Top 10 Ultimate Bond including DAD - If you could show just oneMay 12 '02 (Updated Nov 21 '02) Write an essay on this topic.
Popular Products in Blu-ray and DVD Players
The Bottom Line What does an 007 epic need? A great Bond, a breathtaking plot, great villains, gorgeous babes etc. I ranked all 20 Bonds for the ultimate Top 10, including Die Another.
This list adds rating of 007 Die Another Day; the rest is the same list from May 2002. First briefly on how and why. I selected five criteria in this order. First the Bond, a spy film is not Bond without 007, as hundreds of bond-wannabe movies can attest, including several with Brosnan, Moore or Connery in them! Bond has to be credible: the 85 Moore would have his rear end easily kicked by the 65 Connery; equally the 83 Connery would have been a sad match for the 97 Brosnan. "Sorry Old Man: Licence revoked!" After the Bond, comes the plot. Even the best superspy cannot save a film when the storyboard gets mixed with that of a Kung Fu or Star Wars film. After the plot we want powerful villains. A magazine empire tycoon hardly fits that type. And when we have good villains, next come the Bond-babes. After the original Honey Rider (Ursula Andress), it has been hard to match her, but the Bond formula needs gorgeous women. And last, we want the title song to be one we want ringing in our ears out of pleasure, not out of pain. I rated each movie (including Never Say Never but excluding Casino Royale) on the five criteria, with a score from 1-10 (two movies always getting the same score). I weighted them so that Bond actor received a weighting of 5, the plot 4, the villain 3, the babe 2 and the song a 1. In this way if the movie had a bad Bond or plot, a good song or babe could not save it. How do they stack up? Again note I added an evaluation of Die Another Day using the same methodology. First the honorable mention. The 20 movies split 11 above average and 9 below. The few bad Bonds are truly aweful as we know. The 11th best is a little above average and quite appropriately that ranking goes to the first in the series. In Dr No of 1962 with a very young Sean Connery, we were taught what to expect out of our hero, his villains and babes. While the plot was slow and the gadgets had not appeared, Dr No still scored 58% of the possible points. Any movie which ended up being better than the original deserves to be on this list. So I present the Top 10 best 007 movies. At number 10 with we have Timothy Dalton's first 007. He was very serious wasn't he, but in 1987 he was still quite believable as Bond, much more so than two years later when he went against orders on a revenge-driven killing spree. The plot, involving a secret Russian plan to kill western spies by a potential Russian double agent, has plenty to follow. The opening action sequence is one of the classics featuring the flying jeep and Bond joining the woman on the boat "She'll call you back". Mediocre bad guys but weak babes and an ok song. The Living Daylights rates 60% Number 9 brings us the only 007 by George Lazenby. In 1969 he was the first to try to follow Connery, only to find Connery returning after him. Bond actors are usually not at his best in the first edition, George never got to develop his version. While Lazenby slightly below average in his Bond, the story set in the Alps, villain (Telly Savalas as Blofeld) and Bond babes are above average which bring this movie to its ranking. The title song is below average. On Her Majesty's Secret Service manages a rating of 62%. At number 8 we find Connery's second outing in 1963 as the superspy. Bond is clearly finding his form although Connery will still do better. The plot is good around the Russian spy defecting in Instanbul with the decoding machine Lektor, but like Dr No, the plot is slow compared to the series. The villains from SPECTRE are very good with Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) and Ronald "Red" Grant (Robert Shaw). Babe factor below average and the song only mediocre. From Russia With Love still scores 65%. At Bond's own number, 7, is Pierce Brosnan's latest version from 1999. It is a shame about this movie, since the movie has a very strong Bond performance, combined with a ruthless enemy in Viktor "Renard" Zokas (Robert Carlyle) and mediocre pair of Babes with the pretty good Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) "Whose afraid now, Mr Bond" and the totally not credible Dr Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), and the song by Garbage. It is a shame as I said, because the movie is all but ruined by a mindless plot. Yeah, like M is going to leave Britain because of this orphaned adult (!) multimillionaire (!) woman in the Azerbajn oil fields. Yeah, and like the British Secret Service is about to let their boss be taken hostage there. Even the opening sequence is much too long, it should be its own movie. Sorry the