Pussy Galore, who ever came up with that name should be considered for knighthood in the UK.

The movies have a rep for being sillier than the books, but the book plots are different but just as stupid: eg. Bond is supposed to get Le Chiffre in trouble by playing so well that he'll inevitably bankrupt him? Love the movies though so not exactly a criticism

That's the plot in both the book and the movie. They just changed it from a game where that is nigh impossible (baccarat) to one that actually involves skill (poker)

Fair enough, just hard to believe it is a "serious" book when there is no way something like that would be sanctioned by an intelligence service -- in the book this is their idea, not Bond's

Joe Don Baker’s Jack Wade is the best Felix Leiter.

the craig bonds aren’t corny, and that’s why they’re aren’t as good

The somewhat "Bourne-ification" of the franchise was largely positive.

I ❤️ LIVE & LET DIE. Despite problems. it’s stylish, fast paced & Geo. Martin’s score rocks. Melding 007 w/ Blaxploitation works way better than seems possible. As @junkfilterpod.bsky.social points out, Kanaga’s minions going all trickster on 007 is funny. & it’s the only supernatural episode, right?

we need a transbian bond AU. first era of bond movies untouched warts and all, then The Spy Who Loved Me triggers an existential crisis arc, octopussy has a mental breakdown and toxic yuri therapy sesh tackling internalised mysoginy, and by Die Another Day bond finally understands her feelings :p

This is tongue in cheek, of course, but it'd be super fun to write. especially the period from octopussy through to die another day where the egg is not yet cracked but *everyone* plot relevant knows something is up with bond and she's tormented by her past actions. :p

also this leads to punny renames On Her Majesty's Secret TERF List Deadnames Are Forever Cis and Het Guy Boobmaker To Borrow Neighbour's Thigh-highs The Dose Is Not Enough (vocal) Fry Another Day Casino Boymode Quantum of Cis Spirofall bathroom in-Spectre

He should have retired the day after MI5 stopped issuing him a Lotus.

English Bonds don’t work.

You can tell how dedicated James Bond is to the subtlety of effective spycraft by the fact that his catchphrase is pointedly telling everyone his real name. Twice.

The EON movies are a distinct series, which retroactively ended with No Time To Die once they sold the rights. Whatever comes next can call itself James Bond all it wants; it'll fit right in with the 1950s Casino Royale TV series, the '60s spoof version, and Never Say Never Again.

Timothy Dalton was the only one who seemed like a person whose job was a clandestine agent, as opposed to all the others where it seemed that MI6's plan was just to find the most suave man with a British accent and give him a firearm and the problem would just sort of its way out from there.

Ironically for an actor who based his portrayal on Fleming's Bond in the books, Bond in the books is constantly telling people who he is.

1) Quantum of Solace was good! 2) No one ever says Roger Moore was the best Bond and I guess objectively that’s true, but he was the Bond I grew up with so will always be my favorite

Moore was dealt a bad hand. Older than Connery and worse scripts.

Agree with 2 entirely, except Richard Kiel really was objectively the best Bond villain

Goldeneye is easy top five in the series. Probably top 3. For me? #1. Love me some Brosnan.

Paddington is the best Q

Q is cute in Black Doves. Q should get a promotion.

If they had any sense, they would make sure most of Bond's gadgets are kept under his hat and the high explosives are sandwiched between two slices of bread.

—Bond films are at their best when they embrace their inherent campiness. —we don’t need a “Female Bond” as much as we need a Queen and Country adaptation.

He's a boring character in a series of boring books and movies that amount to a cultural black hole save for a handful of theme songs that deserved better. 🖖

Which is why Idris Elba in the role would've given it some life, especially in the 21st century.

Timothy Dalton actually was a lousy Bond

Diamonds Are Forever is the best of Shirley Bassey’s three theme songs.

Everybody has a monster hand poker scenes are really stupid and the bad exposition required to have a high stakes poker scene makes casino royale almost unwatchable.

Poker still makes more sense than baccarat (the choice in the book)

Tom Baker was the best James Bond

The next bond should be Irish

Roger Moore is the best Bond.

If they continue with the wah wah emotional aspect, the series will be dead in less then a decade. It needs to revert to the almost camp silliness of old. Pure escapism brain candy.

Those jokes about “I can’t wait for the Moneypenny origin series on Amazon PrimeVideo” serve to show that the joke teller has never seen “Skyfall.”

The correct way to plot a Bond movie is to find a real person who does some ludicrous stunt (skiing off a cliff with a parachute, running over a line of alligators) and write some bullshit reason he has to do that. As soon as they began thinking "What should this movie be ABOUT?", they were doomed.

A the same design philosophy as Naughty Dogs’ Uncharted franchise!

you're looking for xxx (2002).

Isn’t this just the Mission:Impossible movies, only it’s just Tom Cruise always doing the crazy stunt?

This boring movie poster, and its single star, proves you are right.

Quantum of Solace, great title, what happened to the plot?

From Russia with Love is better than Goldfinger in every way with the exception of the title song.

absolutely co-signed. and Tatjana Romanova is the hottest Bond girl, period

#2 behind Pam Bouvier for me

Michelle Yeoh is the best Bond girl overall, however.

I mean, Michelle Yeoh is fantastic, but my best overall is Diana Rigg. I’ll forever have a soft spot for Tracy.

Amazing, she was so hot in OHMSS which is my favourite bond film

Insanely beautiful face. So elegant.

I don't think this is a controversial opinion here because I share it. FRWL is my favorite Connery-era movie.

Probably my favorite Bond movie period

It’s nice to hear because so often I hear the love for Goldfinger and, I get parts of it, but From Russia With Live is so much better and it seems to get overlooked by more casual fans.

I feel like how someone answers the question, "What is better, From Russia with Love or Goldfinger?" Tells you a lot about what they value in a Bond film.

