James Bond

[The F Bomb]

James Bond.

I watched a fair number of these as a kid because my slightly odd cousin really loved them and I found them rather boring for the most part. Anyway, it's Sunday afternoon, the weather is crud and I'm a bit ill and bored so I'm going to watch some James Bond, unless I get immediately bored which is likely.

I have a Blu-ray boxset of all the Bonds made before thingy.

What's the best Bond film? Please be quick about this.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

it's Live and Let Die. cheers

[El Unicornio, mang]

From Russia With Love
Casino Royale (2006)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

From Russia With Love
Casino Royale (2006)
On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Great picks.
I would add The Spy Who Loved Me, which is not as deep, but extremely entertaining.

[beanheadmcginty]

Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
Diamonds Are Forever
Licence To Kill

[superthunderstingcar]

I would have said On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but these days that would mean Camilla so get Octopussy watched instead. And keep an eye out for the Mark Heap cameo.

[The F Bomb]

Too many different recommendations, so I will have to conclude that there are no clear standouts. I started Dr. No and it's OK. Seems borderline TV show tier with costly location shooting.

[Blumf]

Going by best henchmen:

• Diamonds are Forever : Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd, with bonus Bambi & Thumper. Also the guy doing the countdown at the end as everything blows up around him, total ledge.
• Live and Let Die : Tee Hee Johnson, a better Jaws than Jaws. Bonus Baron Samedi, the taxi guy, and that waiter who distracts Felix in the Filet of Soul bar.
• Octopussy : Gobinda, the put upon but loyal bodyguard.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Make sure you've factored your dumps in like Alan did.

[Rizla]

Much as I love Connery and Moore, my absolute favourite is Living Daylights. Exciting, brand new hard as fuck Bond, rock of Gibraltar and other 00 agents in the pre-creds, fairly unproblematic lady-wise (only one Bond girl cos AIDS, oh unless you count her from She Devil, and new sexy Moneypenny), great supporting cast with Joe Don Baker, Jeroen Krabbe, Art Malik (the motherfucking TALIBAN on our side), superb theme song incorporated brilliantly into the soundtrack, original M and Q. Boss motor. Happy memories of it coming out and seeing it on video. L2K was my first cinema Bond, it's great too. Dalton was awesome, respect to him for giving it his all and bowing out gracefully.

Goldeneye might be my second favourite as it ticks many of the same boxes.

My fantasy Bond is an eighventies Lewis Collins run. If he'd taken over for  Eyes Only thru View, maybe with an Elvis Costello s/t, Sting as a baddie, that kind of thing. I can just see it.

[agentorange76]

Watched all movies in December. The Spy Who Loved Me is still the best.

Honourable mentions for The Living Daylights, Casino Royale, Goldfinger, Tomorrow Never Dies and You Only Live Twice.

[Norton Canes]

Been ages since I watched most of these. I'll tentatively say For Your Eyes Only, which I seem to remember stopped the rot of the increasingly silly Moore years.

Then again, I guess it's one to steer clear of if you like your Moore Bond silly.

[Bad Ambassador]

The run through the Eighties up to and including GoldenEye is king for me, with even A View to a Kill being good fun, but On Her Majesty's Secret Service is by far the best.

Also Casino Royale and Skyfall, but they're gloomier.

[The F Bomb]

I remember Living Daylights being my favourite, the only one I ever actually saw at the pictures, great theme tune and felt like Bond saw women as more than Tory spunk receptacles.

[superthunderstingcar]

Too many different recommendations, so I will have to conclude that there are no clear standouts. I started Dr. No and it's OK. Seems borderline TV show tier with costly location shooting.

If your takeaway is that they're all so good that your only option is to watch them all, in order, then this is the correct decision.

original M

I'm not standing for this. Bernard Lee was the original M, and he was dead by then. Robert Brown was M from Octopussy through to Licence to Kill.

[magister]

I read somewhere that when Connery first quit after You Only Live Twice, they considered casting Oliver Reed as Bond. Can't help but feel we missed out there.

[beanheadmcginty]

I read somewhere that when Connery first quit after You Only Live Twice, they considered casting Oliver Reed as Bond. Can't help but feel we missed out there.

"Vodka martini. Pint of."

[Rizla]

I'm not standing for this. Bernard Lee was the original M, and he was dead by then. Robert Brown was M from Octopussy through to Licence to Kill.

Of course, what an embarrassing boob. He's still "classic" M (a ruddy bloody bloke).

