The James Bond Thread

[DoctorAction]

Thunderball is another Bond song I dig. Tom Jones has a mighty, mighty voice. 

[JediKnight1969]

Just watched NTTD last night. Bond deserved better.

[Zantera]

Just finished watching You Only Live Twice (1967) and I'm not sure if it was the slightly lowered expectations after Thunderball but I really enjoyed it. I think a big reason is I recognized a lot of parts from seeing the movie as a kid and if I faulted Thunderball for being a bit dull and slow in certain areas, this movie kinda went all out to have a lot of creative things happening. Some of them goofy and over the top, but ultimately it paid off in a very enjoyable viewing experience IMO.

The opening part in space with the whole 'stealing of the space shuttle' was very familiar and we go from there to James Bond faking his own death and them dropping the body into the ocean, only to be retrieved underwater and carried into a submarine. One of the things I liked the most was the change in environment of having this set in Japan. It really gives this movie a very different feel to the previous 4 in my opinion. It's not without its flaws and if you hate the more goofy elements of the franchise, there are parts of this that probably go too overboard. Ninjas, Bond trying to look like a Japanese fisherman to blend in, and him flying in a small gyrocopter among other things. But I felt the creativity and memorability of a lot of these scenes really made the movie a lot of fun and you also get one of the most iconic secret bases of the franchise imo - hidden under a volcano with a secret gate in the crater. Donald Pleasence as Blofeld stands out in my head as the most iconic performance of that character as well. Add to that a good theme song by Nancy Sinatra, some other memorable scenes like a helicopter with a magnet picking up a car chasing Bond and dropping it in the ocean, and Bond being left for dead in a crashing airplane only to break free and just barely land it - and you got a very decent entry in the franchise I think.

Curious how you guys think of the movie because I could see it being either low or high in the Connery rankings depending on what you prefer. For my enjoyment, I'd probably place this second behind From Russia With Love but just above Goldfinger (that might be controversial).

From Russia With Love
You Only Live Twice
Goldfinger
Thunderball
Dr. No

[Phoenix87x]

You only twice is certainly entertaining, but it was always too whacky for me to watch on a regular basis.

[Zantera]

You only twice is certainly entertaining, but it was always too whacky for me to watch on a regular basis.

I think that's a fair take though. I feel so far the Connery movies have been close enough quality-wise where I wouldn't be surprised by any sort of ranking. I know Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again (when it's included in lists) tends to be the bottom 2 so I guess the worst might be ahead of me. I am very much looking forward to On Her Majesty's Secret Service next though, remember good things about it. In the bigger scheme of things once I get to the end of this list, I wouldn't be surprised if You Only Live Twice has slipped down quite a bit as well.

[fadetoblackdude7]

You only twice is certainly entertaining, but it was always too whacky for me to watch on a regular basis.

I think that's a fair take though. I feel so far the Connery movies have been close enough quality-wise where I wouldn't be surprised by any sort of ranking. I know Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again (when it's included in lists) tends to be the bottom 2 so I guess the worst might be ahead of me. I am very much looking forward to On Her Majesty's Secret Service next though, remember good things about it. In the bigger scheme of things once I get to the end of this list, I wouldn't be surprised if You Only Live Twice has slipped down quite a bit as well.

You also have the extreme campiness of the Roger Moore films coming up too 😆

[Zantera]

You only twice is certainly entertaining, but it was always too whacky for me to watch on a regular basis.

I think that's a fair take though. I feel so far the Connery movies have been close enough quality-wise where I wouldn't be surprised by any sort of ranking. I know Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again (when it's included in lists) tends to be the bottom 2 so I guess the worst might be ahead of me. I am very much looking forward to On Her Majesty's Secret Service next though, remember good things about it. In the bigger scheme of things once I get to the end of this list, I wouldn't be surprised if You Only Live Twice has slipped down quite a bit as well.

You also have the extreme campiness of the Roger Moore films coming up too 😆

That is true! I think the fact I know what awaits with something like Moonraker, maybe puts my tolerance level up a bit for the silliness in the Connery movies so far. 

