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Once again, love your thoughts on Dalton and LTK..., and Pam. She's an understated, yet really enjoyable partner for Dalton...
And, of course, being a fan of Skyfall, I was happy to see that this film, even with the faults that irked you in the past, has seen it bounce up your chart.
As I've said before, this makes for wonderful reading while I sip on my first coffee.
Great work!
25. Die Another Day
While I can't vividly remember the first time I watched DAD (I want to say it was just a chill occasion at home without much else going on), I know this one has ranked low for me since the beginning. I was a little kinder towards it years ago, but it has been cemented in my last-place spot for a long time now. If things were in a "business as usual" status with the franchise, I'd feel confident about DAD staying here, but I'm pretty scared of Amazon making this one look great by comparison! At any rate, I do like some things about DAD, and the first half in general isn't shabby, but just about everything from the ice palace on is pretty bad. At least I can laugh at some of its ridiculousness, especially when watching with a friend, but yeah, I feel pretty good about ranking DAD last, and have for a while now. I can't really recall any particularly memorable viewings of this one for me, unfortunately, so I'll just leave it at that for Brosnan's rough final outing.
24. Diamonds Are Forever
Now with DAF, I can distinctly remember liking it way more as a young lad than I do now. I recall loving the flashy Las Vegas setting, and the campy tone didn't bother me since it was only I believe the second Connery film I watched after GF. There are still things I like about the movie such as Wint & Kidd, the elevator fight, and the title song, but having grown older, this one has dropped a lot in my estimation. While it was unconditionally fun as a youth to watch, my many more recent watches have been a lot rougher. As a follow-up to OHMSS, it's disappointing on every level, and it's also an awkward outlier among Connery's other films that are more serious in tone (yes, there are some outlandish elements in YOLT for instance, but it still felt like it took itself more seriously). Pretty much everything after the Bambi & Thumper sequence is pretty dull to me. Though part of me wishes I could recapture that feeling of fun I got watching DAF as a kid, I'm totally at peace with it ranking so low now - it just makes sense to me.
23. The World Is Not Enough
Brosnan's third Bond adventure is another movie I enjoyed a lot more when I was young. I do have a clear memory of the first time I watched it, which was shortly before a big, life-changing (for the worse, sadly), out-of-state move. Bond would become one of my biggest comforts and favorite things in general during the hardships of and after the move. Anyways, TWINE in particular I thought was really awesome the first time I saw it, but it steadily fell lower and lower in my rankings through the years since, mostly on account of plain old disinterest. I think TWINE might be the most boring Bond movie collectively, especially since I just don't really care once Elektra is out of the picture. It's not all bad, though; I really like the title song, Valentin, and Elektra. Over time, TWINE has been pretty much all over my rankings - as high as Top 5 when I was first getting into the series, around the middle a few years later, and lately for a long while now near the bottom. As things stand, I find TWINE to be wasted potential, and though DAD is kind of a unanimously agreed upon misfire, it's TWINE that best encapsulates feelings of disappointment and frustration about how the Brosnan era should have been better to me.
22. Spectre
Speaking of frustration, that's one of the biggest feelings I get from SP, particularly throughout the cliched third act. When I first saw SP at the theater, I loved it without much reservation, and definitely suffered from serious "honeymoon phase syndrome." The more I thought about it and watched it later, the more I realized there were serious issues with it, namely the cheapening of Craig's past foes, weirdly languid action sequences, and a really uncreative, unbelievable sequence of events from the torture scene on to the end. Also, learning about what could have been from older script ideas, like the scrapped ski chase and masked ball, it feels like the final product could have been significantly more stylish and fun. I still like some stuff about the movie - Mr. White's inclusion, the PTS, the train fight, the SPECTRE meeting - but SP is definitely the weak link of the Craig era for me. Most watches of this one lately I just kind of dread, knowing how things end up. The whole thing just feels like it's trying to do things it shouldn't - forcing Daniel Craig to be more like "classic" Bond, taking away the grittiness that made him unique before, and shoehorning Blofeld and SPECTRE into his continuity while making his previous enemies feel less important in the process. It's not a terrible movie top to bottom or anything, but like TWINE, it's frustrating and wasted potential.
21. Moonraker
Finally, we're back to a movie I've mostly always felt the same about, that being that MR is a low-tier Bond film. It's been as low as my very bottom spot, in fact (I think, at least), but I have been a little more forgiving towards it in recent years. It's interesting, because it seems like the kind of movie I'd enjoy more as a kid with all the wild action and outer space stuff, but it's never really fully clicked for me. I can't remember exactly the first time I saw it, but I remember being underwhelmed at least. Something worth noting about all my bottom five choices is that I strongly prefer the first halves of all the movies, and they each go more off the rails as they progress. MR does benefit from an excellent score and some great action and spy content in the first half, but in addition to the silliness of the outer space stuff (I don't think Bond ever needed to go there, and I hope he doesn't again), there's some of the most notable, unfortunate examples of Moore era camp like the double-take pigeon or Jaws getting a girlfriend. I'm admittedly picky about campiness that does and doesn't work for me, but in any case, most of it in MR falls flat for me. It's got its strong points, but I don't foresee it ever going higher than like #19 or so on my list.
