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Just kidding ;)
Bold list. You do you!
Just because someone picks the early Connery's in their top ten doesn't mean they don't have the 'capacity for individual thought' it means those films are held in high regard by a lot of Bond fans, myself included.
Personally the first 3 Connery's are perfection and closest to Fleming. So I'm proud of my list too 👍
Oh, of course, everyone should like what they like. But when someone has those same 8 or 9 movies in their top ten, it does sound a bit like "My three favorite movies are Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and The Shawshank Redemption." Or "My three favorite bands are The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Radiohead."
Fair enough--I edited out "thought". I was honestly intending to compare my views of those lists with what people must think of my hipster-naysayer-looking list, and how that slightly embarrasses me! I wouldn't cast aspersions on any one person's reasons for liking something.
Consensus lists tend to lean heavily into universality. There was a large survey years ago to find the "funniest joke in the world", and while the result wasn't that funny, it definitely appealed the largest number of people. Or, like any normal person, I love The Godfather, and it obviously belongs somewhere near the top of a consensus "best ever" list, but I'd be surprised to find my favorite movie, Paul Anderson's The Master, very close to the top, simply by virtue of it being too spiky a thing. It doesn't have that universality. (Also, the more recent the movie, the more saturated the media environment was at the time of release, so the less likely it is to greatly influence a future generation of film critics/historians)
So I just mean that I find it peculiar to see an individual's list that aligns perfectly with the consensus list, with no spikiness. But obviously it's at least as peculiar if someone (me) claims to love James Bond, but isn't all that into the most universally loved Bond movies.
1. GoldenEye
2. Skyfall
3. Casino Royale
4. Tomorrow Never Dies
5. Goldfinger
6. The Living Daylights
7. The Spy Who Loved Me
8. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
9. From Russia with Love
10. The World Is Not Enough
11. You Only Live Twice
12. Spectre
13. Octopussy
14. Quantum of Solace
15. Live and Let Die
16. Dr. No
17. The Man with the Golden Gun
18. For Your Eyes Only
19. Thunderball
20. Moonraker
21. A View to a Kill
22. Licence to Kill
23. Diamonds Are Forever
24. Die Another Day
Glad to see I’m not the only one putting TLD and LTK very far apart. I feel like many people lump the Dalton films into a similar category, but I find the two vastly different.
I used to lump them together, with TLD one spot ahead of LTK. Now I have LTK several spots above.
Generally when you look at someone's list you can get the gist of what type of Bond film someone likes. Your list looks like it was put in a blender! Love it!
:)) There's sort of a method to the madness!
I love:
1. The "benign bizarre" (SP, OP, LALD, TMWTGG, DAF, AVTAK, DN)
2. Focused plots that develop organically (TLD, LTK, FYEO, OHMSS)
3. When the movie can manage its tone well (the 80s were great at this)
At the other end, I don't really love:
1. When the plot doesn't make sense (Why would Blofeld steal rockets from both sides, why wouldn't Le Chiffre get the money from the cooperative Ms Lynd?)
2. Extreme contrivance and unfocused plot development (Pussy resolves the plot offscreen, TSWLM wastes screentime on a long scavenger hunt)
3. Tonal messes (TND, TWINE)
Obviously the criteria one uses and the how one applies them is quite subjective, but I think this is where I'm coming from.
1. Licence to Kill
2. Octopussy
3. GoldenEye
4. SPECTRE
5. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
6. Live and Let Die
7. Tomorrow Never Dies
8. Skyfall
9. Die Another Day
10. Dr. No
11. The Man With The Golden Gun
12. A View to A Kill
13. Moonraker
14. The Living Daylights
15. The Spy Who Loved Me
16. Thunderball
17. Casino Royale
18. The World Is Not Enough
19. From Russia With Love
20. Diamonds Are Forever
21. You Only Live Twice
22. Quantum Of Solace
23. For Your Eyes Only
24. Goldfinger
Think I'll rerank them when "No Time To Die" drops.
Love it! Very individual list! And I like to see Octopussy and Spectre riding high...
Goldfinger sits at the bottom for me because I feel like maybe I've just seen it to many times & I need to wait like 10 years to watch it again. Its absolutely brilliant and I'm sure as most will agree even the very bottom of this list doesnt mean the film is really that bad, it's a bond film. And we will take all of these movies over many other movies.
OHMSS has to be watched every christmas for me now, without fail. I personally think & feel its film making at its finest with peter hunt taking the directors chair. I love how kinetic it feels, the cinematography is amazing. Among other things I could list put would probably be about 4 pages long.
First one I saw in the cinema, probably why it holds a special place. I will admit it is far from perfect. But that's what I love about the bond fandom and the variety of bond films. If your in the mood for a bonkers movie you can stick on "Die Another Day" among others, or if your feeling more serious maybe "From Russia with Love". I do wonder if "No time to die" is going to seamlessly execute a world in between this. Perhaps, I hope.