Goldfinger has some unforgettable moments (the girl painted gold, "No, Mr Bond..." etc) that have kept it atop the public consciousness, but FRWL is just a straight up great spy movie (Bond or otherwise.)

EXACTLY. In Goldfinger, Bond spends so much of that film cooked with a blown cover. It feels so much less like a spy movie than From Russia With Love or even Dr. No.

OHMSS would have been the best bond movie of all time with Connery in it and nothing else changed.

I kind of enjoyed watching Le Chiffre torture Bond's balls.

Connery was the worst Bond

The Radiohead song they passed on for Spectre is not only better than what they went with, it's one of the best Bond songs. Probably thought it wouldn't have enough broad appeal to be a hit, but, I mean, what they went with didn't exactly burn up the charts either. Guess it did better in Europe.

Craig > Connery

Oh yeah, cockneys should not be allowed to sing the theme song if the title need a 'll' sound... 'Skyfawwwww' ruined an otherwise great theme.

He is too nice. On a technicality I can claim that my Grandad was the real James Bond and he was an arse. The combination of service, time and a good dash of untreated PTSD should render Bond a wholly unlikable person... like my Grandad!

Moonraker was a movie

Should have been set in Swindon though

The actual James Bond died of cirrhosis of the liver at age 45 but MI6 keeps the pseudonym around because they find it useful.

A Bond villain should be scary but also ridiculous. Without the ridiculousness, it's just another action movie.

Most changes from the books were necessary for filming/taste, but they should have kept the original Moonraker plot

Like best eras of sports, or music, the best Bond is the one you grew up with

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is the best Bond movie.

Moonraker is the best Moore movie Seen it a few times already but also Quantum of Solace is good

One of the few films to understand that the shuttle exits the atmosphere "upside down" and this was a few years before the first full mission.

Never say Never is top tier Bond . Also best villain performance in the 80s films

Yes about the villain. Brandauer was so good

Brandauer did something almost alien to the Bond movies: he played the villain as someone who doesn’t think he’s the villain.

Casino Royale proved that the gadgets aren’t necessary if you have a good script and actors.

Apart from the defibrillator…

I’ve seen that discussion before and respectfully disagree. Is his gun a gadget? The car (here with no smokescreen or bullets)? Hardly an exploding watch or a laser pen.

And a laser pen hardly compares with a device that can restart a heart with 3 simple instructions. An ingenious article by any reasonable description. 🤷🏻‍♂️

You and I can agree to disagree. if you want to argue dictionary definitions, I think you’re missing the point.

If you’re redefining what’s central to the discussion, it’s hard to believe you ever had a point in the first place.

If you can’t see the difference between a medical device that is common use everywhere (even if there’s some dramatic license) and a pen or watch with laser beam capability, then we can’t have an intelligent discussion. Plus, there’s no need to be rude.

Casino royale has a magic self healing device!

Gadgets are necessary in a bond movie.

A wicker chair with a hole cut in the seat paired with a knotted length of rope qualifies as a gadget.

I’d qualify the thing that revives him after he’s poisoned as a gadget

I’m unfazed by nearly all on-screen depictions of violence. But I get nauseous even thinking about that scene.

1) Thunderball is the best Bond. 2) Moonraker is, astonishingly, not the worst (for my money, View to a Kill is). And one little side note - don't love MWTGG generally, but it has my hands-down favourite Bond field office.

The beginning of Goldfinger encapsulates the 60s pretty well. Bond is with a gorgeous woman at a pool when a friend of his shows up. Then he tells the woman "say goodbye". She's confused and goes "What?". Then Bond turns her around and goes "Man talk" and then swats her on her butt.

I think For Your Eyes Only is the best Bond film.

He’s supposed to be a little silly.

The puns. The puns are terrible and make most of the alleged classic era movies unwatchable. They’re not from Fleming, and the person who decided to make them a thing should have been fired, maybe into the sun.

Surely you jest. . .

And sometimes I wish I could think of the worst pun ever but no, completely serious.

Most bond theme songs are god awful

@michaelmay.bsky.social @robgraham.bsky.social (not sure if Karen is on here)

Barbara Bouchet is the best Moneypenny.

They should reboot to period films set in the ‘60s, with Bond gradually realizing he’s just a hit man for racist imperialists and capitalist super-villains.

He is a godawful spy

Dame Stella Rimington said in a video for the International Spy Museum said something to the effect that if he’d worked for her, she’d be forced to resign as head of MI5 after one of his “successes.”

he should only ever be played by a cis white dude. because anything else would be the polar opposite of woke: he's colonial nostalgia. a paid ad for the power and value of the state. of the control held by wood panelled old bastards "updating" him would be to whitewash what he represents

repackaging him with a thin veneer of progressivism to help the authoritarianism go down. rainbow capitalism. he's a monster, and monsters are fun, and to many the simple world he promotes, of great men and good versus evil, it's comforting and consumable. most action movies sell this in some form

but if you gotta do that, just do it, full throat. don't tell us that a little bit of unaccountable violent state overreach is good for us while insisting that you're on the side of moral justice

Never say never again > Thunderball

Re: Craig. If I wanted to see a middle-aged man be miserable I'd go look in the mirror. There's a difference between knowing you shouldn't aspire to be Bond in real life, and how much he hated the character. And it showed. Bond films shouldn't feel like a drag.

Lucy Liu should be the next James Bond the original Casino Royale was the best

I second Lucy Liu! 😍

A View To A Kill is underrated as the cast saved it from a mid script, Moore's age, and Tanya Roberts.

Sea water!?

No Time to Die is the worst of all the Bond films.

They should have let the Bond movies remain in the Cold War era.

Of all the Bond theme performers of the past 40 years or so, none has understood the assignment better than Garbage.

It's ok that he's a sexist misogynistic dinosaur, for that is a character flaw.

Ohmss is the best bond movie.

I like the D. Craig era but I think the modern day’s obsession for continuity in cinema killed the franchise.