plot is that silly that this movie struggles to remain in the Top 10. Still, The World is Not Enough scores 67%. Sitting at Number 6 is another Brosnan vehicle, this from 1997. Brosnan has found his form in his second outing as Bond and is excellent, much better than the best from Dalton or Moore. The movie begins with the terrorist arms sale and the plot continues twisting, fastpaced and entertaining mostly in Asia while the world sits on the brink of war. The leading babe is very strong in Chinese secret services spy Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh). The song is extremely good by Sheryl Crow. But this movie suffers from the lamest of villains, played very well, yet a media mogul like Elliott Carver (Jonathan Pryce) is nowhere near the same leagues as other Bond baddies. Even with the disappointing bad guy, Tomorrow Never Dies scores 70%. At number 5 we find Roger Moore in his 1981 form. This is the end of the best of the Moore Bonds as a very entertaining plot evolves around recovering a stolen decoding machine in the Mediterranean. The movie has almost everything we want, from good Babes including the very believable Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) as the revenge-minded orphan, to a very good title song by Sheena Easton, but the villain Aris Kristatos (Julian Glover) is well below average. The second best Moore variation of 007, For Your Eyes Only gets a score of 71%. The top four movies are well above the others. At number 4 we find Connery in his underwater epic in 1965. I would totally love this movie if they didn't spend so much of it underwater. Still, it has the best Bond at his very best. "That looks like a woman's gun." "Do you know a lot about guns?" "No but I know a little about women." The opening sequence includes the jetpack. The plot inspite of much underwater, is very good, involving a stolen nuclear bomber airplane. The villains are good but could be still a bit better, Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) as could the babes including the original Domino (Claudine Auger). The title song by Tom Jones is pretty bad. Still only a slightly missing the 80 level, Thunderball gets 78% At number 3 is the best 007 by Moore. In 1977 we have a fit Moore playing a very credible Bond, in a plot to find missing nuclear submarines. This film has the best set of villains, with the typical megalomaniac Karl Stromberg (Curt Jurgens), and Jaws (Richard Kiel) before he has turned into a good guy - remember how it felt to see Jaws remain alive every time, this was a frightening opponent - and the Soviet counterpart to 007, Agent triple X, Major Amasova (Barbara Bach). The movie opens with the best opening sequence "But James, I need you" "So does England" with 007 skiing and leaping from the mountain cliff with the parachute featuring the English flag Union Jack. And listen to the song, Nobody Does it Better - Carly Simon's song was the first time a Bond theme sang about 007, not the villain, and the words could not be more appropriate. The Spy Who Loved Me scores 80%. At just marginally above it at number 2, is the best 007 movie by Brosnan. His first attempt at playing James Bond in 1995 is not his best Bond acting, but all of the other parts of the movie are near perfection. And Brosnan is definitely not bad in his first Bond, well above average. The opening sequence shows us 007 and 006 at a nerve gas factory. The excellent plot has Bond chasing a satellite control device from Russia to Cuba, and he is faced not only by great female bad guy in Xenia Onatopp (Femke Janssen) who crushes men between her thighs (!) but even more dangerous as an opponent is Bond's former best friend, former agent 006 Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) who has turned mercenary. The Bond babe Natalia Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) is also very strong. While am not a big fan of Tina Turner, the title song also works. GoldenEye scores 83%. And what is the ultimate James Bond Movie, with the best possible combination of best Bond, best plot, best villains, best babes, and best song? At number 1 we find the best Bond actor at his peak, Connery's third Bond in 1964 is the true prototype for the rest of the series. Introducing "the car" Aston Martin DB5 and lots of gadgets, the plot twists and turns from the UK golf courses to all the gold in Fort Knox in America. As a pair of villains Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) and Oddjob (Harold Sakata) are as good as any. "Do you expect me to talk?" "No Mr Bond, I expect you to die." The Bond babes are topped off by P*ssy Galore and her female pilots in her Flying Circus. The only thing ruining perfection with the movie is the title song, performed by Shirley Bassey, which is truly aweful, even by 1960s standards. Goldfinger scores 94% out of the possible points and is the ultimate 007 movie. So how