Best 007 Actor
 

This was sparked by the SpikeTV 007 marathon all weekend, who do you all think was the best actor who played 007? My vote is for Sean Connery, with Pierce Brosnan as a close, close second. Your thoughts?

Well, your thoughts exactly mirror mine. And guess what Im watching right now? Octopussy on Spike TV.

Oh that's easy.

George Lazenby by far . . . /sarcasm. ;)

Wasn't he only in one bond film. Does he really deserve to make the list.

But seriously, I voted for Sean Connery, the original.

Sean Connery was the best actor hands down.

But I think Moore and Brosnan were in the better movies of the series.

Sorry...I grew up on Roger Moore...so I'm biased.
Moonraker got to be one of my favorites.

When I think Bond, Connery is the one I think of

Agreed.

Connery was the best by far, im surprised that people are voting otherwise.

COnnery here too... Timothy Dalton?!?, someone has some weird tastes

I voted for Pierce, 'cause I think it should be closer than it is. Connerry was probably better, but Brosnan's movie's look better today- Connery's 007s look kind of dated now.

My favorite Bond film is GoldenEye 007, so I chose Brosnan. Connery IS the definitive bond, according to most people, and I also really like him.

Yeah, Goldeneye is a really good one--it was a good way to kick the series back off, too. I love the opener...

I'd have to say Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton, but Pierce wins because of GoldenEye. Best Bond film of the series in my opinion, and I've seen all but two of them.

-Lasereth

Sean Connery, hands down, he is the man. Pierce is a close second because he has that sort of Connery air about him. However, it's the original that we love the best!

Im kinda concerned about who they are going to replace Brosnan with. Brosnan does an excellent job, but Im not sure he has really been given a good Bond movie other than Goldeneye. I dont know, I just think he does such a good job, and cant think of anyone to replace him. He is supposed to finish his next movie and then be done.

Best 007 Movie
 

OK, so along the lines of the Best 007 Actor post, what is your favorite Bond film?

For me, I would have to go with either Goldfinger or Goldeneye. I grew up watching James Bond all the time, but these are the two that I really like the best.

Call me crazy but I think Timothy Dalton did a very good job and he does not get enough credit for the two films he was in.

License To Kill.

License to Kill is one of my favorite bond movies, behind golden eye. I think Dalton was great, as was Brosnan.

I can't even watch the pre-Dalton movies, they're too dated for me...

I can't decide.... Brosnan good, Daulton good, Moore Awesome, Connery Ungodly. So I pick Sean

Moonraker, Man with the Golden Gun, Dr.No, I have so many I might as well as say all of them.

I have to say thunderball. Story was so good it was used again (in never say never again), great underwater combat seqeunce, and the best Q appearance in cinematic history. Caberet Royale (peter sellers version) is awesome too.

I have to agree with bartgroks, Thunderball was the best, I can watch that one over and over and over....

Bartgroks,
I think you mean Casino Royale. Still a hysterical movie. What's New, Pussycat is hysterical too. Sorry to be off topic. Won't happen again.

I love Goldeneye. It saved the franchise and updated 007 for the modren world.

As much as I hate to go with the crowd I have to to pick Sean.
He pretty much made the series.
Nobody can touch him (though Brosnon is working at it).
Never Say Never is great fun.

Agreed. Plus the fact that the game GoldenEye 007 came out on the old Nintendo 64 helped a lot.

Either Golden Eye or Moonraker.

I'd say GoldenEye is the best followed closely by License to Kill.

-Lasereth

Dalton. He brought something to the character missing from the other actors. Emotion. At least, I think he did.

Sean Connery, no contest.

Goldfinger. Plain and simple. Dr. No and Thunderball rock the socks too.

Sean Connery of course. But, Roger Moore was also a great Bond, the role really fit him well.

Yeah, Thunderball is definitely a good one too. I havent seen it in a while, Im gonna have to work on that...

I liked Moonraker, Golden Eye, but WTF happend with the last one? It was weird seeing Bond getting his ass kicked to such a degree and the directoring was weird.

Ditto

GoldenEye, anything post GoldenEye is meh.

Goldfinger.

Goldfinger without question the classic Bond film.

Also loved From Russia with Love. Great no-nonsence spying going on, and an incredible fight scene in a confined room on a train.

I definatley have to say that Sean Connery is the best bond. He fits the role so well. Brosnan is definatley the second best. My two favorite Bond movies are Goldfinger and Goldeneye Tommorow Never Dies is a close second.

Sean Connery makes the top of my list, followed closely by Roger Moore. I don't really like where the whole Bond franchise is going these days, so Brosnan is down there at the bottom, with the rest of the dorks :D

To me, Brosnan's Bond films will always be like Star Wars: Episode 2, paling in comparison to the originals, despite the shiny new look an the explosions.

