Watch appearances in movies and television supported by viewers like you. Every James Bond Movie Ranked From Worst to First. This Friday, James Bond returns to movie theaters in Spectre, starring Daniel Craig as Ian Fleming’s secret agent 0. In this installment, Bond will do battle with the forces of SPECTRE, a criminal organization hellbent on world domination. He’ll also have to do battle with a different sort of ghost: The audience’s accumulated memories from 2. So how does Spectre rate with all those other James Bond movies? The staff of Screen. Crush decided this was the perfect time to figure that out. And, in keeping with our subject, we had to do it big, by ranking every movie in the series from worst to first.
![]() ![]() We took everything into account; the gadgets, the titles, the song, the stars, the action, the women, even the fashion. We also provided a handy at- a- glance guide to all the villains, the best moments, and every weird skill James Bond inexplicably exhibits over the course of his many outings, just in case you ever need to know when 0. But we rewatched and reconsidered everything else — up to and including Spectre, which you’ll find below — to bring you this ultimate James Bond ranking. Some choices may leave you shaken; others will no doubt stir you into a commenting frenzy. And just like Bond himself, these rankings are likely to change over time. But as of November 2. Bond. 2. 4. Die Another Day. ![]() Year: 2. 00. 2Director: Lee Tamahori. Writers: Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. James Bond Is Played By: Pierce Brosnan (Fourth time)James Bond Is a Surprisingly Skilled: Hovercraft driver; fencer. The Villain Is: Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a North Korean colonel who uses gene therapy to become a British diamond merchant. ![]() Bond does get one legitimately cool gadget: A ring that doubles as a “ultra- high frequency single- digit sonic agitator unit” that can shatter even the most unbreakable glass with ear- piercing sound. Bond uses it to clever effect a few times in the movie, including breaking his own car’s windshield to rescue NSA agent Jinx (Halle Berry) from drowning. Why It’s #2. 4: This movie’s a mess. When Halle Berry and Pierce Brosnan flirt together it’s a hot mess, but it’s still a mess. Things start to fall apart when Bond tracks shady diamond dealer (and also satellite inventor and also aspiring Olympic fencer) Gustav Graves to his Icelandic ice palace, where guests party in chilly luxury, and marvel at a giant space laser, drawing unflattering comparisons to the overblown kitsch of Batman and Robin. Hadn’t Austin Powers made fun of lasers several times at this point? When Mike Myers is spoofing something, it’s time to retire it. The whole movie feels informed by the worst mega- blockbusters of the early 2. CGI completely divorced from character or story. Also the main villain’s primary motivation is revenge against James Bond for almost murdering him, but that sorta- killing is precisely what allows him to become a wealthy British playboy, so if anything he should thank Bond, not try to drown him in a melting ice castle. By the end, Graves winds up dressed like North Korean Iron Man and has electricity powers like Emperor Palpatine. On his silliest day, Roger Moore never got this silly. The World Is Not Enough. Year: 1. 99. 9Director: Michael Apted. Writers: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Bruce Feirstein. James Bond Is Played By: Pierce Brosnan (Third time)James Bond Is a Surprisingly Skilled: Experimental boat captain. The Villain Is: Renard (Robert Carlyle), deranged former KGB agent and current terrorist who cannot feel pain, thanks to a bullet that is permanently lodged in his brain. Because that’s how bullets work. Best Sequence: The World Is Not Enough was Desmond Llewelyn’s final appearance as Q, James Bond’s gadget supplier. Though Llewelyn claimed he wanted to keep playing the character, Q’s standard briefing scene introduces his replacement, jokingly referred to as “R” (John Cleese), which turned out to be prophetic; Llewelyn died in a car crash a few weeks after The World Is Not Enough’s premiere. Latest Bond movie officially drags 007 into the serialized-franchise world — and nearly destroys its legacy. James Bond descends into mystery as he tries to stop a mysterious organization from eliminating a country's most valuable resource. All the while, he still tries to. ![]() Most actors in this series get replaced in unceremonious fashion, and rarely receive any kind of acknowledgement or curtain call upon their departure. It was nice that Llewelyn got to go out in classy and surprisingly poignant style. Christmas Jones, nuclear scientist and short shorts enthusiasts. In her defense, it ain’t like the rest of the movie is Citizen Kane. Even the crummiest Bonds usually have a great line or a really impressive chase to remember them by; The World Is Not Enough has almost nothing going for it. Robert Carlyle’s Renard could have been a terrific Bond villain, but he doesn’t even appear for the first hour, and is barely a factor in the story. The luckiest person in this whole thing is Sophie Marceau, who tends to get forgotten among rankings of bad Bond girls because she’s standing next to Richards when, in fact, they’re both pretty crummy. The world may not be enough, but I’ve had my fill; let’s move on. Octopussy. Year: 1. Director: John Glen. Writers: George Mac. Donald Fraser, Richard Maibaum, Michael G. Wilson. James Bond Is Played By: Roger Moore (Sixth time)James Bond Is a Surprisingly Skilled: Backgammon player; circus clown. The Villain Is: Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan), who’s engaged in a baffling scheme to smuggle priceless jewels out of Russia with a deranged