20. Octopussy
I know that the MI6 Community has a much higher collective opinion of OP than me, but I have to be honest when I rank it low here. It's in the same boat as MR for me, really - too many cringy campy moments (Tarzan yell, clown Bond), and it's always been one of my least favorite Bond outings overall. Unlike MR, though, I have a couple more memorable viewing experiences of this one when I was younger. It was one of my dad's favorites, so he hyped it up when I first saw it with him (he loved the PTS and "fill her up, please" so much), and I had an old friend I kind of miss I watched this one with, along with a few others (I believe we also saw FYEO, TLD, LTK, and QOS together). I do think OP is a colorful, fun movie still, never boring, and it has the potential to rise perhaps a little higher someday, but I have never been able to see it as one of the "elite" Bond adventures that so many others do. Here's hoping my next Bondathon might at least bring it a little closer to that.
19. The Man with the Golden Gun
TMWTGG is one I've waffled on quite a bit, including even in recent years between a higher or lower spot in my ranking. I don't remember the very first time I watched it, but I do remember it being one of my favorites and most watched in general when I was a kid. What I've always loved about it and still do is the villains and their hideout; Scaramanga, Nick Nack, and the island are all very iconic and entertaining to me. There's not much else that really stands out in a positive way, though, but also not too much that I particularly consider "bad." I guess maybe I consider TMWTGG kind of an average Bond movie overall. I don't care for the title song or Goodnight very much, but Roger Moore and Christopher Lee together make the movie worthwhile. Something about it was still more overall exciting and fun when I was younger, and between both then and now it's probably one of my most-watched Bond movies, so I guess that still says something good!
18. A View to a Kill
I can understand why AVTAK usually ranks low on lists; it's definitely carried by its music and villains, but those elements truly do go a long way in my enjoyment of Moore's final Bond adventure (and also, I promise, the last of his movies to appear for a little while after this big, four-film stretch in my ranking!). At one point, AVTAK was stuck at the very bottom of my ranking, and I didn't find much enjoyment in it at all. Like TMWTGG, I regrettably can't recall my first viewing, but I just remember feeling like it was pretty dull in general when I was younger. While it's still far from perfect, I've grown a soft spot for it in recent times, and I think it'd be nice if it gained some more appreciation among Bond fans. Sure, Moore is too old for the role at this point, and some of the campiness is a bit much, but Zorin is an elite Bond villain, the title song and Barry's score are tremendous, and the stakes are high. AVTAK does feel like one that could potentially slip a bit lower again at some point, but there's plenty I enjoy about it to where I don't worry about it going too low again.
17. Tomorrow Never Dies
While films like DAF and TWINE used to be way higher up for me and went downhill, TND is a Bond film I used to consider one of the very weakest that I've come to enjoy and appreciate far more. Carver and his scheme have aged eerily well, plus Brosnan gives his coolest and best Bond performance I think, and the action is also super good (particularly the car and motorcycle chases). I do think the film starts to get a little "meh" in the third act, but there is enough strong content otherwise to not bring things down too much for me. I just remember feeling so bored when I first tried this one when I was a kid, and didn't really care for it for the next few watches either, but eventually it clicked in recent years that, "hey, this is actually kind of good!" Not quite "cream of the crop," but I do have great fun with TND lately.
16. You Only Live Twice
I did use to love YOLT more, and ranked it several spots higher as a kid, and though it has gone down a little since, I still very much enjoy it. I think it's probably one of my most-watched ones overall, as it just really scratches that itch for an epic-scale Bond classic featuring great things like Connery, SPECTRE, and the location of Japan. The elephant in the room is that Connery himself is clearly less into it than he was in his first four movies, and the pacing is a little rough in the middle parts of the movie, but it's still a very fun ride overall. I think the third act is one of the series' most explosive and enjoyable, and it's just always a pleasure to see Connery Bond and Blofeld finally meet after so much buildup. I have fond memories of watching this one when younger - mostly alone, but always having a good time. It might have a little flexibility in its ranking position, I suppose time will tell!
15. The Living Daylights
TLD has always kind of been a "middle" Bond film for me. It's got an outstanding PTS, a strong opening act, some really good action sequences, and great music, but what holds it back is weak villains and a lackluster third act. It's a shame, because it could have ranked pretty darn high for me if these things were different. As it stands, I still like it a lot, and it's got some really solid, classic Bond content in it. I believe it might have gotten about as high as #13 and low as #17 or so on my list, but overall, my feelings about TLD have mostly always been the same.
14. No Time to Die
The newest Bond film, which is not really so new in general anymore, has settled into a middle spot in my ranking. I would say when I first saw it at the theater, I was just a little higher on it, so it's grown just a tad weaker in my estimation since then, but I still feel pretty positive about NTTD for the most part. I like that it feels like it's deliberately the opposite of SP; the action is certainly more exciting and intense here, and there are more chances being taken versus the mostly orthodox approach of SP, and Craig feels more at home with more things outside the box happening (I think both SF and NTTD do a fine job of balancing classic Bond elements with additional dramatic angles). Some of the execution is messy, and I can't say I fully love the way it ends, but it is a much more satisfying last movie than SP would have been for Craig. I happily caught it at the theater two extra times after my first watch, and I look forward to checking it out more in the future. Oh, and Safin's an underrated villain!
Well, this has gotten very long, and it's very late, so I'm going to have to take a break here for now. I'll get around to the rest later!
This reminds me that I never ended up finishing my rankings! I’ll have to get on that!