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: 2006
The 007: Daniel Craig
The (non-UK) location(s): Prague, Uganda, Madagascar, Miami, Montenegro, Bahamas, Italy
The theme song: "You Know My Name" performed by Chris Cornell
Adopting a much grittier and more serious tone than the franchise norm—an approach that had been tried (unsuccessfully) in the past, to some extent, with the two Timothy Dalton films—Daniel Craig's debut as 007 was intended to serve as the first complete series reboot in franchise history, resetting the character and story from scratch (despite one holdover cast member, Judi Dench as M). It's also the first Bond film in nearly two decades to be a direct adaptation of a Fleming work—in this case, appropriately enough, the author's very first James Bond novel, 1953's Casino Royale, whose rights were unavailable to EON during the earlier years of the franchise. (As you remember, that book was theoretically adapted to the big screen once before, but as a non-EON-produced spoof.)
Director Martin Campbell had previously helmed GoldenEye—the best of the Brosnan films—and his work here received even better reviews. Critics especially liked seeing the beginning of Bond's career and the film's emphasis of character over gadgetry, and they were particularly impressed with Craig's performance. Audiences, too, seemed ready for a reinvented, more realistic Bond, Casino Royale easily set the mark (which would be exceeded by a few of its sequels) as the highest-grossing film in the franchise.
“This is Bond as we've never seen him, more naked, alive and mysterious than ever.” —Stephanie Zacharek, Salon
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