At their finest, James Bond films through the years have given us trendy, action-packed thrills blended with wit and grit. Even once they misfire, you should still enjoyment of a gadget, a quip or a spectacular stunt. Your private favorites within the 007 movie franchise might rely on if you began watching. The ’90s with Pierce Brosnan? The ’70s with Roger Moore? Early Sean Connery outings have held sturdy within the court docket of public opinion. Regardless, it is all the time enjoyable to look again.
Now that Daniel Craig has bowed out as Bond, we’re wanting ahead, too. In some unspecified time in the future, we’ll discover out what new actor will star because the subsequent James Bond and what additional adventures lie forward. Watching the older Bond films will likely be a great way to prepare.
And as of Oct. 5, aka James Bond Day, you can catch them on Amazon’s Prime Video subscription service. (Amazon now owns MGM, the studio that is lengthy managed the franchise.) By the best way, Oct. 5 is not a random alternative. That is the day in 1962 that Dr. No, the primary Bond film, had its world premiere in London, making this the sixtieth anniversary of the James Bond film franchise.
If you do not know the place to start out with the Bond movies, make sure to try our suggestions and full rundown on big-screen Bond. Or you possibly can try the James Bond film rankings under, from worst to finest. It is based mostly on an combination of film opinions, particular to when the films got here out, as compiled by CNET sister web site Metacritic. The checklist accounts for each theatrical 007 launch, not simply the 25 from Eon Productions but in addition two non-canonical entries: the 1967 model of On line casino Royale, a trippy flip with a number of actors enjoying Bond (David Niven chief amongst them), and 1983’s By no means Say By no means Once more, that includes Connery in his second comeback.
It would not, nevertheless, embody the 1954 model of On line casino Royale, a 50-minute TV playhouse manufacturing that launched Ian Fleming’s hero to the world as “Jimmy” Bond, an American undercover agent. You will discover that on YouTube, if you happen to’re curious.
In any other case, we have got the entire roster of actors who’ve performed Bond within the official franchise — Connery and Craig, Moore and Brosnan, and short-timers Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby.
See additionally: Being James Bond: How 007 Motion pictures Received Me Into Intelligence Work
James Bond films ranked, from worst to finest
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In keeping with the vital consensus, Roger Moore is not simply the star of the worst James Bond film — this snowboarding 1985 entry — he is the star of the worst James Bond films, interval. When mixed and averaged, his 007 movies produce a franchise-low Metascore of 53.7.
A View to a Kill was Moore’s seventh and ultimate 007 film. His co-stars included Christopher Walken as gleefully murderous villain Max Zorin and Grace Jones as Bond baddie (and eventual ally) Might Day. The plot that Bond has to foil: Zorin’s scheme to destroy Silicon Valley so he can management the marketplace for pc chips.
“The James Bond collection has had its bummers, however nothing earlier than within the class of this one,” Pauline Kael wrote for The New Yorker.
Metascore: 40
MGM
26. The Man With the Golden Gun
So far as critics are involved, this 1974 installment, Moore’s second outing as 007, is one other bottom-dweller within the James Bond franchise. “When you loved the early Bond movies as a lot as I did, you’d higher skip this one,” Nora Sayre wrote in The New York Instances.
The Man With the Golden Gun, that includes Christopher Lee because the Bond villain and rival marksman Scaramanga and eventual Fantasy Island star Herve Villechaize as his henchman Nick Nack, grossed $97.6 million worldwide, the weakest box-office efficiency by any of the Roger Moore 007 movies.
Metascore: 43
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This offbeat, comedian entry incorporates a multitude of actors as James Bond. However extra 007s don’t make issues merrier — or higher. Selection known as this model of On line casino Royale “a movie of astounding sloppiness” and “an insult to the Bond identify.”
This is without doubt one of the two noncanonical, non-Eon movies in our rundown. (And for Bond completists — sorry, we’re not together with the 1954 tv manufacturing of On line casino Royale, which portrayed our hero as Jimmy Bond, and an American besides.)
1967’s On line casino Royale, that includes David Niven, Peter Sellers and Orson Welles, grossed a Bond-worst $41.7 million worldwide.
Metascore: 48
twentieth Century Fox Dwelling Leisure
The primary of the 4 Pierce Brosnan Bond films on this checklist will get credit score for giving Michelle Yeoh an early Hollywood showcase — however for little else. In keeping with Salon’s Charles Taylor, this 1997 film “scores zero in suspense, wit or class.”
When averaged, Brosnan’s 4 James Bond films submit a 57.5 Metascore, the second-lowest amongst 007 actors who’ve starred in a minimum of 4 films.
