All-Things Bond Thead

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

Get out from under your rocks, the new James Bond movie is out. Since I'm sure that film will garner it's own thread, let's get some opinions out there on the series as a whole.

 

Best Bond films:

 

Worst Bond films:

 

Best & Worst Bond:

 

Best & Worst Bond babe:

 

Best & Worst Bond gadget:

 

Best & Worst Bond villian:

 

Best & Worst Bond theme song:

 

General Comments:

 

I'll see how the thread shapes up and probably throw some comments in later.

[Guest The Hamburglar]

Saw Die Another Day today. Good fun, a good Bond film albeit with a bit of crappy dialogue. Pierce is still good and I really liked the two main villains. Toby Stephens plays Gustav Graves as this terrifically evil smarmy character. For pure pantomime EVIL, I'd put him up there even with Eddie Guerrero. And Zao, the henchman, is damn cool with a cool scary look and an awesome Jag, which comes into play in the film's best scene, the car chase across the ice. Both women are hot, and all the regulars in place, so a fun Bond film it is.

 

Haven't seen all the Bond films, but best Bond is Dalton and the best film is a tie between Goldfinger and License To Kill. Most heinously evil villain is Fran Sanchez from License to Kill and best henchman is Oddjob. Best Bond girl? That's a hard one, I reckon Elektra from World is not Enough was damn good, hot as hell with an interesting character. Pussy Galore rules also.

[Guest Mattdotcom]

Best Bond films: I'll go by actor:

 

Sean: Goldfinger. I'm also partial to From Russia With Love

 

George: Gee..umm....too many to choose from...

 

Roger: The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only

 

Timothy: Both, but I prefer The Living Daylights because I loved Fleming's short story when I was a kid

 

Pierce: GoldenEye

 

Worst Bond films:

 

A View to a Kill

 

Best & Worst Bond:

 

Sean and Pierce, can't knock anybody. Maybe Moore, since he stuck around far too long...

 

Best & Worst Bond babe:

 

There's no such thing as "Worst Bond babe"

 

Best & Worst Bond gadget:

 

I mark for the watch, since I had one. Again, no such thing as Worst Bond gadget.

 

Best & Worst Bond villian:

 

Best: Blofeld(I prefer Donald Pleasance), Goldfinger, and 006.

 

Worst:

 

Best & Worst Bond theme song:

 

Best: Goldfinger, Nobody Does it Better

 

General Comments: Hell, I like almost everything about Bond.

[Guest areacode212]

Best Bond films: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, The Living Daylights (EDIT: On Her Majesty's Secret Service. How could I forget this one?)

 

Worst Bond films: Live & Let Die. Jane Seymour sure was hot, but this was just cheesy as hell. That stuff with the redneck sheriff was embarassing, and are we really supposed to believe that some island dictator regularly puts on shitty makeup to moonlight as a Harlem drug lord? Honorable mention goes to GoldenEye. I'd rant more about it, but I've forgotten most of the reasons why I hated it. I'd need to watch it again to work up the RAGE~!

 

Best & Worst Bond:

Best: Connery, Dalton

Worst: Moore. Someone should have told the writers of his movies that puns & double entendres are NOT funny. Also, after seeing GoldenEye, I REALLY HATED Brosnan (he was basically Moore Jr.), but he was much better in Tomorrow Never Dies.

 

 

Best & Worst Bond babe:

Best: Ursula Andress. Mmmm, delicious. Also, I really dug Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies. Maud Adams was good in both of her Bond roles.

 

Worst: The Russian chick from GoldenEye. Wow, she was annoying. I preferred Famke.

 

Best & Worst Bond gadget:

I'll get back to you on this

Best & Worst Bond villian:

Ditto

Best & Worst Bond theme song:

Best: "Nobody Does it Better" (Carly Simon), "A View To a Kill" (Duran Duran) (because I really loved the music video as a kid).

 

Honorable mention: "The Man With the Golden Gun" (Lulu). "HE HAS A POWERFUL WEAPONNNN. HE CHARGES A MILLION A....SHOT!" Yes, it's unbelievably cheesy, but it's a lot of fun to listen to.