Shirley Bassey's singing is awful.

1 QOS has the best David Arnold score 2 QOS has the best titles 3 QOS has the best editing in the franchise!

George Lazenby IS James Bond.

Wrong! Bob Holness... hahahaha...

*thinks up a pun about 'blockbuster' movies *bites tongue

The best one is Our Man Bashir.

I agree

Avery Brooks is a GREAT Bond villain

That all of the Bond women were a strong a Bond! They aren't sluts n don't get respect! It was as much their choice to "bed" James as it was his!!

Roger Moore is the best James Bond. Period.

The Bond series has the lowest batting average of any series. Probably not literally true, but relative to its prestige probably.

Bond movies are not spy movies, they're a sub-genre of superhero films.

None of the villains in a Purvis and Wade film was intimidating, with the exception of Le Chiffre whose best bits came directly from the book

James Bond actor has to be a straight British man. Full stop.

That they realized they had forgotten the gold in the boot of the car when it was crushed, rather than taking it out beforehand, and sent Oddjob to get it afterwards as a lame continuity cover-up for their faulty story-boarding.

James Bond is actually a worm that works like a parasite inside the body of a man. Each of the Bond men was inhabited by this worm. So, though they look different and live in different eras, they are all actually canonically James Bond, because the worm is Bond.

and that worm WAS a ww2 naval commander

Different people like different eras of bond for different reasons, so it’s hard to say definitely what the “best” bond film is. That said, while In Her Majesty’s Secret Service is probably not at the top of the list for anyone, no matter what you want from Bond it should probably be in your top 5.

Sean Connery era is overrated—he personally is fantastic in the role but most of the movies he’s in are kind of a mess, played too straight to be as entertaining as post Roger Moore Bond, but still too silly to be appreciated as spy fiction.

The Daniel Craig era will probably age the most poorly. The more gritty and revisionist interpretation of Bond was genuinely cool. But they didn’t go far enough in interrogating the themes, so the more grounded presentation makes the inherent sexism and racism stand out in a really ugly way.

There is, usually, an inverse relationship between the quality of a Bond theme and the quality of the movie it’s attached to. The outlier here is Skyfall which is the best Daniel Craig bond and also has the best theme among them. I attribute this to Adele just not being capable of writing bad music

Shitty movies, all of them

The franchise is in for a miserable period, if not outright doomed. They're caught between a wet, woke millenial/Gen Z Bond or an alt-right pleasing reactionary approach - and either will be inhibited in its reflection of the real world by the interests of its new corporate owners.

The franchise is in real danger, having been acquired by a real-life Bond villain

Bond is establishment to his core - privately educated, white, male, elitist, sexist, racist, colonialist. Modern films play on his being an "anachronism", but can't but glorify attitudes held IRL by the soft-fascists now eroding Western democracy. Kill him off; save democracy.

Roger Moore reinvigorated the series in a way that kept the series alive after Sean Connery left.

First off, James Bond is an intentional joke, it should not be taken seriously, if you do there is something wrong with you. In my view from that perspective Roger Moore was the best Bond. Moonraker with the much beloved Michael Lonsdale was the best villain with Christopher Walken a close second.

Lashana Lynch should take over the series as the new 007. I mean, honestly, she’s right there!

Kill James Bond is the best bond podcast. It's not even that controversial

One more: The end of No Time to Die was perfect. The only thing that can [redacted] 007 is Her Majesty’s government.

More female super villains. They’ve only had ONE. Spectre would go up 2 stars if they’d had the balls to have Monica Bellucci turn out to be Blofeld.

George Lazenby was the best Bond

And Diana Rigg was the best Bond girl

And OHMSS was the best Bond film

I'm not sure I can agree with him being the best Bond, but he's definitely fun to watch, and is criminally neglected by Bond fans.

Hence the controversial ;)

No Time To Die was a Phoebe Waller-Bridge masterpiece and it should have ended there.

James Bond Jr. is supposed to also be his nephew. 🤔 I don’t know much but I do know any situation that ends in a Jr./Nephew combo is unbecoming of an MI6 agent and the palace must order an investigation as soon as Her Majesty’s vigour allows.

You can't be a Bond film without: A crazy artistic musical intro Bond being promiscuous A Bond girl showing up A weird villain doing wacky things A sexy car Cool gadgets

-The Connery movies are boring. -The Moore movies are cartoons. -The Dalton movies are wretched (but he’s fantastic). -The Brosnan era starts strong, but quickly drives off a cliff. -The Craig movies are ok, but over correct into dreariness. -OHMSS and Goldeneye are the 2 best 20th century movies.

For Your Eyes Only. The best Bond cold open ever. Nothing has ever topped it. m.youtube.com/watch?v=_B2F...

The sigh he gives as he thought he’d possibly met his maker & the Bill Conti score kicking in…

No helicopter pilot has ever been treated with less respect

Thank you; watching that brought me joy.

Me too!

I think they should make one that isn't cringe boomer slop

Responsible for decades of toxic masculinity.

The best Bond story is The Jennifer Morgue by @cstross.bsky.social

James Bond was no longer culturally useful after the end of the Cold War and should have been retired.

Hard agree with this, but watching them try to adjust an avatar of a very specific bygone capitalist subjectivity to be relevant in a different noosphere is instructive. It never quite works, but the reason it doesn’t work changes over time.

The first Casino with Robert DeNiro was better than the sequel Casino Royale.

Dalton would have been better than Brosnan with that Goldeneye script

Timothy Dalton is the best Bond

Yes!! Dalton, Craig, then maybe Connery but I do like Lazenby an awful lot.

He said controversial, not 100% absolutely correct

(He or she or they: I suppose I shouldn't have assumed based on the profile picture.)

Agree - but, thankfully, I think this has ceased to be a controversial view. Us Daltz truthers were just ahead of our time!

Yep. The best Bond burdened with some of the worst movies.