On the field workplace, Tomorrow By no means Dies, that includes Jonathan Pryce as villain Elliot Carver, grossed $339.5 million worldwide. That is on par with, however on the low finish of, the opposite movies of the Brosnan period.
Metascore: 52
MGM
Critics are kinder, if nonetheless cool, to Roger Moore’s fifth 007 journey. Within the Chicago Solar-Instances, critic Roger Ebert wrote that the 1981 movie “is a reliable James Bond thriller. … However it’s not more than that.”
Other than its opinions, For Your Eyes Solely is a hit of the Roger Moore period: It earned an Oscar nomination for its Sheena Easton-crooned title track, and it grossed $195.3 million worldwide — the second-best field workplace exhibiting for a Moore installment.
Metascore: 54
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21 (tie). The Spy Who Liked Me
Nominated for a franchise-best three Oscars, this 1977 Roger Moore journey nonetheless rated blended opinions from critics. “After the opening sequence,” Newsweek’s Maureen Orth wrote, “a lot of the motion in The Spy Who Liked Me … is considerably downhill.”
The Spy Who Liked Me, that includes the primary of two franchise appearances by Richard Kiel because the villainous Jaws, grossed $185.4 million worldwide, making it one of many largest field workplace hits of its launch yr.
Metascore: 55
MGM
21 (tie). Reside and Let Die
Roger Moore’s first James Bond film is, nicely, one other middling effort — a minimum of per the critics. Looking back, this 1973 movie might have suffered by comparability with the just-concluded Sean Connery period.
“Even the artwork route — lengthy the Bond movies’ actual secret weapon — appears to have fallen to a shrunken funds,” the Chicago Reader’s Dave Kehr wrote. “Not a lot enjoyable.”
On the field workplace, Reside and Let Die, co-starring Geoffrey Holder because the voodoo-practicing henchman Baron Samedi and Yaphet Kotto as head unhealthy man Katanga/Mr. Massive, and that includes the hit title track by Paul McCartney’s Wings, was a large step up from the Sean Connery movie that preceded it, Diamonds Are Perpetually. Reside and Let Die grossed $161.8 million worldwide.
Metascore: 55
MGM
The ultimate Pierce Brosnan James Bond movie might have launched the invisible automotive, however critics consider this 2002 movie as a retread, not an innovator. “Absolutely it is not going to be giving issues away to inform you there’s completely nothing new in regards to the newest episode,” Desson Thomson wrote in The Washington Submit.
Co-starring then-reigning Oscar winner Halle Berry as Bond woman Jinx Johnson, with Monty Python’s John Cleese as Q, and that includes the hit title monitor by Madonna, Die One other Day grossed extra money than every other Pierce Brosnan 007 movie: $431.9 million worldwide.
Metascore: 56
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19. The World Is Not Sufficient
This 1998 movie is the third Pierce Brosnan James Bond movie. “This retains one fairly amused, titillated, and brain-dead for a bit over two hours,” Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote within the Chicago Reader.
The World Is Not Sufficient grossed a strong $361.7 million on the worldwide field workplace. It co-stars Robert Carlyle because the villain Renard, who feels no ache; Sophie Marceau because the strikingly conflicted Elektra King; and Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist.
Metascore: 57
MGM
17 (tie). Licence to Kill
The second — and ultimate — James Bond film of the Timothy Dalton period will get good marks as an motion film, however not essentially as a 007 film. “James Bond would possibly as nicely be any of a dozen film cops,” the St. Louis Submit-Dispatch’s Joe Pollack wrote of this 1989 entry.
Licence to Kill, that includes Robert Davi because the drug lord villain Sanchez, Carey Lowell as Bond woman Pam Bouvier and a younger Benicio del Toro as a henchman, grossed $156.2 million worldwide — a giant drop on the field workplace in contrast with Dalton’s debut 007 movie.
Metascore: 58
MGM
17 (tie). Quantum of Solace
This 2008 movie is the worst-reviewed of the 007 Daniel Craig period. “Quantum of Solace could also be explosive with photos of fiery infernos,” Movie Risk’s Jay Slater wrote, “but it surely’s convoluted and complicated.”
On the entire, the Craig-led Bond movies boast a Metascore common of 69.4, making his films the second-best reviewed 007 films of all time.
On one hand, Quantum of Solace, co-starring Mathieu Amalric as Bond villain Dominic Greene, is without doubt one of the biggest-grossing James Bond films of all time, with $591.7 million in worldwide ticket gross sales. Then again, the movie is the lowest-grossing James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig.
Metascore: 58
MGM
The bottom-ranked Sean Connery movie on this rundown is the Scotsman’s sixth Bond challenge — and the final one which the long-lasting star made earlier than taking a 12-year 007 hiatus. In keeping with critics, Diamonds Are Perpetually was proof of a franchise in want of recent blood.
