All things Bond, eventually
 

Have a particular favorite James Bond actor? Theme song?

Pray tell.



My three favorite themes
- Live and Let Die
- Spy Who Loved Me
- View to a Kill

(Pic related -- it's my favorite Bond actor)


To hear Johnny Cash's rejected Bond theme, click here -----> .

Without a doubt... Sean Connery is the James Bond.



3 best Bond Themes:

Goldfinger
Diamonds Are Forever
The Spy Who Loved Me

I have a very hard time keeping the Bond movies separate in my head. It just feels like one movie done 837 times. But I'll go in this order on the Bonds, from best to worst

Connery, Craig, Brosnan, Moore, Niven, Dalton, Lazenby (by default since I haven't seen his movie).

For scores, I can't think of one actually used in a movie. But Lani's dad was a professional composer/arranger and one of the things he pass along was a CD of his own compositions of themes for the early James Bond films. I'm not clear if they were ever actually used for anything or if they were just a personal project.

I think the first movie I ever saw theatrically was Goldfinger.


And, yes, that was during its original run.


So, for more reasons than merely being the best, Connery IS Bond, and nobody does it better. Especially that hack who dared to have that as a theme song to one of his pseudo-Bond movies.

Actually, Dalton is my 2nd favorite Bond. I know I'm in the minority on that though.

And even if Lazenby wasn't Connery, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the best Bond movies.

Timothy Dalton is rad in License to Kill.

I like Connery followed by Craig. Dalton was my least favorite, and I didn't much care for Brosnan. Never saw Niven. Moore is third, followed by Lazenby (only saw On Her Majesty's Secret Service once though, so it's tough to really place him).

That being said, though, my favorite plots are both with Moore - Octopussy and For Your Eyes Only. I was never much for the "mad men want to take over the world" plots where there is a huge battle at the end where 5000 people all fight and at the last second the world is saved. The worst two plots were also with Moore, being a View to a Kill and Moonraker.

Live and Let Die is the best theme.

I've seen Moonraker more than any other, because any time it was on and I flipped to it I couldn't resist sticking around.

Connery is the man, of course, but as a kid growing up on TBS Bond marathons, Roger Moore was the one to watch.

I dig Daniel Craig but to me it's a totally different movie. Dalton was too shrimpy, never saw Niven or Lazenby.

You Only Live Twice is my fav theme. I love whistling it.

My favorite Bond?



Ward Bond.

Connery's my favorite Bond - Shirley Bassy is my favorite Bond Songstress - so Goldfinger & Diamonds are Forever. Live and Let Die would be my next favorite theme song - though if we take remixes into the mix, the Propellerheads On Her Majesty's Secret Service cannot be beat.

My very FAVORITE Bond film. It never gets old to me.




Yeah, well, there's a reason why we're married. ;)

And, thank you for playing the Propellerheads really loud for me right now. Best Bond Theme EVER!

Even with Connery as my favorite Bond, my second favorite film is "Live and Let Die" followed by Goldfinger. I also love View to a Kill - which isn't Connery either.

I was really happy with Daniel Craig as Bond. It's a different style of Bond but I liked it.

Live and Let Die is my favorite non-Connery Bond film.

Been sipping bourbon while listening to Bond music - apparently I have 5 hours worth of music on my itunes under that search term.

Hahahaha, Moonraker is, by far, the worst Bond movie ever made. And that's saying a lot.


I'm a big fan, but lordy some of those movies are just awful.

But doesn't it just rip at your heart strings when Jaws turns good with his little girlfriend?

No.





The films may be uneven, but the music and theme songs from the Bond films are almost always great.

I think my favorite generally under-appreciated song is The Man With the Golden Gun by Lulu. But what an odd film.

Some of the worst films have great songs. Shirley Bassey's Moonraker is velvety good, but the poorest of her record three contributions. Goldfinger is, of course, the classic - and deservedly so. But Diamonds are Forever is, imo, her best. On all three, Bassey's vocals are purely rad.

I think my favorite vocal is Tom Jones on Thunderball.

Tina Turner's Goldeneye comes in a close second.


Perhaps the oddest opening credits song was the one that's not a song at all. On Her Majesty's Secret Service features a distillation of the score. And it's likely the coolest piece of Bond music ever.