 

Worst: "Tomorrow Never Dies" (Sheryl Crow). I like Sheryl Crow, but this was painful to listen to.

 

General Comments:

It's too bad Dalton only did those two movies. After all those years of Moore, whose approach to the character was a playboy, who also happened to do some work for the British government, it was refreshing to see Dalton play Bond as someone who was a killer first & foremost. He was a pretty good actor, too, from what I remember (it's been a while since I've seen either of them).

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Shit I already have a thread about 007 in Comic Books and Lit. folder.

 

 

I've seen every movie, and read all 62 books!

 

 

BEST FILM: GOLDFINGER, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

 

WORST FILM: A VIEW TO A KILL

 

BEST BOND: CONNERY

 

WORST BOND: WOODY ALLEN (hahahahahahahahah)

 

BEST PIECE OF ASS: PUSSY GALORE

 

MOST ANNOYING POA: HALLE BERRY (Sure the one from AVTAK was worse. But since she's humble at least. YOU get it Halle!)

 

GADGET: ASTON MARTIN DB5 w./ ALL THE Q SHIT

 

VILLIAN: BLOFELD/SPECTRA

 

BEST THEME: THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS by a-ha

 

WORST THEME: MOONRAKER by SHIRLEY BASSEY

 

 

Comments: Dalton was good but he was killing the franchise financially. Connery was awesome, and all Bonds since have taken a facet of his portrayl and ran with it. Moore was awful and so were his movies. The Connery movies got shitty at the end too. The Brosnan movies lack that magical feeling.

[Guest areacode212]

Yeah, OHMSS was pretty damn good, despite the fact that Lazenby wasn't even a real actor.

 

I've never seen Casino Royale, but if I had, Woody Allen would probably be up there.

[Guest phoenixrising]

Note to self to try to see Die Another Day soon.

 

Best Bond films: My personal favorite is either Tomorrow Never Dies or You Only Live Twice.

 

Worst Bond Films: License to Kill. Could never get into that one. With the exception of Moonraker and A View to A Kill the Moore films weren't anything special either.

 

Best Bond: Tie between Sean Connery (original is always best) and Pierce Brosnan (does a great job of balancing out the playboy/killer aspects of Bond).

 

Worst Bond: Never liked Dalton much as Bond, but couldn't tell you why. I don't think I hate any Bonds but I prefer Connery or Brosnan Bond films.

 

Best & Worst Bond babe: Best is Wei Lin (Michelle Yeoh). Kicks ass, takes names and is pretty damn hot. Worst...uhm there are no Worst Bond babes.

 

Best & Worst Bond gadget: The cell phone from TND which served as a fingerprint identifier, a stun gun, and a way to drive Bond's BMW while he is in the back seat. Close second to the portable helicopter in You Only Live Twice that carries machine guns, flamethrowers and rockets.

 

Best Bond villain: Trevalyan/006 from Goldeneye

 

Worst Bond villain: The guy from Live and Let Die.

 

Best Bond theme song: "A View To A Kill", Duran Duran.

 

Worst Bond theme song: "Die Another Day", Madonna.

 

General Comments: Should have put best and worst cars on here. Now that I think about it Live and Let Die sucked the big one with the exception of a young Jane Seymour. The Bond themes have been getting worse...personally I thought Sheryl Crow's "Tomorrow Never Dies" was great, but the Garbage one wasn't all that good and this new one by Madonna sucks ass. Bond isn't a dance video, Madonna. Oh yeah, and the Goldeneye video game is the greatest video game of all time.

[Guest GeneMean]

Best Bond films: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me

 

Worst Bond films: Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun, Goldeneye

 

Best Bond: Sean Connery

 

Worst Bond: Dalton, I've never liked Dalton in anything except Flash Gordon

 

Best Bond Babe: Diana Rigg (OHMSS)

 

Worst Bond babe: I don't think it's really possible to have a worst piece of eye candy but I'll say ol' Mayday (even though Tanya Roberts is the real Bond girl in that film)

 

Best Bond gadget: X-Ray glasses (TWINE) .. car: Aston Martin from Die Another Day

 

Worst Bond gadget: Safe Cracker (OHMSS) .. car: BMW from TWINE

 

Best Bond villian: Blofeld, Zorin (Walken is about the only good thing in AVTAK)

 

Worst Bond villian: Eliot Carver (TND)

 

Best Bond theme song: OHMSS, Live and Let Die

 

Worst Bond theme song: Moonraker

 

Best Bond stunt: Ski jump from The Spy who Loved me.