The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael known as the movie an “unimaginative Bond image that’s typically noisy when it means to be thrilling.”
Diamonds Are Perpetually co-stars Charles Grey as arch-villain Blofeld and Jill St. John as Bond woman Tiffany Case, and options Putter Smith and Bruce Glover because the archly menacing Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint, respectively. Among the many Sean Connery 007 installments, the film grossed a middling $116 million worldwide.
Metascore: 59
MGM
This 2015 Daniel Craig journey is “stuffed with large units, large stunts, and what should be large moments,” Matt Zoller Seitz famous for RogerEbert.com, “however few of them land.”
Spectre co-stars Christoph Waltz in a brand new tackle the previous dependable Bond villain Blofeld, with Ralph Fiennes taking up as M, and like Skyfall, delves deeper into Bond’s origin story. It grossed a whopping $879.6 million worldwide, the second-biggest take for the franchise.
Metascore: 60
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14 (tie). The Dwelling Daylights
This 1987 Timothy Dalton entry, the primary of his two turns as James Bond, wins factors from critics for not being a Roger Moore entry. “After the fizzle of the later Roger Moore Bonds,” Empire’s Kim Newman wrote, “The Dwelling Daylights brings in a brand new 007 … who manages the Connery trick of seeming suave and hard on the similar time.”
The Dwelling Daylights outgrossed its predecessor, Roger Moore’s A View to a Kill, by almost $40 million, for a worldwide field workplace whole of $191.2 million.
Metascore: 60
Sundown Boulevard/Getty Photos
12 (tie). On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
This 1969 movie, which marks George Lazenby’s lone outing as James Bond, is a reasonably good 007 entry, per critics. Whereas the New Yorker’s Pauline Kael discovered its star “fairly a uninteresting fellow,” she known as the film “thrilling.”
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service broke new floor: It featured a James Bond marriage ceremony, with Diana Rigg as 007’s feisty however ill-fated bride, Tracy di Vincenzo. On the field workplace, although, the movie fell flat with an $82 million worldwide gross.
Metascore: 61
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12 (tie). You Solely Reside Twice
This 1967 entry marks Sean Connery’s fifth outing as James Bond. Chicago Solar-Instances critic Roger Ebert noticed indicators of damage: “Connery labors mightily,” Ebert wrote.
For a Sean Connery James Bond film, You Solely Reside Twice grossed a so-so $111.6 million worldwide. The movie is nonetheless influential: Its cat-petting iteration of Blofeld (performed by Donald Pleasence), full with villain’s hideaway in a volcano, impressed the Austin Powers franchise’s Dr. Evil.
Metascore: 61
MGM
In keeping with critics, this 1983 movie is Roger Moore’s second-best James Bond film. “It soars, all proper, but it surely does it on computerized pilot,” wrote Jay Scott for Toronto’s Globe and Mail.
Octopussy, co-starring Maud Adams in her second franchise outing (after The Man with the Golden Gun), because the titular character, grossed a strong $187.5 million worldwide.
Metascore: 63
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In keeping with critics, this 1965 movie is a lesser Sean Connery 007 entry, however a worthy entry general. Wrote Empire’s Kim Newman, the film “effortlessly plies the glory Bond years, concluding with a beautiful underwater battle.”
Thunderball is the top-grossing Sean Connery 007 film of the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies: It took in $141.2 million in worldwide ticket gross sales. It additionally offered the template for Connery’s ultimate James Bond outing almost twenty years later, By no means Say By no means Once more.
Metascore: 64
MGM
The first Pierce Brosnan Bond film is the finest Pierce Brosnan Bond film, per critics. “New Bond man Brosnan cannot be faulted for a lot,” Desson Thomson wrote in The Washington Submit. “On this new enterprise, he is appropriately good-looking, British-accented and suave.”
GoldenEye featured Sean Bean as a double-0 agent turned unhealthy man, Famke Janssen as Bond woman Xenia Onatopp and Judi Dench in her first flip as Bond boss M. It grossed a then-huge $356.4 million worldwide. Pent-up demand might have helped: The 1995 movie was the primary James Bond film since Timothy Dalton’s License to Kill, launched six years prior.
Metascore: 65
MGM
Launched in 1979, two years after Star Wars modified nearly every little thing in Hollywood, the fourth Roger Moore James Bond movie sees 007 despatched to outer area. Critics non-ironically cheered. “Moonraker is a satisfying mix of acquainted elements,” wrote The Washington Submit’s Gary Arnold.
Moonraker, co-starring Lois Chiles as astronaut Holly Goodhead (sure, actually), is the ninth-biggest-grossing James Bond film of all time, with $210.3 million in worldwide ticket gross sales.
