--- name: "James Bond" canonical: "https://film.one/collections/james-bond" films: 25 series: 0 years: "1962–2021" average_fi1m_score: 67 updated: "2026-09-19T08:56:09.000029+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # James Bond Sixty years of one spy: six Bonds, two dozen films, and a running argument about which of them got it right. **Which order?** Release order. The two outsiders, the 1967 Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again, are not Eon films and sit at the end. Best on Fi1m: [*Casino Royale*](https://film.one/film/casino-royale.md) (86). ## James Bond 1. [*Dr. No*](https://film.one/film/dr-no.md) (1962) — Fi1m 77: The first Bond is smaller, quicker and odder than the series it started, and Connery’s introduction still lands. Half a dozen things in it have dated badly and the middle third dawdles, but the good parts hold. 2. [*From Russia with Love*](https://film.one/film/from-russia-with-love.md) (1963) — Fi1m 84: Terence Young’s second Bond film is the leanest the series has made: Istanbul in daylight, a train across Europe and Robert Shaw as a killer Bond cannot talk his way past. The women are short-changed and the last reel is padding; the rest holds. 3. [*Goldfinger*](https://film.one/film/goldfinger.md) (1964) — Fi1m 82: The third Bond film is where the series found its shape: the car, the song, the sets, the villain who explains himself. It is confident, fast and often funny, and it treats its women worse than we can quite laugh off. 4. [*Thunderball*](https://film.one/film/thunderball.md) (1965) — Fi1m 66: The fourth Bond film is the grandest of Connery’s run and the first to feel padded. Ken Adam’s sets, John Barry’s brass and Luciana Paluzzi’s assassin are worth the evening; the underwater battle that closes it is not. 5. [*You Only Live Twice*](https://film.one/film/you-only-live-twice.md) (1967) — Fi1m 62: The fifth Bond film has the grandest set the series had yet built and a leading man who has stopped pretending to enjoy himself. Ken Adam’s volcano, John Barry’s score and Tetsuro Tamba earn the evening; Roald Dahl’s script and the middle hour do not. 6. [*On Her Majesty's Secret Service*](https://film.one/film/on-her-majestys-secret-service.md) (1969) — Fi1m 83: Peter R. Hunt’s one Bond film has a lead who cannot act, a middle that dawdles and a last half hour that nothing else in the series has matched. We recommend it, and we recommend patience with the man in the suit. 7. [*Diamonds Are Forever*](https://film.one/film/diamonds-are-forever.md) (1971) — Fi1m 58: Connery’s return is a shrug, and the film seems to know it. Las Vegas, John Barry and two courteous killers keep it watchable; a script that loses track of its own diamonds and a leading man going through the motions keep it from being much more. 8. [*The Man with the Golden Gun*](https://film.one/film/the-man-with-the-golden-gun.md) (1974) — Fi1m 56: Christopher Lee’s Scaramanga is the most elegant killer the series has produced, and the film around him is a tired one, padded with slide whistles and a sheriff on holiday. Worth it for the villain; not enough else to recommend an evening. 9. [*The Spy Who Loved Me*](https://film.one/film/the-spy-who-loved-me.md) (1977) — Fi1m 77: Roger Moore’s third Bond is the one where the formula settles into comfort: a KGB rival to flirt with, a giant with steel teeth, a car that swims. Ken Adam’s sets do most of the work and the plot is happy to let them. 10. [*For Your Eyes Only*](https://film.one/film/for-your-eyes-only.md) (1981) — Fi1m 68: John Glen’s first Bond puts away the space station and sends Roger Moore back to earth, with a heroine who carries a crossbow and villains who bleed. The stunts are among the best in the series; the jokes and the score are not. 11. [*Octopussy*](https://film.one/film/octopussy.md) (1983) — Fi1m 64: John Glen’s Bond film has a proper Cold War plot at the bottom of it and keeps burying it under jokes. India looks splendid, Louis Jourdan and Steven Berkoff are good value, and Roger Moore is running out of road. One for the fond. 12. [*Never Say Never Again*](https://film.one/film/never-say-never-again.md) (1983) — Fi1m 64: Sean Connery returns to Bond twelve years on, greyer, drier and better company than the film around him. Klaus Maria Brandauer and Barbara Carrera give it two proper villains; a slack script, a wayward score and a great deal of seawater do their best to undo them. 13. [*A View to a Kill*](https://film.one/film/a-view-to-a-kill.md) (1985) — Fi1m 46: Roger Moore’s last Bond hands the picture to Christopher Walken and Grace Jones and lets Moore stroll along behind them. Two villains, one parachute jump and a John Barry score are worth something; the rest is a series going through its motions. 