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You Only Live Twice and Goldeneye.
I got the big boxset, so I've been making my way through all the films and trying to rank them without any sort of nostalgia bias. So far it is...
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Goldfinger
From Russia With Love
The Spy Who Loved Me
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
Dr. No
The Man With the Golden Gun
Diamonds are Forever
Live And Let Die
What is it that people like about OHMSS? Because I don't see it. Just the relationship with Tracy?
For me a lot of OHMSS doesn't hold up well, but it does have some great action sequences - the ski chase especially - but yes, I would say it rates most highly because of the Tracy plot. In all the other movies Bond has adventures and saves the world a dozen times and it's usually fun to watch, but that's just him doing what he does. He's interesting and all, but he has no character arc.
Which is fine, he doesn't necessarily have to have one, but as we've said numerous times, a truly satisfying movie story is about the most important thing that ever happened to somebody. And of all the Bond films (up until the Daniel Craig Casino Royale reboot anyway, because a similar thing happens there) what happens to Bond in OHMSS is the most important thing that ever will happen to him. And they acknowledged that by referring to it in a few of the subsequent movies, too.
Also: Diana Rigg in her Avengers prime ( the REAL Avengers, not the comic book), I mean come on, goddam.
So that certainly sets OHMSS apart from most of the pack, but doesn't make it my personal fave. For that, I'll go with Living Daylights or Spy Who Loved Me.
My favourite is Goldeneye for reasons I talk about here
It was the first Bond I saw but it holds up brilliantly and is by far Brosnans strongest which is a shame because they never really matched the tone of Silly-NotTooSilly until Casino Royale.
The first three Connery films are great but I'm less keen when it strays too far from Flemming in You Only Live Twice or Diamonds are Forever.
I actually prefer Roger Moore's later films For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy to Live and Let Die and Spy Who Loved Me but I do unashamedly love Moonraker if only for the Pretitle sequence where they just kept throwing stuntmen out of planes.
I recall OHMMS having an almost porn-like plot, with Bond essentially failing his mission because he's sleeping with all the women at the mountain retreat. I always felt that Lazenby was the best fighter amongst the Bonds, up until Craig; I believe he had some martial arts training which might explain it.
I rewatched Quantum of Solace recently and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was. In fact, it has probably my third favourite Bond girl of them all (with Michelle Yeoh and Barbara Bach - spot the common theme amongst these!) and has a few great action sequences (possibly too many actually).
To my mind, all the Bond films have something of value. There's none that I actively dislike, just a few that I don't like quite so much. Even Die Another Day features a great first act.
Tomorrow Never Dies is by far my favorite Bond followed closely by Goldfinger and Dr. No.
Tomorrow Never Dies I enjoy because many of the reasons already listed. Not to mention its one of the first times I ever looked at a Bond movie and said I wanted to grow up to be a Bond Girl... I wish Bond would go in this direction a little more.
Goldfinger and Dr. No are favorites because they're classics, and ones I grew up watching with my Dad on weekends, so they have that childhood do no wrong factor going for them.
Great to see the Tomorrow Never Dies love in this thread. 
Michelle Yeoh is awesome in it, she's probably my favourite 'Bond girl'.
Yeah, Tomorrow Never Dies kicks so much ass. It was just on TV the other day and I simply cannot fathom how people can like GoldenEye more (especially with that horrendous score, easily the worst of the bond series, compared to David Arnold's awesome work on TND). It might be the most action packed entry in the whole series, the second half is almost wall-to-wall machine-gun fire and explosions (with some fun John Woo-ish dual wielding going on).
Yeah, I think Goldeneye really doesn't hold up well and the score is atrocious. David Arnold's Bond scores are all great and I remember him saying in a dvd extra that he loves being able to work the iconic Bond theme into them. Then he got to do Casino Royale and that shit Quantum one and was told to hardly use it t all.
I love the use of the twangy guitar part in Skyfall but when I heard it, I thought 'poor David Arnold'. The James Bond theme is one of my favourites of all time despite not being a huge fan of the films.