And what about poor Georgey boy.

Nevermind, you're right. But he might still get a vote, you never know. Maybe. :hmm:

I'm sorry, it's just so tempting to have fun at Lazenby's expess. I laugh at him. lol

Golden Eye was classic ian flemming penned bond, and bosnans best bond movie yet (post ian flemming... meh. the scope of the plots just arent there.)
As for previous, well shit, i think i like just about all of them, save the waning part of Moores stint, and the horrid thing it was to see an aging connery at the helm again with never say never. they werent the worst out of the lot (lazenby comes to mind), but some of the lesser inspired.
i actually rather liked daltons movies, could have been better but they more than sufficed.

Even adjusting for George Lazenby's mediocreness (I don't mind him at all myself), my favorite is On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Beautiful scenery, music, Bond discovers true love, a tragic ending, and "that never happened to the other fellow."

Lots of other great ones -- Thunderball especially.

Yeah, I always had that feeling. It was an excellent Bond movie, one of my favorites, that languished because of Lazenby.

I go with Die Another Day.

We are going to have to agree to disagree on that one. I thought it was fine, until the last 30 minutes when it degenerated into complete nonsense.

The opening was cool though--it was interesting to have Bond actually captured.

Have to say Goldeneye although the one where Roger Moore uses his shoelaces to scale the cliff was cool too.

Yeah, seriously! What WAS up with that last half-hour? It seemed much too far fetched even for a Bond movie, and that's a difficult thing to pull off. The ending seemed more like a Disney ride than something a 007 flick should do.

Exactly, that was my problem with it. It was on track for the first hour or so, and then it just bombed.

I can't really pick one of my favorites but "Her Magesty's Secret Service" I liked since it was the closest to the actual novel than any of the other ones that used the novel as a starting point.

As for over all, I'd have to say "From Russia with Love" or "For Your Eyes Only".

I would have to agree with goldfinger as classic bond. I also like octopussy with moore. My favorite of the recent ones would be the world is not enough.

Goldeneye. Indeed I played the N64 game to death and it pushed me further the 007 movies, but I still liked this movie the most. Great intro and tank scene. I still get that tune stuck in my head that plays when Bond was on the antenna. And even though the movie was in the mid-90's they still managed to squeeze in some russian, cold-war, cossack traitor type stuff.

Goldeneye and License to Kill are some of my favorites, but I have to go with Goldfinger or Dr. No as the best. They're just too classic.

Yeah, Dr No is a good one. Very much a classic.

I always thought Moore was overrated and Dalton was underrated. Lazenby is as bad as advertised.

Toss up between Connery and Brosnan for the best Bond ever though.

connery
brosnan
moore
dalton
lazenby

in that order...

i think in my opinion connery and brosnan are close.
but its the egotistic stench that exudes from brosnans constant ´full-of-it´ smirk puts him below connery.

Yeah, but I think that Bond sorta has to exude a confidence above most other people--its part of the persona.

Sean Connery in a heartbeat - I can watch Thunderball daily. :)

Roger Moore is a close second, just because I also grew up with him as Bond.

I picked Brosnan, just because he seems to have even what the others lacked, although I still associate 007 with Connery.

Connery was good, he was more sturdy-looking somehow than Moore, while Moore looked far more convincing when 007 got pissed off. He had something about his eyes that made him look pretty intimidating when someone crossed him.

Dalton, now I actually liked him a lot. I thought his 007 had rougher edges, less dull jokes and more darkness and coldness. Closer to the original 007 of Fleming's books.

Lazenby wasn't totally awful, it's a great movie and one that people really should give a chance.

One thing I like about Bond movies is that even though the actors keep changing, they do every so often mention the fact that Bond was once married. I think at least in two Bond movies a woman has asked Bond if he has ever been married and he gets very, how can I put this, on edge about it. Seeing as how his wife got gunned down right after the ceremony. I remember especially in The World Is Not Enough, Brosnan's reaction to that nutty chick asking him about having ever lost a loved one or something...cool stuff.

whoever merged the "favorite bond movie" and "favorite bond actor" threads is a right twat, just thought id point that out before it fell by the wayside

I think Connery is probably the best, but i threw a vote Roger Moores way, just because i like the exotic locations, neat characters and sense of humour of movies like live and let die and the man with the golden gun. I think the girls were sexier too. In short, the movies were more fun. Some, i guess, think those movies were too over the top and Moore is not serious enough, and his later movies did go a litle far sometimes. I like Brosnan in the role, but the drab Eastern European settings don't do much for me.