We are a small but mighty group in agreement. Dalton got shafted.

Came here to say the same… Real ones know…

Dalton and Lazenby are both underrated.

Agree re Dalton. Not so sure about Lazenby.

Lazenby was done wrong

Here's my second-hand gossip: a friend's father was the manager of the Leicester Sq Odeon for the premiere. Lazenby turned up steaming drunk and Cubby Broccoli declared he'd never work again.

Cubby Broccoli never knew what was good for him

It can be argued that the films succeeded despite Cubby.

Lazenby thought that Bond was an embarrassment relic of the Cold War. He wanted to make movies with Bruce Lee. Lazenby wasn’t wrong, but the weight of history did him wrong.

My wife told me about this and it moves me as a tennis fan who is very familiar with Pam Shriver‘s commentating: „In 2024, Lazenby retired from acting… In 2025, his ex-wife Pam Shriver revealed in a self-penned article in The Telegraph that Lazenby has dementia and that she is caring for him.“

Lazenby had a brilliant plan to become an international movie-star by making Giallos and playing a villainous counterpart to Bruce Lee in several films. Lee’s death and a few set-backs ruined the plan.

This was *precisely* Jim Kelly‘s plan, too, only Blaxploitation instead of giallo

Lee was a marketing genius. He had to fight the studio to call the movie “Enter the Dragon”, and not Dr. Klon’s island. He wanted to make ensemble action films with international stars. He died before implementing his plan, but the Fast & Furious movies stole his plan.

But he almost single-handedly made the Hong Kong film industry an international contender while he was at it, much to the world‘s benefit

He really is a fascinating Bond. He couldn’t handle one-liners like Connery, but he was a more emotionally-connected and complex assassin-spy.

Underrated by all except Lois Maxwell who told me in interview that he was the best Bond and if he had another couple of films we all view him differently.

Her scene with him was cute: “Oh Bond. Exactly the same… only moreso!” as he pinches her bottom.

I love OHMSS. I saw the possibilities of Lazenby’s “mature” Bond immediately. It’s one of 2 Bond films I own on DVD (along with Goldfinger).

In my view, OHMSS offers an emotional core the franchise has been powered by for decades.

The ending is absolutely crushing… We fade out of Bond’s numb, bloodstained face… to the sound of Monty Norman & John Barry’s triumphant 4-note theme. A bit of a fumble, but hard to forget.

The sequence where he tears his pockets out to wear as mittens and hand protection to enable his escape on the funicular cable has never been matched

I don’t think you get the Craig iteration without Lazenby in OHMSS

Craig’s Bond was the result of a lot of people thinking about “what might have been” with Lazenby and Dalton.

Indeed!

Lazenby was introduced Bond who actually had emotion…..Dalton introduced Bind who actually understood the gravity of the the situation. Craig combined the two.

Craig's Bond is a follow-on from what Brosnan wanted from the role.

I will never understand the decision to dub in George Baker's voice.

Lazenby didnt want to keep being Bond. John Lennon iirc was the one who told him Bond was a relic fadinginto obscurity.

As Bond, Lazenby had Diana Rigg as his leading lady. Immediately afterwards he had...um...Germaine Greer.

Followed closely by Anita Strindberg.

100% this.

Highly

I kind of wish that Tarantino had made his Bond film, in which the previous 007s (played by previous Bond actors) go rogue and attack the MI-6 HQ.

Have you seen Die Spy Kill Kill?

Lazenby had this mix of being capable but also nondescript enough I could actually see him as a spy. I think he should have done more films as Bond.

They're the only two Bonds I like.

This is correct

Dalton has such a quintessential Bond look, and gave the character needed boyish charm after a decade of watching an increasingly decrepit Moore putting the moves on women young enough to be his granddaughter.

If it weren't for a writer's strike, License to Kill would be a Top 5 Bond movie. Even as messy as it is, it's still very good

That James Bond was very rapey

Oh lord the books are worse.

"Dr. No means No, baby."

Bond isn't meant to be the smirking superhero that Connery created & audiences quickly came to expect—he is, as Kingsley Amis put it, "a mid-level civil servant," restless, easily bored, frustrated by paperwork & bureaucracy. We've never seen a faithful adaptation of the (underrated) Fleming novels.

Wasn't Lazenby the closest to the novel version?

Definitely the closest until CASINO ROYALE, and of the best Fleming novel! (A shame it's still not a particularly good film.)

OHMSS is a great film imo.

Also holds on his job by being an alcoholic and a drug addict (presumably because the job is hard, and killing is hard). (Now that I think of it... Restless, easily bored, frustrated by paperwork & co., substance addict to cope with his life? Dude might qualify for ADHD without much trouble.)

In the Bond short stories I’ve read, Bond is an assassin—a hitman for the govt.—and he is miserable about it, but does it because it’s his job and he sees the necessity. I’ve never seen this captured in any of he films.

Bond going from just a male power fantasy to a deconstruction of toxic masculinity and the damage it does to men and the people around them is the best thing that could have happened to the character; and I think that needs to remain a core part of his character moving forward.

Roger Moore is distinctly underrated, Pierce Brosnan proved that being a good actor isn’t necessarily enough to make the craziness of over the top Bond movies sell to audiences. Moore sells even the worst Bond movies. And OHMSS is the best of all the Bond films.

One more, the synth score in Goldeneye is so bad it very nearly ruins the entire film. It sounds like a MIDI program used for composing and they forgot to record it with an orchestra.

The Mission : Impossible films are a stronger spy series. Which I say through gritted teeth as a Brit.

You sure you haven't confused James Bond with Darby O'Gill?

I hate everything about them except the theme songs and Roger Moore.

