dr. No (1962)

This is the movie that started it all. A young Sean Connery starred as the original James Bond and he set a high bar for all the actors that followed him. Connery played Bond as author Ian Fleming originally envisioned him, a dark, tough, and relentless hero that seemed to soften as the series progressed until Daniel Craig took over the role and helped reestablish Connery’s tradition in 2006.

12. For Your Eyes Only (1981)

One of Moore’s better outings, For Your Eyes Only had a more serious tone than most of his earlier attempts and was better for it. Lynn-Holly Johnson is awful as one of his three love interests in this film, but the story worked and the ski scene was one of his best action sequences.

11. The World is Not Enough (1999)

TWINE is a better film than it typically gets credit for. Brosnan delivers a strong performance as does Sophie Marceau as the oil heiress he’s assigned to protect. Robert Carlyle also plays a convincingly menacing bad guy. The biggest problem with this one is the casting of Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist that teams up with Bond. She’s so horribly miscast the movie still hasn’t managed to live it down.

10. Thunderball (1965)

Sean Connery delivered again in this fourth effort. While not quite as good as the two films that immediately preceded it, Thunderball features several impressive underwater sequences as well as the eye-patch wearing bad guy Largo, another character lampooned to perfection in the Austin Powers series.

 9. Quantum of Solace (2008)

I really like Daniel Craig’s darker turn as Bond. I even found Quantum of Solace, a film most critics weren’t crazy about, thoroughly entertaining. No, the story isn’t quite as strong as those in the films immediately before and after, but I still think it is one of the better movies in the series.

 8. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Pierce Brosnan’s second film in the series wasn’t as good as his first, but that is largely due to Jonathan Pryce’s rather prissy main villain. The action, Bond’s sidekick played by Michelle Yeoh, and some of the secondary bad guys are all well worth watching.

 7. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

My favorite of the Roger Moore era, The Spy Who Loved Me features one of the series’ best villains in Richard Kiel’s Jaws. It also stars Barbara Bach as the sexy Russian spy that works against Bond before ultimately falling for him. The opening ski sequence and the Lotus sports car-turned-submarine scene are both classics.

 6. Spectre (2015)

The rumor is that Spectre might be Daniel Craig’s last turn as James Bond despite being signed on for one more film. If true, director Sam Mendes does a nice job of wrapping up this version of Bond’s character arc. The plot involves the current enemy-du-jour of spy thrillers, government overstepping its bounds on individual privacy. However Spectre also includes references to several earlier films while tying it all together with a new origin story for both Bond and his archenemy, Ernst Blofeld. One last (sour) note on this one, my Sam Smith prediction was dead-on. His weak theme song is probably the worst in the series’ entire history.

 5. From Russia with Love (1963)

Sean Connery really solidified his status as the James Bond that all others would be measured by with this second outing. In this one, Bond battles various SPECTRE agents as they race to obtain a decoding machine. Those battles include a great fight scene that takes place on the Orient Express and a tussle with a villainess armed with a very unique secret weapon.

 4. Goldeneye (1995)

After the aging Roger Moore and the less-than-stellar Dalton efforts, the film franchise was put on hold for six years until Goldeneye starring Pierce Brosnan came along. It’s by far the best of Brosnan’s four films in the series and proved that Bond was more than ready to remain a favorite hero into the new century.

 3. Skyfall (2012)

Skyfall is currently the most financially successful of all of films in the series and for good reason. Sam Mendes and his screenwriters provide plenty of backstory to the Bond mythos in between the expected harrowing action and exotic locales. Even if this movie is 10 or 15 minutes too long, it’s one of the best Bonds ever.

 2. Goldfinger (1964)

Until recently, this was my favorite of all the Bond films and it remains near the top of the list. It contains so many iconic Bond images, scenes, and villains – Oddjob and his killer hat, the beautiful but dead Jill Masterson painted head to toe in gold, and Auric Goldfinger explaining “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!” as a laser beam burns straight toward our helpless hero’s crotch. 51 years later, Goldfinger is still a must-see.

 1. Casino Royale (2006)

And finally, the best film in the entire 50+ years of the series, Casino Royale. As much as I’ve enjoyed each of the films to star Daniel Craig, his first remains my favorite. Tough, uncompromising, and a cold-hearted killer, this is perhaps the closest anyone has come to portraying the Bond that Fleming wrote in the original books. The film is a reboot of sorts, giving us Bond at the start of his Double-O career but in modern day rather than the 60s. Not only is Craig fantastic in the role, the film features a great story, an intriguing love interest, and a parkour opening sequence that ranks up there with the coolest action scenes ever made.