[Rizla]

I remember Living Daylights being my favourite, the only one I ever actually saw at the pictures, great theme tune and felt like Bond saw women as more than Tory spunk receptacles.

Other great thing about Daylights is the stunts. The fight on the big net out the back of the plane is properly nail-biting, and the fight in the country house is ace. (This will make me sound well Partidge but I always like when action happens on UK soil and involves other 00s - Die Another Day isn't the best but I like it when he's on the BA flight home and London Calling's playing. )

[Rizla]

.

[Brundle-Fly]

The Man With The Golden Eye Finger.

[Fambo Number Mive]

Which Bonds are the worst? I seem to remember Tommorow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough being pretty rubbish.

[Egyptian Feast]

Tomorrow Never Dies has a shit baddie, but the action is pretty good and the bit where they're on a motorbike and Michelle Yeoh is holding onto him with an extended arm is wonderful once you notice it.

The World Is Not Enough goes right to shit after the opening setpiece. It criminally spunks away the potential of Robert Carlyle as a psycho who can't feel pain. I think he picks up a hot stone at one point, woooh. What a letdown. Should've gone all Begbie on Bond, shitting him up beforehand by smashing a load of bottles off his head and cackling maniacally. Instead they made him a soppy cunt. Boo hiss.

Die Another Day has a good opening, goes to shit afterwards, the baddie is shit (I like the henchman though), Rosamund Pike's hairline is distracting, Madonna's theme and cameo stink as does Halle Berry's character 'Jinx', BUT there's a great bit where Bond chucks a guy in a wheelchair at a wall and another bit where a deadly laser lights up a bad guy's head that sets me off just thinking about it.

My least favourite is Spectre. Shittre, more like!

So shit in fact, I ended a nearly 40 year tradition and missed the next one at the cinema. It was meant to be good and all, but I've already had the ending spoiled for me and didn't particularly care. I'll get around to it.

[machotrouts]

Okay, I'll bite. Who is James Bond

[Blumf]

Okay, I'll bite. Who is James Bond

[El Unicornio, mang]

I always like when action happens on UK soil and involves other 00s - Die Another Day isn't the best but I like it when he's on the BA flight home and London Calling's playing. )

I kind of have the opposite reaction. I like the films for the exotic locations and dislike the action shifting to dreary familiar UK. Disliked Skyfall mostly for this reason.

Also I think Spectre is the 2nd best of the Craig films, top 10 overall, and I will die on that hill.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

According to me, the worst ones are...

The Man with the Golden Gun, except for Christopher Lee's performance
A View to a Kill, because of a geriatric Moore performance, a plot that shamelessly rehashes Goldfinger and one fucking half hour about horse doping
Die Another Day, because of too many self-references to the series that they don't bother to update and an abuse of poor CGI (they even manage to screw the gun barrel shot, which is an achievement in itself)

From the Craig years, Quantum of Solace and Spectre are by far the weakest, Quantum of Solace because of the director who goes Jason Bourne in editing everything in a choppy style without understanding the preparation that makes these scenes watchable. And Spectre because Craig is not really engaged, it's quite generic and the plot "twists" are just stupid without being really bonkers.

[famethrowa]

Bloody Bond, I bloody love it, really

Roger's my man but I'll go for any of them. You can level valid criticisms at everything; Goldfinger makes no sense; Thunderball is boring underwater; Only Live Twice is Dr.Evil nonsense; and so on. But who cares. It's one of those worlds, like the Beatles, where the lore is so deep and well known you can just wallow in it.

[Blinder Data]

i attempted a rewatch a few years ago but i abandoned it halfway through. they are simply too slow and long. maybe it's because it reminds of sunday evenings as a kid but i always found myself nodding off

i would say the best ones i watched were 'from russia with love' (not so bombastic, robert shaw is ace as a villain, as close to an old-school spy film as the series gets) and 'on her majesty's secret service (best music, best fight scenes, some moving moments not ruined even by lazenby's poor acting).

but then i can only enjoy roger moore's stuff ironically. 'octopussy' is a fun watch in a "haha what is this shite" kind of way

[Chollis]

Hard to look past the tail end Brosnan offerings as the worst (GoldenEye is class) but its been so long since I watched some of the oldies.

Surely View to a Kill gets a pass for the song alone.

Which is the one where matey gets his head exploded in a compression chamber or whatever? License to Kill? The PG15 where Felix dies?