1962-1965
#1
Dr. No: In this, first film, we met Her Majesty's Secret Service Agent James Bond 007. He is not a superman, and he possesses no super powers, what he does have is our undivided attention. The men which 007 faces are also human, but their plans, on the other hand, are completely inhuman. James Bond's first enemy is Dr. No. One of the first mad scientists with an atomic bomb. Dr. No was once exposed to his atomic device, but that did not stop him. Working for SPECTRE, introduced for the first time, Dr. No is determined to continue his work. He doesn't expect Bond to interfere, but then again people usually don't.
This was the first 007 movie. It was also a low budget movie, the studio only gave the producers 1 million dollars for the picture. Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman had no idea of what they were getting into, but I don't think they ever regretted it since. They introduced a tough, charm full, handsome, and later aristocratic hero. This man acted when action was due, and the effects were monstrous. Bottom line, a new hero was born. He has since celebrated 34 birthdays, and I will be happy to see him in another 34 years.
#2
From Russia With Love: SPECTRE is back, and their plan can not fail. They have everything and everyone they need. British secret service agent, James Bond. A Russian girl-Tatiana Romanova. Neither one, by the way, knows who they are working for. A wall of insurance, under the name of Red Grant. And a perfect bait, a secret Russia decoder, which Tatiana is going to steal for England. Their only mistake, was the underestimation of James Bond.
The second 007 film which in my personal view was the most serious of the films. The producers, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, were still trying to show James Bond as a serious agent that Fleming portrayed him to be. They later gave up that idea when Roger Moore replaced Connery, since Moore was much more of an aristocrat. But it was the perfect act for Connery. Tough and serious, and that's how the movie was shot.
#3
Goldfinger: By far the best plot ever introduced in any Bond film. Goldfinger, played by Gert Frobe, has come up with an ingenious scheme of making a great deal of money. He was going to explode a nuclear device inside Fort Knox. Thus irradiating all the gold owned by the United States. Therefore the worth of Goldfinger's gold would increase tenfold. Goldfinger's plan involved an extremely beautiful pilot under the name of Pussy Galore, as well as her squad. Their job was to spray poisonous gas into the air around Fort Knox. Fortunately, 007 was able to pursue Miss Galore to switch the canisters carrying the poisonous gas with a nontoxic one.
I am certain that there aren't that many people who disagreed with my choice of choosing Goldfinger as the best Bond movie. This movie had everything a 007 movie needs. A great plot. The best "toy" Q branch ever came up with-the Aston Martin DB-5, with of course some modifications. The villain was lovable. The henchman, Oddjob, was great. Pussy Galore, need I say more. Great plot, an awesome car, and Sean Connery as James Bond. This movie could not lose, and it didn't.
#4
Thunderball: SPECTRE is here once again, and this time their plot is much more believable, as well as terrifying. They were able to still two nuclear missiles from NATO. These are now the objects of an immense ransom, which all the countries have to pay, or else... All double-o agents, including 007, are summoned to an emergency meeting, and sent out in to the field on different leads. Well you can guess the rest.
This was truly an exciting film. James Bond was here to stay, and he made it known to everyone with a new great movie. The threat is real and it makes the audience feel jumpier. The fight sequences were unbelievable. The underwater shots didn't slow down the movie, as many thought, but only added to it. I was always amazed by some of the underwater camera work.
1967-1973
#5
You Only Live Twice: This picture is totally dependent on a plan, which is 100 percent science fiction. Blofeld captures U.S. and Russian space ships with the ship Intruder, from a Japanese base located inside a inactive volcano. There are a couple of firsts, in this film. Number one is that on his mission, Bond must travel to Japan. Another, is that in order to be perceived as Japanese, Sean Connery must be made to look as one. This, thankfully, doesn't involve any plastic surgery, and the result is quite humoring. More than that, 007 marries a Japanese agent! You Only Live Twice didn't exactly do it for me. It had a fantastic as well as a boring storyline. Science fiction is not James Bond, it never has been and never will. Bond has always praised himself on being a realistic hero, not a superman. This movie reverses the two. One more unfortunate factor is that the movie practically stands still. Putting the audience to sleep. Tied together by a few action scenes the picture falls apart.