Download and listen!


Daniel Craig made a splash not only with his puggish Bond, but with a superb opening credits sequence featuring a song I love, but not everyone does. You Know My Name is great, and if you don't think so - you are simply wrong.

Looks like you can find all the opening credits sequences on youtube. Fun!

One of my friends used to have a videotape of all the opening credits from their original TV broadcasts. Since the originals contained naked ladies (in silhouette, mostly), they actually shot completely different versions for ABC. I'd love to see those again.

Let's talk Bond Aliases!

I was trying to remember a few favorite Bond moments last night. One is where Sean wears that little blue terrycloth pool suit (there is NO ONE ELSE how could carry that off).

I moved on to my favorite Aliases. Syngen Smyth from "A View to a Kill" is only topped by a close margin by Sir Hilary Bray. Oh HILLY!

Here's a great list of all of the Bond Alias names.

I watched/listened to it again just to be sure and yeah, I completely disagree. Perhaps with different singer and different arrangement?

Oh, James.
 

Connery and Lazenby are good as Bond. Craig was great in Casino Royal, though the follow up was so bad I will have to wait for the next one to really judge. Dalton was OK, though I just didn't buy it. Same with Brosnan, though I think it had to do with the overall quality of the films. I saw them. Liked them. But I never want watch them again.

If it is about repeatability, Moore wins every time.

Best Bond films:

A. Live and Let Die
B. The Man with the Golden Gun
C. The Spy Who Loved Me

When they are on, I will always watch them from start to finish. By total coincidence, Octopussy and A View to a Kill were on last night. They were both pretty bad. I made it all the way through OP though I gave up half through AVtaK.

I recall actually enjoying Moonraker though I would have to watch it again to decide.


(Pic unrelated)

I can say that, having just watched it on You Tube in the spirit of inquiry, the fight scene in "From Russia With Love" holds up somewhat better than, say, the car chase in "Bullitt" or the dance sequences in "Saturday Night Live."

Or, MadTV, for that matter.

Goldfinger is the best bond movie hands down.

It has the best Bond ie. Connery

The best bond girl name "pussy galore"

The best bond line "Bond: do you expect me to talk Goldfinger.
Goldfinger: No mister bond I expect you to Die.

Whoops. I meant "Saturday Night Fever."

Duly noted.

I know the above comment is a widely held belief, indeed, I just to-day read an article in the Entertainment Weekly that espoused the very same thought -- Goldfinger is the best.

I just watched it and I can not figure out what makes it the gold standard of Bond films. I liked it. It was OK. But I am not convinced of the film's greatness.

I actually was going to go point by point about what I thought was off about that movie, but after writing it, I deleted it. For whatever reason people will always choose Connery as the best, so what can a brother do?

Maybe my fondness and genuine nostalgia for the 1970s clouds my ability to see how Goldfinger could in anyway match a film like The Spy Who Loved Me, which I think ranks not as a great Bond film, but as a great film of the action genre, itself.

Interestingly enough, I read a review that made the claim that TSWLM was the best Bond film -- period, but then went on in the next paragraph to explain by Connery was still better. Ridiculous. It's like Roger Moore was revealed to be a Nazi sympathiser, or something.

You guys are costing me a fortune on iTunes right now. Thought you oughta know. BTW: there's a "The Best of Bond... James Bond" album on there.

sorry, Tref. Moore was great as the Saint, absolutely terrible as James Bond.

I remember really liking The Spy Who Loved Me when it came out ... and I was 16. Now I can't make it through the thing, it's so embarrassing.


For Your Eyes Only is the only passable Roger Moore Bond film. He's absolutely awful and completely wrong for the role.


Goldfinger was not without its camp elements, but since every Bond film since has been little more than a parody of its own genre, that alone set's Goldfinger as the apex, hit absurdly early, of the entire Bond set.

Sorry Steve, but Alan Partridge begs to differ:

you really need to see this

Apology accepted.

Dame Judi is the best M ever.

Ah, but was she the best Elizabeth??

How about Octopussy? I liked that onewith Moore as well.

As much as I love my Dame Judi Dench, the best Elizabeth I so far is Glenda Jackson.
:)

It's been a while, but to appear hip, I'll cast my vote for Jenny Runacre.