As the world hotly anticipates Daniel Craig’s fifth and final outing as everyone’s favorite secret agent in the forthcoming No Time to Die movie, now seems like the ideal time to look back at the best James Bond films. There are many contenders for the greatest 007 movies of all time, but here is our pick of the best five.
5. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Opinion is divided over On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but many consider it to be one of the all-time great Bond films. George Lazenby had a tough time in his one-outing as the MI6 secret agent, as he took over the iconic role from the original Bond, Sean Connery. For the first time, we see James Bond fall in love. And with a stellar script and breathtaking stunts in the snow-capped Alps, this 1969 movie most definitely deserves a place amongst the greatest 007 movies.
4. Casino Royale
Let’s face it. None of the Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan films come close to being the greatest Bond movies of all time. That is not to say there are not some fine films among them, such as The Living Daylights and GoldenEye, but compared to the days of Connery and Moore in the lead role, the ’80 and ‘90s movies just couldn’t cut the mustard. That is why so many Bond fans were excited when the news came out that a new Bond was in town and the series was getting a new look. Daniel Craig has delivered some excellent Bond movies, but his first outing is still his best film. The plot sees Bond at the start of his career as a 00-agent, taking on a bankrupt terrorist at a high-stakes game of poker at the Casino Royale in Montenegro. You do not have to travel to Montenegro to play casino games yourself. There are plenty of fantastic online casinos, like Casumo.com, where you can follow in Bond’s footsteps and play thrilling games like roulette and poker.
3. The Spy Who Loved Me
Roger Moore’s third outing as James Bond is widely considered to be the best 007-movie of the 1970s, and we agree. With exotic locations like Egypt and Italy and underwater scenes shot in the Bahamas, the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me spared no expense to make it a true blockbuster. The plot involves that Bond cliché of a reclusive megalomaniac who wants to destroy the world. Only this time, the evil Karl Stromberg wants to develop a new undersea civilization. Bond teams up with a Russian agent to stop the criminal mastermind, and he takes on the menacing Jaws along the way.
2. You Only Live Twice
Even though this film only uses a few characters and locations from Ian Fleming’s novel of the same name and discards most of the original plot, unlike the Bond movies that came before, the script manages to contain everything we associate with a classic James Bond film. Interestingly, Roald Dahl, who is primarily known as a children’s author, wrote the fantastic screenplay in which MI6’s most famous agent is sent to Japan after Soviet and American spacecraft mysteriously disappear. Bond then travels to a remote secret island and comes face-to-face with SPECTRE’s leader Blofeld, expertly played by Donald Pleasance, for the first time.
1. Goldfinger
“You expect me to talk?” asks Bond as he is strapped to a table with a laser heading ever nearer to the part of him that Bond girls seem to desire. “No,” replies Auric Goldfinger, “I expect you to die.” With classic lines like that, and memorable scenes like finding a woman intoxicated to death by being covered in gold paint, and an audacious scheme to make the United States gold reserve become radioactive, it is no wonder that Goldfinger is often cited as people’s favorite 007-movie. It even features the innuendo-named Pussy Galore and more of Q’s gadgets than seen in previous films. One of those gadgets has become as synonymous with Bond as his love of playing casino games and drinking Martinis that have been shaken but not stirred: 007’s iconic Aston Martin. Quite simply, Goldfinger has it all, and it set a new standard for the following James Bond movies.
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