[The Curious Orange]

Saw No Time To Die last night, and while I enjoyed it well enough, it's just not Bond.

[Kotowboy]

Yeah its time to end I think.


Unless they bring back the silliness a bit with the next guy. We need more Roger Moore type films. The DC movies were all so glum.

[ErHaO]

Things change over time. For example, old school comics are super different in tone compared to modern ones. Take Batman for instance, both the comics and films. Early Detective comics vs The Killing Joke and Batman Returns vs The Dark Knight. I don't think many people will claim The Killing Joke or The Dark Knight are not Batman. The Craig series started out as deviating from some core Bond elements and ended that way, but there is a whole lot of Bond DNA in all of them. It will be interesting where they are going for next.

[Kotowboy]

I hope they dont just 'double down' on the gritty Bourne - esque side of things.

Bond for me has always been tongue in cheek , comedic and gadgets.

[fadetoblackdude7]

Things change over time. For example, old school comics are super different in tone compared to modern ones. Take Batman for instance, both the comics and films. Early Detective comics vs The Killing Joke and Batman Returns vs The Dark Knight. I don't think many people will claim The Killing Joke or The Dark Knight are not Batman. The Craig series started out as deviating from some core Bond elements and ended that way, but there is a whole lot of Bond DNA in all of them. It will be interesting where they are going for next.

Definitely. The franchise has been running for 60 years. Gotta try different things to keep it fresh!

[Kotowboy]

Odd that they didn't delay No Time To Die til 2022 so that Bond #25 would coincide with the 60th anniversary of Dr. No.

[soupytwist]

I hope they dont just 'double down' on the gritty Bourne - esque side of things.

Bond for me has always been tongue in cheek , comedic and gadgets.

Mission Impossible has kind off stolen Bond thunder with the more lighter tone spy franchise.  I personally think the last 3 MI movies are better/more entertaining than the last 4 Bond films.

[Zantera]

Just finished On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and I gotta join the praise it's gotten in recent times (I believe Nolan said it was his favorite Bond movie for example).

Feels a bit weird seeing George Lazenby in this considering he only made one, and in some ways I do think it's a shame he didn't get at least one more movie (though from what I read that's more because he left rather than them firing him). For me this rivals and possibly even tops From Russia With Love as the best one (so far) and I really enjoyed the setting in Switzerland and it had some thrilling sequences like the ski lift part as well as the chase down the mountain. Sure, some of those greenscreen shots haven't aged well at all but you gotta take those with some grain of salt since they appear in all these old Bond films. The dark ending was something I remembered but I still think it hits emotionally. Brave choice to end it like that, in contrast to the typical Bond movie ending where he gets the girl and the credits roll over them making love. The score was really familiar as well and really stood out as one of the best that I remember. It's not without it's flaws and I would say the most jarring thing for me was the dubbing of Lazenby when he was undercover at Blofeld's base. The decision to dub him over with the other actor he was portraying felt odd, and it was the one element that didn't quite work for me. For me Lazenby did a great job in the role but I could see someone who doesn't like him who would probably dislike this movie a lot more.

But next week I know Connery returns in Diamonds are Forever before we get to the Moore years.

Rankings so far:

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
From Russia With Love
You Only Live Twice
Goldfinger
Thunderball
Dr. No

[Phoenix87x]

I love On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

It dials the wackiness of the previous film way back and delivers a down to earth, damn good story with one of the most impactful endings of all the movies. And I love both the main theme the 2nd song "we have all the time in the world".

I always kind of wondered how Connery would have handled the part, but honestly think Lazenby did an excellent job.

[soupytwist]

If I'm being honest I've never liked 'Majesty's' much.  Lazenby is poor and has no chemistry with Rigg at all, plus Bond crying, that's a no from me.  Also not keen on the wacky 60's hypnotising girls villain's plan, feels more Man From Uncle than Bond.   It does have some good set pieces though and 'We Have All The Time In The World' is masterful, it's also much better than Diamonds Are Forever which is one of the worst Bonds.

