KMC Forums - Bond Movies Rated...A Humble Opinion...

Righto, so I’ve been watching the Bond 50 Blu-ray box set and decided I might rate (out of 10) and give a short review/opinion of each one…not that anyone will probably care, but this is just my opinion of each movie;

DR. NO – 7/10

A great way to start the franchise.

We get to see some simple scenes that portray how cluey Bond is and we also get a glimpse of how cold he can be at times. This movie also contains the best delivery of the ‘Bond…James Bond’ introduction of all the Bond movies in my opinion.

The big let down for me, and the reason it isn’t rated higher, was the final confrontation with DR. NO himself. It seemed rather anti-climactic and the crushing ability of his fake hands was completely wasted in the end as they did not even feature in the final scene.

Still, a good way to get Bond rolling.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE – 5/10

I’ll probably get flamed for rating this movie so low, but for some reason it just didn’t do it for me. I found it to be rather slow going. The only thing I liked about the movie really was Robert Shaw as Grant and the fight in the train between Grant and Bond.

GOLDFINGER – 9.5/10

What really needs to be said about Goldfinger that hasn’t already been said? Definitely the best of the Connery era. Goldfinger will probably go down as the most iconic Bond villain of them all and Oddjob is only beaten out of the ‘best henchman’ role by a certain villain that features in later movies.

THUNDERBALL – 8/10

Never understood why a lot of people don’t like Thunderball. Whilst some seem to find the underwater ‘action’ scenes boring, I really have no problem with them and find them to be quite unique for their time. Really sets this movie apart from the others, for me.

The villain Largo could have been better I guess, but I still thought he was okay, if a bit cookie cutter-ish.

And as far as one liners go, I can never get enough of the one after Bond has shot a bad guy with a harpoon gun ‘I think he got the point”…good stuff.

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE – 7/10

First off all, this movie has The Rocks grandfather in it, so it’s a win already, lol

But seriously, I really enjoyed this movie even though you start to get the feeling that Connery was sick and tired of what was going on behind the scenes at the time.

I thought the Volcano base was brilliant and we finally get to see Blofeld for the first time. Little Nellie was also a nice touch.

Overall a very solid Bond, but not spectacular.

ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE – 7.5/10

Call me biased for being Australian, but I thought Lazenby was a pretty good Bond. Between doing his own stunts and his particular fisticuff style of fighting, I thought he brought even more physicality to the Bond role than Connery (not that Connery wasn’t physical enough, mind you)

Also factor in the fact that this was Lazenby’s first ever movie role (not just first Bond), I reckon he pulled it off pretty well.

Strange to see Bond so vulnerable at the end of the movie too, but I don’t necessarily think it was a bad thing

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER – 5/10

This is Connery at his worst in the Bond franchise as he just seemed to be completely over the whole Bond thing by this point

Personally, I think this movie would have worked much better had Lazenby stayed on as Bond and had they focused the entire movie on his quest for revenge against Blofeld.

As for the characters of Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint…well, the less said about them the better.

LIVE AND LET DIE – 6.5/10

A solid first up effort for Roger Moore here. I liked the setting of the film and the theme song is awesome.

Also, love me some Baron Samedi…he was always my go to guy when I couldn’t play as Oddjob in Goldeneye 64 haha

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN – 6/10

Not much to say really, it is not great, but not as bad as some make out.

Scaramanger is right up there as one of the best bond villains in my opinion, probably second only to Goldfinger

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME – 8.5/10

One word; Jaws!

Clearly, the best Henchman in the entire Bond series, the man kills a shark with his teeth and survives a botched skydive attempted (and yes, I know the latter was in Moonraker) ffs, what is cooler than that!

This movie is as good as the Moore era got.

MOONRAKER – 6.5/10

This movie is not as bad as what people make it out to be. In fact, it is quite enjoyable.

Is the space battle ridiculous, well, yes, but you can’t really blame them for trying to cash in on the whole Star Wars phenomenon. And really, if by this point you were going to Roger Moore James Bond movies for realism, then you were obviously rather delusional, haha

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – 6/10

It was an okay movie…not great, not horrible. Don’t have much else to say about it really.

OCTOPUSSY – 4/10

The worst of all the Moore Bonds and my least liked of them all. I don’t know exactly why, but it just didn’t do it for me.