 

Worst Bond stunt: Car roof cutoff from A View to a Kill (suuuure thats Roger Moore behind the wheel)

 

General Comments: OHMSS is my favorite Bond movie and probably always will be. It's basically gadget free and sees Bond relying a lot more on his wits than technology like in a lot of the other flims. Lazenby was passable but he was set up for failure following Connery and only being a model. I love Diana Rigg as well. The ending is what always sticks out in my mind. It's refreshing to see a movie end on the kind of note OHMSS does once in a while, showing that even James Bond isn't invincible.

 

One thing I hated about Goldeneye is there seems to be a distinct and noticable absence of the classic Bond music throughout the movie. I believe only in the intro and the tank scene is anything resembling the classic theme present.

 

Die Another Day was fun but MAN do you really have to suspend A LOT of disbelief in this one. The "Twisted Metal" car sequence was pretty damn good though. One thing I didn't like was it almost seems like the director was trying too hard to be John Woo. I was just waiting for the doves to fly by. I really can't say anything else without spoiling.

 

I actually liked Roger Moore as Bond probably because that's who was playing him when I started watching the films. I did however, always hate that shit eating smirk he'd sport anytime he walked into a room with a female in it.

[Guest ArkhamGlobe]

Best Bond films: From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

 

Worst Bond films: Moonraker and A View to a Kill.

 

Best Bond: Sean Connery.

 

Worst Bond: I don't know.

 

Best Bond babe: Diana Rigg (OHMSS).

 

Worst Bond babe: Whatever her name was in A View to a Kill. Britt Ekland was really annoying too in The Man with the Golden Gun.

 

Best Bond gadget: Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger and "Little Nellie".

 

Worst Bond Gadget: There was probably something lame in one of the Roger Moore movies.

 

Best Bond villian: Blofeld (I prefer Telly Savalas), Scaramanga (for the simple reason that it's CHRISTOPHER LEE~!) and Emilio Largo (in Thunderball).

 

Worst Bond villian: Probably Elliot Carver by default (Jonathan Pryce is an excellent actor, the part was rather poorly written).

 

Best Bond theme song: OHMSS, Live and Let Die, Nobody Does it Better.

 

Worst Bond theme song: Die Another Day, Moonraker.

 

General Comments: I am so pumped about the new movie! It doesn't open until Thursday in Sweden, so right now I'm really jealous of all of you. My favorite Bond movie overall is probably OHMSS, with Thunderball being a close second. The ending to OHMSS is, IMO, the best and most powerful scene in any Bond film. It manages Bond look vulnerable without looking weak, and for once, Bond seems human.

 

Overall, I think it's a shame that both Lazenby and Dalton got to do so few Bond films. Lazenby was rather uneven, but, to me atleast, showed promise once his inexperience were to have worn off. Dalton had an interesting approach to playing Bond, but to me he didn't seem quite comfortable as Bond, and I think he would've needed another go to really "grow into" the character. Moore never quite seemed like Bond to me, as he played more or less identical to the way he played The Saint (the way he played anything, really). Brosnan has been good so far. Connery is Connery.

 

The thing that's been missing a while from the franchise is the style and elegance of the old films (especially those directed by Terence Young). Martin Campbell, Roger Spottiswoode, Michael Apted and Lee Tamahori are good craftsmen, but what the franchise needs is a director with a sense of style similar (but not identical) to Terence Young. I also miss Ken Adam's sets.

 

All in all though, Bond is Bond, and I'll always be watching (I have been since I was nine).

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

Best Bond films: Goldfinger is the cliched answer, but it's true. All of the first five with Connery's are gold and I don't think Thunderball gets the love it deserves. It's been crapped on here on the board, but Live and Let Die is my favorite of the Moore movies. I also think that the Living Daylights is underrated.

