Choosing my favourite Bond movie is like choosing one’s favourite child - impossible! It’s even hard for me to pick my 3 favourites, but right now, I’d say Goldfinger (the first, “real” Bond movie with all the gadgets and fun villains and the like), Casino Royale (such a glorious reboot and a very faithful adaptation of the novel) and Skyfall (a wonderful 50th anniversary special for the franchise).
Been waiting for this thread so I can recommend Kill James Bond
A podcast by three trans people (including Abigail Thorne of PhilosophyTube) where they’ve gone through all the James Bond films, review them and marking them with their SCUM system (which stands for Smarm, Cultural insensitivity, Unprovoked violence, and Misogyny)
They’ve done all of James Bond now, and afterwards continued doing some other spy films on the same lines, like the Jason Borne films, a bunch of older Eurospy stuff, etc.
Generally it’s just a really fun listen and I can’t recommend it enough
Honestly, Skyfall has just about everything I want from a Bond film.
Great villain, great score, multiple brilliant action set pieces, stunning cinematography, a list of really fun settings. I have been meaning to watch more Bond films at some point but this one, so far, remains unbeaten for me.
Glad of the 3 options. My favourite shifts constantly but my Top 3 haven’t changed in years.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Licence to Kill
Casino Royale
in release order.
I just finished re-reading Fleming’s The Spy Who Loved Me which means the next on my James Bond supermarathon is the Dr No film. Monday night earmarked for that.
These days I’d say my love of Doctor Who supercedes Bond, partly because Who has aged so much better (even despite some dodgy aspects of its own), but as a kid Bond was my #1 thing.
I periodically reread all the Flemings once a decade and do a movie marathon running up to each new movie but haven’t reread any of the continuation novels since either I first read them or they first released and have never read a single comic book or listened to any of the radio dramas so I’m excited to be working my way through EVERYTHING.
The Spy Who Loved Me is my number one. Absolutely incredible it has all the elements I need, & is one of my favourite movies full stop. A real comfort watch. My other favourites? That changes depending on my mood. Roger Moore was my Bond, & his era is 100% my vibe - a lighter touch, the fun gadgets, the great stunts, the one-liners.
Here in the UK I think most people of a certain age first experienced the movies on the telly back in the old times. They were usually shown on Bank Holidays or the big Christmas Day movie. So they are caught up in that nostalgie also for me.
GoldenEye, You Only Live Twice and The Man With the Golden Gun - all three are just comfort watches. I wore those three VHS tapes down as a teenager.
GoldenEye is just amazing. Pierce Brosnan hits just the right levels of charm. Crashing absolutely everything in a tank. “For England James?” “No, for me” “AAAAaaarghhhhhh”
And Judi Dench is fantastic as M, putting 007 in his place right off the bat.
I have no particular good reasons for loving You Only Live Twice - Sean Connery is just great.
The Man With the Golden Gun. Scaramanga is just a super cool villain. Christopher Lee - do I need to say more?
But Goldfinger, Casino Royale, Skyfall are probably better. And Tomorrow Never Dies has such a great villain in Jonathan Pryce.
See? This is why it’s so hard! Brosnan is my favourite Bond and I love three of his four films (I struggle with Day Another Day). GoldenEye is a real treat with Sean Bean, Judi Dench calling Bond a misogynist dinosaur, and Famke Janssen as the wonderfully named Xenia Onatopp and Tina Turner with that belter of a theme song. And I have a real soft spot for The World is Not Enough as well.
The Spy Who Loved Me is Moore’s best. Timothy Dalton is underrated, and Licence To Kill is his best one (I love the theme tune, the realistic approach and the climax).
You Only Live Twice is one of the better Connerys, despite some of its problematic aspects these days.
The thread gave me the urge to watch some more Bond
GoldenEye yesterday for something like the 60th time
And some morning Bond - got Tomorrow Never Dies on. I always manage to forget Geoffrey Palmer is in this one (and feels kind of similar to his role in Voyage of the Damned) That opening sequence is just fantastic
I am working my way backwards apparently. Saw all the Daniel Craig ones recently, now doing Pierce Brosnan. So I’ll probably do the ones with Rassilon next (hopefully with less airborne spittle )
Imagine if Sean Connery or Roger Moore had come back to record some audio dramas with Big Finish I don’t know if an audio drama would do all the action scenes justice, though
They could have made a multi-Bond story, like The Sirens of Time, with Bond having separate adventures in each of his incarnations and then somehow meeting himself…
That opening sequence is just fantastic