James Bond keeps regenerating, lands in situations almost at random, and is weirdly obsessed with Britain. Oh, and always has exactly the right gadget about his person. He’s a renegade time lord whose Tardis takes the form of a sports car. (Not my original thought but I cannot let go of it)

I’ve seen this theory expounded with the observation that with the academic titles of Doctor and Master taken, James Bond can only be The Bachelor

*deep announcer voice" "He's a a Time Lord with a License to Kill ... and zero fucks left to give!"

Sometimes only half a sports car, but it's still bigger on the inside.

k.d. lang got robbed -- "Surrender" is an all-time great Bond theme relegated to end credits song. (Sorry Sheryl Crow.)

Tbh tomorrow never dies is one of the better opening songs (mostly the chorus)

The oft-lauded scene where M tells James Bond off in Goldeneye ("You're a sexist, misogynistic dinosaur, a relic of the cold war") would have actually been interesting if she had meant it.

It's definitely undercut by both M and Moneypenny making misogynistic comments to Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies.

...and M says in Casino Royale she misses the cold war, and that doesn't come across as sarcastic/flippant - especially when she actually has to answer to the government ("Who the hell do they think they are?" and "I report to the Prime Minister and even he's smart enough not to ask me what we do")

Pierce Brosnan was a great Bond who they built subpar Bond movies around.

Agreed. He got done dirty.

Bond, Jane Bond.

The first several movies are cringe and damn near unwatchable now.

They should just make the next Bond Ana De Armas. She was onscreen for all of 10 minutes in No Time to Die, and completely ran away with it.

ana is great at selling herself but when it comes to acting proper she's in over her head.

Isn't that what they tried with The Ballerina - John Wick spinoff?

Indeed

Sexiest Jason Bourne

He’s the bad guy.

Supposedly they offered Christian Bale the role and he said “no thanks I’ve already played a serial killer.”

Also, isn’t the default for the martini to be shaken and not stirred? Who is this guy to tell skilled service workers how to do their jobs?

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a James Bond story

It's Q's origin story. The director's cut even has the post titles sequence where Caractacus Potts is approached by MI6 to work in a little department they're setting up.

Bond purposely and incorrectly orders his martinis “shaken, not stirred” because he wants them more diluted as to keep himself from getting sloppy drunk. The mission above all.

Quantum Of Solace is 75% of one of the best Bond films ever. If it’d started filming with a finished script to remove its plot patchiness, it’d justifiably have taken its place as the centrepiece of a truly great trilogy, possibly even its The Empire Strikes Back (or The Last Jedi!).

Lara Croft from the original Tomb Raider is the best Bond.

The Pierce Brosnan era is the easiest to get kids to watch; the Sean Connery era is the hardest

My daughter loved the spy who loved me so I think mid period Moore is pretty good for today’s kids in terms of pacing

The pacing and visual language of 1960s movies are unfamiliar to kids who grew up with videogames. It takes a while to get used to. My twins were born 2005. They loved the Marx Brothers though.

There are many moments in the 1960s, and even 1970s, Bond movies that have aged incredibly poorly to people with 21st century sensibilities

It isn't even the sensibilities I'm talking about (but you aren't wrong at all). Its more the entertainment factor. I saw another reply to this question basically say "Bond needs to appeal to 13 year olds if its gonna survive", and that was Brosnan Bond to me

Fwiw, I was born in '86 and wasnt really allowed to play videogames. The first Bond movie I saw was Goldeneye. After my dad saw how much I loved it, he tried to show me some Connery movies. (As a kid) I hated them all

would have been better if moffat revived him as a woman

Cubby Broccoli really should have adopted a less-silly name.

The Moore films should be the template going forward.

I don't know if this is controversial, but there are actually three separate Bond continuities. 1. Connery-Lazenby-Moore 2. Dalton-Brosnan 3. Craig I think it's obvious from a close watching of The Living Daylights, in which M treats Bond as young and relatively inexperienced

The Living Daylights also had an absolute s-tier theme, thanks to A-Ha, and not enough people know about it

Easily the most replayable theme as a standalone piece of music

View to a Kill, baby

Nope, Bond just had what they call a "floating timeline". In Dalton's Licence to Kill they bring up Bond's wife having been murdered in OHMSS. Brosnan also makes mention of his family motto, discovered in OHMSS, in the "The World is Not Enough". OHMSS ties most of them together actually.

Because Moore also visits Tracy's grave. Connery Bond is also still mad about it when he's hunting down Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever. All of that of course goes out the window when it's rebooted with Craig.

If you treat Casino / Quantum (which is Casino Part 2 and constantly assumes you’ve seen it recently) as the origin story, then the previous 20 films happen, it makes sense he’s old, haggard and ready to retire in Skyfall / Spectre.

I don't think we actually disagree here. Events similar to OHMSS could still have happened to a younger Bond as portrayed by Dalton. It's hard to reconcile a late 50s Moore in AVTAK suddenly being so much younger in his next outing.

To be clear, I view TLD as a "soft reboot" where aspects of the previous continuity can exist in a general sense, but without much rigor, as it were. As I said, it's incredibly difficult to believe that Dalton and Moore are playing the same guy.

Ah I see what you mean. Yeah that definitely makes sense then!

They should make a multiverse Bond movie.

I concur totally. I also like think that Bond 1 ended up with Octopussy, and Bond 2 ended up with Natalya.

Timothy Dalton was the best Bond; had repressed rage but also vulnerable.

So happy I won't have to see Daniel Craig purse his lips anymore. The most pouty Bond.

His real name is Archibald.

They should start doing one-off Bond movies and re-cast him each time. Only way to get an old man Clive Owen or Idris Elba Bond movie.

Skyfall was mediocre.

Pierce Brosnan was unquestionably the best Bond.

The drop in quality from Tomorrow Never Dies to The World is Not Enough isn’t that big, and certainly not nearly as big as the drop from TWINE to Die Another Day. Also, Billie Eilish’s song for the last film was a correction after seeing the positive buzz for Radiohead’s rejected Spectre theme.

