James Bond - Overall Ranking

Originally, I revisited the James Bond movies simply because I wanted to see them all finally. Then I decided to write about each Bond actor’s set of movies because it seemed silly to watch that many movies and only write Letterboxd entries for them. After ranking the movies of each Bond actor, I figured I also needed to rank the movies altogether. Since I’ve already written as extensively as I plan to about the films of Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, and Craig, this list will be very sparse, only one or two sentences per entry. This ranking isn’t about which film is objectively best; it’s about my personal favorites, and which ones I consider rewatchable. Also, I am counting Never Say Never Again in the list; it may not be canon in the proper series, but I still consider it a Bond movie since Connery was in it (I don’t count the original Casino Royale because that was more like Austin Powers than James Bond). With that out of the way, here is my ranking of the Bond franchise.

1. Casino Royale

The only Bond movie I watch at least once a year; just a perfect introduction to my favorite Bond.

2. Skyfall

A very close second; the most straightforward and enjoyable of the Craig Bonds.

3. GoldenEye

This is a total nostalgia pick partially because of the game, but I truly love this one to this day.

4. From Russia with Love

If I’m watching Connery as Bond, this is my pick; and the locations are amazing in this one.

5. Spectre

This will raise some eyebrows, but I thoroughly enjoy Craig’s Bond getting his first traditional (and slightly goofy) outing as Bond with the gadgets and all the side character mainstays.

6. Goldfinger

The best music in the series, and that’s saying something.

7. No Time to Die

It’s a bit messy as it feels like two different types of Bond movies combined (the serious first three Craig movies combined with the sillier Spectre), but I like both types, so it worked for me.

8. You Only Live Twice

This is the type of Bond movie that Austin Powers was spoofing, and for good reason: it’s silly and awesome.

9. The Living Daylights

The original serious Bond.

10. The Spy Who Loved Me

I am admittedly not a fan of Moore, but this is the closest he came to making a classic Bond.

11. Licence to Kill

The original pissed off Bond.

12. Die Another Day

I originally hated this one, but I’ve come to appreciate the total insanity of it.

13. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Lazenby is all right, and I dig how serious they went with the ending.

14. Tomorrow Never Dies

It has everything a great Bond movie should, but something doesn’t click; it does feature a perfectly hateable villain, though.

15. Dr. No

Yeah, it’s the original, but I’ve seen it twice and never want to see it again.

16. Moonraker

My expectations were in the gutter for this one, but I was surprised at how traditional this one was despite the space gimmick.

17. A View to a Kill

Moore is far too old at this point, but Walken is a lot of fun in this, especially when he comes unhinged at the end.

18. The World Is Not Enough

This one has its moments actionwise, and Brosnan was great in all of his appearances, but this one was just a bit boring.

19. Octopussy

This is one of the goofier ones as it has Bond literally dressed up as a clown at one point.

20. For Your Eyes Only

This is when Moore’s age started to get to me.

21. Quantum of Solace

I’ve actually come around on this one a bit, but I still find it such a missed opportunity that it lands near the bottom for me; if the action wasn’t so Bourne-inspired, maybe I would have liked it more.

22. Live and Let Die

Moore started off with two gimmicky entries; I like this one slightly more than the other one because I like New Orleans.

23. Diamonds Are Forever

Connery as Bond in Vegas should have been amazing, but it was a bit boring as the Blofeld stuff was wearing thin at this point.

24. The Man with the Golden Gun

They brought back the stupid sheriff from Live and Let Die; that alone puts this near the bottom for me.

25. Never Say Never Again

A remake of Thunderball, which is the only Bond movie I flat out hate; this one is only above the original because they replaced one of the insufferable underwater scenes with an ‘80s requisite nonsense video game scene.

26. Thunderball 

The underwater stuff is just so damn boring.

James Bond Ranked - Sean Connery

This started, as do most of my articles these days, with a podcast. The Rewatchables covered Casino Royale a while back, so I rewatched it to listen to that episode. It had been a while, and I loved it even more than I thought I did. This made me want to revisit Quantum of Solace to see if I still hated it (I do). Then I thought, “Fuck it, I’ll watch all of the Daniel Craig Bond movies.” This helped me to enjoy No Time to Die so much more this time around, since the Craig Bond movies are much more serialized than any other actor’s tenure. Anyway, finished with that, and decided to go back to the beginning and work my way through every one of these movies.

The first thing that surprised me was how little I had actually seen of the series. I consider myself a Bond fan, but the only tenures I’ve seen in their entirety are Brosnan and Craig. Before this, I had only seen two of the Connery movies (Dr. No and Goldfinger), and that’s it before Brosnan. I had not seen On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, nor had I watched a single Roger Moore or Timothy Dalton film. So this was mainly new territory for me, and I suppose I’ll find out how true a fan I am of this series. 

