[Closed] The worst Bond film

I think that’s overly harsh Mister P.

Nope, I’m with Mister P on this one.

Timothy Dalton was a good Bond. Probably the second best, maybe the best.

Doesn’t necessarily make his Bond films the best though…

My personal favourite of all the bond films is The Living Daylights. Partly becasue it was a refreshing return to "normal" after the increasingly silly antics of Roger Moore, it was a believable story (if somewhat complicated at times) and, at the time, bang up to date with the Cold War. Also it had Maryam d'Abo in it. And the Aston got to use it's full range of tricks.

The one glaring inconsistency in it is when they're in the Hercules and the warning lights start going off and Bond is looking around going "there's nowhere to put it down" so does the parachute trick to get out of it. Next thing the jeep has landed right by the widest bit of smooth highway in ****stan. Err, so you could have landed it there then...

I just realised I put the living daylights when I actually meant licence to kill.

Living daylights was pretty good at the time and I've got nowt against Timmy D. License to kill was well naff though.

Worst one? I'm not sure. Any of the Roger Moore ones other than Live and Let Die. But the best ones are definitely the ones where an actor has his first shot at Bond - Dr No, OHMSS, Live and Let Die, etc right up to Casino Royale

Dr.no was just a relatively low budget beginning I believe, did better than expected so things took off after that.

So low budget that the Rolex Connery was wearing actually belonged to the director, they didn’t have any money in the budget for the watch, and Rolex weren’t interested in stumping up one for an unknown film project. Even the nylon strap was a poor fit for the watch!
Personally, for all their faults, the Craig Bond films are my favourites, just because they’re darker in tone - less of the ‘knowing wink’ to the audience. Clearly an other spy action franchise had an effect.

The best ones are those three with Matt Damon in them.

They're all shite tbh.

Bond is a lot like Dr. Who.

It rather depends on who you were, when you were at the time.

Having said that - as someone who has spanned many 'Bond's - anyone who thinks that Daniel Craig Bond is not the best Bond is demonstrably wrong.

If you are struggling, think of this - of all of them, who would you least like to find yourself in a fight against?

Daniel Craig Bond would have killed you before you had begun to think.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Quantum of solace is based on a bond short story - so the film didn't have much to go on in the first place... I actually think it was pretty good. I've found Skyfall and Spectre both fairly disappointing compared to Casino Royale - which was the best bond film since:

(thunderball)

The worst films were the Dalton ones. I really liked him as Bond - but the films were utter gash.

Spectre easily the worst IMO. A car chase within city speed limits?

Of the older ones, lots fall down due to the attitudes of their day, so IMO you have to view them with that in mind.

Others are just a bit crap tho, but it's not a franchise to look at too harshly...merely entertainment

Quantum of solace is based on a bond short story – so the film didn’t have much to go on in the first place…

The name is taken from a Bond short story, don't think it is based on it at all though. I remember having the audio book of it when I was a nipper. Also on the same tape was The Living Daylights short story. That story was incorporated into the film - the part where he's sent to shoot the cellist (but doesn't cos she's a bird).

For me From Russia with Love is probably the best, decent story and all the gadgets are just about possible. Worst has to be the vanishing car or anything with Roger Moore wearing his trousers halfway up his chest - always reminds me of my dad!

Forgetting the films for a moment, you have to believe that Bond is capable of killing someone just because its his "job" so that's only Connery, Dalton and Craig.

Worst - anything with Roger Moore, although Live and Let Die was his best effort, where he looks least like ‘rapey granda’.

If we’re doing ‘favourite Bond films’, I have a definite soft spot for OHMSS, if only because it supplied me with the John Barry’s classic musical mindworm for every ski run I’ve been on since, along with Diana Rigg as a classy Bond girl that Bond had to work to woo .
OHMSS Ski chase

That kite surfing CGI clip Kimbers posted- my 11 year old lad got a green screen set up yesterday and had a teddy bear doing the weather report over some footage of snowy mountains- I swear his efforts are more realistic than the Bond shite!

So many to choose from. Any of

Never say never again, Connery should indeed have said never again.
Die another day, just no, no, no, no, no. Everything about it was utter guff.
QoS was just plain poor.
Honourable mention to License to Kill.

The Moore ones were, to a man, amiably naff, but not terrible. Can't argue with driving a long travel 2CV straight down the hill while the bad guys are stuck on high speed road tyres.

Not sure the "funny" Casino Royale counts, does it?

Every single one of them. Unmitigated pile of racist, sexist, xenophobic Rule Britannia snobby post-empire-but-still-considerably-superior-to-you bullshyte.

James Bum.

Pfft.

Late to the party on this thread..

Woppit covers most of my sentiments, although worded way more strongly than i’d put down.

But they’re all, up until Daniel Craig era, all a bit “stiff upper lip, Rule Bexitania” for me.

As films though, and a critique thereof, I reckon Die Another Day is by far the worst, but then the whole format was trying it’s best to move away from the formulaic Baddy/Goodie/Gunny/Carr’y/Womeninskimpy clothie era but failed miserably when the scripts fell on the cutting room floor and someone said “eeerrr you lot, get a car that disappears and a women in it wearing hardly anything” then they built a film around it.

Best though I think Skyfall, by some margin. Mr Bardem is a sublime Baddy, possibly the most manic and dangerous of them all. Psychologically corrupt with a grudge to bare, and equally the wherewithal to excecute it. The scene when he shot Severene was undoubtedly simple and manicly effective. Agree it does loose me on the ending, obliterating the Scottish Pile with a steady stream of missiles and gunfire from a helicopter seems to drag on and on and more a 15min review of what devastation war machines capabilities do have.

Yet Daniel does conduct Bond in New Age, Bardem brings the terror to life.