#6
On Her Magestys Secret Service: In my opinion, OHMSS, had the best story of all Bond movies. Bond is after Blofeld, who is planing germ warfare. His plan is to brainwash a number of young women. In turn, when the girls return to their respective countries, they will perform different services for Blofeld. But as the movie goes on, 007 finally meets his mach, at least romantically speaking. First saving Tracy in the teaser of the movie, and then running in to her, time after time again, as the movie progressed. James fell in love, and the two were finally married at the end. But as the couple leave for their honeymoon, they receive a gift from Blofeld himself. In an attempt to kill 007, Blofeld puts an end to the marriage, by killing Tracy. Although I absolutely hated the way the film was shot. Especially the fights, the camera work was strange to say the least. The action scenes just seemed to move way too quickly, for a person to stay in focus. Still, OHMSS received a high rating on my list for three reasons. First, the script was one of Fleming's best. Second, was the performance by Diana Rigg in the role of Tracy. She played the perfect mate for Bond. Amazingly enough the new Bond, played by George Lazenby, in this one time performance was actually not that bad. My opinion, shared by many others, is that if he was to continue with the role, he might have grown into the part of 007. #7
Dimands are Forever: Sean Connery is back, and so is his arch nemesis Ernst Starvo Blofeld. His plot is literally out of this world, but that doesn't stop 007. He is not going to allow Blofeld to, again, threaten the world. He is ready, willing and able to take on anything or anyone in his path, even if that does involve Wilard Whyte's bodyguards-Bambi and Trumper. Connery was back and larger than life. He met even more girls. Demolished even more police cars, and got away with even most one liners ever. The producers needed a good comeback, after a disappointment with On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and they stopped at nothing to do it. Still, there two set backs. First of all, we are used to seeing 007 in the most exotic places of the world. Having him spend most of the film in Las Vegas-just takes away a big chunk of that famous 007 "formula." Secondly, I must once more mention the plot. The whole thing is just a little too unbelievable. I mean what kind of ransom is Blofeld going to ask for, if he already had enough money to build a satellite made completely out of diamonds.
#8
Live and let Die: One of the obvious purposes of this film was to introduce the new James Bond. (Ready for this) it's no other than Roger Moore. The first time viewers were probably more interested in watching Roger than following the plot. Not that it was much to follow. Something about driving the competitors, in the drug market-that is, out of business. And immediately following-making a great deal of money. Bottom line, they could have done better. "But suddenly a new contender has arrived." Live And Let Die proved to all 007 fans that the policy for the future of James Bond was "Live And Let Live." And so he did. Moore was new to the part, but never the less he pulled of an amazing performance, better than Lazenby. The story itself, wasn't exactly great, but the movie did have some high points. Number one; a first-class title song from Paul and Linda McCartney. Number two; it has exciting action sequence, most notably the motorboat chase. And number three; and I know there will be many people who disagree with me, but I just couldn't get enough of Sheriff J. W. Pepper.
1974-1981
#9
The Man With the Golden Gun: Francisco Scaramanga is million-dollars-a-shot-assassin, who seems to be after Bond. In return 007 goes after the man with the golden gun. His only other reason is that Scaramanga stole a solar energy device, which England wants back. The story leads 007 to Scaramanga's island, where in the end the two engage in a duel. By far the best scene of the whole film. From what I gather I am the only person who ever liked this movie. Many say "it was boring" or "that it just had no real story". I absolutely disagree. Although it did have its bad moments, the movie as a whole was great. The problem here was Scaramanga, the nicest villain James ever ran across. This confused the audience-"How can 007 kill Scaramanga, he is so pleasant and hasn't truly done anything wrong". Nick Nack, the henchman, was also a lovable, cute little guy. But the movie's strong point was the duel. One of the most exciting scenes in all Bond films, and this is what made The Man With The Golden Gun one of my favorites.
