Everything about James Bond: Best/Worst

Declan A Walsh

Being a bit of a passing James Bond fan over the years, I thought it might be fun to get people's opinions on everything to do with this genre. Lets face it - it is practically a category all to itself. I suppose some might call it espionage or spy spoofs.

Anyway - here are my highs and lows - purely subjective of course!

Best James Bond - Sean Connery. Why - because of his mixture of humour, athleticism, masculinity and self-assuredness.... and of course that Scottish accent!

The runner-up: still Roger Moore for me.... stiff-upper Britishness with a hint of humour and again self-assuredness.

Best film: Live and Let Die starring Roger Moore: so many things happen in that film from the wonderful speedboat chase to the comical Sheriff to the alligator farm to the dodgy Harlem outfit to the "funeral" in New Orleans to the pagan activities in the Carribean.... and of course Miss Solitaire!

Worst portrayal - George Lazenby -> very unfair as he had only one outing which was : On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He just somehow did not fit the bill - hard to explain. But his show of emotion near the end certainly did not work.

Worst film - I have to say unfortunately that there are defiinitely a few in contention here. I think I would plump for two here: On Her Maj. etc and
Never say Never Again starring Sean Connery. The first - the plot was too thin and there was not enough action to compensate for that. The second - too obviously a spoof.

Given that I had already nominated Mr Connery as my favourite actor for James Bond, it is only right that I should indicate the best ones with him.
Difficult one here too - a number to choose from. But I think I will stick out my neck and say : Goldfinger: fantastic plot. Other great Connery vehicles would include: Dr. No, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice.

How do I rate the others actor: I liked them all - Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton and the new guy Daniel Craig. I thought Casino Royale was very good.

My favourite Pierce Brosnan outing is definitely Goldeneye. I enjoyed all his films to some degree, so I am not going to nominate a worst for him. He would be my third favourite Bond.

I thought the 2 Dalton films - The Living Daylights and A Licence to Kill - were ok but not brilliant. He was better than the films in my opinion.

Best villian - has to be Gert Frobe in Goldfinger. He also has the best line for a villian - "No, Mr Bond: I expect you to die!"

Best version of Blofeld: Donald Pleasance in You Only Live Twice.

Worst Blofeld - whoever played him in the opening sequence of For Your Eyes Only starring Roger Moore, before being killed off. Major anti-climax there!

Most comical Blofeld - Charles Gray in Diamonds Are Forever : he was in Las Vegas. He escaped dressed as a woman.

Might add more to this some other time. Lets have other subscribers opinions and highs, lows, bests worsts, etc.

projectmayhem

i never liked james bond. it never grabbed me at all. i've yet to watch one in a cinema theater, or actually watch an entire james bond movie from start to finish...

Karl Hungus

Declan A Walsh wrote:

Lets face it - it is practically a category all to itself. I suppose some might call it espionage or spy spoofs.

Spoofs? I suppose some of the Roger Moore outings had quite a bit of humour, but a spoof? Spy Hard was a spoof. None of the James Bond films are anything close to that, unless you're talking about the first Casino Royale with David Niven.

Mahatma coat

Shush you, the 'First' Casino Royale does not count as a Bond movie - mainly because of the presence of Woody Allen - that and it was a steaming pile of arse.

best bond, Duh, Connery.
worst bond, Roger Moore, FFS he wore a baby blue safari suit, thats just not cool.


best bond scene, conery using the girl on the dancefloor as a human shield "You'll ahve to excuse my partner, She's just died", closely followed by Brosnans tank chase in Goldeneye

worst, anytime roger Moore appeared on screen,

Kingp35

I have never been a Bond fan, I have seen alot of the Bond movies and the only one that I remotely liked was Casino Royale. The reason I dont like Bond is because its so far from reality. I like gritty Spy films such as the Bourne series, thats why I liked Casino Royale because they tried to copy the style of Bourne and make Bond a much darker character.

Bond to me is a very poor character and a series that I have just never liked.

humanji

Kingp35 wrote:

I have never been a Bond fan, I have seen alot of the Bond movies and the only one that I remotely liked was Casino Royale. The reason I dont like Bond is because its so far from reality. I like gritty Spy films such as the Bourne series, thats why I liked Casino Royale because they tried to copy the style of Bourne and make Bond a much darker character.

Bond to me is a very poor character and a series that I have just never liked.

That's true about the character. Althought they made so many films, they never really did develope the character. There were the attempts like for example, On Her Majesties Secret Service, but that was more of a plot vehicle than character development. Hopefully with the new Bond films they'll make more of a character.

Oh, and Worst Film for me has to be Die Another Day. Just shocking.

