You dare to criticise Shirl! Harumph. OK, you maybe maybe have a point.
Live And Let Die is my second choice. I saw him play it live in Orlando in May. He kicked the sh!t out of that an’ all. Fantastic stuff!
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IMHO, things went downhill after Shirl did Moonraker. Roger was really too old for A View To A Kill so they tried to balance this up by asking the Duranies to do the song – big mistake.
After this, they’ve stuck with pop artists (by and large) and some of the theme songs have been very poor IMHO, including Adele’s Skyfall.
There again, many of the films have gone this way too.
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On the playlist today, inspired by this thread:
I also added the last few of opening songs to the playlist, since this was made a few years back.
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Totally agree.
Daniel Craig’s era has turned James Bind into just another action hero. Not really enjoyed them at all.
Connery, Moore and Brosnan were the Bonds I enjoyed, in that order.
Lazenby, Dalton and Craig didn’t have the chemistry for the role and in the case of Lazenby & Dalton, the acting ability 
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I think Craig has been a good Bond in some sub standard plots and outings .
I thought the last one was really good , but with such an ending 
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No surprise, but this Scotsman says Sean Connery was peerless. However, Daniel Craig has been tremendous. He’s single-handedly made a stale and dated franchise watchable.
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Let down by poor writing in most of them
Skyfall, Casino Royale and No Time To Die, stand outs , as for the others, far from memorable
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I agree completely. Quantum of Solace and Spectre were well nigh unwatchable. Just garbage. Casino Royale and Skyfall, on the other hand, are two of my favorite Bond films, and I think they sit in the Pantheon just below the Sean Connery greats (From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice). Skyfall, in particular, has the scope and pacing of a 5-act grand opera.
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I think that ‘Skyfall’, as dark as it may be, is the best Bond film ever made - and by some distance. Daniel Craig’s performance is immense. And the other main star, the DB5, is not far off. I saw the film in a fairly small provincial cinema, and when Craig opened the garage door to reveal the Aston Martin, the car got a huge cheer.
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The same thing happened in our cinema. Really a great moment in the movie - in any movie. The whole film was about old dogs and new tricks, as Naomie Harris says.
I would say about Skyfall that it never could have been made without all that came before it. That is why I hesitate to call it the best of the movies. It is brilliant, and certainly has the most scope, gravitas, character development and emotional content, and some of the best scenes, of any James Bond movie (I love, love, love the atmospherics of the scenes in China and Macau) but those early Sean Connery films, and all that came after, including Casino Royale with Daniel Craig, had to set the stage. They had to invent the character, the mystique, the cliched elements - everything - before it could be deconstructed in Skyfall. We only get Skyfall because for 55 years everyone had gotten used to what James Bond should be. So, I certainly salute the movie that demolished the tropes, but more than that I salute the movies that created them in the first place!
And for what it is worth, I think Daniel Craig seems closer to Ian Fleming’s bond than any of the others. The James Bond of the books is dark, and one might even say damaged. He is much colder (but less “cool”) and more troubled and violent than most of the men who portrayed him on screen. That is not to say that there is anything wrong with that, as movies don’t necessarily have to be faithful to their source material to be enjoyable (unless you are talking about Tolkein, because then the heirs to the Inklings bring out the knives in the dark!), but I have found it interesting that those who criticize Craig’s portrayal as too dark and troubled might have the same criticism of Fleming’s literary Bond.
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No, sorry, that was Judi Dench. On second thoughts I reckon she was the main star.
Roger
That’s a very fair point. So the three main stars are Craig, Dench and the Aston.
Plus Kincaid, the Javier Bardem baddie and Naomie Harris (because she’s almost too flipping gorgeous on screen to be real).
In fact, it’s a damned fine film, not just a damned fine James Bond film.
And real credit must go to Sam Mendes for bringing it all to screen so well.
All due credit too to whoever wrote the theme tune and to Adele for performing it so well.
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Probably one for the vintage transport thread, but in Goldfinger when they load the Rolls on the Carvair at Southend airport it brings back memories. Having had the benefit of growing up on the Essex Riviera in the 60s and 70s, when we were small children my brother and I would be taken to the viewing deck at Southend airport and watch the cars loading. It seems strange now that such a facility was once available but is no longer. Before we came along my parents would take their Lambretta over to Le Touquet for the weekend or even just the day.
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He’s dead now, so it’s all over. ??
No, unfortunately. The franchise makes too much money to kill it off, although it’s sooo out of date and creaky now. At the end of the No Time To Die credits, a line on screen said “James Bond will return”, but what form that will take hasn’t yet been revealed.
10/1 Jemima Bond
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And why not? I’d gladly pay my money see the return of Ana De Armas in some form or other. She stole No Time To Die.
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We should also recognise the late great Derek Watkins, who played lead trumpet on every soundtrack from Dr No to Skyfall. A true legend!
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Worse Bond ever and without getting myself in trouble apparently not a very nice person either.