[Zantera]

Just watched Diamonds Are Forever (1971) with the return of Sean Connery and my reaction to it is fairly 'meh', I would say the weakest of the bunch so far.

Possibly this movie suffers from following OHMSS which I really liked, but while I liked the fact that this one picks up after with Bond seeking revenge on Blofeld, it felt like that element was swept aside pretty fast and he quickly returned to his old womanizing self with little continuity about his wife getting assassinated in the previous movie. And not following that continuity itself could have been fine but it felt weird when the opening sequence is him seeking revenge and then it's pretty much gone. Speaking of Blofeld I think this version of him is probably the weakest. Felt weird that they ditched the bald look - I know they recast him from movie to movie but it felt like they didn't even try with this one. Also while the story trait of "bad guy won't kill Bond and instead tells him his plan and shows him around" is something that appears in many of these movies, it felt the most obnoxious at this point in this movie. Blofeld had Bond under arrest essentially multiple times and even at the end he's showing him around his oil platform to tell him about his plan.

The plot itself about diamonds felt fairly unengaging and I found myself maybe halfway into the movie kinda bored and not following along the plot the best, it just felt a bit average. The 2 hitmen were a standout in the sense that I remembered them from seeing this as a kid, but they felt pretty goofy to me. Wint and Kidd and the way they mentioned each other's name felt a bit silly. One of them looked familiar and apparently he's the dad of Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) and I can see the similarity. There was a pretty good fight scene in my opinion inside an elevator but I thought it was odd at the end of it, Bond switches the wallets so that the woman he's met up undercover won't realize what's going on. However she recognizes the name of James Bond and that scene felt weird to me because Bond is supposed to be a secret agent yet the way the scene played out it felt like he was a name everyone would know. Small nitpick. Some other scenes I enjoyed were Bond getting put in a coffin and sent into a furnace, that was fairly suspenseful I would say. Also him during a car chase getting his car up on two wheels to escape through a narrow alley - a scene you've seen in other movies but I still enjoyed the stunt. Also a nice scene of him sneaking into the penthouse floor of the hotel by climbing it on the outside. Oh, and Q using a gadget to cheat on the slot machines was another scene I remembered.

For me this movie was okay but Sean Connery felt noticeable bored for parts of it and I know they basically dumped money on his lawn to get him to do this film, and I just didn't get the same energy from him that he brought in the earlier movies. Story kinda average, Blofeld was the weakest version of the character yet imo and the Bond girls felt fairly average as well.

I know I got Live and Let Die coming up next and I'm fairly curious to see the Moore movies again. Whenever I look at lists for how other people rank the franchise, it feels quite common for the Moore movies to be in the bottom half and I don't know if there's 1 or 2 of them that ever rank that highly - so I'm curious to kinda find out which one(s) were his best and how good they fare against the rest.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (GL)
From Russia With Love (SC)
You Only Live Twice (SC)
Goldfinger (SC)
Thunderball (SC)
Dr. No (SC)
Diamons Are Forever (SC)

[Phoenix87x]

Diamonds was actually the very first bond movie I saw and I think I was around 7, so I had no idea what was going on but ate it up 
And it started my love affair with the Bond franchise.

Like Moonraker, I file this one under guilty pleasure. Its whacky and all over the place, but I get a kick out of it. Its a step back from Majesty though.

I will say that Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint are up there as some of my favorite henchmen. Unassuming, yet deadly and I love their sinister little theme song. Simple stuff like "if god had wanted man to fly Mr Wint, he would have given him wings Mr. Kidd" I always get a kick out of.

Also, love the main theme song. 

[fadetoblackdude7]

I can confidently say that Diamonds is my least favorite film in the entire franchise. The only film I can call boring.

[ZirconBlue]

However she recognizes the name of James Bond and that scene felt weird to me because Bond is supposed to be a secret agent yet the way the scene played out it felt like he was a name everyone would know.

Bond travels all around the world, constantly telling everyone his real name in high profile settings.  He's the worst "secret agent" ever.