does the latest Bond rate? Brosnan? Now he is Bond, whether in a tux in Iceland, a bermuda shirt in Cuba or a wet hospital gown in Hong Kong, this is Bond. Top score. Plot? Twists and turns with good and novel opening with hovercraft to exotic locales, a great car duel with Bond in an Aston Martin as he should vs another gadget-laden green Jaguar, onto a good long sequence in the airplane above Korea. The movie is over before you know it, a sign of a great plot. I rate it one of the best. The villains. Here the main bad guy played by Toby Stephens starts off as an extremely annoying, whiny, young and arrogant spoiled brat. While his demeanor never changes, we learn more and more of him - and his quest to become Bond - and towards the end we believe this man is a ruthless megalomaniac and very dangerous. He rates highly on the bad guy list. Then onto the babes. Halle Berry as Jinx is the new standard, the ultimate - and modern - Bond Babe. Top marks. But the song disappoints, Madonna has managed a below-par performance. Overall the latest Bond flick scores a 95 and Die Another Day takes over as the ultimate Bond movie. Go see it. 4 PERSONAL NOTES The first 007 movie I ever saw was Diamonds Are Forever, in its original release in the movies. I was 12 years old at the time, and for me it was the first time my father took me to see a movie which was not for kids. I loved every second of the movie and felt that it was the ultimate movie, with action, violence, suspense, gorgeous women, witty lines, fantastic music, the coolest gadgets and most desirable cars. It had everything. It had Sean Connery as the Bond and I did not know better that this was one 007 actor near the end of his run. While Diamonds holds a very special place in my heart, I do notice that in my rankings it was listed 5th from last, and deservedly so. It is not one of the best Bonds. I am an avid Bond fan, I've read all the books, the Flemings at least twice each (and even read the unofficial and rare Colonel Sun). I've seen all the movies at the cinema and on TV, and own the full series of course. For me they are all entertaining, even the sad Moonraker (the first half of the movie is actually not that bad). But this was an interesting task to be forced to rank them all. It was not as easy as I thought. What is my favorite? It depends on the day, any of the top 7 could be it. But if I had to pick just one Bond movie to show someone who has not seen a Bond film, I would pick number 3 on the list, as it is best balanced as a 007 film, very very good at everything with no faults. If you could show only one Bond movie for someone to understand what it is about this genre, with a very good Bond actor, very good plot right from the "ultimate Bond" opening, with excellent villains, very good babes and excellent song, I'd show Roger Moore in the 1977 Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me. While I prefer both Brosnan and Connery over Moore as 007, I think this is still perhaps my favorite Bond film. And at the end of the movie after Bond has saved the world and charmed the enemy soviet spy, you hear the penetrating lyrics to the wonderful tribute to Bond with Carly Simon singing, "Nobody Does it Better" - it is the ultimate Bond experience. Comment one hour after seeing Die Another Day. This is the best Bond ever. For the fans of the whole series, there is a kind remembrance of films gone past (Q: "Here's your newest watch, I believe its your 20th"). But they are done in remarkable style making us remember without repeating the old scenes, except of course for Halle Berry's wonderful entrance as Jinx. The series is not getting stale, there is much here showing that 007 has life in the series even at 40 years of age, such as the opening credits intermixed with Bond's torture, or the car duel on ice which ends in a sort of tie until both cars race into the ice palace. Yes, other people can have gadgets too, nice cars, etc. The movie also manages to twist the plot and keep us guessing (did you fall for the second scene with Moneypenny - I did) including that of the personalities, who is good who is bad some of the characters switch several times over. And a true mark of a great action movie, the two hours are over in what seems like 20 minutes. I very strongly recommend it to all. AND THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL Just in case you are interested, the bottom 9 are in this order: YOU ONLY VIEW ONCE - still watchable movies 12 You Only Live Twice 1967 Connery 13 Licence to Kill 1989 Dalton 14 Live and Let Die 1973 Moore FOR FAN EYES ONLY - only for die-hard fans 15 Octopussy 1983 Moore 16 Diamonds Are Forever 1969 Connery 17 Man with the Golden Gun 1974 Moore 18 Never Say Never Again 1983 Connery 19 A View to a Kill 1985 Moore NEVER SAY 'RAKER AGAIN - even fans walk out 20 Moonraker 1979 Moore  |
| Read all comments (4)|Write your own comment |