A VIEW TO A KILL – 6/10

A marked improvement over Octopussy, but nothing stellar. Fits in with the trend of most Moore era Bonds…good, but not great

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS – 5.5/10

I can see what they were trying to pull off with Dalton here, but this one didn’t quite hit the mark. Brought down by a poor plot and probably the weakest villains of the entire franchise.

Luckily, things would go up for Dalton on his next outing.

LICENCE TO KILL – 7.5/10

One of the most underrated Bond movies ever. After the so-so effort of The Living Daylights, I think Dalton really gets to shine as the no-nonsense, hard nosed Bond that Daniel Craig tries and fails to be today (read- wooden!). This is how to play a Fleming Bond without being deadpan…(I am not a Craig hater, btw, despite the way it sounds…I don’t mind him as bond, he just fails to pull off a serious Bond as well as Dalton)

Licence to Kill also carries the distinction of being the most brutal of all the Bond films, with some of the kills being quite shudder inducing. The pressure chamber kill is one that particularly gave me the willies when I first watched it at about age 13 haha…and I like the fact that the brutality was not just limited to the villains, with Bond himself performing some particularly cold acts

GOLDENEYE – 9.8/10

Hmm, wait for the Brosnan haters to attack me here, haha.

Seriously though, Goldeneye was the first Bond movie I saw so it holds a special place with me and is the reason why Brosnan remains my favourite Bond actor.

This movie had it all for me. A great Bond, a good villain (played by one of my favourite actors, the excellent Sean Bean), the stunning Femke Janssen, a good henchman (Gottfried John as General Ourumov…I can still quote all his lines from the movie!), one of the best visuals in any Bond movie when the tank comes ploughing through the wall behind Ourumov’s car, and one of the best fight scenes of all the Bond movies between Bond and Trevelyan to finish it off.

To me, personally, I don’t think this movie will ever be topped by any other Bond movie.

TOMORROW NEVER DIES – 8

Again, I can’t understand the dislike for this movie. It starts out great and maintains the rage pretty much until the end.

Some say Elliot Carver is a weak villain. Indeed, he is physically weak compared to some villains, but that really didn’t matter in my mind. To me, it was refreshing to deviate from the norm of say, villain steals nukes/bombs and vies for world domination, or villain tries to rob a shit tonne of money.

No, a media tycoon playing two nations off of each other in a bid to create world war 3, whilst at the same time having his corporation take total control of the world wide media, giving him ultimate power over the written word….it was different and in my opinion it worked.

Also, another nice touch was having Geoffrey Palmer as Admiral Roebuck (anybody that has watched As Time Goes By would know where I’m coming from…)

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH - 7.5

The last of the solid-great Brosnan outings. About the only thing I didn’t like about this movie…Christmas Jones! Seriously, I could think of plenty of things I’d like to do to Denise Richards but come on, that name is just horrible.

DIE ANOTHER DAY – 4.5

Only just beats out Octopussy as my least liked Bond movie. An unfortunate way to end the tenure of my favourite Bond actor.

What brings it down in my opinion is the overuse of special effects; the invisible car, the dream mask (seriously?), a Korean turned into a Brit, the over use of CGI…the shit Madonna theme song….everything just seemed so un-Bond.

Best thing about the entire movie was John Cleese taking over as Q from the great Desmond Llewelyn

CASINO ROYALE – 8

Again, I will state that I don’t think Craig pulls off the serious Bond quite as well as Dalton, but one must commend him for his efforts, especially in light of the pressure on all involved in the franchise after the shoddy Die Another Day.

Firstly, I will say that they made the right choice in rebooting the whole thing and starting Bond off as a newly made 00 agent in more modern times, throwing away the whole Cold War relic deal and the usual baddies like the Russians.

I liked the way they portrayed Bond as more rough around the edges and gradually built him up to the classy and cold agent we all know.

Marked the movie down due to the fact it did get rather slow through parts, but most of the movie was damn good.

The delivery of the ‘Bond…James Bond’ line is my second favourite behind the DR. NO one and I liked the way he doesn’t say it through the entire movie until that particular scene.

QUANTUM OF SOLACE – 7

The story was a little meh, but I liked the action in this movie. Not as good as Casino Royale, but if all the Craig Bond movies are at least as good as this or better then here’s hoping for 4-5 more from him.

SKYFALL - ??/10

Who knows? Here’s hoping it’s a goodie….