James Bond Filmography

With today being the U.S. release date of the new Daniel Craig Bond movie Quantum of Solace, I thought a historical look at the previous films over the years that have taken us to where we are today would be timely and in order as seen thru the eyes of the Corndogger.  Granted this is just my take on the films and yours may vary.

1.  Dr. No (1962) – Connery – This film kicks off the series and co-stars one of the best Bond girls ever.  The very popular Ursula Andress.  The film also costars a pre Hawaii Five-O, Jack Lord.  This movie takes bond to Jamaica where a colleague has been killed.  While there he also stops a blackmail plot against the U.S. from the villain played by Joseph Wiseman.
2.  From Russia With Love (1963) – Connery – Bond travels to Istanbul to retrieve a machine that decodes Russian intelligence transmissions.  Like the previous film, the series has yet to get bogged down with a lot of gadgets and big explosions.  Bond girl isn’t anything to get overly excited about, but we do get a co-starring role from the ol Jaws hunter Quint (Robert Shaw).  We do get Bond hanging out with some gypsies and a brief girl on girl cat fight….then Bond sleeps with them both at the same time.  Risque concept for the early 60s, but he’s Bond. 
3.  Goldfinger (1964) – Connery – This film is widely considered the best Bond film ever made.  Whether or not you believe that to be true, it does perfectly capture all that “is Bond”.  First off, we get the most awesome Bond car yet…a tricked out Aston Martin.  Throw in a few different Bond girls with one having one of the best names given (Pussy Galore), the best Bond captured scene with the laser beam moving slowly towards his crotch, a razor bladed hat, and one of the most famous lines said by a villain (”No Mr Bond I expect you to die”)…all add up to a must see Bond experience.
4.  Thunderball (1965) – Connery – Bond in the Bahamas.  This time he’s not on vacation…he’s finding a stolen NATO war plane with nuclear arms loaded on it.  Considered to be Connery’s best film in his Bond movie run.  Flying jet packs, killer sharks, underwater action and fight scenes all add to the awesomeness of this awesome movie.
5.  You Only Live Twice (1967) – Connery – So what is confusing here is that this film takes place after the death of Bond’s wife…which he marries in the next film.  The films got out of sequence from the actual Ian Fleming books, but I guess it is only confusing after folks watched the next film two years later.  At any rate, this one is certainly the weakest of the first 5 Sean Connery Bond movies.  This certainly isn’t attributed to Connery’s performance, but more on a pretty weak script than anything.  Bond goes to Japan to continue his chase of the Spectre organization to recover an American space capsule believed to be captured by the Russians. 
6.  On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) – Lazenby – Enter Lazenby as the new bond from stage left…and exit Lazenby stage right.  The Australian model was picked to follow Connery and was widely dismissed for his poor acting ability, but does look the part even though it was met with minimal box office success (later fans have built a better appreciation for this one).  Many critics agree that this film is the closest at capturing the true Bond vibe from the book series and that of all the films follows closest to the book it is based after.  Unofficially, by my count this is probably the longest of the films checking in at around 2 1/2 hours.  In this one the Spectre villain is played by Telly “Kojak” Savalas and his plan for taking over the world…killing plants ability to reproduce.  Bond ends up getting married in this one, but before that does manage to bed a few additional ladies atop the snow mountain in the enemy’s hideout.  Put this one on your list to see if you haven’t and are a fan of the overall series.
7.  Diamonds Are Forever (1971) – Connery – Pulled out of Bond retirement by the lure of money and lack of success the studio saw with the previous film, Sean Connery reprises his role as the British agent.  Set in classic late 60s/early 70s Las Vegas, the film boasts classic bond components with killer gymnast women in bikinis and car chases.  The film centers around tracking down a diamond smuggler who is also coincidentally set on world domination.  This will be Connery’s last official Bond movie.
8.  Live and Let Die (1973) – Moore – Enter Roger Moore to pick up the Bond torch.  In many respects this film was seen as the beginning of the new era in Bond movies by shifting from great villain characters and storylines to continual action sequences and an under-developing Bond character.  Set in 1970s New York City (Harlem) and New Orleans, the British agent is in the U.S. saving the day from a drug overlord.
9.  The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) – Moore – Bond goes on a Asian tour by hitting up Hong Kong, Bangkok, and China to track down a super assasin played by the most awesome Christopher Lee (whom many folks will recognize from the plethora of Hammer Films he played in).  One complaint here is the bond girl played by Britt Ekland comes across as extremely ditzy and dumb. 
10. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) – Moore – This one is actually one of the better ones in the Roger Moore list mainly because of the introduction of a villain of most awesomeness…the 7 foot 2 inch tall Jaws.  He is probably the most recognizable Bond villain of the series with his tall stature and big mouth of metal teeth.  Pretty large budget, this film is full of outlandish settings and special effects from a underwater car driving in sea cavern lairs to the pyramids of Egypt to chase snow skiing scenes.  This one shows some of the humorous undertones of a tongue in cheek James Bond.