General, Moonraker is the best-reviewed Bond film of the Moore period.
Metascore: 66
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6 (tie). By no means Say By no means Once more
The highest-grossing Sean Connery Bond film, this 1983 movie can be one of many better-reviewed Bond films.
By no means Say By no means Once more marked Connery’s ultimate 007 look and, from a vital standpoint, appears to have benefited from having been launched in the course of the reviled tail finish of the Roger Moore period.
“It’s good to see Connery’s grave stylishness on this position once more,” Time’s Richard Schickel wrote. “It makes Bond’s cynicism and opportunism appear the product of real worldliness (and world weariness) versus Roger Moore’s mere twirpishness.”
Regardless of the presence of Connery, who first embodied Bond on the massive display screen, this film wasn’t from Eon Productions, making it the second of the 2 non-canonical movies in our checklist.
Metascore: 68
Common
The ultimate movie to star Daniel Craig as 007 has drawn largely constructive opinions, following an prolonged look forward to its launch caused by manufacturing delays and the coronavirus pandemic. With a working time of two hours, 43 minutes, No Time to Die is the longest Bond film of all of them.
“No Time to Die packs a quintessentially Bond punch whereas additionally taking enormous dangers with the ageing character and decades-old system,” Richard Trenholm stated in CNET’s No Time to Die evaluation. “Each Bond movie markets itself as a contemporary twist, however No Time to Die is genuinely bonkers at how far it goes.”
Or put extra merely: “James Bond lastly will get a life.”
Metascore: 68
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The primary James Bond characteristic movie, launched in 1962 (although it did not arrive in the US till 1963), is without doubt one of the finest James Bond films, per critics. “Sean Connery excellently places over a cool, fearless, on-the-ball, fictional Secret Service man,” Selection praised.
Dr. No, that includes Ursula Andress as unique Bond woman Honey Ryder (sure, actually), was one in all 1963’s Prime 10 field workplace hits. It grossed $59.6 million worldwide.
Metascore: 78
MGM
The primary Daniel Craig James Bond film, On line casino Royale blew away critics with its new tackle the spy saga. “[Craig’s] Bond is a minimum of the equal of one of the best ones earlier than him, and beats all of them in sheer depth,” The Wall Road Journal’s Joe Morgenstern raved.
The opening minutes of the movie reveal how Bond earned his double-0 score, and for followers of the Ian Fleming novels, it manages to each keep true to the 1953 e book and adapt that story for audiences a half-century later.
The 2006 movie grossed a then-franchise-best $594.4 million worldwide.
Metascore: 80
MGM
The highest-grossing James Bond film so far, with a worldwide take of greater than $1.1 billion, this 2012 movie is, in keeping with critics, one of the best Daniel Craig 007 film — and that is not all.
“Skyfall is without doubt one of the finest Bonds within the 50-year historical past of moviedom’s most profitable franchise,” James Adams wrote in Toronto’s Globe and Mail.
The movie received the collection’ first two Oscars since 1964’s Goldfinger; it claimed statuettes for sound enhancing and for Adele’s title track.
Metascore: 81
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The second James Bond film is, per the vital consensus, the second-best James Bond film ever. The New Yorker’s fabled Pauline Kael praised the 1963 launch: “Thrilling, handsomely staged, and campy.”
From Russia With Love, that includes Lotte Lenya as Bond baddie Rosa Klebb and Robert Shaw because the SPECTRE murderer gunning for Bond, grossed $78.9 million worldwide, a take that represented vital progress over Dr. No, and firmly established 007 as a franchise to observe.
Metascore: 83
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Right here it’s: This 1964 Sean Connery entry is, per the vital consensus, one of the best James Bond film. It had all the weather we have come to anticipate: the megalomaniac villain with an outrageous and murderous scheme, the henchman with a unusual methodology for killing (Oddjob and his hat), large set items with extravagant motion, Bond in a dinner jacket.
“Bigger than life, faintly ridiculous, fully cool, Goldfinger is the quintessential James Bond film,” Empire’s Ian Freer wrote.
The movie grossed a then-franchise-best $124.9 million worldwide, and received the franchise’s first Oscar (for sound results).
When Connery’s seven 007 films are taken collectively, the typical Metascore is available in at 71.4, making his run the undisputed chief amongst Bond films.
Metascore: 87
James Bond films in chronological order
Within the official Bond canon — the movies made by Eon Productions — there are 25 movies, together with No Time to Die. Due to licensing points, there have been two different, non-canonical films: the 1967 model of On line casino Royale, and Sean Connery’s ultimate outing, 1983’s By no means Say By no means Once more.
