Top 5 James Bond Movies
With No Time To Die in theaters this weekend, Drew and Billy rank their favorite 007 movies
We have been waiting to do a James Bond edition of DYLA for a long time. You may remember way back in February 2020 (a lifetime ago) when No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s final turn as 007, became the first major movie to push back its release date due to COVID-19. Now, many months later, we are finally getting the highly anticipated new Bond installment in theaters this weekend.
As we prepare for No Time To Die, we simply had to rank our top 5 Bond movies for the occasion. Check out Drew and Billy’s lists below, and then stick around for our mini-reviews of recent releases The Many Saints of Newark and The Guilty. Thanks for reading!
Top 5 James Bond Movies
Drew:
Skyfall
As Jackson Maine once sang, “Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die…” Skyfall is the greatest Bond film of them all not only because of the terrific Adele theme song, the astounding cinematography by the god Roger Deakins, or the delightful villainous scenery-chewing from Javier Bardem, but also because it’s a 007 movie that interrogates the relevance and utility of James Bond in the modern era. Is he a relic of the past? Skyfall takes us to his childhood home in Scotland to find answers, diving deeper into the character’s psyche than ever before. It results in a Bond film that delivers both entertainment value and emotional stakes in equal measure.
Casino Royale
Right from Casino Royale’s opening, you just knew the Daniel Craig 007 films were going to be different. Before the title sequence, we see a black-and-white prologue of Bond assassinating two targets, one in a shadowy embassy office and the other in brutal hand-to-hand combat in a dirty bathroom. This Bond era, influenced by Jason Bourne and Batman Begins, was going to be gritty, grounded, and intense. There was no longer room for the light tone and silly gadgetry of past installments. However, with its glamorous fashion, high-stakes poker, and ominous villain (Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre), Casino Royale still gives you that classic Bond feel. Craig’s athletic and haunted Bond performance sets the tone, but supporting turns by Mikkelsen and Eva Green make this a spectacular start to a new 007 chapter.
Goldfinger
Goldfinger is when the 007 formula started to hit its stride. The third film in the franchise, it built off the previous two Connery-starring vehicles with a bigger budget, more action, and all the recognizable pieces we would come to love in a Bond movie. Aside from the main 007 theme music, Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger” song remains possibly the best in the entire series. Goldfinger also goes heavier on the gadgets than ever before as Q outfits Bond with a tricked out Aston Martin DB5. But it’s the ruthless villain Goldfinger, his loyal henchman Oddjob, and tough Bond girl Pussy Galore (the first truly ridiculous Bond girl name!) that keep fans coming back to this one.
Dr. No
Before the Bond movies became over-the-top spectacles, there was Dr. No, the first time 007 appeared on film. On only a $1 million budget (for reference, No Time To Die has a reported budget of at least $250 million), we are introduced to Sean Connery’s suave hero in a movie with very little special effects and only occasional action. It’s a quieter Bond movie that relies more on actual spycraft than shootouts and explosions. Even without the blockbuster element, Bond was an immediate success. The movie earned $60 million, an impressive haul back in 1962. Dr. No features an iconic introduction to “Bond, James Bond,” instantly making Connery a movie star. Plus, there’s the gorgeous Jamaican setting and one of the great Bond girls, Honey Ryder played by Ursula Andress.
READ: Actor Spotlight: Sean Connery
GoldenEye
I simply had to put a Pierce Brosnan Bond movie on my list. Since he was the character when I was growing up, that’s my original 007. While the Brosnan movies decreased in quality as they went along, his first appearance as Bond in 1995’s GoldenEye was a welcome return to form for the series. Brosnan fit wonderfully in the Bond suit, and we were also introduced to Judi Dench as M, one of the series’ best casting decisions. Bond was also given a worthy adversary in Sean Bean’s ex-MI6 agent gone rogue.
Billy:
Skyfall
Hold on… I’m reading Drew’s blurb to make sure I don’t say the exact same thing. Pierce Brosnan was my first James Bond so naturally my favorite. There was no iconic status with Brosnan, though. So there was room for a new actor to take the top spot as my favorite Bond and Skyfall solidified Daniel Craig’s jump to my favorite Bond of all time. Absolutely magnificent visuals, all-time supporting characters in a Bond film, and a villain performance for the ages. Having a storyline that questions the relevance of Bond while enhancing almost everything we have seen from Bond before is riveting. I hope this consensus is the final confirmation that Skyfall is the best Bond movie of all-time.