11. Moonraker (1979) – Moore -  So the studios tried two things to latch on to trying to artificially create a successful box office Bond film.  They brought back the popular Jaws villain and decided to piggyback on the Star Wars success by putting…yep you guessed it…Bond in space.  Ok this just gets ridiculous even for me, and I love some good ridiculous nonsense.  It’s no wonder that in the Austin Powers series they did a spoof of Michael Myers in space as it was based on this film.  It does have some decent sequences, but just goes beyond the logical realm of realism even for a Bond movie.  The studio did succeed at creating the highest box office Bond movie to date, but was done at the sacrifice of story and realistic integrity.
12. For Your Eyes Only (1981) – Moore – After the cartoonish idiocy of the previous film, it was great to see the studio get back closer to the Bond basics with great locations, fewer gimics, and more realistic villains.  Bond is on the trail hunting down a device that sunk off the coast of Albania which can control all the NATO nuclear submarines.  Obviously, this one takes Bond back into the sea for some great underwater action sequences and action over the top of some spectacular reefs.  Bond doesn’t stop with the water only…no no no…Bond also takes his travels and escapism on top of the mountains as well.  Bonus here is a title song that will get stuck in your head and you will find yourself singing it for the next 3 days as it drives you slowly into the depths of madness.  Enjoy.
13. Octopussy (1983) – Moore – By far the best title of all the Bond movies.  Guess where Bond ends up?  An island filled with women.  Seriously.  I can’t make that up.  It happened.  Watch the movie.  This one gets a little ridiculous at points (Bond gives a Tarzan chant…yes he does…I know I know…awful) and is heavily critized for not having a focal central villain.  It’s like they just tried to throw a bunch of crap up against the wall to see what stuck.  None of it did.  It is certainly entertaining from a “WTF is he gonna do next” type of thing, so enter it with the right comedic mindset and you may find you actually like it. 
13.5.  Never Say Never Again (1983) – Connery – This one is listed as Bond film 13 and a half because it technically is not part of the “official” series since it was made by a different studio and not under the name Ian Fleming’s James Bond.  It is basically a loose remake of the Thunderball film and the studio was able to lure Connery back into the tuxedo one more time.  The supporting cast of this film is really well stocked from with Basinger and Barbara Carrera as the Bond girls, Max Von Sydow (yep the guy that played Ming in Flash Gordon and as the bad guy in Strange Brew), and even Rowan Atkinson stepping in it for some comic relief.  All in all this one isn’t great but for many fans it was good to see Connery again.  One of the funniest things to see in this film is the now very very dated sequence where Bond and Largo play a video game against one another.  Worth the price of admission alone.
14. A View to a Kill (1985) – Moore – Right off the bat, the awesomeness hits you with the best Bond title theme song by Duran Duran.  Ok so by this point, Roger Moore is clearly showing his age and lack of suaveness from the love scenes to the action sequences.  This one has a great snow skiing chase scene (come to think of it…why do most of the Moore ones put him on skiis…hmm…anyway back to the film), but without a doubt the only thing that carries this film is the costars.  First off, Christopher “Think I’m Gonna Need a Little More Cowbell” Walken plays the Bond villain.  Hell to the yes that’s right.  Christopher Walken.  This alone would be more than enough to make this movie awesome, but they didn’t stop there.  They throw in Tanya Roberts (yep the blonde chick from Sheena and the Beastmaster) for the Bond girl.  The most disgusting part of the film was when Bond nails Grace Jones…and by nail I mean he had sex with her…it never did show in the film that he found a penis so I guess that will be available in a special edition director’s cut DVD version.  The world domination plot on this one was actually pretty funny and was focusing on something really ahead of it’s time (and thankfully not the usual nuclear arms stuff).  Walken wanted to sink all of Silicon Valley by setting of a bomb on the San Andreas fault so he can control the world’s market for silicon computer chips.  Pretty freaking smart right?  He just didn’t count on Britain’s top stud to come along and ruin it for him.
15. The Living Daylights (1987) – Dalton – Timothy Dalton steps in here with the 15th installment in the series and tries to take Bond back to his roots by moving away from the campy style that the Roger Moore had been moving down the track towards.  He really tries to bring Bond back a little darker, focused, and series.  Dalton gets a lot of heat for being the “worst Bond”, but I’m not 100% sure it is his own doing.  I felt he could certainly act well enough and did reasonably “look the part”, but the scripts he had to work with weren’t all that exciting.  Set in 1987, this film certainly is relative historically to what was going on in the world with the plot focusing on the dissolving of the Cold War and defecting KGB agents to scenes in Afganistan.  Nice to see Bond back in another Aston Martin as well. 