[Zantera]

Just watched Live and Let Die (1973) with the first appearance of Roger Moore in the role and overall I thought it was pretty good.

Right off the bat I must say that the change in scenery and plot from your typical 'bad guy wants to take over the world' to a simpler drug-centric story with some elements of voodoo/spiritualism was actually quite appreciated. Yaphet Kotto (who I know from Alien) gave a pretty entertaining performance even if his villain character suffers from a lot of the same problems as the other ones, like over explaining the plot and toying with Bond instead of just killing him. Jane Seymour as a Bond girl, all I can say there is damn. But aside from the looks I thought her character was given at least some interesting elements with being a fortune teller and then becoming useless to the bad guy after losing that ability. A bit cheesy the way Roger Moore seduces her but it kinda works in the tone of the movie.

The boat chase sequence probably goes down as the highlight of the movie but you also get a memorable scene of Bond escaping captivity by jumping on some crocodiles to reach land. While we're still on the good - does this movie have the best Bond song or not? I've probably heard the Guns n Roses version more than the Paul version over the years but just hearing this in the opening gave me that pumped up feeling of "Yeah let's do this!". I also enjoyed the final chunk when Bond comes to rescue Solitaire and he has to fight some bad guys, though it almost felt comical to introduce that Yaphet Kotto had a secret Blofeld-esque base of operations underground when there was 10 minutes left of the movie. Kinda felt like "It's a Bond movie so we need to plug this in". There were some bad elements too, the death of Yaphet Kotto when he flies up and hits the ceiling and explodes looked pretty comical and they should have just let him be eaten by the sharks and you wouldn't end the bad guy with an unintentional laugh from how silly the death looked. During the boat chase there's also some cops chasing Bond and they feel so out of place even for the type of comedy they put in these movies. They felt way too silly and cartoon like. There's a main henchman with a hook for a hand that was fairly memorable and overall I got some Blaxsplotation vibes from this film, definitely made it feel different to the Connery ones.

Overall I'd place this fairly high in my rankings so far. Not at the top but I'm feeling fairly similar towards this as I felt with You Only Live Twice with Sean Connery - a very entertaining movie with multiple scenes I remember from my childhood, but also a few silly things that knock it down a bit. It's not top tier Bond but in terms of being entertaining I felt it delivered pretty well. I think Moore does fine in this movie, the biggest hurdle with him I suppose is that he doesn't quite have that vibe of 'I'm a badass secret agent' that I feel both Connery and Lazenby could pull off. Next week it's The Man With the Golden Gun!

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (GL)
From Russia With Love (SC)
You Only Live Twice (SC)
Live and Let Die (RM)
Goldfinger (SC)
Thunderball (SC)
Dr. No (SC)
Diamons Are Forever (SC)

[Phoenix87x]

Live and let die is definitely one of my favorite Moore Bond films, although I don't ever watch as much as I should.

Just a great movie, with a lot of interesting aspects and characters. It feels very fresh too. And man do I love Baron Samedi. Dude is mysterious and threatening.

And even though I don't like Mccartney, the theme song is damn good.

[fadetoblackdude7]

The series has never had a boat chase like the one it LaLD, which makes that movie unique. Time to bring those back!

[Cool Chris]

One of my favorites, and one I've seen the most often. That boat chase goes on a bit too long for me now, but it doesn't bother me much. Sheriff Pepper always gets a chuckle out of me. Not a 5 star movie but enjoyable and a solid transition to Moore - though I can't say how I would have felt about it in real time, as I wasn't exposed to Bond till later. Feels like Bond is more proactive here than just stumbling around and spending half the film captured, like it seems Connery's Bond does for much of Goldfinger or Thunderball, for example.

[jammindude]

I haven’t seen it in years, but I only remember that the movie seemed like Bond doing a Blaxploitation film and I thought that the ending was laughably ridiculous. So I’ve never carried much of a high opinion of this movie. (Well…except for Jane Seymour, obviously)

[Zantera]

Wasn't able to watch The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) until today, busy week with starting a new job on Monday so had to post-pone the movie from Tuesday, but will try to keep up and watch one a week still.