Not controversial but still -- Skyfall, 2012, will be seen as a landmark film that defines a cultural moment & crisis, also rightly sensing the coming populist dislocations that a lot of other mainstream discourse had not yet picked up on.

He does remind me of Henry Cavill

Not that controversial, but when my son first watched one of the old James Bond-movies, he said (unprompted): "It's kind of rapey, isn't it?". I can see that clearly now, but I had absolutely no clue when I saw them at his age. I am SO pleased with the change only one generation can bring.

hey, he only did a successful and effective corrective rape that one time

I only remember that the scene that made my son uncomfortable was a woman being bodily pushed down on a bed and held, squirming (and laughing), by Bond until she kissed him. And cut. That really could be any Bond "girl".

I'm thinking of the extremely lesbian-coded baddie who he rapes into being good and liking men.

If we are talking Goldfinger, then yeah, that might have been the scene. But Bond's magic dick did make several of the female villains change sides, even if most were only from nefariousness and not sexually. That one was particularly nasty.

Roger Moore et Pierce Brosnan were the only Bond I could stand because I hate to see such an awful character be taken seriously. If Bond is not fun and goofy, I don't want Bond at all.

Die Another Day is a great film with fantastic locations and set pieces, that presented the idea of a broken Bond a full decade before Skyfall. I'll go one step further. Skyfall might be the best one made, but DAD is the most rewatchable. ONE STEP FURTHER. Die Another Day is the best Brosnan film.

Rosamund Pike. End of.

Never Say Never Again is better than Thunderball. OHMSS isn’t as great as people would have you believe and it’s been annoying to see it grow in popularity over the last couple of decades. Pacing is slow, subpar villains, Lazenby stinks, and the bummer ending fans love to hype is poorly executed.

It does have an amazing score tho

Mission Impossible is a better and more important franchise than the Bond franchise.

Whatshername who said that James Bond can’t be a woman is correct.

That Christopher Lee didn't get to BE a Bond (knowing how badass he was in WW2 and all...)

No Time To Die is good despite it's length and um, the obvious things that happen *runs away* The World Is Not Enough is one of the most fun movies in the series. Moonraker needs to be remade.

Thunderball is easily Connery’s best.

I look forward to the Bond multiverse.

Never Say Never Again is the greatest of all Bond films. If only Michelle Yeoh could have been in it to make it perfect.

John Glen was a good film editor but a lousy Bond director. His visual style can be best described as TV movie. Worse director in the series.

In the books he's a rapey prick.

They should reboot the franchise starting with Bond as a WW2 commando. It would a rough and raw fighter who is developing his tastes

Downhill since McGoohan passed

@martindbbrown.bsky.social

Yeah, I saw it...

quantum of solace was the best daniel craig era bond film.

This is only tangentially related, but I think they should keep making Austin Powers movies with a new actor for every sequel, poking fun at the constant recasting of bond, while giving different comedians their own take on the character

This is a really good idea

It's the one comedy franchise that SHOULD be repeatedly sequelized.

OHMSS should have ended in James’s death not Tracy’s and Diana Rigg should have then taken over as Bond

Ooooh, now that one is interesting…

That the new bond shouldn't be a young man, he should be 50+. He's an anachronism. And also he should be played by Idris Elba godamnit

they royally screwed up when they tried to turn bond into jason bourne, they lost all the humor and irony

Bond is irredeemable misogynistic nonsense from a bygone era.

They said controversial

Given all the people in this thread discussing these movies as if they're normal and good, I think a commonsense appraisal of "fuck this series actually" does unfortunately still count as controversial.

Judy Dench actually said essentially that in Goldeneye, and yet…

I mean, Bond characters saying "you're a washed up old relic of a bygone age" has been in the franchise forever, and then the film goes on to show that actually Bond rules because he's a real man and just what we need. Don't give them credit for it. They don't mean it.

yeah that’s the plot of thunderball and never say never again, both older than me

"a sexist, misogynist dinosaur, a relic of the cold war..." per M in Goldeneye.

It hit a lot harder for people who’ve read the books. It was BAD. Bond was a fucked-in-the-head rapist.

Don't forget also the raging alcoholism.

Thankfully not read the books but he was enough of a fucked in the head rapist in the movies. Multiple times, including a "corrective rape" of a lesbian which is even shown "to work". Disgusting movies.

There are two choices to make Bond make sense: either a Bond to reconcile with colonialism (Dev Patel, ideally) or an historical Bond set back in the 50s during the Cold War. Which could also star a non-white Bond but that might make people’s heads implode.

I say let justice be done, though the heads implode!

I just don't think this should be considered controversial!

Dev Patel for Bond is maybe the single best casting I’ve ever heard. That could be an amazing movie that hits so many deeper chords. Nothing Bezos and Co could do would improve on this idea 👏

We need a very homosexual Bond too.

I remember when there was talk of Rupert Everett playing Bond! Or at least folks rightly noting he would have been great.

Oh he would have been a great Bond

I'm gay and I want to make everything gay except Bond. I like him to be 20th century man.

Some of my favorite Bond scenes are M calling him a sexist, misogynist dinosaur who's a relic of the Cold War. Bond as a reflection of toxic masculinity makes him a much more interesting character.

Yes! Making a "woman Bond" or a "gay Bond" or whatever is just the easy way out. I can like a problematic toxic character, just write him in an interesting way, be creative with the concept. The movie doesn't need to reflect the values of the protagonist acritically.

I agree, deconstruction is fun. I do think making him bi could be fun though.

I like that Doctor Who became a woman, and a gay black man after that. It's good, Doctor Who is progressive and moves with the times. James Bond is interesting because he's a remnant of a bygone era. A colonialist male fantasy. I think the Craig era mostly dealt with that but it had some misteps.