 

Worst Bond films: Moonraker is atrociously bad. It goes way beyond the suspension of disbelief you need even for a Bond film, which is sky high in the first place. I also don't care for Diamonds are Forever and License to Kill which seems to have a few supporters. A View to a Kill is a sentimental favorite, because it's the first one I ever saw.

 

Best & Worst Bond: I'm surprised by the Timoth Dalton love, he's usually considered the worst, but he gets more flack than he deserves. It's just that he was an abrupt shift from Moore and harkened back to Connery without his charm and humor. Now, Brosnan is someone who has those traits down and he's really coming into his own. They'll be hard pressed to replace him when the time comes. Moore had his own way of doing things, but he hung on way too long, should have ducked out after For Your Eyes Only. Connery though is the man who made the series in the first place and understood the character better than anyone ever will.

 

Best & Worst Bond babe: You can't have bad eye candy, I guess, but you can have horrible actresses in the roles. The Moore era is filled with bad acting capped off by Tanya Roberts and the mannish Grace Jones in A View to a Kill. My favorite Bond babe is the first, Ursula Andress, but all the Connery girls up to Jill St. John had a smoky cool about them. Maryam D'Abo is a personal fave too from the Living Daylights.

 

Best & Worst Bond gadget: I loved the stuff that looked like normal everyday objects, like the watch and the cigarrette case. I hated the wrist darts in Moonraker, they looked like a kid's toy and I believe Q in On Her Majesty's Secret Service was discussing how he was working on radioactive pocket lint.

 

Best & Worst Bond villian: Walken as Zorin is without a doubt the only redeeming factor of A View to a Kill. I would like to see him back to play off of Brosnan. Zorin could have easily survived that fall in the bay. I also find Charles Gray as Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever one of that movies best elements. Everyone in License to Kill were your stereotypical drug heavies and so non-descript for Bond.

 

Best & Worst Bond theme song: I love Live and Let Die, although it's the most un-Bond theme of all. Tom Jones' Thunderball is good too. The worst without a question is Rita Coolidge's All Time High from Octopussy. I just assume you all blocked it from your memories.

 

General Comments: I heard on some special that each generation has their own Bond and that man will always be special to them. I think that explains the Dalton love. For a small group of people in their late teens and early twenties now, Dalton was their Bond. I wonder if anyone can consider George Lazenby to be theirs?

 

Go Arkham, I love Terence Young. He's an underrated director overall.

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

Bump!

 

It looks like some people posting in the best Bond thread might have missed this and would like to post here, so there you go.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Sorry I wasn't trying to steal the thunder of this thread. I had been planning a Best Bond Poll for awhile, but couldn't remember George Lazenby's name.

[Guest areacode212]

I didn't like the Garbage theme either, but I'm a pretty big Garbage fan, and I can't bear voting against them. I feel ashamed for leaving out OHMSS and Diana Rigg in my original post. Diana was very classy in her role, and I liked her a lot. The Louis Armstrong song was good, too. Is the DVD of this movie out of print? It's very expensive at Amazon ($49.99). I suppose a new version is coming soon.

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

No offense taken La Parka, I just thought this would make a nice compliment to your thread to bump back up. Someone in the other thread said something about having a best movie thread too, so I thought they might not have seen this one.

[Guest DrTom]

Best Bond Films: Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service[/i]

 

Worst Bond Films: A View to a Kill, Moonraker, Octopussy

 

Best Bond: Connery, Sean Connery.

 

Worst Bond: Roger Moore.

 

Best Bond babe: Diana Rigg, Michelle Yeoh

 

Worst Bond babe: Teri Hatcher

 

Best/Worst Bond Gadget: I've liked almost all of them. Some of them are pretty outlandish, though. I like the ones that actually look like common items.

 

Best Bond Villain: Zorin, and I've always thought Oddjob was cool, even if he wasn't a main villain.

 

Worst Villain: All the recent ones except for Gustav Graves have sucked.

 

Best song: "A View to a Kill," "Live and Let Die," "The World is Not Enough."

 

Worst song: "Goldeneye." "Moonraker," and I'm not too fond of "Die Another Day," either.