I am a Roger Moore fanbouy though, for the films era and simple entertainment value they’re all hard to beat. Minimal scripts, plain placid storylines, hair chest wigs and baddies played by comedians. It was the era of TV Dinners, and I scoffed plenty watching Roger smooch the Ladies.

But blimey, that era certainly makes you view the social boundaries we now accept as a stark reminder where we seem to have come from in a decade or two.

They’re all shite tbh.

No, they’re not. You may not like them, but that’s a personal opinion.

Mr Bardem is a sublime Baddy,

I'm not just being a contrary Mary, but I was really disappointed with him in Skyfall. None of the menace he had in No Country For Old Men.

Best and worst Bond baddies is another thread I reckon.

No, they’re not. You may not like them, but that’s a personal opinion.

Yes, they are.

Personal opinions in this thread? What a shokka.

What’s your point?

I’m not just being a contrary Mary, but I was really disappointed with him in Skyfall. None of the menace he had in No Country For Old Men.

Yes but this is Bond though... Children watch it! His character in No Country for old men was deeply disturbing to me when I watched it, as a 30 something bloke who really isn't easily disturbed! Perhaps the single most menacing film I've seen, but maybe that's because I got it!

His character Silva in Skyfall was a great baddie, better than most if not all other Bond villains as there was a real personal touch with him and M, something they tried to recreate with Cristoph Waltz as Blofeld in SPECTRE but didn't manage to anything like as convincingly if you ask me.

Anyway... The worst Bond film... Well you can see why Brosnan gave up after Die Another Day, it was bloody awful! John Cleese didn't ruin it (though he didn't help by playing Basil Fawlty rather than a convincing Q), Rosamund Pike did her best to save it, Madonna just turned up for the pay cheque, Halle Berry has had many finer moments and Michael Madsen still thought he was in a Quentin Tarrantino film, yet none of these additions to an otherwise god awful script come close to the hideously unconvincing villain, Gustav Graves, so unconvincing he couldn't even convince his own father who he was, and his henchmen! What a steaming pile that was!

OHMSS was just boooooooring... Great soundtrack, and the film had huge potential, but sadly Lazenby just made the film boring (or they made him seem boring), and you can see why he only did the one film.

Connery era mostly good, some "of their time" moments in them, and he should never had said never again (thankfully not EON so not official Bond though).

I grew up on reruns of Moore era Bond, he was certainly cheesier than Connery, but no less effective. I quite liked A View to a Kill, Cristopher Walken certainly had enough menace as a Bond villain, especially with Grace Kelly by his side, but Roger was probably a little past his best by this point to be fair. Otherwise all good.

Dalton's films were let down by plots that were perhaps a little far fetched, and centred too much on personal revenge. Dalton was actually quite good, but I can see how he got fed up with the role as his Bond character didn't get a real chance to shine.

Goldeneye was a superb reprisal of the role, the next 3 films gradually declined into total trash! Shame really as again, Brosnan was good, but the scripts were getting ropier...

Casino Royale easily one of the best yet, Craig established himself straight away. QoS wasn't the great disappointment that everyone purports it to be in my eyes. Yes, there was more filler and less thriller than we are used to with Bond, but it was a well executed revenge story that turned out to be more than just about Bond himself in the longer run. Skyfall I still think is/was magnificent, for many reasons, perhaps the Scottish Highlands scene dragged on a little but it was a great film, and SPECTRE though not quite as gritty as I was hoping, did a lot to satisfy curious Bond die hards as to the whole point of the organisation and its aims in the first place.

So there!

I used to think it was 'On Her Majesty's Secret Serice' but watched it again recently and thoroughly enjoyed it. Those 60s décours, the period skiing, Lazenby' manerisms, the ski resort setting, the sexism, the racism; a trip back in time. Ace.

Cristopher Walken certainly had enough menace as a Bond villain, especially with Grace Kelly by his side.

True enough. Sadly he didn't have the power to raise Grace Kelly from the dead and had to make do with the very worrying Grace Jones.

Oh and another reason to hate Skyfall is I used to have to detour from my occasional dog walking route when they built the prop house for the final scenes. (Spoiler: NOT in Scotland).

Bolton ?

If only.
Surrey Hills.

Casino Royale is the best recent one because it's the only Bond film for several decades that's largely followed a Fleming novel (with a few changes, but the overall plot is fairly true to the book). Die Another Day is indeed the worst.

Unfortunately, the screenwriters, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, really aren't very good; they gave us the terrible Brosnan films and nothing else of any note. For some reason they have been commissioned for Bond 25 as well. Yawn. Shame Danny Boyle was let go, as I think he would have made a difference.

If I were in charge I'd reboot it and set it back in its original time. Dispense with all of the unbelievable gadgets and go back to basics.

JP

Worst - Any Brosnan bond after Goldeneye. I probably have fond memories of Goldeneye purely because of the N64 game. Die Another Day is truly awful.

I would like to see a more straight laced bond and plots a bit more believable like some of the Bourne stuff.

He has been linked to the franchise, but I would be excited to see a Bond film directed by Chris Nolan.

I’d reboot it and set it back in its original time. Dispense with all of the unbelievable gadgets and go back to basics.

Bit like the man from uncle movie of the other year?

Much better than any recent Bond IMO.

Maybe Guy Ritchie should do Bond? He's not good for much else is he.

whatever you think about Bond, in that video up there Grace Jones hula hoops for an entire song to thousands in a crowd at buck palace.

That's impressive.

Bond by Nolan, where Bond can't remember what he's doing or who he is or who the bad guy is or why he's fighting him, or indeed what day of the week it is, and, we get to see all of that in a funny order so we can't figure it out either.

Bond by Ritchie would just end up all Grant Mitchell giving it "stop trying to take over the Vic, or I do you wiv a shootah"