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Shaken, Not Stirred: Ranking The Bond Movies - #8. The Living Daylights

The first Dalton movie to happen after all the teases that he would come on board. Would it be Moore again, would it be Brosnan, eventually Dalton would end up in the role. A Bond 19 years younger and the last PG Bond. All the Connery and Moore years behind Eon, they were ready to move into the later half of the 80s with a fresh reboot that sadly would only last two movies. On my first watch, this one was much more enjoyable than License to Kill with a big airplane chase at the end, parachute out of a moving vehicle, war museum shootout, roller coaster, cellos, pipeline smuggling and an opening scene that hasn't been matched by too many other Bond films killing off 002 and 004 both whom looked similar to both Moore and Lazenby. I think only the Brosnan movies start off as well as this, as does Skyfall and Casino. My rankings have LD at about where you see it on this list. The internet scores have it closer to the middle of all the Bond movies. It's a good mix of action and sp
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Shaken, Not Stirred: Ranking The Bond Movies - #9. From Russia With Love

The first sequel comes in one spot ahead of the original Dr. No. Last Bond movie to come out before Fleming would pass away. Connery won Fleming over here though he was a naysayer against casting Connery in No. Probably didn't hurt that From Russia broke box office records. Budget was double Dr. No. Connery, Craig, Dalton and Lois Maxwell had/have From Russia as their favorite one.The plot involves retrieving a decoding device before Spectre can get it. First Desmond Llewelyn appearance. Bond doesn't appear until 17 minutes in. Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB would likely have this in the top 5 if we didn't take into account my dead last ranking of 2012. This time I placed it at 12. I quite like the train sequence and the assassination that Bond performs but it takes much longer to get to that then I had remembered. The train fight alone took 3 weeks to film. We get a poisoned shoe knife, ala Dark Knight's Joker. We also get a Spectre base scene, under water boat ride includ
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Shaken, Not Stirred: Ranking The Bond Movies - #10. Dr. No

The OG film with the OG actor. Back in 1961 it was only a glimpse into what EON, Ian Fleming, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman all had in store for the next 70+ years. We had Moneypenny and M, but no Q here. Terence Young would eventually do a trilogy despite not doing Goldfinger and getting pulled back for Thunderball. Broccoli and Saltzman were high on Connery (despite already losing his hair), but Fleming wanted someone else. Bernard Lee only got the part the day before shooting because he was available. Ursula Andress (whom only made 6K on this) is currently still kicking at 88. Her character is random to the plot, she just likes to go the eventual 'bad guy island' for scavaging. The bad guys have left her alone up many times supposedly until the point where James runs into her. I can't remember any other Bond girl being essentially a 'rando' to the plot. She still gets wrapped up with Bond when they get captured. Honey Ryder getting out of the water is p
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Shaken, Not Stirred: Ranking The Bond Movies - #11. Thunderball

The fourth Connery outing in four straight years. The Bond movies wouldn't come out at this rate ever again. Terence Young completes his 'trilogy' starting with Dr. No and following up with From Russia. Because Guy Hamilton's Goldfinger gets praise as the best or at least top 3 in so many eyes, Thunderball was destined for some sort of a letdown. Eon does find their footing and formula by this time. We finally get a Connery gun barrel scene. Dr. No gets praise for being the original and has some of the elements, but Thunderball has the water lair, spy infiltration, and eventual showdown between lead characters and outside fighting (60 divers were used in the underwater climatic battle) that we would come to see so many times. "Oh Shit, let's just do what we always do. Highjack some nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage?" - Dr. Evil. There have been several attempts at sort of remaking this story, and for good reason. Even at it's worst Thunderba
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Shaken, Not Stirred: Ranking The Bond Movies - #12. License to Kill

Timothy Dalton and director John Glen both return in a revenge tale after David Hedison's Felix Leiter gets killed post wedding. Dalton is in his last big role before becoming a villain in The Rocketeer. I saw that Talisa Soto looked familiar and I was first thinking Hotshots Part Deux, but turns out she was in Mortal Kombat. Also in Mortal Kombat, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa shows up working with Bond as well. Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto form a sort of love triangle with James. Grand Bush on the other hand was in Street Fighter. Villain Robert Davi was once in Die Hard, Goonies and Expendables. A 21 year old Benicio Del Toro shows up here in a kind of bit villain role. I recognized Anthony Zerbe, but I did have to look up where from - which happens to be The Matrix Reloaded as a Councillor that Neo talks to in one scene. MI6 doesn't think the drug lord that killed Leiter is worth investigating, bars Bond so he can't carry his license kill. Bond joins Lowell's Pam Bouvier a
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Stirred, Not Shaken: Ranking The Bond Movies - #13. You Only Live Twice

Bond #5 out of 7 for Connery and the second highest grossing movie in 1967. If I had to pick a Bond trilogy by one director it would be Lewis Gilbert (Though I would give the dual feature to Martin Campbell). Between this, Spy and Moonraker, there is no weak outing among them and they all share similar story structures. There is even a shared space theme between this and Moonraker. This one however is the Japanese Bond, we have Bond 'dieing' in the opening scene, but of course it's all a ruse so Bond can do Bond things while Spectre leaves him alone. The United States and Russia face off against each other but they are both getting played by a returning Donald Pleasence Blofeld after each country loses a spacecraft. We get sumo wrestling, a Japanese wedding, kimonos, ninjas. It all climaxes in Dr. Evil's secret volcano lair. Honestly there are some Austin Powers jokes taken from this movie. We get a Bond here that doesn't drive a car, go to MI6, wear a tuxedo and
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Shaken, Not Stirred: Ranking The Bond Movies - #14. For Your Eyes Only

First Bond to be based on one of Fleming's short stories. Top 3 Moore Bond for sure in my opinion but it is ranked #2 here. I would argue Moonraker, Octopussy, and Live are roughly on the same level, and I think For Your Eyes Only and The Spy Who Loved Me are the best of Roger Moore. Moore does agree with that opinion that the two were his favorite and also the best ones he did. It's the winter Olympics Bond. Moments definitely stand out like the ending lair being high up on a scalable mountain that James traverses. The beginning scene sees Bond showdown with Blofeld in a helicopter. James finishes him off once and for all and we don't see him again until Spectre. Bond gets attacked in all kinds of events like: hockey, bobsled, ski jump and ski shooting. There is a motorcycle cross country chase The first of 5 Bond movies to be directed by John Glen. It's definitely not his worst outing, with that going to View, but 3 of the next 4 are solid which include the Dalton o
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