I agree. I love The Doctor changing with the times, but I think Bond has to stay a man to be recognizable as what the character represents, but I think it could work making him not be white.

bond shld just be voraciously omnisexual

Absolutely agree. Bond needs a threesome with another guy involved. 🙏🏼 I’m honestly not sure that Craig’s bond ever came across as bi/omni, despite Craig’s other work, but the camp undercurrent in the other Bonds could absolutely have gone that way.

there was a passing reference to having had a male lover during the torture scene innCASINO ROYALE, i think

I think you’re right, but if I recall, it was played with a bit of winking humor/irony. They didn’t have the guts to really show Bond being attracted to men at the time. Would love to have that become actual canon in the films. More Bond Boys!

i'm thinking along the line that he's just insatiably activated at all times – animals, vegetables, sex toys – anything and everything coming into his orbit triggers a need to spit his seed at it he really needs to get some help imo

100%. He is unbearably horny all the time, but also stereotypically British-ly repressed. A complete sexual opportunist.

These are all movies that can be made and would be awesome. But shoe-horning these attributes into the current character and movie series would be a mistake.

i disagree!

What is wrong with escapism? A preposterous man, villian and plot. Absolutely not to bectaken in any way seriously. This new emotional Bond is tedious. Just get on with the silliness.

I agree! My favorite Bond periods are the '70s & the '90s.

I prefer the Joan Hickson Miss Marple adaptations to the later ones, but I did laugh at giving "Ian Fleming" a small appearance in A Caribbean Mystery. If they set Bond in the 50s they can also have appearances by Noel Coward or Agatha Christie.

Or David Cornwall (pen name John Le Carré)

Quantum of Solace is a good film and the opera sequence is absolutely stunning.

Quantum's narrative is disorienting, particularly it being a direct sequel to Casino Royale, starting in medias res and never stopping for 100+ minutes. But it's way better than Skyfall.

"But it's way better than Skyfall." This is the real wow take! QoS has a poor bad guy and weak ending. Skyfall has one of the best bond endings ever.

CASINO ROYALE '67 and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN are just as "official" as the EON films, and if one or both had been better-made, there wouldn't be much argument about this.

I've seen a lot of people over the years simply dismiss Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough, but I still maintain they were exactly what I envisioned "the Bond of the future" to be. Renard and Electra King were brilliant villains.

1. Quantum of Solace is good 2. The movie series should just end 3. Y'all want faithful movie adaptations of the novels up until Odd Job is eating a cat and Bond is having extended conversations with Dikko about Tatar blood.

the movies should end?? wtf.

No part of me has ever wanted faithful adaptions. I don't even want to see him drive a Bentley

Yeah, I’ve read several of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels and NO. Absolutely not. Holy God, no.

Live and Let Die allows me to die from cringe.

Quantum of Solace gets exponentially better when you watch it back to back with Casino Royale as a single film

QoS is a damn good sequel.

I never had an issue with Quantum. Not the best but it’s pretty solid. And anyone who wants faithful adaptations should read Live and Let Die.

Best Bond? Peter Sellers

Just Let It Go Bond is a cultural artifact, and lowbrow cinema And I say that as someone whose Bond consumption, both film and books shaped my preadolescent worldview, aspiring to one day be as cool and having it together as him

no more movies now that broccoli has sold off the company. 25 is a nice round number to end things off at.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is the best installment and has the best score. “A View to a Kill” is the best song.

Number one point is on point.

Duran Duran for the win.

OHMSS is also a GORGEOUS movie to watch.

This is my favorite Bond movie

I liked Roger Moore best, because he was the Bond of my childhood, but once I had seen the Connery films I realized Moore was sort of an '80s, more palatable Bond. (Not an opinion, but): I was delighted to learn that both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones play on Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger."

Just had to drop this in here [it's live, so, not featuring Page and Jones, but incredible]:

If you read the books, I genuinely believe it makes more sense that Bond is just not good at his job. It’s a more interesting character and more consistent with everything he does. I know it’s inconsistent with anything Fleming said, but it’s so clear on the page.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is Ian Fleming's best written work and movie adaptation. Except for the score which is atrocious and catchy.

Ohmss is the best bond movie until casino royale and it's not close

The most fun Bond movie was Casino Royale (1967).

1. For Your Eyes Only is one of the best in the series. 2. Thunderball is painfully dull.

That Helen Mirren would have made an exquisite Bond.

This one doesn’t feel controversial at all!

Right?? And yet apparently it is. We know she's perfect. She was perfect in the Red movies. She's completely believable in the Thursday Murder Club. And yet even she doesn't think she should be Bond. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Myself? I think an elderly Bond played by Mirren, coming back into service, would blow the fucking doors off theaters. I don't go to theaters much anymore, but damn! To watch Dame Helen as Bond??? You couldn't stop me.

(I have a lot of mixed feelings about TMC's direction, but their cast were all solid)

Bond movies are generally not interesting.

Brosnan’s first Bond movie was his only good one because it was written for Timothy Dalton.

LICENCE TO KILL is the best James Bond film.

Now this one is truly wild

This is an insane take lol

I don't know if I would go that far, but it's definitely a guilty pleasure bsky.app/profile/will...

he’s a bad spy and only successful because of better spy’s intel

‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ is better than ‘Goldeneye’.

I don't think so. Goldeneye has actual character development for Bond, and the villain being a direct result of his actions; in Tomorrow Never Dies the villain is just a guy, even if he is fun.

The villain isn’t though. He was clearly already planning to defect and that last mission was his cover for doing so. I think the villains in Goldeneye all crowd each other out so that none are as effective as they could be. I also prefer the pacing in ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’.

I don't see him as planning to defect, him being left for dead is what caused him to defect. The secondary protagonists all have a purpose and don't take up all that much screen time though. I think Tomorrow Never Dies has less interesting characters and drags at points.

He blames his decision to defect on what the British government did to his parents. When he meets Bond he says that the plan was messed up by Bond setting the timer to go off sooner than he should have. The movie basically spells this all out for the audience.