#10
The Spy Who Loved Me: The Spy Who Loved Me starts off, with probably the best action sequence of all 007 movies. The rest of the movie follows in the same fashion. 007 and triple x, are two agents trying to buy a nuclear submarine tracker, for their respective governments. But when Karl Stromberg's, fantastic plot, of blowing up the world comes out, the two join forces. And although the Russian agent swears to kill Bond at the end, the mission is completed successfully. This film was a huge success to say the least. By now Moore had some time to ease into the part, and he was smashing. One of his best performances. Barbara Bach, playing the part of Major Anya Amasova was a perfect, woman, counterpart of 007. The little ways in which they both tried to out do each other was entertaining, as well as amusing. Some thanks is also deserved by Jaws, the best as well as the worst, henchman who ever appeared in Bond movie. He was, without a question the toughest, but also too toughest, almost invincible. This made him seem to unbelievable. But when to all this also add the special affects. The underwater city, and of course the car/submarine Lotus, driven on land and underwater by Bond. Your result is a brilliant movie, that is very close to the top three spots of this contest.
#11
Moonraker: Yes, yes, this is correct. James Bond-007 goes into outer space, where no double-0 agent should ever go. He is on the track, are there tracks in outer space, of a stolen space ship. But wait, when he does find it, he has the never of piloting it into outer space. When You Only Live Twice came out, I thought the producer understood that there is no place for fiction in a 007 picture. But then again here we are, talking about a film that supersedes most science fiction films. The advertisements should be changed from, "Outer Space Now Belongs To 007" to "007 Doesn't Belong In Outer Space." Ian Fleming many times disapproved to one of the details in a movie. This time he would have disapproved of the whole film without a single exception, and I wouldn't have blamed him.
#12
For Your Eyes Only: An intricate plot, in which Bond must recover a top secret submarine attack-communicator. The story leads 007 to Melina Havelock, played by Carole Bouquet-one of the prettiest, and sophisticated Bond girls ever. Bond, unwillingly, joins forces with Melina who has a plan to revenge her parent's murder. They land into the middle of a private war, between Aris Kristatos and Milos Calumbo, in which Kristatos tries to use 007 as perfect killing machine. For Your Eyes Only concludes on one of the most exotic locations ever-the monastery of Greece's Meteora located on top of a mountain. Bond recovers the communicator, and to the disbelief of general Gogol, destroys it. For Your eyes Only is a great film, which everyone seemed to love. A lot of this can be contributed to the script, which is actually a combination of two of Fleming's novelettes: Risico and For Your Eyes Only, as well as some original material. Roger Moore gives us one more great performance. He has by now comfortably settled into the role, and is not afraid to show it. But he gets an amazing amount of help from a well put together cast. As I mentioned before, Carole brings intensity, as well as profoundness to her role. She knows exactly what she wants, and doesn't take "no" for an answer. Julian Glover (Kristatos) is a likable villain, so likeable that 007 even sides with him for some time. And Topol (Columbo) just reminds of Kerim Bey. He has that same charm, which almost immediately lets 007 know that they will become good friends. Indeed this was an excellent film-worthy of making the top ten.
1983-1989
#13
Octopussy: Octopussy, was a close second in the race of 007 movies. Probably because it once more followed the formula preset by Goldfinger. This time, Bond is on the case of murder. 009 was discovered in East Germany, dressed as a clown, holding a Faberge egg. The story leads 007 to India, and then to West Germany, where a fanatic Russian general plans to explode a nuclear bomb on a U.S. air force base. Dressed as a clown, Bond barely has enough time to disarms the bomb. This was the first bond film I ever saw. I was at the most 9 or 10 years old, and had absolutely no idea who James Bond was, and what the hell 007 meant. Just saying that I loved the film, would be an understatement. It was the most exciting adventure movie I had ever seen up to that date. The whole concept of a secret agent, unbelievable gadgets, beautiful women, dangerous villains, and a crazy general with world domination in mind-all in one film was mesmerizing to say the least. Moore was great as always, and when the cards were down, Octopussy also seemed to be in charge of things. Kamal Khan was a perfect villain to hate, and as always there was a mastermind, in this case General Orlov, with a personal, absurd plan. Never the less, 007 manages to save the world, and do it in style, I might add. Then with the help of Octopussy and her girls catch/kill the treacherous Khan, and still get the girl at the end.
