James Bond movies: Ranking 007’s most challenging, worst and all the things in between

26. A Inquire of to a Execute

Keith Hamshere/Getty Images

In keeping with the extreme consensus, Roger Moore is rarely in actuality splendid the superstar of the worst James Bond film — this snowboarding 1985 entry — he is the superstar of the worst James Bond movies, interval. When mixed and averaged, his 007 films manufacture a franchise-low Metascore of 53.7.

A Inquire of to a Execute became once Moore’s seventh and final 007 film. His costars included Christopher Walken as gleefully murderous villain Max Zorin and Grace Jones as Bond baddie (and eventual ally) May Day. The assign that Bond has to foil: Zorin’s scheme to homicide Silicon Valley so he can control the marketplace for computer chips.

“The James Bond sequence has had its bummers, but nothing sooner than in the class of this one,” Pauline Kael wrote for The New Yorker.

Metascore: 40

25. The Man With the Golden Gun

MGM

As some distance as critics are eager, this 1974 installment, Moore’s 2d day day out as 007, is one other bottom-dweller in the James Bond franchise. “If you happen to loved the early Bond films as critical as I did, you would better skip this one,” Nora Sayre wrote in The New York Instances.

The Man With the Golden Gun, featuring Christopher Lee because the Bond villain and rival marksman Scaramanga and eventual Delusion Island superstar Herve Villechaize as his henchman Gash Nack, grossed $97.6 million worldwide, the weakest box-state of job performance by any of the Roger Moore 007 films.

Metascore: 43

24. On line casino Royale (1967)

LMPC / Getty Images

This offbeat, comic entry facets a huge amount of actors as James Bond. But extra 007s assemble now not assemble things merrier — or better. Selection called this model of On line casino Royale “a film of unbelievable sloppiness” and “an insult to the Bond name.” 

Here is most likely one of the most two noncanonical, non-Eon films in our rundown. (And for Bond completists — sorry, we’re now not including the 1954 tv manufacturing of On line casino Royale, which portrayed our hero as Jimmy Bond, and an American to boot.)

1967’s On line casino Royale, featuring David Niven, Peter Sellers and Orson Welles, grossed a Bond-worst $41.7 million worldwide.

Metascore: 48

23. The following day Never Dies

20th Century Fox House Leisure

The principle of the four Pierce Brosnan Bond movies on this checklist gets credit for giving Michelle Yeoh an early Hollywood showcase — but for limited else. In keeping with Salon’s Charles Taylor, this 1997 film “rankings zero in suspense, wit or class.”

When averaged, Brosnan’s four James Bond movies publish a 57.5 Metascore, the 2d-lowest among 007 actors who maintain starred in now not lower than four movies. 

On the box state of job, The following day Never Dies, featuring Jonathan Pryce as villain Elliot Carver, grossed $339.5 million worldwide. That is on par with, but on the low cease of, the opposite films of the Brosnan generation.

Metascore: 52

22. For Your Eyes Simplest

MGM

Critics are kinder, if aloof cold, to Roger Moore’s fifth 007 dart. Within the Chicago Solar-Instances, critic Roger Ebert wrote that the 1981 film “is a competent James Bond thriller …[b]ut or now not it is no bigger than that.”

With the exception of its studies, For Your Eyes Simplest is a success of the Roger Moore generation: It earned an Oscar nomination for its Sheena Easton-crooned title tune, and it grossed $195.3 million worldwide — the 2d-most challenging box state of job exhibiting for a Moore installment. 

Metascore: 54

20 (tie). The Undercover agent Who Cherished Me

LMPC/Getty Images

Nominated for a franchise-most challenging three Oscars, this 1977 Roger Moore dart on the opposite hand rated mixed studies from critics. “After the gap sequence,” Newsweek’s Maureen Orth wrote, “critical of the stream in The Undercover agent Who Cherished Me … is considerably downhill.”

The Undercover agent Who Cherished Me, featuring the first of two franchise appearances by Richard Kiel because the villainous Jaws, grossed $185.4 million worldwide, making it one of the most most challenging box state of job hits of its free up year.   

