#6: Daniel Craig
Uh oh, Remy is being biased by ranking Craig as the sixth best Bond! No, I'm not, so hold your horses people who are ready to call Craig the heir apparent to Sean Connery. But why is Craig being ranked so low? Well, to be honest, I never really felt that Craig felt the "Bond" image very well. With his blond hair, and bright blue eyes, it's almost like I'm not watching a Bond movie at all. However, with only two movies, I think my ranking might be a little unfair, but if there is one reason for this ranking, it's the fact that with him, the Bond series had to be restarted and retconned. Casino Royale, was an adaption of the first book, and because of this, Craig was inserted as the new Bond, a young, rookie Bond, who made mistakes. And while I liked seeing that type of Bond, because of the man Craig replaced (Brosnan), I find myself hard to like him, and therefore, he gets sixth best.
Best Movie: Casino Royale (2006)
#5: George Lazenby
Ah, George Lazenby. He was only ever in one Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, before Sean Connery came back to do Diamonds Are Forever. Timothy Dalton was originally offered the role, but he felt himself too young to fit the role of Bond. Then Roger Moore was considered, but due to working with the television program The Saint, he was unavailable. A multitude of other actors were considered, but director Harry Saltzman decided on the Australian-born Lazenby after seeing him in a commercial. OHMSS was the second part of the Blofeld trilogy, and was the only movie where Bond got married.
So what about Lazenby? He only sort-of looked the part, and he had almost no prior acting experience. He followed Connery, the first, and in many people's eyes, the best Bond. Many people, and Bond experts, seem to agree had OHMSS retained Connery as Bond, it would far and away be the best Bond movie in the series. But honestly, Lazenby wasn't that bad. He was just incapable of portraying the bigger than life version of Bond that so many people are accustomed to seeing. He seemed vulnerable and jittery at times, and the scene at the skating rink, he is actually scared. I think the director's were trying to show a different side of Bond than the audience were used to seeing. Overall, Lazenby was a suitable Bond, not the best, but certainly not the worst, as I'll give him a free pass. It's unfair to follow Connery, and then succeeded by him again, so Lazenby, you were okay in my eyes. After all, it was you who gave one of the most memorable scenes in the history of Bond. Cradling his dead bride, Bond looks down and mutters "We have all the time in the world."
Best (and only) Movie: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
#4: Roger Moore
Roger Moore, as you may or may not have known, starred as the secret agent more than any other actor by appearing in seven (official) James Bond movies. After Sean Connery came back to star one more time as 007 in the oft-maligned Diamonds are Forever, he decided to retire from being Bond after uttering the famous line "Never again", even after the producer's tried to get him to do one more. And Lazenby's questionable agent incorrectly predicted that Bond would not be as popular in the 70s as he was in the '60s, so that sparked a new search for an actor to play James Bond. While United Artists wanted an American to be chosen (Top candidates were Burt Reynolds and Paul Newman, respectively), however, producer Albert Broccoli insisted that a Briton should play the part. And the rest was history, as Roger Moore became Bond.
Unfortunately, even if Diamonds are Forever was very campy and too humorous for it's own good, it still made a LOT of money cashing in on the Bond name. So, seeing this as a cash cow, the producer's went with this direction for the next several Bond films. And this is why Moore is so low on my list. While he wasn't a bad Bond, he was just TOO silly at times, and was very bad in his first two films, and only ever had one truly great film. The Spy Who Loved Me, was Moore's third movie, which was far and away his best. This movie had it all: spectacle, romance, exotic locales, memorable action scenes, good characters and a classic theme song. It was almost too good for it's own, the only flaw I can put in this, was that the movie ran too long. Unfortunately, the franchise reverted back to the campy tone after this movie, so, like the franchise, Moore suffered with it. But for his portrayal of Bond in "The Spy Who Loved Me", he deserves the #4 spot on this ranking.
Best Movie: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
#3: Timothy Dalton
This is where things get interesting. Like so much of the casting of finding a new Bond, it always seems that one future Bond actor would be in the running for it. Way back when, in 1969, producer Albert Broccoli wanted Timothy Dalton to play the role of our beloved hero. Feeling himself too young, he declined the role. However, enter 1987, Roger Moore has just retired from being Bond, and you're looking for a new actor. A very popular television series, known as Remington Steele, has just took off, and an actor everyone loves (Pierce Brosnan) is being touted as a "perfect Bond". You offer him the role, but what's this? The ratings for Remington Steele just took off? Noticing that NBC has extended Brosnan's contract for another season, you will NOT let them ride the coattails of your movie. So in spite of this, Broccoli withdrew the role from Brosnan, Remington Steele was cancelled, and during the intervening period, Dalton was offered the role of Bond once again, to which he accepted.
