Ranking the Bond films

[xacviant]

"Wait, it used a shaky cam? What more needs to be written about why it was garbage?"

Poor movie.

Also, I don't know how many people agree with me, but I think TWiNE is easily the worst film in the franchise. Amazingly boring, underwhelming villains, a blah story, Denise Richards (who isn't at all good, but isn't memorably bad either), a limp finale, an overlong and poorly constructed prologue...it all adds up, for me, to one big dud.

[paulofilmo]

Watched The World.. several months ago with my cousins. Surprised myself and enjoyed it. Campy fun. Good colour palette, great suit. Throwback cold war-ness. Flying jet-skis. Enjoyed the bad accents of familiar Brit actors (there's an insular sort of warmth to this that may not translate to an international audience). Denise Richards was ridiculous, but then I expect something closer to Playboy than Ibsen from a Bond film.
Shame about the BMW, though.

Light and forgettable, but serviceable for a lizard-brained boys' night.

[CMonster]

QoS's shaky cam

Wait, it used a shaky cam? What more needs to be written about why it was garbage?

Plenty, because it wasn't just regular shaky cam, it was really bad shaky cam. I can't emphasize enough how much more poorly this shaky cam was executed than the typical shaky cam used in many movies.

[ShogunRua]

So you're saying it wasn't just the bubonic plague, but the Plague with a sprinkling of AIDS and cancer on top?

[nauru]

Haven't seen Skyfall yet. But anyway, to me the Bond film are all about style, panache, and uniquely impressive action sequences.

Most of the Bond films which I give a high ranking have great action, and the pace keeps moving. The ones with a lot of standing around, waiting for things to happen, tend to receive a lower score from me. I'm not too fussed about how cool the villain is, so long as the story keeps me interested. The exception is Jaws, because Jaws is awesome.

My favourite Bond actors are Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan. To me they are exactly the right mix of classy and cheesy. Pierce Brosnan gets a bad rap for being in a truly horrible Bond flick (The World Is Not Enough) but in my opinion it was crap because of poor writing, and poor direction, not because Brosnan was bad. Bad lines are bad lines no matter who delivers them.

1. Moonraker [71, T8] Tier 8

To me this film encompasses everything a Bond film should have. Travel to exotic locations, unique action sequences unlike any I've seen before (gondola chase through Venice, awesome fight in a glassware museum, laser battle in outer space and fighting on a space station in zero gravity) and a brilliant & diabolical plan that needs to be foiled.

2. You Only Live Twice [70] Tier 7
3. Thunderball [67]Tier 7
4. From Russia With Love [66] Tier 7
4. Tomorrow Never Dies [66] Tier 7

6. Casino Royale [63] Tier 6
I found this one a bit too long and a bit too slow. But the villain was cool, I really liked the plot, and the scenes in the casino were excellent. Really captured the stylishness of Bond, interspersed with badassery.

7. Octopussy [58] Tier 5
Chase through India was really great.

7. Goldeneye [58] Tier 5
9. Goldfinger [55] Tier 5
10. Licence to Kill [54] Tier 5
11. A View to A Kill [50] Tier 5
12. Diamonds Are Forever [47] Tier 4
13. Die Another Day [45] Tier 4
14. Dr No [40] Tier 4

14. Quantum of Solace [40] Tier 4
This one had a pretty weak plot, and also the Bond girls here were terrible.

16. The Spy Who Loved Me [38] Tier 3
17. Live and Let Die [37] Tier 3
17. The Man with the Golden Gun [37] Tier 3
19. For Your Eyes Only [36] Tier 3
20. The Living Daylights [30] Tier 2

21. On Her Majesty's Secret Service [28] Tier 2
Aside from all the boring parts in this, the main thing I that bothered me about this one is a theme song that kept playing over and over and over again instead of the true Bond theme. I really despised the theme song for this movie and I think it is the worst in the franchise along with the Quantum of Solace theme song. The good thing about the QoS themesong is that they didn't keep playing it constantly throughout the movie. Or if they did, it wasn't nearly as grating as the Majesty theme song so I didn't notice.

22. The World is Not Enough [15] Tier 1
Just awful.

[nauru]

"Wait, it used a shaky cam? What more needs to be written about why it was garbage?"

Poor movie.

Also, I don't know how many people agree with me, but I think TWiNE is easily the worst film in the franchise. Amazingly boring, underwhelming villains, a blah story, Denise Richards (who isn't at all good, but isn't memorably bad either), a limp finale, an overlong and poorly constructed prologue...it all adds up, for me, to one big dud.

I agree with this.

[ShogunRua]

Haven't seen Skyfall yet, but here's my ranking:

Let's re-iterate;

On a tangential note, I hope we can keep actual discussion of these films and characters going, and this doesn't turn into another mindless "List your Top X of your Favorite Y" topic.

If you can't tell, I hate those mindless threads, and how ubiquitous they have become on this forum. Just people listing movies in some arbitrary order, sans comment. What the fuck is the point of that? What knowledge does that impart on anyone?

[nauru]

Haha -- fair point, I'm editing my post now!

[ShogunRua]

Haha -- fair point, I'm editing my post now!

Thanks.

21. On Her Majesty's Secret Service [28] Tier 2
The main thing I remember from this one is a theme song that kept playing over and over and over again instead of the true Bond theme. I really despised the theme song for this movie and I think it is the worst in the franchise along with the Quantum of Solace theme song. The good thing about the QoS themesong is that they didn't keep playing it constantly throughout the movie. Or if they did, it wasn't nearly as grating as the Majesty theme song so I didn't notice.

Heh, really? Music is as subjective as it gets, but this is probably my favorite Bond theme ever. I'm curious what others think.

[paulofilmo]

Apparently this came first. Bond on the lawn of gypsy jazz.