I think I could watch "Octopussy" any day of the week tbh. Roger Moore never fails to make me smile & the action is top notch.
I have certainly warmed to SPECTRE in recent times. I think I went alittle hard on it to begin with, of course not without its flaws. For me the color grading in the cinematography gets abit of a hard wrap, I do wonder if hoyte van hoytema was pushed to make something in similar Vain to "skyfall" because of the success of "skyfall".
Also Thomas Newman's music I know there are lovers and haters but I'm getting used to the idea of him having music for certain characters, like M & Moneypenny & the music that is played in certain action beats sometimes carried from skyfall. I picture its abit like john barry with the 007 theme. Maybe its abit of a cop out, but just maybe Thomas Newman wrote other cues for these scenes but they had already temp tracked in skyfall cues and what he wrote instead they didn't like as much, perhaps. If this is the case I'd love to hear any unreleased cues. Lastly I will say, say what you will about the music in "SPECTRE" but the cue "Madeleine" is probably one of my favourite beautiful & romantic cues of the series. A nod to John Barry, perhaps.
Btw also thought your list was very interesting.
I'm kind of interested in why you have FYEO so low... You seem to be keen on the Glen era, and FYEO is often a favorite.
But yeah, Octopussy is as watchable as movies get. And regarding Thomas Newman, I always thought his score was the one somewhat weak link for me, but to be honest I'm not sure what I'd replace it with. It actually works quite well, but as by design, isn't something you find yourself humming later.
Yeah I'm not too sure with "FYEO" all I know is something has to be near the bottom. Stand outs for me in particular with "FYEO" is the score, love abit of disco bond. Some of the cues are absolute madness. And whilst I quite enjoy that we have one entry with moore that is more grounded & serious in tone I think I'd choose tim dalton's version.
Regarding thomas newman Its interesting you find some of the score weak, I've also heard people say they think it is generic. I get that maybe it's not completely hummable but I'm not sure for me that, that criteria is necessarily what makes a great score for example "terminator 2" for me apart from the main theme doesnt have the most memorable themes. But that music is sublime with the movie.
Yeah I find thomas newman to be quite a complex film writer like michael kamen. Just listening to "the bloody shot" from "skyfall blows my mind on a technical level.
To break it down maybe some of "SPECTRE" is forgettable because its quite percussively driven with drums in cues such as "los muertos" "backfire" & "silver wraith" maybe drums sometimes lack tonality which can help to remember a piece of music but we can sometimes remember rhythms. it also has synthesizer pad driven moments which can be quite ambiguous and give that atmosphere of a ghost, like a ghost from bonds past.
I think also thomas newman went on record saying he didnt want "SPECTRE'S" music getting in the way of the film. Would be interesting to find out more about why he felt this.
At the end of the day I think you have to love some of the more devisive movies in the series it really allows for some interesting conversations.
Funny because it does, it is so jarring hearing the cues from Skyfall
I'm with you, and I like that term "Benign Bizarre." DAF is my guilty pleasure. TMWTGG and AVTAK are right there, as well. My other guilty pleasure is LTK, which I much prefer to TLD.
I have warmed to it a little, as well. And I agree on Newman. He sometimes gets ripped on these boards, especially over SP. I liked his SP score, but it wasn't the masterpiece that SF was. You are certainly on to something: the idea of taking SF tracks and placing them in SP is 100% on Mendes. That was not Newman's decision. Obviously, Mendes wanted a thematic link between the films (and continuity) and decided to work the score in. It isn't my preference, but it was what it was.
I don't think LTK counts one these days - it has a decent fanbase
1. The Living Daylights
2. Licence To Kill
3. From Russia with Love
4. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
5. Casino Royale
6. GoldenEye
7. Dr. No
8. Octopussy
9. For Your Eyes Only
10. Thunderball
11. Skyfall
12. The World Is Not Enough
13. Tomorrow Never Dies
14. Goldfinger
15. Quantum of Solace
16. The Man with the Golden Gun
17. The Spy Who Loved Me
18. Moonraker
19. Live and Let Die
20. You Only Live Twice
21. Die Another Day
22. A View to a Kill
23. Spectre
24. Diamonds Are Forever
1. TND
2. SP
3. TLD
4. DN
5. QoS
6. FRWL
7. SF
8. OP
9. GE
10. CR
11. TMWTGG
12. YOLT
13. TSWLM
14. MR
15. GF
16. FYEO
17. OHMSS (I know I'm going to get slaughtered for this if you've even read this far)
18. TWINE
19. LALD
20. LTK
21. TB
22. AVTAK
23. DAD
24. DAF
Yes, I've always liked Octopussy and it has recently gone into my top 10, I just feel like I can turn it on at any time, I also think the PTS is very impressive and the action (jungle chase and yes, the clown chase) is very well-done as well. I like the ties to the short story as well with Dexter-Smythe.
Interesting top 5. TND is classic brosnan. Also nice to see someone have Dr. No in their top 5. be interested to know what put's QoS in your top 5?
Well, thanks for the visit.