Despite A View to a Kill being a financial success, it was lambasted by critics and received horrible reviews, noting that the only good part about the movie was Christopher Walken's "classic" Bond villain image. With a recast of the Bond role, Dalton injected new life into the series, as a more brooding and serious James Bond. A LOT, and I mean a LOT of people did not like seeing this sort of Bond. However, I liked it. No more campy humor, just plenty of action with a man that most looked like Bond since Connery himself. Dalton brought back the espionage and the realism that the series lacked during the Moore era, and his two movies were top notch.
His first, and perhaps his best, was The Living Daylights. Dalton did an excellent job, taking his role seriously and did all his own stunts. He also showed the dark side of Bond, which I rather liked. He lacked with the humor aspect, but I forgave that because he was just that good. I won't spoil this one for you, but if you haven't seen it, go download/torrent/buy/order it on HBO now.
The second movie, License to Kill, totally took the dark Bond to a whole new level. After his friend and wife are killed, Bond takes revenge on their assailant by pushing him into the same shark tank that his friend was killed in. While MI6 gives him a new mission, Bond refuses and resigns. At first, M refuses to let him resign, uttering one of the more famous lines in Bond history "We're not a country club!". He comes around though, and revokes 007s license to kill, along with his 00 agent status. He escapes MI6 custody, and becomes a rogue agent, although he is still assisted by Q. It only picks up from there, but I assure you, it's a good one. If you're a fan of the Moore films, then don't bother, you won't like it at all.
In short, Dalton looked like Bond, gave him a different personality, and his all business approach lands him at #3 on my list.
Best Movie: The Living Daylights (1987)
#2: Pierce Brosnan
If you grew up in the '90s like me, Brosnan WAS Bond. When I was little, I thought that Bond was only portrayed by Pierce and Connery. He was so suave, a consummate ladie's man, a professional. He knew when to be a romantic, when to be funny, and when to be serious. Almost as good as Connery. I have not met someone who did not like Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. All of the good games feature him as Bond, most notably the best FPS in the history of the genre, the one that started it all, Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64. Without it, you don't have your Haloes, or your Gears of War, or your Call of Duties. But I'm here to rank the actor, not the games.
Brosnan was offered the part after a six year hiatus, with people fighting over the rights to Bond and starred in the first post-Cold War Bond film, Goldeneye. Like Dalton before him, his first was his best, and if you have played the game, or the watched the movie, you know what I'm talking about. Why aren't I going in depth like I did with Dalton's movies? Because most people haven't seen Dalton's movies, whereas everyone has at least seen Goldeneye. Brosnan's Bond was more sensitive, more vulnerable, and more psychologically complete than every Bond before him, and he also had a loss of innocence that differentiated his Bond from the others. There was an air about Brosnan, as if he were before his time, and I felt his entry into the series really did bring about the turn around of the franchise itself. Arguably, if you're to look at the official picture of Bond by Ian Fleming, he looks more like Pierce than any other Bond actor. Tommorow Never Dies was also good, but unfortunately, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day didn't live up to their hype. But if there was one constant throughout all those movies, it was that Pierce Brosnan was an excellent Bond. Unfortunately for him, there was one better...
Best Movie: Goldeneye (1995)
#1 Sean Connery
The original is always best. This is certainly true with many things, but it certainly holds true for James Bond. Connery is the epitome of Bond, whom every actor is compared to. Perhaps no one will ever be better, or even as good, as Connery was as 007. He starred in six films (seven, if you count the unofficial Never Say Never Again), and he practically carried them on his back. Connery was so good, that Ian Fleming made it so that Bond was half-Scottish, half-Swiss in his novels. And while it is perhaps unfair to compare any Bond to Connery, it is only just. Only two of his six movies were average, and none of them were below average.
There are many of his movies to choose from, whether it be Dr. No, or Thunderball, or the iconic From Russia with Love. Perhaps you're a fan of You Only Live Twice. Maybe your favorite was *gasp* Diamonds are Forever (shame on you, if it is). But to me, the best Bond film, and Connery's finest, was Goldfinger.
It is the perfect spy film, sucking in hardcore Bond fans and casual viewers alike. Every 007 film since, has some way, some form, followed the Goldfinger formula. It is the first film in the series to feature elaborate gadgets (the tricked out Aston Martin, anyone?), and had some of the most memorable death scenes (suffocation by gold paint), villains (Goldfinger and Oddjob) and the name that started double entendres for Bond women, Pussy Galore. In arguably the climax of the movie, Goldfinger has our hero tied down to a piece of gold, a laser cutting it in half. Bond, looking at Goldfinger, asks "Do you expect me to talk?". Walking away, Goldfinger turns to him and says "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!". There was plenty of humor, gimmicks, excitement, an amusing yet tense gold contest between Bond and Goldfinger, thrilling fights to the death between Bond and Oddjob and Bond and Goldfinger, and a fascinating central crime. In short, as I said before, perfect. So as I close out this post, I have to ask, have I changed your mind on anything? Perhaps you disagree with my rankings. But if I offered at least some insight to at least ONE Bond fan, I will consider this a success. So, in short, I am the Nostalgia Critic, and I remember it so you don't hav- *shot*
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