16. Licence to Kill (1989) – Dalton – In his second and final appearance as Bond, Timothy Dalton is stuck with a very lackluster script and directing.  The biggest problem here is that at the end of the Cold War the Bond folks couldn’t look to the usual suspects for concepts.  Bond ends up a rogue agent in this one and takes him to a nice darker level.  Many folks dismiss the two Dalton films, but they are what they are and fans should watch em. 
17. GoldenEye (1995) – Brosnan – Pierce Brosnan makes his Bond debut with this very successful film which was a big box office hit that many think revived James Bond for the new millenium.  Big budgets, large scale special effects, and back to the sex appeal that made the character famous, this film delivers the goods.  Bond is out to stop a villain that has kidnapped a very powerful satellite capable of serious damage.  The biggest highlight of this film is Famke Janssen as the hot evil Bond girl with thighs that can kill (her name in the film ranks as one of the Bond girl bests with Natalya Onatopp).  Oscar winner Judi Dench begins her run as “M” in this film as well.
18. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) – Brosnan – Pierce returns for his second Bond movie.  Not as good story wise as the first Brosnan film, this one still holds its own on pure action alone.  Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher makes an appearance as well as the kung fu film actress Michelle Yeoh from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame.  Chosen as the film to introduce a new BMW, they certainly made sure to product placement focus the car in this film.  This film delivers the goods and Brosnan still shows he is the modern Bond player, it still feels a little hollow. 
19. The World is Not Enough (1999) – Brosnan – This installment again delivers the goods from an action perspective and Brosnan brings the perfect melting pot of the best aspects of all the previous Bond actors, but the plot is a little weak.  The most laughable aspect of the film (although pleasant on the eyes) is Denise Richards as one of the two Bond girls who by no way shape or form actually pulls off anyone believing she is a nuclear physicist.  Srsly.  Nope.  The other Bond girl Sophie Marceau totally steals the show in this one.  Well done.  The only other bright spot here is Robert Carlyle pulling off a great villain role (probably one of the best villains of the modern films). 
20. Die Another Day (2002) – Brosnan – Unfortunately, this will be the last film that Brosnan puts on the tux and orders up a martini shaken not stirred.  It really is a shame as he had one more film on his contract, but they felt he was getting a little too old (ala Roger Moore-ish) to give it one more shot.  Disappointed at this I was, but alas we must move on.  This time they went out and got a really famous and expensive actress to play the Bond girl in Halle Berry (seriously David Justice…you screwed up pal…I mean come on man…what is wrong with you) which is not the normal MO as they usually pull lesser known talent.  It certainly works and is by far the highlight of the film.  The action and special effects are top notch and rank up there as one of the Bond bests in that regard.  The ice car scenes were spectacular.  Monty Python star John Cleese and Judi Dench return for their Q and M roles, which are very well cast and I hope they continue.  GoldenEye is still my favorite Brosnan Bond film, but this one probably comes in right behind it. 
21. Casino Royale (2006) – Craig – The studios wanted to go a little younger and certainly a little buffer for the new Bond and Daniel Craig delivers just that.  When asked about what I think about Daniel Craig versus Connery or Brosnan I think there is a good parallel between this and the Batman films.  Michael Keaton was a very “normal” looking guy as Batman and in many regards the same can be said for the Bonds up until this point.  Making the move to Craig is similar in the Batman series by moving to a muscled up Christian Bale.  In some aspects, the Bond films make a symmetrical shift to a darker emotional side of the role just like the two newest Batman movies.  Honestly, for me, the highlight of the film was seeing the 1964 Aston Martin that Bond wins at the casino which is a direct tribute to the Goldfinger film.  The Craig Bond was widely successful and did for the series what Brosnan did for it after Dalton.  In some aspects I think it the killing machine aspect was pushed a little too far and the overly dark emotions run a little too rampant, but I do like the overall direction.  It is certainly better than the goofier tongue-in-cheek humor of the later Moore years.  More parallels to Batman Begins can be shown with the choice of book to model the film after.  Casino Royale was actually the first book in Ian Fleming’s series so in a way they are almost restarting the series over again just like with the Batman films.  One thing is for sure with Craig, physically he can take on much tougher action sequences and they use that to the fullest in this movie. 
22. Quantum of Solace (2008) – Craig – Daniel Craig returns for his second Bond appearance.  This film opened this weekend.  I hope to see it soon and will add my thoughts on the movie when I do.  If anyone else sees it please post up what you think of it. 

I hope you have enjoyed the historical chronological walk-through of the history and highlights of the Bond movies from Ian Fleming.  Please post up comments on some of the films you liked or didn’t like.  Hope you enjoyed the overview my fellow Corndoggers. 

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