 

General comments: I was glad Die Another Day was decent and watchable. While I like Brosnan, none of his films had been very good until this one. The spy elements and actual plots of the better movies had been replaced with explosions, fast cars, and loose women. Not that there's anything wrong with those, but Bond films hadn't relied on them so extensively in the past. I'd like to see Brosnan go another two films, but having caught some of Goldeneye today, it's obvious he's looking older.

[Guest Retro Rob]

My favorite Bond moveis would probably be Goldfinger, The World is Not Enough, and Live and Let Die in that order.

 

The worst had to be Goldeneye. From Russia with Love bored the hell out of me, but I was watching it late at night, so maybe I was too tired to get into it.

 

Pussy Galore was the best Bond girl. I also liked the Asian chick in Tomorrow Never Dies.

 

The worst Bond girl...Natalya, or whatever her name was from Goldeneye was pretty bad. Isn't it weird that such a horrible movie, Goldeneye, lead to such a KICK-ASS N64 game?

 

As for the gadgets, I like all the cars.

 

Goldfinger and The World is Not Enough had good themes.

 

As for favorite Bond, I would say Brosnan because he incorporates aspects from all of the past Bonds.

[Guest phoenixrising]

As far as I know, Brosnan has signed on to do at least one more Bond film. I've heard Mel Gibson and Liam Neeson mentioned as new Bonds. I'll miss Brosnan as Bond, partly because the newer movies got me hooked on Bond and partly because he was so good at the part.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Best Bond films:

 

1. Goldeneye

2. Goldfinger

3. From Russia With Love

4. The Spy Who Loved Me

5. For Your Eyes Only

 

Worst Bond films:

 

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

2. Moonraker

3. Diamonds Are Forever

4. The Living Daylights

5. A View to Kill

 

Best Bond: Sean Connery

 

Worst Bond: George Lazenby

 

Best Bond babe: Anya Amasova, The Spy Who Loved Me

 

Worst Bond babe: Tracy Bond, On Her Majesty's Secret Service

 

Best Bond gadget: The Aston-Martin from Goldfinger

 

Worst Bond gadget: Can't think of one right now, most of them are pretty cool

 

Best Bond villian: Alec Trevelyan, Goldeneye

 

Worst Bond villain: Brad Whitaker, The Living Daylights

 

Best Bond song: License to Kill

 

Worst Bond theme song: The Man with the Golden Gun

 

General Comments:

Bond movies seem to come in streaks. Dr. No up to You Only Live Twice are all great. Then there isn't another truly good Bond until The Spy Who Loved Me, and all but Live and Let Die from that period were horrible. With the exception of Moonraker, but is good again until after Never Say Never Again, which isn't a part of real franchise but at least has some comedic value. The next good Bond after that is Goldeneye, 12 years later. The Brosnan series has been pretty decent to this point (I have yet to see, Die Another Day) with Goldeneye and The World Is Not Enough being amoung the best of the series. Connery was awesome, but held on too long. Moore was hit or miss. He was in some of the best Bond's, but also many of the worst. Brosnan is best since Connery. Dalton & Lazenby were horrible, but at least Dalton's movies had good theme songs.

 

1. Goldeneye

2. Goldfinger

3. From Russia with Love

4. The Spy Who Loved Me

5. For Your Eyes Only

6. The World Is Not Enough

7. Thunderball

8. Dr. No

9. Octopussy

10. You Only Live Twice

11. Tomorrow Never Dies

12. Live and Let Die

13. Never Say Never Again

14. License to Kill

15. The Man with the Golden Gun

16. A View to Kill

17. The Living Daylights

18. Diamonds Are Forever

19. Moonraker

20. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

Rank all 20, I can do that. Excluding the new one and Casino Royale.

 

1. Goldfinger

2. From Russia with Love

3. Dr. No

4. Thunderball

5. Goldeneye

6. Live and Let Die

7. You Only Live Twice

8. The Spy Who Loved Me

9. The World is Not Enough

10. For Your Eyes Only

11. Octopussy

12. Tomorrow Never Dies

13. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

14. The Living Daylights

15. The Man with the Golden Gun

16. Diamonds are Forever

17. A View to a Kill

18. Lisence to Kill

19. Never Say Never Again

20. Moonraker