Metascore: 55

20 (tie). Are residing and Let Die

MGM

Roger Moore’s first James Bond film is, smartly, one other middling effort — now not lower than per the critics. On reflection, this 1973 film could need suffered by comparability with the perfect-concluded Sean Connery generation.

“[E]ven the art path — long the Bond films’ staunch secret weapon — looks to maintain fallen to a shrunken budget,” the Chicago Reader’s Dave Kehr wrote. “Now now not critical relaxing.”

On the box state of job, Are residing and Let Die, co-starring Geoffrey Holder because the voodoo-training henchman Baron Samedi and Yaphet Kotto as head inappropriate man Katanga/Mr. Gargantuan, and featuring the hit title tune by Paul McCartney’s Wings, became once a mountainous step up from the Sean Connery film that preceded it, Diamonds Are Forever. Are residing and Let Die grossed $161.8 million worldwide.

Metascore: 55

19. Die One more Day

MGM

The final Pierce Brosnan James Bond film could need launched the invisible automobile, but critics inform this 2002 film as a retread, now not an innovator. “Absolutely this can now not be giving things away to grunt you there could be solely nothing new regarding the most modern episode,” Desson Thomson wrote in The Washington Put up.

Co-starring then-reigning Oscar winner Halle Berry as Bond woman Jinx Johnson, with Monty Python’s John Cleese as Q, and featuring the hit title music by Madonna, Die One more Day grossed extra money than every other Pierce Brosnan 007 film: $431.9 million worldwide.

Metascore: 56

18. The World Is Now now not Adequate

Keith Hamshere/Sygma/Getty Images

This 1998 film is the third Pierce Brosnan James Bond film. “This keeps one moderately amused, titillated, and brain-uninteresting for rather of over two hours,” Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote in the Chicago Reader.

The World Is Now now not Adequate grossed a stable $361.7 million at the worldwide box state of job. It co-stars Robert Carlyle because the villain Renard, who feels no wretchedness; Sophie Marceau because the strikingly conflicted Elektra King; and Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist. 

Metascore: 57

16 (tie). Licence to Execute

MGM

The 2d — and final — James Bond film of the Timothy Dalton generation gets splendid marks as an stream film, but now not necessarily as a 007 film. “James Bond could as smartly be any of a dozen film police officers,” the St. Louis Put up-Dispatch’s Joe Pollack wrote of this 1989 entry.

Licence to Execute, featuring Robert Davi because the drug lord villain Sanchez, Carey Lowell as Bond woman Pam Bouvier and a young Benicio del Toro as a henchman, grossed $156.2 million worldwide — a mountainous tumble at the box state of job compared with Dalton’s debut 007 film.

Metascore: 58

16 (tie). Quantum of Solace

MGM

To this level, this 2008 film is the worst-reviewed of the 007 Daniel Craig generation. “Quantum of Solace is most likely to be explosive with pictures of fiery infernos,” Film Probability’s Jay Slater wrote, “but or now not it is convoluted and complex.” 

On your entire, the Craig-led Bond films boast a Metascore moderate of 69.8, making his movies the 2d-most challenging reviewed 007 movies of all time.

On one hand, Quantum of Solace, co-starring Mathieu Amalric as Bond villain Dominic Greene, is the fourth-most challenging-grossing James Bond film of all time, with $591.7 million in worldwide put sales. On the opposite hand, the film is the lowest-grossing James Bond film starring Daniel Craig. 

Metascore: 58

15. Diamonds Are Forever

MGM

The lowest-ranked Sean Connery film on this rundown is the Scotsman’s sixth Bond venture — and the final one that the enduring superstar made sooner than taking a 12-year 007 hiatus. In keeping with critics, Diamonds Are Forever became once proof of a franchise speedy of new blood. 

The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael called the film an “tiresome Bond image that is progressively noisy when it formula to be spirited.”

Diamonds Are Forever co-stars Charles Grey as arch-villain Blofeld and Jill St. John as Bond woman Tiffany Case, and facets Putter Smith and Bruce Glover because the archly menacing Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint, respectively. Amongst the Sean Connery 007 installments, the film grossed a middling $116 million worldwide.

Metascore: 59

13 (tie). Spectre

MGM

This 2015 Daniel Craig dart, the most these days launched James Bond film, is “filled with mountainous sets, mountainous stunts, and what must be mountainous moments,” Matt Zoller Seitz eminent for RogerEbert.com, “but few of them land.”