14. [*The Living Daylights*](https://film.one/film/the-living-daylights.md) (1987) — Fi1m 74: Timothy Dalton’s first Bond is a proper spy story with the jokes taken out, and the best-made entry in years. Its villains are small and its Afghan detour is long, but the first hour is as tense as the series has been since the sixties. 15. [*Licence to Kill*](https://film.one/film/licence-to-kill.md) (1989) — Fi1m 70: Timothy Dalton’s second and last Bond sacks him early and lets him spend the rest on a grudge, and it is the toughest the series had been in years. It also looks like television, the score is thin, and the jokes keep wandering back in. 16. [*GoldenEye*](https://film.one/film/goldeneye.md) (1995) — Fi1m 78: Pierce Brosnan makes a persuasive Bond in a brisk, entertaining revival that knows the old habits need questioning. Martin Campbell delivers the action; the attempts to give Bond more emotional weight are less convincing. 17. [*Tomorrow Never Dies*](https://film.one/film/tomorrow-never-dies.md) (1997) — Fi1m 64: Brosnan’s second Bond is brisk, loud and well made, with a villain who sells the news he manufactures and a partner who fights better than he does. It runs out of ideas well before it runs out of explosions. 18. [*The World Is Not Enough*](https://film.one/film/the-world-is-not-enough.md) (1999) — Fi1m 58: Michael Apted’s Bond opens with the best chase the series has staged in years and then spends two hours looking for something to match it. Sophie Marceau is the reason to stay; Denise Richards, as a nuclear physicist, is the reason people still laugh. 19. [*Die Another Day*](https://film.one/film/die-another-day.md) (2002) — Fi1m 50: The twentieth Bond starts as the toughest of Brosnan’s four, with a beard, a cell and a grudge, and ends as a cartoon with an invisible car and a computer-drawn wave. The fencing duel is the reason to stay. 20. [*Casino Royale*](https://film.one/film/casino-royale.md) (2006) — Fi1m 86: Daniel Craig gives *Casino Royale* the danger and emotional weight its harder approach needs. Martin Campbell makes the action count, and Eva Green gives Bond someone worth listening to; only a protracted final stretch weakens our enthusiasm. 21. [*Quantum of Solace*](https://film.one/film/quantum-of-solace.md) (2008) — Fi1m 58: Marc Forster’s sequel gets Bond’s grief right and the rest wrong: a villain with a small plan, a plot about water, and action cut so fast you cannot tell who is in which car. Craig and a night at the opera keep it watchable. 22. [*Skyfall*](https://film.one/film/skyfall.md) (2012) — Fi1m 81: Sam Mendes makes an absorbing Bond thriller, with Daniel Craig and Judi Dench giving its personal troubles proper weight. Roger Deakins’ photography rewards close attention, though the screenplay explains more about Bond than we need. 23. [*Spectre*](https://film.one/film/spectre.md) (2015) — Fi1m 58: Sam Mendes’s second Bond opens with a tracking shot through Mexico City that is as good as anything in the series, then spends two hours reassembling old parts. Craig is still worth watching, the pictures are handsome, and the story under them barely exists. 24. [*No Time to Die*](https://film.one/film/no-time-to-die.md) (2021) — Fi1m 67: Daniel Craig’s fifth and final Bond is handsome, sincere and too long. It opens with one of the series’ best action sequences and closes with real feeling; the plot in between, and the villain carrying it, do not earn the 163 minutes. ## James Bond 25. [*Casino Royale*](https://film.one/film/casino-royale-1967.md) (1967) — Fi1m 50: Five credited directors, three credited writers, most of the famous faces of the decade, and nobody in charge. David Niven’s first half-hour is dry and funny and Burt Bacharach’s score is better than anything it accompanies; the rest is expensive noise. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/collections/james-bond