Here's my list. All 22 Bond movies in order.* If early reviews from the British opening of Skyfall are indicative, I'll have to make room near the top of the list for the latest Bond thriller.
2. Casino Royale. (2006) Daniel Craig's reboot of the series is spectacular. Bond is restored to his ruthless nature as a 00 agent. The gadgets are minimal, the characters believable, and the realistic plot drawn almost precisely from Ian Fleming's first Bond novel. 3. From Russia With Love. (1963) Bond really hits his stride in this second movie in the series, and Sean Connery is at his best. All the components are there, and the plot is full of intrigue, twists and turns, but the storyline stays within reality. Ask me on a different day, and I might rate any of the top three on top. These three movies stand head and shoulders above the rest.
4. Dr. No (1962). This movie got the series off to a great start. Exotic settings, a mysterious villain, fascinating characters ranging from the "three blind mice" to the Chinese photographer, danger at every turn, and of course Honey Ryder. But mostly, the movie estabished Bond as something different, an 00 agent who would should a man with an empty gun when needed.
5. Goldeneye (1995) The first Pierce Brosnan movie was his best. Excellent from the opening dive off a dam, to the orgasmic killer, to Bond facing a friend and former 00 agent who was now a traitor.
6. Thunderball (1965) The last of the really good Sean Connery Bond pics. The opening sequence is powerful. Adolfo Celli's Emilio Largo is the best bad guy with a patch since Long John Silver. Add in a beautiful killer, hungry sharks, and extensive underwater battle scenes, and you have a winner. The only shortcoming was that the intricacies of the plot were at times hard to follow. You almost have to watch the movie three or four times before you understand the relationship between the dead body at Shrublands with the rest of the plot.7. For Your Eyes Only (1981) Roger Moore's best effort. The series moved away from outlandish over-the-top of Moonraker and focused on a more believable plot - recovering an ATEC devise that can signal missles on nuclear submarines. Chaim Topol is wonderful as Greek smuggler Milos Columbo. The scene where Bond, Columbo and Columbo's gang scales a steep cliff is one of the best of the Roger Moore era. The movie ends as Bond throws the ATEC over a cliff to keep it from the hands of the Russians. "Detente, comrade. You don't have it; I don't have it."
8. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). George Lazenby had the unenviable job of following Sean Connery as James Bond - sort of like following John Wooden as coach at UCLA. Connery so defined the role that any actor would likely have fallen short. But this is a good Bond movie. It drops the gadgets that had taken over the series and moved toward the novels and the early movies. My biggest problem is that some of the action scenes -- an avalanche, a ski chase, and the final bobsled chase - all seemed cheaply done, particularly when compared to Thunderball and Goldfinger.9. "License to Kill (1989). Perhaps the darkest of all the Bond movies was Timothy's Dalton's best. When Bond's best friend's wife is murdered, he sets out on a personal vendetta. Though he drew criticism from many fans, I thought Dalton was an excellent Bond.
11. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Bond meets his near equal in Barbara Bach's Agent XXX. The movie featured Jaws, a submarine car, a stealth boat, and a classy theme song by Carly Simon. The night scene at the Pyramids was the most frightening of the Roger Moore era. Nobody does it better. 12. The Living Daylights (1987) Timothy Dalton's first film as Bond was a throwback with less gadgets and more plot. While some balked at Dalton's colder 007, I thought his portrayal was a throwback to Connery in Dr. No.
13. You Only Live Twice (1967) Bond finally comes face to face with his nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The Japanese location was great, as was the air battle with Little Nelly. But even with Sean Connery in place, Blofeld's casting and makeup was a big miss, and the plot about kidnapping space ships and returning them to a secret lair inside a volcano was just too far out to place it among the better bond movies
14. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). A megalomaniac media mogul tries to use a secret stolen encoder to start a world war in order to increase circulation. It's an entertaining romp with Pierce Brosnan in his second Bond film. When the scandal around Rupert Murdock's newspapers broke earlier this year, revealing wide-spread bribing of officials and wiretapping of celebrities and the royal family, the plot seemed less far fetched. Life, imitating art, imitating life. 15. The World Is Not Enough (1999) Electra King knocks off her dad, plots to explode a nuclear bomb and kidnaps M -- not bad for the only female leading villain in any Bond movie.
16. Diamonds Are Forever (1971). There are some great elements in Diamonds Are Forever. Sean Connery is back. Shirley Bassey belts out a great theme song. Jill St. John as Tiffany Case. Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wendt are wonderfully unusual assassins. The Amsterdam elevator fight is one of the best in all the Bond movies. The primary setting is in Las Vegas. It all should work. But why didn't it? First was the repeated "attacking the world from space plot" complete with hokey laser effects. It didn't work the first time in You Only Live Twice. Unfortunately this plot element did live twice. Second, there was casting Jimmy Dean as the Howard Hughs-like tycoon Willard White. Really? Jimmy Dean? Sausage king maybe, but not Howard Hughes. Finally, there was the casting of Charles Gray as Blofeld. Gray was better cast as the narrator in Rocky Horror Picture Show.
17. A Quantum of Solace (2010) Following Casino Royale, this was a big disappointment. The plot was convoluted and just didn't keep your interest. Still, like Connery, Daniel Craig is great as Bond even when the movie isn't.
18. The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). This second Roger Moore offering has its moments. Saramanga, with that memorable third nipple (from the novel) was a fitting adversary for Bond. But the whole shooting galery thing and that weird little Nick Nack were just a little too strange for me.
19. Die Another Day (2002) Pierce Brosnan's fourth (and last) Bond movie had lots of potential. It starts with Bond being captured and tortured by North Korea when a mission goes awry. Add Halle Barry as Jynx, a CIA agent, and a couple of homages - one to Ursula Andress's bikini in Dr. No and a quick glimpse of Birds of the West Indies, by orninthologist James Bond - the book from where Ian Fleming borrowed the name James Bond. But when this movie dissolves into an ice palace and invisible cars, it throws away all those great things in the first half of the movie. Such a waste of potential.
20. Octopussy (1983) This is another movie that had potential but seem to fritter it away. Maud Adams was outstanding - a near-equal of Bond - as a smuggler with her private army of beautiful women. But any movie that ends up with suave dangerous James Bond in a clown outfit with a red nose and big feet . . . Lets just say this - we would never see Sean Connery or Daniel Craig in a red nose.
21 View To A Kill (1985) Roger Moore's silicon valley swansong was just awful. Nothing symbolized how bad the movie was than the initial car chase where Bond ends up driving half a subcompact - a far cry from an Astin Martin DB5. The movie was noteworthy as the final appearance of both Moore as Bond and Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny. Candidly, both had gotten a little long in the tooth for their roles. Despite the awful plot, the movie did feature a wonderfully demented performance by Christopher Walken as Zorin and a powerful performance by Grace Jones as May Day.
And the WORST James Bond movie:
*Eon productions only. Does not include 1967 Casino Royale or 1983 Never Say Never Again. If included, Never Say Never Again would rank just above Man With the Golden Gun. Casino Royale doesn't fit since it is a comedy spoof. If forced, I would place it just above Moonraker which remains the worst of all Bond films.
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