Spectre co-stars Christoph Waltz in a new preserve shut on the feeble legitimate Bond villain Blofeld, with Ralph Fiennes taking up as M, and adore Skyfall, delves deeper into Bond’s foundation tale. It grossed a whopping $879.6 million worldwide, the 2d-most challenging preserve shut for the franchise.

Metascore: 60

13 (tie). The Residing Daylights

Keith Hamshere/Getty Images

This 1987 Timothy Dalton entry, the first of his two turns as James Bond, wins facets from critics for now not being a Roger Moore entry. “After the fizzle of the later Roger Moore Bonds,” Empire’s Kim Newman wrote, “The Residing Daylights brings in a new 007 … who manages the Connery trick of seeming suave and keen at the same time.”

The Residing Daylights outgrossed its predecessor, Roger Moore’s A Inquire of to a Execute, by almost $40 million, for a world box state of job entire of $191.2 million.

Metascore: 60

11 (tie). On Her Majesty’s Secret Carrier

Sunset Boulevard/Getty Images

This 1969 film, which marks George Lazenby’s lone day day out as James Bond, is a moderately splendid 007 entry, per critics. While the New Yorker’s Pauline Kael stumbled on its superstar “moderately a dreary fellow,” she called the film “spirited.”

On Her Majesty’s Secret Carrier broke new ground: It featured a James Bond marriage ceremony, with Diana Rigg as 007’s feisty but in uncomfortable health-fated bride, Tracy di Vincenzo. On the box state of job, though, the film fell flat with an $82 million worldwide mistaken.

Metascore: 61

11 (tie). You Simplest Are residing Twice

Explicit Newspapers/Getty Images

This 1967 entry marks Sean Connery’s fifth day day out as James Bond. Chicago Solar-Instances critic Roger Ebert seen indicators of put on: “Connery labors mightily,” Ebert wrote.

For a Sean Connery James Bond film, You Simplest Are residing Twice grossed a so-so $111.6 million worldwide. The film is on the opposite hand influential: Its cat-petting iteration of Blofeld (performed by Donald Pleasence), complete with villain’s hideaway in a volcano, inspired the Austin Powers franchise’s Dr. Unfriendly.  

Metascore: 61

10. Octopussy

MGM

In keeping with critics, this 1983 film is Roger Moore’s 2d-most challenging James Bond film. “It soars, all real, but it does it on computerized pilot,” wrote Jay Scott for Toronto’s Globe and Mail.

Octopussy, co-starring Maud Adams in her 2d franchise day day out (after The Man with the Golden Gun), because the titular persona, grossed a stable $187.5 million worldwide.

Metascore: 63

9. Thunderball

LMPC/Getty Images

In keeping with critics, this 1965 film is a lesser Sean Connery 007 entry, but a substantial entry total. “[It] aloof without problems plies the glory Bond years, concluding with a splendid underwater strive against,” wrote Empire’s Kim Newman.

Thunderball is the cease-grossing Sean Connery 007 film of the 1960s and 1970s: It took in $141.2 million in worldwide put sales. It also offered the template for Connery’s final James Bond day day out almost two a long time later, Never Command Never Again.

Metascore: 64

8. GoldenEye

MGM

The first Pierce Brosnan Bond film is the most challenging Pierce Brosnan Bond film, per critics. “New Bond man Brosnan can now not be faulted for critical,” Desson Thomson wrote in The Washington Put up. “In this new venture, he is wisely vivid, British-accented and suave.”

GoldenEye featured Sean Bean as a double-0 agent modified into inappropriate man, Famke Janssen as Bond woman Xenia Onatopp and Judi Dench in her first flip as Bond boss M. It grossed a then-huge $356.4 million worldwide. Pent-up predict of could need helped: The 1995 film became once the first James Bond film since Timothy Dalton’s License to Execute, launched six years prior.

Metascore: 65

7. Moonraker

MGM

Launched in 1979, two years after Star Wars modified splendid about all the things in Hollywood, the fourth Roger Moore James Bond film sees 007 despatched to outer dwelling. Critics non-sarcastically cheered. “Moonraker is a relaxing mix of acquainted substances,”  wrote The Washington Put up’s Gary Arnold.

