All the Bond films ranked - Goldfinger not in top 5?
Goldfinger is ranked high but not as high as I thought!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qiabtsvtj48&t=174s
I'm not a huge Goldfinger fan. It's a classic Connery and benchmarks a lot of the aspects of Bond that will become staples (and cliches), but it's not my favourite. I'm a From Russia with Love guy, and I'd even put Dr. No over Goldfinger.
This guy's list is a little wonky in general, though, 'cause he's got Moonraker and Tomorrow Never Dies in the top 10, and Dr. No is buried nearer the bottom of the list. I'd also say, it's subjective - to each his own - but GoldenEye is (in general as here) a very overrated Bond picture; I think the video game's popularity boosted the reputation of the film.
His list is very much subjective, he is only going off of his own personal preference and is not taking into account public/critical opinion. I for one DO NOT think that Spectre is really all that bad (it's certainly not a great Bond film but it is far from horrible) yet he has that next to last.
shareEvery list is going to be subjective (unless you ranked them by something completely measurable and arbitrary, like run-time), of course. Perhaps I should have said that I find this guy's personal taste to be all over the place.
For the record, I didn't watch the (rather long) video, just hopped about to find his rankings. So, I'm largely ignorant of his reasoning.
Spectre has, in my opinion, four flaws: (1) it is too long and the story should have been told in far less time, (2) the criminal and/or sinful under-use of Monica Bellucci, (3) the cringey and appalling Bond/Blofeld connection was shoehorned and felt cheap, and (4) the retcon to have Spectre be in charge of every woe Bond ever felt. Quantum is really Spectre. Rogue agent/lone wolf Silva? Spectre. Vesper? Spectre. Bond couldn't find parking? Spectre...
I agree, Spectre is one of the worst of the series, if not the absolute worst. It's funny this kid Calvin ranks Never Say Never Again lower than Spectre, he really does not like NSNA lol.
shareThe only issue I have with Spectre is it felt it had to connect all of the previous Craig films together and it didn't, it could have easily stood on its own, it is however far better than that piece of sh!t Quantum of Solace or Diamonds Are Forever. It also has one of the greatest train fight sequences of the entire franchise.
shareThat is, I think, it's biggest flaw. If they had let Spectre be its own agency, its own film, it would've been a great romp. I think they might have felt the weight of Blofeld too much. It became too big ("We have to make this EPIC!") and they stopped coming up with great story ideas, instead focusing on making the perfect Blofeld story.
shareAgain I am not going to defend that, that was a bad decision and I felt they were trying to set up a bond cinematic universe or something , I just don’t think that it was enough to tank the film to one of the worst ever
shareOh, I see. Yeah, Spectre had some good points. The car chase, Bellucci, the ski fight (classic Bond!), and so forth.
I'd put it somewhere in the middle (somewhere around #14-18). Too flawed, but some good stuff.
Quantum is the worst by a mile.
These were my most recent rankings:
10/10:
01) Goldfinger
02) For Your Eyes Only
03) Skyfall
04) From Russia With Love
05) Casino Royale
06) Thunderball
9/10:
07) The Spy Who Loved Me
08) Licence To Kill
09) Live And Let Die
10) Dr. No
11) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
8/10:
12) Die Another Day (yes I have a soft spot for this one)
13) You Only Live Twice (the battle inside the volcano lair really elevates this one)
14) A View To A Kill (Another one I feel is underrated)
15) Goldeneye
16) Spectre
17) The World Is Not Enough
7/10:
18) Octopussy
19) Tomorrow Never Dies
20) The Man With The Golden Gun
21) The Living Daylights (there's really nothing wrong with this film at all, the only thing is for me at least there is nothing memorable about it, and I don't like the soundtrack)
3/10:
22) Moonraker (HUGE drop in quality between TLD and this one)
2/10:
23) Quantum of Solace
1/10:
24) Diamonds Are Forever
Really similar to mine. Our top tens are composed of almost the same films (with a notable exception)
1. From Russia with Love
2. Dr. No
3. Casino Royale
4. Skyfall
5. Goldfinger
6. Thunderball
7. Licence to Kill
8. The Spy Who Loved Me
9. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
10. The World is Not Enough (this is one I feel is constantly underrated; Richards is horrible, but Marceau is amazing)
11. For Your Eyes Only
12. Live and Let Die
13. You Only Live Twice
14. Spectre
15. GoldenEye
16. Tomorrow Never Dies
17. The Man with the Golden Gun
18. Die Another Day (the first half is great, but Halle Berry really sinks this one for me)
19. Diamonds Are Forever (a lot of cheesy badness, but it still has Connery...)
20. A View to A Kill (I understand why you think it's underrated. I kinda feel about it as you do about the Living Daylights. It's not so very bad, it's just kinda ho-hum and Roger Moore is really showing his age)
21. Octopussy
22. Moonraker
23. Quantum of Solace (Bond-in-name-only, it feels like a ripoff of a generic action movie)
I haven't seen The Living Daylights, which is a bit foolish of me as I'm a big Bond fan and I loved Licence to Kill - you'd think I'd have made an effort.