Before I get to the ranking, I wanted to get into my overall thoughts on Connery as Bond. Even though his tenure ended before my birth, I always considered him THE James Bond. Everyone else is putting their own stamp on the character, but he’s the original. Maybe this is why I never watched all his films. I watched a couple and thought they were all like that. Imagine my surprise when I ended up thinking some of these kind of suck. Despite this, I just like seeing Connery in the role. While I don’t want to watch most of these ever again, I wouldn’t mind them as background noise because there’s a comforting quality to them. I can’t say that about the Craig movies, even though I like them more. Connery brought something to the role that made me just want to hang out with him, and I can’t say that about the rest of the crew. 

Finally, I put Never Say Never Again on here. I know it’s not canon, but it is Sean Connery playing James Bond so I’m including it.

1. From Russia with Love

This is generally cited as the prototypical Bond film and rightfully so. It established everything I love about the series: location shooting (this movie made me start Googling traveling to Istanbul, a trip I have neither the time nor money to take), Blofeld and S.P.E.C.T.R.E., Q and the gadgets, etc. It further established Connery in the role. It featured a truly great villain in Robert Shaw’s Red Grant, and the train fight is a series standout. The story moves quickly and is easy to follow, which is possibly the most important aspect in a series that can get convoluted with its villain’s plans. Put simply, this is what I think of when I think “Classic Bond,” which makes it my favorite Connery entry.

2. Goldfinger

When I first planned this, I assumed Goldfinger would be first, and it would be more about figuring out the order for the rest. From Russia with Love surprised me, but Goldfinger is still an extremely close second. This continues my idea of a classic Bond film, and it features my favorite theme by far. I don’t actually care for the lyrics of the title song, but every time the music kicks in during the film, it turns boring moments into classic moments. And it has some all-time characters in Goldfinger, Odd Job, and Pussy Galore. Maybe not characters, but at least character names.

3. You Only Live Twice

This is where we get into Austin Powers territory, and I love it. By far the goofiest entry, what with the volcano lair, ninja school, evil cat stroking, piranhas, rocket guns, Donald Pleasance, and a cigarette gun. I can see why people would hate this or find it too silly, but this is what I want from at least one film in every Bond actor’s tenure (this is why I like Spectre, even though it’s generally considered one of the worst movies in the series). I just wish Connery had called it quits for good after this. It would have been such a high note to go out on, instead of his two unnecessary and forgettable comebacks. 

4. Dr. No

Honestly, I appreciate this one just to revisit and compare it to what the series has become vs. how it started. My favorite element to compare: villain plans. The Craig movies kept introducing villains higher up the food chain that have been orchestrating decades-long plans seemingly just to get to Bond. Not even to kill him, but to destroy his soul. Part of Dr. No’s plan in this film is to give a henchman a big spider, which the henchman puts in Bond’s bed. Bond wakes up and eventually kills it with his shoe. I love the new films, but I miss simple shit like, “Take this big spider and put it in Bond’s hotel room. Maybe it’ll bite him. Fuck it.”

5. Diamonds Are Forever

You could actually shuffle these bottom three because they have one thing in common: they’re boring. You would think sending Bond to Vegas would make for some of the funnest shit in the series, but this really did not need to take place there. I just couldn’t get into the diamond smuggling plot, and bringing Blofeld back yet again at the end was just tiresome. This was Connery’s first return to the series, and it not only completely did away any lasting goodwill from the far superior On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, it just seemed like he wasn’t having fun in the role any longer. 

6. Never Say Never Again

This is just a rights-battle remake of Thunderball that was made…out of spite? I don’t feel like looking any further into the behind-the-scenes stuff because this movie didn’t work for me at all. Aside from commenting on Connery’s age, nothing interesting is done with the fact that a 50+ year-old man is doing silly spy shit (to be fair, the canon series at the time was in the same boat with the even older Roger Moore). I guess I like it a little more than Thunderball because there are slightly fewer underwater sequences. But in the place of that is a truly baffling video game scene in the casino, which is there because this was made in the 80s? I don’t know, and I don’t care.

7. Thunderball

I didn’t know this until I watched Thunderball, but apparently I fucking despise underwater scenes. They just bring this movie to a screeching halt every time. There’s one extended sequence in which henchmen recover some warheads and then cover a plane with a tarp, and we are shown every single moment of this. Maddening. Maybe I’m being too harsh on this one, but when I try to think about any other element of this film, all I can remember are those boring underwater scenes. Oh wait, I also remember that the movie starts with a stupid jetpack, and then Bond spends way too long at a health spa. Yeah, fuck this movie.