Revisiting Bond - What are the five best (and worst) 007 films?

Like many Gen X American/European males, I grew up with a fondness and idolization of James Bond - the original "badass JB" (followed by James Brown and then Jason Bourne). I grew up with Roger Moore being the Bond, so I associated his wise-cracking aged face with Bond, although grew to appreciate the great Sean Connery's classic depiction and even appreciated George Lazenby. Timothy Dalton was OK, underrated in a way but kind of boring, and Pierce Brosnan was too slick, too perfectly Bondish and thus lacking the off-centeredness from the archetype that characterized the best Bonds. Anyhow, to me Daniel Craig was a revelation - not only was Casino Royale arguably the greatest Bond film ever, but it had a modern sensibility while remaining true to the essence of Bond, and Craig made the character his own, with a hard yet somehow deeply vulnerable quality. The Vesper Lynd tragedy made his character all the more believable and even forgiveable.

I recently re-watched both Skyfall and Casino Royale, and plan on re-watching Quantum of Solace - which was so forgettable that I can't even remember anything about it. It is probably best viewed as an extended addendum, or out-takes, for Casino Royale. Anyhow, I'm convinced that both Casino Royale and Skyfall are among the five best Bond films ever made. I'd have to re-watch a lot of the Connery and Moore films to tell for sure, but I'd probably round out the top five with two from Connery and one from Moore. I may even re-watch the entire run and have nerdy fun ranking them all.

Anyhow, what are your favorite Bond films and why? I'll include a poll where you can vote for five, but feel free to include your list. While we're at it, which are the worst?

As I said, I'd like to re-watch some of the older ones, but if I had to pick right now I'd say:

Five Best Bond (chronologically): From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me, Casino Royale, Skyfall

Five Worst Bond (chronologically): Octopussy, Never Say Never Again, A View to a Kill, Licensed to Kill, Tomorrow Never Dies

My favourites:

Goldfinger
Goldeneye
Skyfall
Live & Let Die
Dr. No

Morrus said:

My favourites:

Goldfinger
Goldeneye
Skyfall
Live & Let Die
Dr. No

Click to expand...

Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only were my favorites as a kid, but...I was a kid. I'd like to see them again to adequately rank them.

Golden Eye, The World is not Enough, Dr. No, Live & Let Die and Goldfinger. Some for humor, some for plot.

I would say, in general, the Roger Moore Bond films are the worst. They really went for over the top humor, puns, and gadgetry.

The Spy Who Loved Me is one of the first films I can remember seeing at the cinema, and it's still one of my favourite Bond movies, though I'm not keen on most of the others of the Roger Moore era.

Having caught up with the earlier movies over later years, I'd rate both Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice very highly - they really encapsulate classic Bond.

I loved the Brosnan-era reboot of the series with Goldeneye, and enjoyed Brosnan's subsequent outings, though the rest of them don't make my top five. And Daniel Craig's Casino Royale is just superb, perhaps the best of the bunch, though the following two movies couldn't quite hold onto the magic.

It's been so long since I've seen anything pre-Brosnan that I'm not really able to give a "best five".

I agree that both "Casino Royale" and "Skyfall" are excellent (and tend to give the latter the nod). "Quantum of Solace" could be good, but is clearly not as polished - the writers' strike is to blame for that one IIRC.

I generally feel Brosnan was a good Bond who got stuck in some really bad movies - "Goldeneye" is good, "Tomorrow Never Dies" is okay, but "The World is Not Enough" is terrible, and the less said about "Die Another Day" the better - those two would probably feature on a "worst five" list.

I stopped watching James Bond movies after the 1980s, so I missed all of the Brosnan and Craig outings. That biases my list.

Favorites:
Goldfinger: Aston Martin DB5. "I expect you to die." "Hearty breakfast." Oddjob. Car-crushing.
You Only Live Twice: "Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond." Little Nellie. Piranha.
Diamonds Are Forever: "I din't know dere was a pool down dere." Lunar rover. Jill St. John. Lana Wood (sister of Natalie Wood). Wint and Kidd. Claret. "Walking my rat."
For Your Eyes Only: ATAC. Crossbow. Revenge. Topol. "ATAC to St. Cyril's."
The Living Daylights: Fake Defection. Fake Assassination. Aston Martin armed with missiles. Escaping a Russian airbase in Afghanistan.

Regrets:
Lazenby disappointed as Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, the scenery was spectacular.
Live and Let Die felt flat. The theme song by Wings may have been the best part.
Man with the Golden Gun seemed disjointed.
Octopussy went downhill after Indian agent "Vijay" (played by tennis star Vijay Amritraj) was killed.
A View to a Kill seemed overwrought.

When i saw Casino Royale in the theater, I came out thinking it was easily the best Bond since at least Goldfinger. Needless to say, I was pretty excited.

My other favorites include:
From Russia with Love
Goldfinger
Thunderball
For Your Eyes Only
Skyfall

Definitely agree w/the OP that both (the new) Casino Royale and Skyfall are two of the best Bond films.

My remaining Top 5: Goldfinger (of course), You Only Live Twice (mostly for the rocket-eating rocket & the marvelous volcano base assault), and Diamonds Are Forever (for Misters Kidd and Wint, and Jill Saint John as Tiffany Case -- her character should have just been named "Jill Saint John", it's appropriately Bond Girl-esque).

Almost making it into the top 5: The Spy Who Loved Me. It's the apotheosis of silly Moore Bond.