Poll: Favorite James Bond film

I voted "Goldfinger" out of fond nostalgia but I watched it a couple of weeks ago and found it very dated, just laughable in parts. "You Only Live Twice" was almost as bad. I think "From Russia With Love" is my preferred Connery Bond film.

 

For merchandise Goldfinger was incredible when it came out in 1964.
This is my number choice.
Followed with OHMSS.
Then .. Daniel Craig/Eva Green's
"Casino Royal.

 

FRWL is great, and it's the most grounded I suppose in terms of the story and how believable it is. No huge enemy bases or megalomaniac taking over the world.

We'll have to disagree on Goldfinger. Obviously bits are dated ('***** Galore') but I found it very watchable, the actions of the villains seemed logical and it moves along at a great pace. And the music is beautiful.

I'm not a hardcore Bond fan, a casual fan I guess. I find the later Moore and most 0f the Dalton and Brosnon ones terribly dated. The acting and plots are pretty bad and the fashions date them badly. The 60's ones at least have a 'classic' look, like something like The Italian Job.

 

Classic look" good observation.

 

Well yes, I love the look of Goldfinger but the whole thing is almost like watching Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet or something. The Bond-romp charm is fun but the caracters are so two dimensional. I mean ***** Galore and her band of Barbie pilots! Goldfinger himself is just ridiculous (I prefer Goldmember!).

 

Goldfinger ?
I'm not surprised.

 

Some Bond films defined cOoL.

 

Spent hours playing the N64 game, GOLDENEYE, with my brother, so I was tempted to choose that. The music cues and sets are burned into my brain by sheer repetition.

But I enjoyed the CASINO ROYALE re-boot straight up as a standalone movie, so I went with that.

 

OHMSS is my favorite, however Goldfinger is the best.

 

I voted for Goldeneye.

 

Hear, hear! It's got gadgets (without Q, however), but they don't take over the movie, and Robert Shaw and Lotte Lenya are terrific adversaries, and Pedro Armendariz Jr. in his final film is good, too. Goldfinger has a lot of panache and is really enjoyable, but it seems to go downhill for me once they get to Kentucky (although I love the look of Kentucky in '64; I can only imagine how that must've seemed to Europeans).

 

What I'd love if they could somehow hire Walken to be a villain again. No need for continuity. Give the man a good script and a character that isn't a joke and he'll really show you a Bond drama.

 

Desmond Llewelyn does appear from Q branch and gives Bond a "smart looking piece of luggage". He's not in Dr No though.

 

A movie based on "Q" with JB and maybe some other OO's as secondary characters might be interesting.

 

Thee definitive Bond movie has to be GoldFinger.

 

From Russia With Love. It just oozes style and atmosphere and sex and violence. It's got exactly the right dose of everything.

Second place goes to Casino Royale. How different I felt leaving the cinema after seeing that (on a wave of adrenalin) compared to that disaster before it (I think I texted my wife something along the lines of "they killed Bond with this fiasco", not in so many words, after seeing but not believing Die Another Day).

Third used to be On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and it's got some amazing bits, but it may have been overtaken by Thunderball (aaaah Domino) and The Spy Who Loved Me.

 

I know that OHMSS gets a lot of love and it amazes me. I can't even watch the film, Lazenby is so stiff.

 

Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond (2014).
This four-part British mini-series dramatizes -- one might say exaggerates -- Ian Fleming's life as a spy with impeccable style. The series has a contemporary feel in a period setting that evokes the atmosphere and style of Fleming's prose together with an early '60s vibe. Not so much nostalgic as utilitarian. It works beautifully. The script is literate and intelligent, full of tension, suspense, layered with dramatic nuance and not shy on the action. Dominic Cooper is a superb Fleming / Bond. The actresses dive right in. Everybody has a great time.

Since no one can touch Bond -- without attracting EON Production's army of shark lawyers -- but everyone wants to, producers must work with Ian Fleming instead. EON doesn't have the rights to the author himself. This must be the third or fourth quai-biopic of Ian Fleming.

I haven't enjoyed a Bond-related film this much since Timothy Dalton's last outing.



Picture above is the all-region German blu-ray cover. The program is in English. There's also an American DVD pairing Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond with another spy telefilm called Copenhagan.

 

One of those iconic scenes everybody loves but EON has forgotten how to do. That's Dominic Cooper as Ian Fleming / Bond:

 

Nearly voted for it, but went with OHMSS instead. Lazenby isn't quite right for the role, but he's close and it's got the best script and best Bond girl of any of the films. Telly Savalas is a little over the top as the baddie, but then that's what makes Bond films fun, right?

Moonraker is just spectacular though - the sets, the effects, the camera work - it's really something else. Unfortunately it's saddled with Roger Moore and the campy scripts that plagued his era, but Michael Lonsdale is great as the creepy, wannabe space Hitler Hugo Drax, and while Moore couldn't stand her I thought Lois Chiles was great as Holly Goodhead - I bought her as a NASA boffin by way of the CIA.

God knows she was better than Tanya Roberts...

I am stunned that Octopussy got even a single vote - I caught it about five years ago on TV for the first time in about three decades and was appalled by how truly awful it was. Still, A View To A Kill makes it look like Goldfinger. What a waste of Grace Jones and Christopher Walken.

You Only Live Twice might have the best soundtrack of any of 'em, though.

 

For example:

 

Which Propellerheads brilliantly used on this cut, along with a big chunk of music from OHMSS:

 

stiff ?
Ask Diana Rigg.

 

This podcast is pretty entertaining... a group of Bond super-fans discuss the entire series and rank each film, creating an ordered "best Bond films" list from worst to best.
I expected the final results to be fairly predictable, but was actually somewhat surprised at the choices that made the Top 3.

Here's Part 1:


(NOTE: the entire podcast lasts nearly 5 hours, so I suggest listening to it in small portions)

 

IMO, almost anything does.