For the non-cannonical Bonds, I like both of them very much. Never Say Never Again would probably rate around 13-15. It actually teases some of Skyfall's themes of aging, which is very interesting. Unfortunately, it doesn't follow through as well, and the lack of Bond theme in a Connery Bond is weird, uncanny valley type stuff...
Casino Royale ('60s) is hard to rank because it's a raging comedy blunderbuss, so it's nigh-impossible to figure out where it would sit.
I have to agree with anyone who places Quantum of Solace at or very near the bottom. I will say my guilty pleasure is Moonraker. Aside from the ending I think it was very well produced and had some very funny quirks about it. There are a few I haven't seen, like A View to a Kill..so it would be hard for me to rank all of them.
shareIn some way, I feel like large chunks of Bond is chalked up to "guilty pleasure". There is a cheese to the whole thing. Even the most "serious" ones (like From Russia with Love) have goofy elements (like the gypsy camp cat fight or a periscope in the Russian embassy).
If people want to like Moonraker or Octopussy, or whatever - it's their deal.
That said, Quantum of Solace is objectively terrible. (Clearly, according to all our personal tastes).
Quantum of Solace is a piece of sh!t plain and simple. I cannot watch Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace back to back and think of QOS taking place just minutes after the end of Casino Royale considering the huge drop in quality. The film felt like a Bourne wannabe, the shaky cam drove me absolutely insane I couldn't tell what was going on (apparently the editor has a severe case of ADHD), the villains are bland, the dialogue in atrocious, the plot makes no sense at all (why extort money out of Bolivia, they don't have any money it's a 3rd world nation) and then there's that stupid gunbarrel sequence.
I heard due to the writers strike Daniel Craig had to write much of the script, he probably should never try doing that again, just stick to what he's good at.
Also I think it was criminal to briefly show the "Bodies" exhibit during QOS. There's a good chance they were the bodies of political prisoners executed by the Chinese government.
shareAgent Fields and the opera sequence were the only things I liked about it.
The magic eight ball camera guy was the worst. I hate that trend.
Solid list, it seems I put For Your Eyes Only and Live and Let Die higher while you put The World Is Not Enough and On Her Majesty's Secret Service higher. The World Is Not Enough could have been great it if wasn't for some of the godawful dialogue (mostly from Denise Richards) and the completely over the top stunts (like Bond jumping off a cliff while having a dislocated shoulder and not even getting a scratch on him). Having said that The World Is Not Enough used to be pretty near the bottom for me but I actually warmed up to it a bit the last time I watched it. The second half of On Her Majesty's Secret Service was great, the main issue I have with it is everything leading up to the second half which is so incredibly slow and dull, especially the straight half hour where Lazenby's voice is being dubbed, barely anything is happening the film just stalls and I really think that entire segment could have been cut in half to help speed up the film, also I didn't like it that Lazenby's voice was dubbed. Something Calvin pointed out that I agree with, when Bond is pretending to be Sir Hillary Bray, George Lazenby should be playing Bond pretending to be Bray, but instead he just plays Bray which could be a result of him just not being a very good actor.
As for The Living Daylights I'd suggest giving it a shot, I know some people who think it's one of the very best, the thing is I think they should have just brought Roger Moore back for it because there are some very silly scenes in it (and if you watch the deleted scenes there is one in particular where Bond escapes by riding a magic carpet which is sooo the kind of thing Roger Moore's Bond would do), and the entire tone didn't really seem to match Dalton's dark portrayal of the character. Also as I said earlier it just wasn't memorable and I didn't like the soundtrack but it's still a solid film. I actually read somewhere someone said that if it wasn't a Bond film it could have been considered one of the greatest Cold War Espionage films but instead it's a Bond film and must be judged as one.
I'm not a fan of Denise Richards in TWINE, either, but the rest of it balances out for me. Elektra King is one of my favourite guest characters in Bond, and it was nice to see Robbie Coltrane back as Zukovsky. I understand why Denise Richards makes things not fun for people.
I don't disagree with you assessment of OHMSS, either, I just weigh the positives more. For me, it jumps a couple spots on the list just for having the audacity to end the film that way. Not just (uh...spoilers...for any Bond fan who doesn't know this) for killing off his wife, but also for allowing the movie to end with his defeat (he doesn't avenge her - she's just dead and Bond loses). It's as close as Bond gets to "pulling a Watchmen".
I'll check out TLD for sure. I just haven't gotten around to it.
Literally just finished watching it. It was solid! It got a bit slow in the middle, and the Muhajadeen stuff plays a little weird post-80s, but...
Dalton is a really good Bond, the cello chase is classic, and it does have a great balance between the fun, the wit, and the real spy-thriller stuff. Great entry into the franchise.