So this is one I feel very torn on. I think the opening is intriguing and pulls you in, I think Christopher Lee is one of the strongest Bond villains so far - maybe more because of his screen presence than how his character is written. He's a badass assassin (try that for a tongue twister) with a gimmicky golden gun and his own luxury island, so in a way he's a pretty generic Bond villain and we've seen this type of character before. Yet any time he's on screen and he talks, he's just so great. I'm possibly biased as I love the LOTR trilogy and think he's wonderful as Saruman but even 30 years prior to that he gave a very good performance here IMO. Nick Nack is a memorable henchman, possibly on the annoying side of the spectrum but I remembered him clearly from my childhood and having a colorful/odd henchman seems to be a staple of the series as well - Oddjob and Wint/Kidd being before this, and I know Jaws will soon make his appearance. I think the ending portion when Bond arrives at Scaramanga's island and the whole last 20 minutes or so are very good by the standards set by the films so far. The portion in the funhouse is just classic stuff.

However I do think the story itself feels rather weak. I think big portions of the whole middle chunk of the movie either drags or lost my interest. It felt like maybe a 30 minute stretch of Christopher Lee not appearing on screen at all and that's kinda when I was losing interest in it. Some nice shot scenes in Macao (?) but you also got some of the weaker sillier parts of the franchise like Bond finding himself at like a Karate tournament? Could have been another martial art as well, I'm no expert. Him fighting Sumo wrestlers also felt a bit slapstick. The silly southern cop from Live and Let Die makes a second appearance - bad decision for me because I strongly disliked that little character in Live and Let Die. Weird choice to bring him back and the few scenes he is in are painful to watch. However, I do need to mention that car stunt because that was great.

I need to sleep on it but I'm kinda feeling similar about this as I did with Thunderball. There's some great stuff, some weak stuff and a section of the movie I just thought was a bit boring. Overall I'm on the positive side of the spectrum and I think for now I would put it just above Thunderball but below Goldfinger. What do you guys feel about the movie?

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (GL)
From Russia With Love (SC)
You Only Live Twice (SC)
Live and Let Die (RM)
Goldfinger (SC)
The Man With the Golden Gun (RM)
Thunderball (SC)
Dr. No (SC)
Diamons Are Forever (SC)

[Phoenix87x]

When I think about Golden Gun, I think kind of meh.

Is it awful? No
Is it incredible? No

Its more of a mixed bag. Lee does a great job, but despite seeing it more than most bond films, I couldn't tell you what the plot was. The legit corkscrew car stunt is amazing, but undermined by the dumb slide sound affect.

Not much else to say

[Cool Chris]

I have not seen this one in a long time, but I have fond memories of it. When I was big in to the Bond series, say in high school/college, this was one of my favorites. I do recall the pacing being a bit sluggish in parts, which is a common issue I have with many of the Connery/Moore films. I highly enjoyed Scaramanga, but in retrospect, other than the magnitude of the actor, was there really that much about him that sets him apart from Drax or Stromberg or any other one-dimensional, forgettable villains? I loved the shootout at the end, just the notion that Bond would engage in such a primitive ritual, not for Queen and/or Country, but for his own pride, thrilled me. And he spins around to find himself alone. Great fun!

[Zantera]

Alright, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) is now out of the way as well!

From what I gather based on popular opinion, it seems to be between this one and Live and Let Die for the fans favorite Roger Moore movie, though you get a few oddities who might have Moonraker as their favorite or something. So I went into this with a decent amount of hype. I noted that it was directed by the same guy who made You Only Live Twice and to me this felt kinda similar in some ways. A very classic Bond movie with tons of memorable parts to it, and a finale of the movie that takes place in a big base.

