Over the last 3 months, I have been watching the entire James Bond collection, in chronological order. It’s been hard, it’s been long, but gosh it’s been good !! ;)
This morning, a colleague asked me the decisive question: which one is my preferred James Bond. Tough questio!
So here is a list (chronological order) of the James Bond I loved the most:
- You Only Live Twice - Sean Connery, 1967
- On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - George Lazenby, 1969
- The Living Daylights - Timothy Dalton, 1987
- Casino Royale - Daniel Craig, 2006
+ - Never Say Never Again - Sean Connery, 1983
Two funny anecdotes about Bond #6, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969):
- Did you know that initially, Timothy Dalton was offered the role? He refused saying too young. His first role as Bond would only be 18 years later, in 1987…
- The role then went to Lazenby. He was offered a contract for seven movies, but was convinced by his agent Ronan O’Rahilly that James Bond would become old-fashioned and obsolete by the 70’s … so he quit after his one and only Bond role.
As a real James Bond geek, I gathered some other stats on James Bond movies.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the Top 5 is held by Dr. No (98%), From Russia With Love (97%), Goldfinger (96%), Casion Royale (94%) and Thunderball (90%). 4 out of the 5 are Sean Connery movies.
On IMDB, the highest score goes to Casino Royale (8/10), followed by Goldfinger (7.90/10), From Russia With Love (7.5/10), Dr. No (7.3/10) and The Spy Who Loved Me (7.1/10). Sean Connery is in 3 out of the 5, Roger Moore is in the 5th one.
Click here to see the whole list in PDF: James Bond movies - Reviews on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes
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I’m glad you pulled out the Living Daylights. I actually think it’s pretty underrated. It has the best car chase scene of any of the movies… Dalton’s performance was solid… great score. It lacks a really sinister plot, though… and Maryam D’Abo is the 2nd worst Bond Girl next to Tanya Roberts. I would have stuffed her in that cello and sent her down the mountain alone.
I thought GoldenEye was pretty good, especially considering how bad the License to Kill was.
My favs are Goldfinger, Thunderball, Spy Who Loved Me, Living Daylights, GoldenEye and Casino Royale.
Agreed on Tanya Roberts and Maryam D’abo (which is a shame, cause she was cute …). And I would add french Bond girl Carole Bouquet of For Your Eyes Only. Indeed amazing eyes but such a bad acting…
I like GoldenEye, I really do, great scenario, great action, but am not a fan of super-polished Pierce Brosnan. He lacks the dark side of Dalton or Craig…
You’re definitely in the minority putting Lazenby’s effort on your list. I think it’s tough to top Connery - he created the mold. Roger Moore had to live through the awful feminist 80s and was handed slop to work with - it became a parody of itself. I wanted to like Dalton, but didn’t. I really liked Brosnan at the start, but then tired of him. Dan Craig has done a superb job rekindling the franchise. He’s got the same “edge” that Connery gave the role.
I would have to say that Daniel Craig is the best James Bond of all times.:.~