Casino Royale
We never said we were original here at DYLA. Casino Royale came back with a vengeance. After four increasingly campy and consistently worse Bond films from Brosnan it was time for a change. So what did MGM studios decide to do? Bring back Martin Campbell, the director of GoldenEye! What we received was not what audiences expected. Immediately we see a much more grounded, athletic, and vulnerable Bond. He gets hurt, falls in love, mourns, and gets his testicles beaten to a pulp. Daniel Craig’s first performance is his best and Eva Green as Vesper Lynd is our best Bond girl. So why is this not the best Bond film? There is no particular style and the story takes entirely too long to get the story going, but my goodness, once it hits its stride it is absolutely magnificent.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Here is my inspired pick. George Lazenby’s only appearance was too much of a change at the time for audiences. As this one has marinated it has become undeniably great in time. The first Bond to shake up the formula gives extra depth to a story that didn’t necessarily need it at the time, but set a new standard for what is accepted as a Bond film. This higher bar to reach set a tone so contrast to its previous efforts that Connery came back for his chance at a prestige Bond later in his career. This movie is amazing on its own, but it is more so on this list to highlight the importance of it in the Bond lexicon.
GoldenEye
If On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is the prestige film we needed then GoldenEye is the movie that reminded us of the roots of this franchise. Pierce Brosnan’s first effort as Bond came with absurd expectations. At an earlier time he was previously slated to be Bond and a contract dispute squashed that first possibility. By the time GoldenEye came out it wasn’t if Brosnan would be Bond, but when. He looked the part, sounded the part, and exuded a Bond presence in his personal life. This one is bigger and sexier than any previous effort to this point. Plus the cult status it has gained from the video game doesn’t hurt either. About three too many storylines add to a convoluted story, but it is at its best when the story allows Brosnan to be the most stereotypical Bond. The steam room scene, tank scene, and cemetery scene being the three moments that stick with me the most.
From Russia with Love
It would be inappropriate if I didn’t have at least one Connery performance on here. Dr. No gave us Bond for the first time, but From Russia with Love solidified Bond/Connery as an icon. An incredibly entertaining cat-and-mouse plot leans into the silliness of this franchise before it became saturated with copycats. A voiceless Robert Shaw and stereotypical Russian villains give us just enough to make us really care about the entire story. Like we often mention here at DYLA it is always a blast to go back and see what started off something iconic. Here we get that fun nostalgia while getting our first legitimately great Bond movie.
Recent Release Mini-Reviews
The Guilty (streaming on Netflix)
Drew: This remake of a Danish thriller by the same name will take you as far as your own interest in watching Jake Gyllenhaal on the phone for 90 minutes. I’m always riveted when Gyllenhaal is on the screen, so The Guilty mostly worked for me. He’s excellent as a tormented 911 dispatcher trying to save a kidnapped woman. It’s also an interesting exercise for director Antoine Fuqua, who is mostly known for his action filmmaking chops (Training Day, Olympus Has Fallen, among others), to make a tense and briskly paced drama out of a series of phone calls. - 3.5 / 5 Apples
The Many Saints of Newark (in theaters and streaming on HBO Max)
Drew: Despite featuring many of the colorful characters from The Sopranos, The Many Saints of Newark doesn’t totally look and feel like a prequel film to the beloved TV series. Series creator David Chase wrote the story and frequent Sopranos director Alan Taylor is here directing, but the film lacks the emotional, visual, and narrative power of the show. This might seem unfair to ask, but it is possible. Vince Gilligan accomplished something similar with El Camino, his Breaking Bad sequel film.
In the end, The Many Saints of Newark is a mixed bag. Some of the performances here work really well (Dickie Moltisanti and young Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini’s son), and others just don’t (the SNL-level impressions of Paulie and Silvio). As a standalone experience without the Sopranos connection, it’s a perfectly average mob drama. As a prequel to one of the greatest TV shows ever? It’s a slight disappointment. - 3 / 5 Apples