No. He was bitter about his life choices and working for MI6; but he didn't become Janus until after he died. If he meant to fake his death, getting actually shot in the head is a pretty dumb plan. We also saw Orumov use his gun to kill a soldier, so his gun couldn't have been filled with blanks.1/2

If he was planning to defect because the Cold War ended, that still makes him an interesting villain. And if he was faking his death, three minutes to escape a massive explosion seems like a bad plan for someone who's shown to be very intelligent. Ether way, better villain than what's his name.

I don't think Tomorrow Never Dies is a bad film; it has a great cast, some good action set pieces, and the villain has an interesting and unique plan. I just find him and his goons, the love interests, and the plot less interesting than Goldeneye.

CW: Suicide youtu.be/tPOuqDR3uzc?... He literally spells it out in this quote. He turned against Britain because the government handed his parents being over to the Soviet’s, leading in their deaths. His plan was for Bond to die in that opening mission as part of Alec faking his own death.

I'm sorry but no he doesn't. He just reveals that's part of it. at most he was planning to defect because the Cold War ended, what happened to his parents is just what made him resent the government. He never says "I was planning to defect."

All the movies share the same continuity. The name James Bond and the number are sent to new people. Connery managed to get the title a second time.

The next one should be a genuine slapstick comedy adventure movie to balance the scales after the Craig era, after that they can let Bezos cuck himself or whatever they want. I want to see 007 using the franchise’s equivalent of shark repellent if not exactly that.

When I started typing the above I wasn’t really serious about it but now I am please give me the Batman and Robin of Bond films that will be hated on forever by all except me 🙏

No matter who you think the best Bond actor was, the second best one was Timothy Dalton.

Truer to the book character, but his scripts were their first attempts to moralize Bond’s image. That was a shame.

Bond films from golden eye onwards are better if you skip the last 20-30 mins

Daniel Craig was a shitty Bond. Connery all the way.

Roger Moore is a LOT less goofy than people think he is. He can be STONE COLD when the situation calls for it. Even in his goofier outings, he plays the silliness intentionally as a way of keeping others off balance. But folks need to not dismiss him as “the silly Bond.” He rocks.

Ian Flemming was a wallaby.

It’s probably a tie: > While Casino Royale is an excellent film, it lacks the necessary tropes to be a true *Bond* film. > George Lazenby made a perfectly fine Bond.

The only thing Bond does in Goldfinger is nail Pussy Galore. Everything else he does either fails or doesn’t accomplish anything at all.

Bond films need to get back to featuring happy people and the happiness that money can buy. Less stuff about brutal torture, more racy escapades.

No I think questioning toxic masculinity, the role imperialist nations play in making the world a worse place, and dealing with the consequences of violence are actually more interesting than just braindead action. If you want that shit, just watch the Fast and Furious movies.

It ought to do that too, but a problem with the Craig stuff is how anhedonic it all is, like many post 9/11 franchises. A world where everyone is utterly miserable and evil at all times. If no-one in the films is ever happy what imperialism / toxic masculinity can he be seen to have been overcome?

He didn't overcome it by finding happiness, he overcame it by letting go of it and sacrificing himself to save his child and the woman he loved. I also feel like having a toxic character reinforcing imperialism shouldn't be happy while doing that.

The challenging of bloody imperialism is of course the achilles heel of the franchise. The furthest that Bond ever comes in that regard is making a moral decision over the heads of his superiors (eg. FYEO). Safer world.

I disagree. Goldeneye talks about the fucked up shit the British government did that helped create the villain, and Quantum of Solace has some good dialog between him and Felix about how badly the US fucked up South America.

(excluding of course where nanobots are involved)

Talking about that stuff is good, especially the more central role it plays in G'eye. On the toxic masculinity subject, do you think the franchise has ever accomplished something? I'm struggling for examples, besides the many times a woman agent has him impressed.

They mention it a few times in Goldeneye, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall that Bond is fucked up by what he does. www.reddit.com/r/JamesBond/...

Reckoning with the history is good. Would be better still if there was a whole string of films where he didn't harrass or get women killed. Commentators may gripe, but dunno how much audiences would miss it tbh.

George Lazenby was the best Bond 😂

He's a terrible undercover agent 'cause he's always happily boasting about who he is. I think he just gets sent in as a distraction.

Most of the time he ends up just shooting his way out of every situation and getting lucky that the villain gets themselves killed. One of the few times he was trying to be an actual spy, he did yellowface; so I get why they stopped having him do that 😂

Judi Dench deserved to die, reading that goofy poem after being told Bardem had escaped

James Bond is a regenerating cryptid who has supernatural luck. That's why he's been a WW2 sub commander for the Royal Navy all the way until the modern era, yet has a different face every so often and avoids dying despite, for instance, being riddled with bullets in a murphy bed.

This man needs to be the next James Bond. Make it happen, Denis!

You Only Live Twice is embarrassingly racist but still worth watching to check out the sweet mid-century modern furnishings.

Grace Jones should have won an Oscar and rock salt is the best ammo for shotguns.

And Max Zorin should have been allowed to destroy Silicon Valley.

The best candidate for Bond today is hands down without question Idris Elba.

I’d put Theo James in contention also.

Yes.

Craig & Casino Royale gave the franchise a chance to reinvent itself for the modern era - hard-edged, morally murky, nix on the stupid puns & gadgets - but this was fumbled in Q of S, then pissed away wholesale in the next 3, as the handlers failed at the hurdle & ran panicking for the comfy past.

James Bond/007 is a position given to the top agent in the field. Each actor who has played the character protrays a different agent who has received the honor of the moniker. I refuse to believe it's the same guy just rebooted for a new generation

Holy cow… that’s it…. There is no James Bond… we are all James Bond… could be black could be white, I could be wrong I could be right…

I like Daniel Craig as Bond more than most and he is KIA. I'd be fine if they didn't make anymore 🤷