Solid opening to the movie and some bad CGI effects aside when Bond is skiing down the mountain, that final jump and the parachute was an exciting intro. I would say the Bond girl is at least a bit interesting in contrast to many others so far, I like the fact that Bond killed her love in the opening and there is some tension there. This movie definitely had a lot of parts I remembered from my childhood. Who could forget Jaws? Possibly the most memorable henchman out of them all, a giant dude with metal teeth who is an unstoppable force essentially and uses his teeth to kill his victims. Add to that the secret underwater base Atlantis that comes out of the ocean - pretty memorable, the Lotus car that Bond drives that can drive underwater and I would also say pretty much the entirety of Cairo is great stuff - very classic Bond.

For me this movie is in that category as the likes of Live and Let Die, You Only Live Twice and Goldfinger - and it's a very enjoyable classic Bond movie. If we are gonna dive into a few flaws I would say that the bad guy itself is fairly mediocre and feels like a Blofeld 2.0, even though I highly enjoyed the scene when he feeds his secretary to the shark to the sound of classical music. And also while it's a minor nitpick, when you see the Atlantis base from the outside and then you see scenes from the inside, in my mind at least it's hard to buy that it's the same location. I will also say that while I enjoy Roger Moore's different take on Bond, he really feels at his weakest when matched up against Jaws and I just don't buy him as kickass secret agent. Overall I have a feeling Roger Moore will rank towards the bottom on my list mostly because there's a few others I like a lot, but I am still enjoying him so far. I think it's easier to buy him as a suave infiltrator agent who doesn't have to use much force, but when he's put into those positions of fighting it does come off as a bit silly.

Still, I think this one is highly entertaining but I gotta admit right now I'm very torn on whether this or Live and Let Die is my favorite Roger Moore movie so far. This one feels more classic, it has all those hallmarks of a Bond movie but I also enjoyed how different Live and Let Die felt. Still, two great movies and a good one (Man with the Golden Gun) so far. Hopefully with Christmas/New Years holiday coming up I'll be able to add a few more during that week.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (GL)
From Russia With Love (SC)
The Spy Who Loved Me (RM)
You Only Live Twice (SC)
Live and Let Die (RM)
Goldfinger (SC)
The Man With the Golden Gun (RM)
Thunderball (SC)
Dr. No (SC)
Diamons Are Forever (SC)

[Phoenix87x]

Spy who loved is in my top 3 Bond films along with Goldeneye and On her majesty's secret service.

Its just very memorable in so many ways. Jaws as the perfect henchmen, the genocidal main villain, Triple X being an equal to Bond and them having to work together. The awesome stunts and exotic locations as well.

And even though the Aston Martin will always be a classic, I've always loved the Lotus. And that chase scene is up there as one of my all time favorites.

My one and only nitpick is the dated late 70's disco themed soundtrack. As an adult I kind of get a kick out of it, but as a kid it always stuck out like a sore thumb, lol 

[fadetoblackdude7]

Yeah Spy is one of the ‘big tamales’ for me, no doubt about it.

[Cool Chris]

Coming off two films I always highly enjoyed, I have so little recollection of this one. I know the awesome parachute scene at the beginning, leading in to the great opening theme, Jaws, the beautiful Barbara Bach, and very little else. I have no idea what Stromberg's(?) evil plan was. I remember last time I watched it years ago, I came away at the end thinking how it felt like so little happened throughout that ~2 hours.

I do remember it blew my mind with the gal addressed Q as Major Boothroyd. HOW DID SHE KNOW HIS NAME?!

[Volante99]

The mistake the Daniel Craig films made was trying to make everything personal. We learn about his childhood, the main villain is his step-brother (eye-roll), his motivation is to save his family, he has TWO serious relationships throughout the series. It was an interesting take on the character, but it didn’t work for me

Bond has an appeal because he’s (usually) OUTSIDE of the plot. He’s a fly in the “bad guy’s” ointment, a monkey in the wrench, the foil for the evil international organization. He places himself into a situation way bigger than him but somehow saves the world and gets the girl in the end. You can dress it up anyway you want, with varying levels of seriousness/comedy but THAT’S the Bond formula.

[Cool Chris]

Interesting take. Not sure how much I agree, but I had never considered that before.