Every James Bond Movie, Ranked Worst to Best
With this month's arrival (finally!) of No Time to Die, there have now been 25 official films in the EON-produced James Bond film franchise based on author Ian Fleming's British spy character. In the gallery on this page, we rank every one of those films—plus two additional Bond features from outside producers—from worst to best based on their Metascores, which represent the consensus of a group of top professional film critics.
Right now, it's fairly easy to find most of the Bond films on streaming services (and if it's not on the streaming service you have, it likely will be shortly, as the films are deleted from and re-added to various services every few months). That could change in the future thanks to a recent deal by Amazon to acquire MGM, which currently holds the home video rights to most of the Bond catalog, though there are no definitive plans to make Prime Video the exclusive home of 007 ... yet.
All photos courtesy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios except Casino Royale (1967) by Columbia Pictures and Never Say Never Again by Warner Bros.
The year: 1983
The 007: Sean Connery
The (non-UK) location(s): Bahamas, France
The theme song: "Never Say Never Again" performed by Lani Hall
By far the better of the two widely released non-canonical Bond films (and released in theaters almost concurrently with an official Roger Moore-starring Bond installment, Octopussy), this surprisingly good 1983 film found a then-52-year-old Sean Connery returning to the role that made him famous for the first time in 12 years. In fact, it's a remake of 1965's Thunderball, which also starred Connery, and the property became available to an outside producer due to a dispute over the authorship of the Thunderball novel (upon which both films were based), with a resulting settlement splitting the film rights.
Also starring Max von Sydow (as SPECTRE head Blofeld) and Kim Basinger, and featuring fights choreographed by Steven Seagal, Never is directed by Irvin Kershner, whose previous film was the under-the-radar space drama The Empire Strikes Back. (That is how you use the phrase "under-the-radar," right?) And though Never doesn't quite veer into sci-fi, it does boast one very forward-looking scene where Bond and his nemesis Maximillian Largo (played by Klaus Maria Brandauer) engage in an elaborate videogame battle.
Even though it's not part of the EON-produced 007 canon, the film rights to Never Say Never Again eventually found their way to MGM (home to the full series), which means the film is usually available to stream. And the rights to the Thunderball story are now fully owned by EON, so there are no chances of another outside production based on that book—though, before the transfer, another remake almost did happen in the late 1990s, with Roland Emmerich the rumored director.
“As directed by Irvin Kershner, Never Say Never Again has noticeably more humor and character than the Bond films usually provide. It has a marvelous villain in Largo.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times
| Stream On |
|
| Buy on |
|
| Stream On |
|
| Stream On |
|
| Stream On |
|