Now now, let's not diss GoldenEye people. I like TND quite a bit (especially it's engrossing White Bishop to White Knight opening and the aforementioned Michelle Yeoh), but it tends to ruin a lot of its great moments with pithy quips, which got worse and worse as the Brosnan movies went on, and Teri Pratcher is almost, almost as bad at being a Bond girl as Halle Berry. Mercifully, she's not in it for long. I liked the concept of her character though, as we'd not seen an old flame of Bond's before, and her death injects a burst of personal motivation.
Oh, I will diss Goldeneye, I don't like it, it hasn't aged well and the score is shite. In my opinion, of course 
I'm making my way through the box set while I pack up my apartment to move. I'm in the early Moore's now. I've seen most of the flicks at least once prior to getting the set, and I'm really surprised at how poor some of them are.
My biggest takeaway from watching the movies is that Bond is an assassin. He has 00 status because it's his job to go kill someone. Any spying or investigation that takes place should be in trying to figure out who to kill. Some of the later Conneries have really gotten away from this.
My perfect Bond film storyline is: "X showed up and did y, so we need you to go kill him." Now along the way, it might turn out that x was just a fall guy and z is the person he's really after... Or maybe x is Bond's college roommate and they have all sorts of personal beef. If a Bond film doesn't primarily follow that formula, though... It tends to fall flat with me.
-- Branco
Oh, I will diss Goldeneye, I don't like it, it hasn't aged well and the score is shite. In my opinion, of course
You haven't aged well!
Ooh, you got me!
Last edited by Jimmy B (2012-11-26 18:39:00)
Goldeneye is so much better then Tomorrow Never Dies which is a tad too by the numbers
'A tad too by the numbers'? If you had said The World is Not Enough, then I would have agreed.
Anyway, I like Tomorrow Never Dies better than Goldeneye.....and yet the world still turns
Last edited by Jimmy B (2012-11-26 21:55:24)
But we can all agree on one thing. Die Another Day is horseshit.
It's good for about 35 minutes, similar to World is Not Enough, but ya, it's shit
Not coincidentally, the moment the main bond girl is introduced in both those films is the exact moment it becomes terrible
Last edited by bullet3 (2012-11-27 00:27:59)
I never understood why World is Not Enough gets pretty unanimously shit upon. I thought it was quite a solid Bond film. Weaker than the previous two, but better than probably all of Roger Moore's output, and at least You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever from Connery. That puts it in the top fifty percent. It's fun, the action is good, the Bond girls are gorgeous, Brosnan has really settled into the part, the plot is fairly unique, actually... What else are we looking for?
Well, I like You Only Live Twice quite a bit for what it's worth, but the problem with World is Not Enough is that the main bond girl is awwwful, the villain doesn't get much to do, and the whole second half of the movie is totally forgettable and lame (running/riding around oil pipelines makes for a pretty boring setting for action scenes), and in particular, I remember it having an incredibly lame climax on a submarine. Bond pushes some buttons that causes a giant rod to fly out and impale the bad guy for some reason...I dunno it's just really dull.
I think it is safe to say we all like different Bond films for different reasons. I enjoy The World is Not Enough for the stunts including that opening scene. I agree fully that Denise Richards is an awful Bond girl but I really do like the action scenes.
Die Another Day has Halle Berry, Madonna's song, bad CG, Madonna, a mental storyline that made no sense and a Miss Moneypenny masturbation scene. Basically. Yeah, it's bad, although the opening is great up until Bond says 'saved by the bell'. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuccccck yoooooooooooooooooooooou.
Die Another Day, and The World is Not Enough are crapsticular. Tomorrow Never Dies is fair enough, and GoldenEye is king.
'A tad too by the numbers'? If you had said The World is Not Enough, then I would have agreed.
I reckon The World is Not Enough does a pretty good job of getting away from the formula unfortunately thats probably where it falls down because it's just... dull.
Tomorrow Never Dies was only Brosnan's second Bond film, so, is Goldeneye 'by the numbers' too? Because Licence To Kill certainly wasn't and if Goldeneye wasn't, is it so wrong that TND went 'back to basics?'
I still don't like Goldeneye much. Yay, opinions!
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