Lazenby was easily the best bond. in my mind, he portrayed the character as he should be.

so my list would be as follows:

Lazenby (OHMSS)
Moore (The Man with the Golden Gun)
Connery (Thunderball)
Daulton (The Living Daylights)
Brosnan (Goldeneye)

While Daulton does pretty much get the shaft for being in the worst bond movie ever, License to Kill, he more than redeems himself in my favorite bond film, the Living Daylights.

Yeah without Sean Connery the would be no 007!

I go by style and sophistication and humor!

Sean Connery and Roger Moore both had sophistication and humor, while Brosnan and Connery had the best looks and style for the part.

The best three movies are "You only live twice", "Goldeneye", and "A View to a Kill"

Connery is simply the best Bond... ever.

His films and his portrayal of Bond were without pier...

I would have to say that the earlier Moore films were quite good:

Live and Let Die (1973)
The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

After that the series became way to campy and painful to watch.
Moonraker (1979)
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Octopussy (1983)
A View to a Kill (1985)

I actually like Lazenby and Her Majesty's Secret Service. One of the better films in the series.


I'd have to say though, that my hands down favourite of the Bond series is You Only Live Twice. It has everthing from from a faked death, ninjas, villians stronghold in a volcano and Japanese pearl divers... Plus a great soundtrack... and it has Sean Connery. Nobody does it better...

Really? I'm with you on the ninjas and the volcano stronghold, but Connery with that lame ass disguise? Creepy guy with the deathgrip on kitty? :lol:

I think Brosnan is the better Bond, but Connery has the best movie (From Russia with Love). I used to really like Goldeneye, but I watched it over Thanksgiving and everytime Sean Bean came on the screen I kept hearing him say, "Gondor has no king. Gondor needs no king," in my head. Maybe I'm just a big dork, eh?

The lame ass disguise has to be seen in the context in which it first appeared. At the time I was the height of makeup effects. Today it would be done much better of course...


I think the reason Brosnan is coming out so strong on this thread has more to do with the age of the posters than anything else. I'd wager most of them weren't even born until the 80s and weren't even aware of Bond until the late 80s early 90s... Sadly, I was watching Bond marathons when ABC was doing them in the late 70s and Spike TV wasn't even a twinkle in television's eye.

It was a wig and an outfit, no? I would certainly like to see what could be done to turn a 6' 2" Scot into a passable Japanese man. I guess you have to work with what you got, yes? :lol:


You're probably right. My first trip with Bond was watching them with my father. Roger Moore's Bond always seemed a bit too over the top (running across the crocodile's head in Dr. No, the whole of Moonraker). Goldeneye was the first Bond movie I could watch without regularly rolling my eyes through. I'll admit though, I came close... :)

In the film they gave Bond plastic surgery to make his eyes more Japanese... in reality? Some latex and a wig. I think he was supposed to be of mixed blood.

I think the inclusion of ninjas more than makes up for the make up... :D


Moore was almost always over-the-top. By the way, the running over crocodiles was in Live and Let Die rather than Dr. No... Interesting, they used real crocs for the shot (and a stuntman). I completely agree on Moonraker.

Moonraker is up there in the list of worst Bond films ever.

That's right....Live and Let Die... /slaps forehead

Connery was the best Bond for me, followed by Brosnan, Dalton, and Moore. Lazenby was ok, but one movie is too little to judge, so I don't really consider him in the evaluations.

For the movies, From Russia With Love is the movie I like the best, while Goldfinger is the best movie that was made to the Bond formula.

I split the movies up into the following catecories:

Great Bond:

From Russia With Love
Goldfinger
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
License to Kill
Goldeneye

Good Bond:

Dr. No
Thunderball
Live and Let Die
The Spy Who Loved Me
Tomorrow Never Dies
The World is Not Enough

Mediocre Bond:

You Only Live Twice
The Man With the Golden Gun
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy
The Living Daylights
Die Another Day

For Bond Nerds Only:

Diamonds Are Forever
Moonraker
A View to a Kill

I, of course, have every one of these on DVD, and watch them, in order once a year. Even Moonraker. Yes, Moonraker.

Gilda

While Moonraker is bad... A View to a Kill is the most cringe worthy of the lot... The ancient Roger Moore climbing the fireman's ladder is bad enough but by the end, with the final, "Oh James"... I was just shaking my head and wondering what had become of a great franchise.

Thank the movie Gods that Moore never made another...

Know anything about Daniel Craig? That's who's taking over for Brosnan. If you have this month's playboy, Pierce does a pretty good interview about why he left (got kicked out rather) the Bond franchise.