Durbanite had an interesting idea; I'll list the worst Bond films (there are only three really bad ones), and explain why; 3. License to Kill- A generic, humorless, shoot em' up featuring the most boring villains ever (a random drug cartel). The action scenes are just standard duck and shoot fare; zero effort went into making this abortion. The only redeeming feature, as Crown Royal noted, were the two beautiful Bond girls. 2. The World is Not Enough- A disastrous Bond, with former prostitute Richards horribly miscast as a nuclear physicist. Idiotic story and characters (a man is dying but becoming stronger every day until then!), and nauseating "emotion" and delivery. A boring, lousy, insulting film in every way. Total, utter trash. 1. Die Another Day- The worst in the Bond franchise.Blatantly rips off the previous films not as an homage,but lack of ideas. Billions of plot holes, with the villain magically becoming a different person, or a terrorist plot that makes no sense, all played seriously, with none of the humor previous entries had.Also has nauseatingly boring, horribly choreographed "action scenes". And let's not forget the least sexy Bond girl ever,Halle Berry,or as my friend called her,"the black midget with pubic hair on his head".
However, it wins best use of ridiculous car gadgetry, and also serves as the return of the Aston Martin as the Bond car after more than a decade of BMW's. I mean, the fucking thing turned invisible and had motion sensing shotguns, as well as missiles. Number two is probably the BMW 7 series used in Tomorrow Never Dies--as it was controlled with a flip open Nokia cell phone and was essentially bulletproof (although, oddly enough, only when parked--that thing was shot to shit when he drove it through the parking garage). As for Halle Berry, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. I think she's hot as hell and even though she may have been a sub-par Bond girl in terms of dialog or action, she was nice to look at. When she comes out of the ocean in Cuba...damn.
For Your Eyes Only was the first Bond movie I ever watched, and it's still one of the best. Roger Moore had the corniest Bond films, and after years of manniquin women, giants with steel teeth and ridiculous gadgets this film was a real tribute to the Connery era: lean, mean, straight-up escapism with great stunts and chases. It embodies the Ian Flemming model perfectly. This film polarizes Bond fans like no other in the entire colletion so judge for yourself, but I think it's easily one of the franchise's top films. Best Gadget: Dentonite, the toothpaste plastic explosive in License To Kill
Do gadgets and cars rank in the same category? That was indeed the most bomb-ass car of the franchise: that vehicle is liquid sex. But gadgets would be something that Q always gets bitchy with, hands it to 007 anyways and never gets it back. Some good ones: The grenade pen in Goldeneye Scaramanga's golden gun lighter James' crocodile submarine from Octopussy (I still laugh my ass off every time) The Remote Control for the BMW in Tomorrow Never Dies The exploding bola in Moonraker (I hated that film).
I have a different opinion on the gadgets. I'm not sure you can rank best gadget overall, since technology continually advances, but I'm sure we can do a "best gadget of a decade", or something. I'm specifically not including cars because you can't compare an individual gadget to a car (which would have multiple gadgets). 1960's: A tie between Donald Grant's watch with strangulation wire, and the tiny rebreather device Bond used in Thunderball. 1970's: Holly Goodhead's slew of CIA gadgets in Moonraker (the deadly diary, poisonous pen, etc.) 1980's: The "pig" from The Living Daylights. 1990's: The Class 4 Grenade pen from GoldenEye. 2000's: Bond's sonic emitting glass-breaking ring from Die Another Day.
I always have thought one of the weakest Bond films was A View to A Kill. It was the last Roger Moore film and he just seemed old and weary. This was also John Glen's third time directing a Moore film (he did two more after this) and he also seemed bored with the enterprise. I hate to say this since Walken was in the film. Our oldest family friends have been involved in the financial/producing the Bond films for decades. Whenever I'm in England I always enjoy hearing stories about the films. However, I've never really gotten a satisfactory answer why they stuck with Glen for five films, other than, of course, the producers thought he did a very good job. But to me, it is evident that a new director could have refreshed the series. [Hmmm just saw that this film gets the lowest Rot Tom's rating, so I guess I'm not saying anything new]
The first time I watched "A View to a Kill", I was a little underwhelmed, but upon rewatch, I realized it was a damn good action film. Yes, Moore is old as hell, but Walker and Grace Jones are tremendous villains, it has a phenomenal theme, and the sheer diversity of locations and action scenes is breath-taking, from an icy ski chase in Russia to the Eiffel Tower in Paris to a horse race in the English countryside to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Aside from a lackluster and forgettable Bond girl, the film had few real flaws. I thought he did a great job with "A View to a Kill", but yeah, "License to Kill" was awful, and "Octopussy" was mediiocre.
That was also the first Bond movie I saw, and Carole Bouquet was absolutely gorgeous. Plus, she rocked a crossbow. As far as Daniel Craig goes, I think he is an awesome James Bond. Timothy Dalton sucked, but I still like The Living Daylights (Maryam D'Abo... I'd hit it). Eva Green? Casino Royal? My wife and I named my car "Vesper" after her (we name all the cars, kinda like how sailors always name their boats/ships), even have the personalized license plate for it.
For anyone that has netflix they just put up a bunch of the old bond films. There's a good list of which ones on instantwatcher.com
Quantum of Solace was a piece of shit. The plot was boring and every time there was an action scene (and there were 3 I think), I felt like I should be having a seizure. That said, I love Craig as the new Bond and hope the next one will deserve to have him in it.
This was my first favorite Bond movie. Mainly because I was around 12-13 at the time and just getting into skiing, and couldn't get enough of the scenes in the Alps (motorcycle chase down a bobsled track?? NIIIIICE). Plus I had a major crush on the figure skater chick (who I later learned is a friend of my aunt and uncle, never met her though). No longer my favorite, but still top 5. Roger Moore wasn't a great Bond but he managed to land some of the best movies in the series. My top 5: 1. Man With The Golden Gun 2. Casino Royale 3. For Your Eyes Only 4. Live and Let Die 5. GoldenEye/Goldfinger