Moonraker, co-starring Lois Chiles as astronaut Holly Goodhead (yes, in actuality), is the ninth-most challenging-grossing James Bond film of all time, with $210.3 million in worldwide put sales. 

Total, Moonraker is the acceptable-reviewed Bond film of the Moore generation. 

Metascore: 66

6. Never Command Never Again

Sheila Penn/Getty Images

The prime-grossing Sean Connery Bond film, this 1983 film is also one of the most better-reviewed Bond movies. 

Never Command Never Again marked Connery’s final 007 look and, from a extreme standpoint, looks to maintain benefited from having been launched at some stage in the reviled tail cease of the Roger Moore generation. 

“It is splendid to survey Connery’s grave stylishness on this characteristic again,” Time’s Richard Schickel wrote. “It makes Bond’s cynicism and opportunism seem the product of true worldliness (and world weariness) as against Roger Moore’s mere twirpishness.”

No topic the presence of Connery, who first embodied Bond on the mountainous cloak, this film wasn’t from Eon Productions, making it the 2d of the two non-canonical films in our checklist.

Metascore: 68

5. Dr. No

Andrew Matthews/PA Images through Getty Images

The principle James Bond characteristic film, launched in 1962 (though it didn’t diagram in the USA till 1963), is most likely one of the most acceptable James Bond movies, per critics. “Sean Connery excellently puts over a cold, plucky, on-the-ball, fictional Secret Carrier man,” Selection praised.

Dr. No, featuring Ursula Andress as fashioned Bond woman Honey Ryder (yes, in actuality), became once one of 1963’s Top 10 box-state of job hits. It grossed $59.6 million worldwide.

Metascore: 78

4. On line casino Royale

MGM

The principle Daniel Craig James Bond film, On line casino Royale blew away critics with its new preserve shut on the gape saga. “[Craig’s] Bond is now not lower than the equal of the acceptable ones sooner than him, and beats all of them in sheer depth,” The Wall Side road Journal’s Joe Morgenstern raved.

The opening minutes of the film cloak how Bond earned his double-0 rating, and for followers of the Ian Fleming novels, it manages to both preserve factual to the 1953 e book and adapt that tale for audiences a half of-century later.

The 2006 film grossed a then-franchise-most challenging $594.4 million worldwide. 

Metascore: 80

3. Skyfall

MGM

The prime-grossing James Bond film to this point, with a world preserve shut of larger than $1.1 billion, this 2012 film is, in step with critics, the acceptable Daniel Craig 007 film — and that’s the reason now not all.  

“Skyfall is most likely one of the most acceptable Bonds in the 50-year history of moviedom’s most a success franchise,” James Adams wrote in Toronto’s Globe and Mail.

The film won the sequence’ first two Oscars since 1964’s Goldfinger; it claimed statuettes for sound editing and for Adele’s title tune. 

Metascore: 81

2. From Russia With Cherish

LMPC through Getty Images

The 2d James Bond film is, per the extreme consensus, the 2d-most challenging James Bond film ever. The New Yorker’s fabled Pauline Kael praised the 1963 free up: “Thrilling, handsomely staged, and campy.”

From Russia With Cherish, featuring Lotte Lenya as Bond baddie Rosa Klebb and Robert Shaw because the SPECTRE assassin gunning for Bond, grossed $78.9 million worldwide, a preserve shut that represented important development over Dr. No, and firmly established 007 as a franchise to seek.

Metascore: 84

1. Goldfinger

Sunset Boulevard/Corbis through Getty Images

Here it is: This 1964 Sean Connery entry is, per the extreme consensus, the acceptable James Bond film. It had the total parts we now maintain diagram to query: the megalomaniac villain with an inappropriate and murderous scheme, the henchman with a quirky formula for killing (Oddjob and his hat), mountainous state items with extravagant stream, Bond in a dinner jacket.

“Better than lifestyles, faintly ridiculous, fully cold, Goldfinger is the quintessential James Bond film,” Empire’s Ian Freer wrote.

The film grossed a then-franchise-most challenging $124.9 million worldwide, and won the franchise’s first Oscar (for sound effects). 

Metascore: 87