And what about Best Bond Girl? My vote goes to Claudine Auger as Domino in Thunderball.

Running Bing

I'm a big bond fan(film and books) but I didnt like Craig in the role at all, in fact I thought he was very poor. He just came across as a moody arsehole in the film for me. Bond was always a likeable character, yes he sometimes came across as ruthless or sexist or egotistical but but something about the character meant he was likeable, you undertood him. I couldnt warm to Craig at all. None of the suavenss or wit of the other actors. He played it as a cross between the bond from the novels, Jason Bourne and the marquis de sade and did it all with a big moody look plastered across his face.

I think the problem was he tried to take the role too seriously and for me that really did not work. I can understand why people like that but for me Bond and his world shouldnt really be taken too seriously. There's plenty of spy stuff out their that is gritty and realistic but Bond always carried out proceedings with a sly wink and nod and I always liked that.

Declan A Walsh

Ah, yes ...the Bond girls! Sexist I know , the way there were portrayed. But they certainly brightened up the screen. There were so many - sometimes more than one in a film. It would be a brave man (even braver woman) who would nominate their best Bond girls. One of the scenes that many remember from the first official Bond outing "Dr. No" was Urusla Andress coming out of the sea. That was to be stunningly repeated by Halle Berry in Pierce Brosnan's final one "Die Another Day". Remember Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore in Goldfinger - how did they get away with that?

Other memorable Bond girls included Jane Seymour as Solitaire in "Live and Let Die", Maud Adams as Octopussy in the film of the same name and Brit Ekland as Mary Goodnight in "The Man with The Golden Gun" - all starring Roger Moore. By the way, Maud Adams was also in the latter file as Andrea Anders - yeah I know - annoracky stuff now!

How about the best Miss Moneypenny? For my money, it has to be Lois Maxwell. Mind you, she has a bit of a head-start on the rest of the field with
fourteen James Bond films from Dr No up to and including A View To A Kill.
She did the unrequited lovelorn admirer very well and looked the part.

What about all the gadgets (courtesy of 'Q' of course) that Bond has had over the years. Sean Connery used to have some great Aston Martins which were capable of firing missiles. Bond had all class of weapons from watches to pens. But for me the most memorable gadget was the car which could be rendered invisible! This was in "Die Another Day". It was so ludicrous.

We should also remember the Bond theme songs. These used to be considered an integral part of the films. I have to admit that in recent years - since Pierce started his run - in my opinion, there has not been the same effort in coming up with memorable theme tunes. I cannot remember the theme tune of Casino Royale performed by Chris Cornell, and its not that long since I say the film!

For me, the ones that stick out, either because (a) they are good in their own right or (b) (and arguably more important) they fit in so well with the films are:
Live and Let Die - Paul & Linda McCartney
Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey
A View to a Kill - Duran Duran
The Living Daylights - Aha
A Licence to Kill - Gladys Knight & The Pips
The Man with The Golden Gun - Lulu
For You Eyes Only - Sheena Easton
Diamonds Are Forever - Shirley Bassey (again!)

humanji

Well the invisible car apparently isn't that far fetched. I was watching some program where they recreate science bits from films and that was one. They couldn't get tv's that small, so they used big screens mounted on the side of a car, and a camera on the other side. They then hid it in a forest with someone looking directly at it and they couldn't see it. The film just does it on a smaller scale.

Plus you have to remember that a lot of the things you see in the films were actually being researched in reality and some even made it, And some of the things in the real world were just as odd, like the Belgian secret service having umbrellas with poison tips that inject poison into people.

As for theme tunes, the best is Nobody Does It Better. I honestly think it's the sexiest song ever written.

Actually used to piss my mates off by trying to get them to name the bond tunes that weren't names after the films. Of course, they weren't as big fans as myself and would tell be to go f*ck myself when they couldn't get them. Still, made me happy.

Declan A Walsh

Ok - just for the hell of it, let me rate the opening theme songs which did not have the same names as their films: only 2 of them so this won't take long!

"Nobody Does It Better" (The Spy Who Loved Me) by Carly Simon - although the lyrics do mention the film title. Yeah - it is quite good - I had forgotten about that one. For me, it scores particularly well on criteria (b), i.e. being associated with the film.

"All-Time High" (Octopussy) by Rita Coolidge - not spectacular on either count I'm afraid, i.e. (a) good in its own right or (b) going well with the film.

humanji

Dr No had "On Her Majesties Secret Service" and "Three Blind Mice"
On Her Majesties Secret Service had "We've Got All The Time In The World"
And now, Casino Royale had "You Know My Name" (which is really growing on me)