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 then orders a stirred, not shaken martini. It feels slightly bigger budget than even Thunderball, supposedly the volcano was more expensive than all of Dr. No. Desmond Llewelyn, Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell all return. No one died here like in For Your Eyes Only, but a photographer lost a leg and the set was in a bad spot between Connery and the producers. The producers also all almost died in a plane crash but got delayed by a ninja show. The movie has good reviews, best of this list so far. I have it ranked similarly to how I did 12 years ago, though I remember it much more fondly than others. We haven't even made it to my #26 and #25 of 2012, but I'm betting one of those is License to Kill as that one chafed me pretty good on the first watch. It's only the 3rd Connery on here and maybe not strangely, they have been in reverse chronological order. We shall see if Dr. No is #1 in the end. I actually write these one at a time, not knowing anything coming ahead. I just average my two rankings with the two web sites and we get what we get.
| Movie | IMDB | Rot. Tom. | Rot. Tom. Aud. | 2012 Rank | 2024 Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13. You Only Live Twice | 6.8 | 74% | 69% | 19 | 17 |
| 14. For Your Eyes Only | 6.7 | 69% | 64% | 21 | 9 |
| 15. On Her Majesty's Secret Service | 6.7 | 81% | 64% | 24 | 15 |
| 16. Moonraker | 6.2 | 60% | 43% | 5 | 14 |
| 17. Live and Let Die | 6.7 | 67% | 64% | 16 | 20 |
| 18. Octopussy | 6.5 | 42% | 47% | 12 | 11 |
| 19. The Man with the Golden Gun | 6.7 | 42% | 55% | 7 | 26 |
| 20. Quantum of Solace | 6.5 | 64% | 58% | 18 | 23 |
| 21. The World Is Not Enough | 6.4 | 51% | 49% | 8 | 25 |
| 22. Never Say Never Again | 6.1 | 71% | 37% | 17 | 18 |
| 23. A View to Kill | 6.3 | 37% | 40% | 9 | 21 |
| 24. Tomorrow Never Dies | 6.5 | 57% | 53% | 20 | 22 |
| 25. Diamonds are Forever | 6.5 | 64% | 57% | 23 | 24 |
| 26. Die Another Day | 6.1 | 55% | 41% | 22 | 19 |
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