Soviet general who wants to heat up the Cold War. Best Sequence: In a race to prevent a nuclear explosion, Bond gets into a chase with a bunch of Russians. The soldiers shoot out his tires, so he takes his car and its now empty rims onto the train tracks and pursues the bomb that way. Even by James Bond standards, this is a pretty baller move. Absolutely nothing, but Octopussy throws them together into an incoherent slog with too many villains and not enough reasons to care about any of them. Its not much crazier or more outlandish than the better Moore installments; what’s lacking for most of the film is a clear sense of stakes. Most of it really is Bond just wandering through India, playing board games and screwing with a snoody guy who wants a fancy tchotchke. With mere minutes to prevent a nuclear explosion that could start a world war, Bond actually wastes precious time disguising himself as a clown, and even puts on all the makeup (see above). That’s a pretty good symbol of everything wrong with 0. Sorry, Rita Coolidge; this is anything but an all- time high. Quantum of Solace. Year: 2. 00. 8Director: Marc Forster. Writers: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis. James Bond Is Played By: Daniel Craig (Second time)James Bond Is a Surprisingly Skilled: Parachute- free skydiver. The Villain Is: Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), an environmentalist who wants to control the Bolivian water supply. Best Sequence: James Bond goes searching for the men behind his troubles in Casino Royale, and discovers a shadowy organization known as Quantum (rendering the title of this film amusingly literal). In this scene, Bond listens in as Quantum bigwigs discuss their business in plain sight, and then interrupts as only 0. Why It’s #2. 1: A writers’ strike sent this Casino Royale sequel into production without a finished script, dooming it right from the start (According to Daniel Craig, he and director Marc Forster were rewriting the screenplay on the fly on set.) Forster compounded his problems by pushing Bond too far into Jason Bourne territory, with an overly dour hero and overly choppy chase and fight sequences. Moonraker. Year: 1. Director: Lewis Gilbert. Writers: Christopher Wood. James Bond Is Played By: Roger Moore (Fourth time)James Bond Is a Surprisingly Skilled: Astronaut. The Villain Is: Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale), a deranged industrialist who wants to destroy the human race from space and then repopulate the planet with a genetically superior version. Best Sequence: “You missed, Mr. Bond.” “Did I?” James Bond does not miss, bro. Why It’s #2. 0: This space- set Bond has very little to do with its Fleming source material and everything to do with Star Wars becoming the biggest movie in the galaxy just a few years prior. The setup’s stale, with yet another crazy businessman who wants to blow up civilization so he recreate it in his own image, and the scale is way overblown; by the end, Bond’s literally involved in a laser battle in outer space (this comes a few scenes after a pigeon does a double take as he drives by in a convertible Venetian gondola). At least Ken Adam returned to design the incredible sets; I find it’s best to ignore the dozens of indistinguishable jumpsuited thugs blasting at each other in zero- gravity slo- mo, and just bask in Hugo Drax’s amazing space station. Live and Let Die. Year: 1. 97. 3Director: Guy Hamilton. Writer: Tom Mankiewicz. James Bond Is Played By: Roger Moore (First time)James Bond Is a Surprisingly Skilled: Crocodile jumper. The Villain Is: Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto), a deranged dictator of a Caribbean island who wants to flood the America with cheap drugs to gain a stranglehold over the market for heroin. Best Sequence: Macca himself showed up to welcome Roger Moore to the world of 0. Almost everything about Live and Let Die looks pretty dated in 2. Paul Mc. Cartney’s operatic theme song still holds up. Plus, every time the song swells, flaming skulls explode from Maurice Binder’s opening titles. Bond goes heavy metal! Roger Moore’s Bond debut was heavily inspired by the blaxploitation movement, but in all the wrong ways, with 0. Questionable racial politics aside, the story and action are tepid at best, although the sequence where Bond escapes from a crocodile pen and then leads Kanaga’s henchmen on a boat chase through the Louisiana swamps is aces (at least the parts that don’t involve the single most loathsome character in all of Bonddom, Clifton James’ bumbling redneck sheriff J. W. Pepper). To his credit, Roger Moore looked instantly comfortable in the role of James Bond, and the filmmakers quickly began to exploit his gift for for making even the dirtiest double entendres sound innocent. Who Will Be the Next James Bond? The mystery over who might play the next James Bond has evolved into something of a real- life spy thriller. In what might be the most brilliant double- cross in movie promotion history, current Bond face Daniel Craig has said that he’s exhausted from donning the famous tuxedo, which has in turn fueled speculation/fanboy daydreams that everyone from former T- Swift boyfriend Tom Hiddleston to all- around ass- kicker Idris Elba might step into the role. But Sony, it seems, is trying to put some gold- plated brakes on the rumor mill. The studio has reportedly offered Craig an astonishing $1. Craig’s contract, but also add a sixth movie to the slate, a Sony source told Radar. Online. To put that number in context: Even if Craig signs a deal for half the money and only one movie, he’d make $7. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the highest- paid actor in the world, made in an entire year.
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