#14
A View to a kill: Max Zorin, a billionaire industrialist, intends to monopolize the worlds supply of microchips by destroying Silicon Valley. If this wasn't bad enough, he decides to do it, with the help of a man made earthquake. Now that I think about, isn't this similar to Goldfinger. Same kind of a man, with the same dream, of monopolizing on something dear to him. I didn't like Christopher Walken, Max Zorin. I don't know what it is, but he just didn't look like he fit the picture. May Day, was she a henchman or a henchwoman, it was hard to tell by just judging her performance. The storyline was one that no one seemed to care for. And the movie had almost no action scenes to help itself out of a hole which by now was as big as the Main Strike Mine itself.
#15
The Living Daylights: I won't even bother trying to summarize the plot of this Bond film. I do, however, understand that gun running as well as drug smuggling were involved. You would think that a new face in the role of 007. Plus a story which switches gears on the audience more times than you can remember, wouldn't work. But guess what-the movie still comes out on top. And I think that a lot of this can be contributed to the action scenes, some nice gadgets, and a great performance by Maryam d'Abo and Jeroen Krabbe as Kara Milovy and General Georgi Koskov.
#16
Liscence to Kill: The second Timothy Dalton movie, starts of with Felix Leiter being thrown into a shark tank, and his new bride murdered. 007 takes it hard, and swears revenge. When this interferes with M's orders, 007 quits Secret Service-becoming a man on a personal mission of revenge. Sounds great so far, right? Well, from here on it's all downhill. The movie runs out of gas, and begins to slowly come to a stupid end. Bond enters Sanchez's inner circle, as an advisor, and slowly works against Sanchez until the moment of his death. This movie scrapes the bottom of the barrel, being placed last. I don't believe there are to many people who will disagree with me on this. The number of faults with movie are enormous to count, but there are a few major ones. The James Bond audience is used to outrageous locations. 007 has been almost everywhere, but disappointingly enough, he barely left America this time, and when he did it was to go to Key West. Secondly, Sanchez is a drug runner. This is far from exciting, more like closer to real life. Drug running is in the news and newspapers all the time. I see no reason for it to be in a 007 film, it's just below it. But most importantly, Licence To Kill, literally does exactly that over and over again. The only Bond movie to receive a restricted (R) rating code. It seems to me that there were seventeen Bond movies which did perfectly good without too much violence, which wasn't necessary here at all.
1995-1998
#18
Goldeneye: A Tiger helicopter, immune to electro magnetic pulse (EMP), is stolen. A research station, in Siberia, is destroyed with only two survivors. And a weapon, which everyone denies exists, is stolen. 006, presumed to be killed on a mission with 007 years earlier, turns up as the leader of the operation. The rest is clear to any Bond fan. 007 must find 006, and stop him at all costs. Well the wait is over. The new movie is here, so is the new James Bond. This is the Bond of the nineties, but he still has some old tricks up his sleeve. Like his Aston Martin DB5. The story is quiet believable, but not exactly exciting, and if the villain was anybody other than 006, it would have just been boring. Pierce Brosnan is no Connery or Moore, but this is only his first 007 film. Hopefully he'll get better. The new M, OH GOD, the new M is woman. Only one thing comes to mind, "WHY?" The girls are as beautiful, and exotic, as ever. And everyone loves to see good old Q again, best wishes to him. Bond is back. He didn't drop out of a plane to get her, but he did perform a bungee jump. As you can see from my personal rating the picture wasn't a great success, but what it did do was bring us a new, long awaited, 007 film. And with it a promise for at least two more films, with Pierce as Bond. And that in itself is good enough.
#18
Tommorow Never Dies: An insane news guy, (cant remember his name to be honest) is creating disasters to get more publisity. And yes, its up to 007 to take care of things. I didnt think this movie was as good as Goldeneye or even Moonraker, its plot waset very good. The only really good parts are when Bond and that Chinese girl are riding the moter cycle while being hand cufed together, and when they were sinking the big ol' stealth ship.
