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Comments
I agree. A pattern as you say, certainly exists in my eyes within these two eras.
Craig, I think, is getting better from film to film. SF is up there with CR as one of the best films and from what I have seen, NTTD is looking to rank equally high.
2) Quantum of Solace (Needed more work but overall not as bad as some would say)
3) SPECTRE (Not great, not terrible either)
4) Skyfall (Strong first quarter, peters out to a grim fizzle)
5) Goldeneye (Brozzer's best effort)
6) Tomorrow Never Dies (Corny as hell)
7) The World is not Enough (Turgid but has its moments)
8) Die Another Day (Just dire. Very almost a franchise killer)
The recent QoS watchalong really dropped the film in my rankings. Craig is strong and there are wonderful dramatic moments with Mathis, but the film overall is a hot mess. WTF was Forster thinking?
I don't think any director could have made a good film out of it under the circumstances.
2. Goldeneye
3. Spectre
4. Tomorrow Never Dies
5. Skyfall
6. Die Another Day
7. Casino Royale
8. Quantum Of Solace
There's a theory that the first Bond film of each actor is their best and while I don't prescribe to it, I do feel that it has validity when assessing the Brosnan and Craig era. There will never be a better Craig film then Casino Royale because it's the perfect interpretation of the original Fleming narrative, IMO. Everything that came after has progressively worse. Reflecting on my original post, I would probably put Quantum of Solace behind Skyfall and Spectre because of it's total lack of plot and poor editing and the fact that it's such a disappointing follow-up from it's predecessor.
If we look at Goldeneye it still feels like it's written with Dalton in mind. While Brosnan's performance isn't as self-assured as Die Another Day, overall the package is the most desirable of his four entries, IMO. It feels the most grounded in reality with strong supporting cast. Sean Bean is an awesome Bond villain and I love the relationship between 007 and 006 and the betrayal. Serra's score is better then anything Arnold produced throughout Brosnan's tenure, IMO. Everything that came after Goldeneye became gradually more full of gimmicks and gadgets, Bond by numbers and box ticking the formula.
Nailed it.
Great post. The only point I would contest personally is that I don’t like Serra’s score. Bar that all bang on IMO.
2 NTTD
3 SP
4 CR
5 SF
6 DAD
7 TND
8 GE
9 TWINE
NTTD
SF
SP
QOS
GE
TWINE
TND
DAD
S: CR, GE, SF
A: NTTD
B: QOS
C: TND, TWINE
D: SP, DAD
I think first films tend to be good out of necessity. You can't afford to F them up. If they see a new actor and don't like the film, they won't see the next one.
Also, first films for actors are where producers rethink the conventions of the franchise. And essentially reboot it. Maybe the kind of films from the previous actor were appropriate for their time, but have gotten weary and its time for a change in direction.
As a Bond actor does more films, they start to become more derivative. Especially if the film becomes a hit: the producers will have a mindset of "make another film, just like that one except 20% more budget/explosion/gags/boobs". "If the formula's working, don't change it".
2. GE
3. SF
4. TWINE
5. TND
6. NTTD
7. SP
8. QOS
9. DAD
2. SF
3. CR
4. NTTD
5. TWINE
6. SP
7. QOS
8. TND
9. DAD
- CR
- GE
- NTTD
- SP
- QOS
- SF
- TND
- DAD
- TWINE
The Campbells rank highest for me. Both films have played a big part in my life.And yes, DAD over TWINE. I won't apologize for that. At least DAD tries to be fun.
I disagree. There is a good film inside of it. It's the choppy editing that prevents the viewer from being immersed in the action and invested in the characters, which was 100% preventable with better direction.
QOS
SP
TND
GE
TWINE
DAD
1) GE
2) NTTD
3) SP
4) SF
5) TWINE
6) CR
7) TND
8) DAD
9) QoS
I’m not saying QoS is a worse film than DAD. But I at least get some enjoyment out of DAD in a “so bad it’s funny” sort of way. Quantum is just a mess imo. And I know putting CR so low will be controversial, but it’s just always been a film that I admired more than I actually enjoyed watching. There’s a top five Bond film in there somewhere. But it’s just too flabby and unfocused for me, it wasn’t until SF that I started to become a real fan of the Craig era.
2. Skyfall
3. GoldenEye
4. No Time to Die
5. Quantum of Solace
6. Tomorrow Never Dies
7. The World Is Not Enough
8. Spectre
9. Die Another Day
1-3 are all time favorites, 4-6 are all very good with TND still significantly not quite as good, 7-9 have their moments but are among the series’ weakest.
Casino Royale
No Time to Die
Tomorrow Never Dies
Goldeneye
Skyfall
The miss pack:
Spectre
Quantum of Solace
The World Is Not Enough
Die Another Day
2. GoldenEye
3. Skyfall
4. Quantum of Solace
5. No Time to Die
6. The World is Not Enough
7. Spectre
8. Tomorrow Never Dies
9. Die Another Day
Looking at it laid out like this I don’t think their average is really any lower than it was during the Broccoli/Saltzman era. It’s fairly evenly divided between certified hits, decent/flawed, and misses/lesser efforts.
2. Casino Royale
3. Skyfall
4. Spectre
5. GoldenEye
6. Quantum of Solace
7. The World Is Not Enough
8. Tomorrow Never Dies
9. Die Another Day
Based upon my personal ranking of all the films, the first three of which are in my top five overall.
2. SF
3. GE
4. NTTD
5. SP
6. QOS
7. TWINE
8. TND
9. DAD
In terms of enjoyment there isn't much at all in between 1 and 4. Numbers 5 - 8 I can rewatch happily. Number 9 could cease to exist for me.
2. SF
3. NTTD
---
4. GE
---
5. QOS
6. SP
7. TND
8. TWINE
---
9. DAD
2. QOS
3. SF
4. GE
5. NTTD
6. TND
7. DAD
8. TWINE
9. SP
Yeah completely agree. I don’t think the overall quality has dipped at all since Barbara took over, Bond has always been hit and miss. That’s just how it goes. The greatest strength of the series is its flexibility and ability to reinvent itself. Which is brilliant, obviously, that we can have a double taking pigeon and the CR torture scene under the same brand. But in a series that varied, of course there will be misses. The only actors without any bad films are Lazenby and Dalton, because they didn’t stick around for long enough.
I also think that BB and MGW have had the misfortune of their run coinciding with the rise of the internet. New blockbusters get picked over a lot more now. And then there’s the childhood nostalgia we all have for the old films, that the new ones will just never recapture. TMWTGG has that long stretch of awful that starts with Bond getting taken out by sumo wrestlers, one of whom he tries to defeat with a wedgie (complete with awful accompanying sound effect of course), followed by probably the most mental “why didn’t he just shoot him?” in the series with death by kung fu school, then Hip turns up with his school girl nieces to save the day, then drives off for no reason, leading us onto the boat chase (because the LALD one wasn’t boring enough apparently). I honestly think that twenty minutes or so is worse than DAD’s tsunami surfing, but I bet it hasn’t generated anywhere near the same level of angry fansite comments over the years. Because DAD is a modern Bond film, while TMWTGG is an old one.
2. NTTD (subject to review, I've only seen it once so far)
3. CR
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.
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4. GE
5. TND
6. SP
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.
.
7. QOS (still hate the editing)
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.
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8.. TWINE
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.
.
.
9. DAD
2 Skyfall
3 No Time To Die
4 Quantum of Solace
---
5 Tomorrow Never Dies
6 GoldenEye
---
7 Spectre
8 The World Is Not Enough
9 Die Another Day
NTTD
SF
QoS
SP
GE
TND
TWINE
DAD