The James Bond franchise is one of the longest-running movie series in the history of cinema, and over the course of its 24-film tenure, has managed to rank #3 in the highest-grossing movie franchises of all time (behind Harry Potter and the Marvel Cinematic Universe). Its iconic status and immense popularity categorically cannot be denied, yet at the same time, it's not exactly had a consistent track record over the years, with the various changing-up of actors and creative strategies making for countless Bond moments fans would rather just forget (and no, this isn't just picking on the Roger Moore years). These poor decisions made viewers wince and cringe rather than feel the thrill of the spy's best efforts: this includes poorly-cast Bond girls, behind-the-scenes issues which hampered creativity, unsavoury cameos, tonal problems, dubious disguises, bad CGI, and some awful directorial decisions. So egregious were some of these choices that there wasn't even room on the list for some of the worst Bond songs, like Madonna's Die Another Day and Jack White & Alicia Keys' Another Way To Die, to make the cut, nor the infuriating decision to move the gun-barrel sequence to the end of the films with Quantum of Solace. Here are 15 terrible mistakes that almost ruined the James Bond franchise for everyone.
15. Denise Richards As Christmas Jones
It's easy to see why MGM threw Denise Richards into the James Bond franchise: in fact, anyone who saw Richards as the young sexpot in Wild Things could see why. It's hard to deny her jaw-dropping sexiness, filling out a pair of hot pants and crop-top perfectly, but as such it's also hard to take her seriously as the preposterously-named Christmas Jones, a nuclear physicist who aids James Bond in bringing down Renard, and of course, has a roll around in the hay with the spy at the movie's conclusion (leading to the cringe-worthy line from Bond, "I thought Christmas only came once a year.") Richards may be an incredibly beautiful woman, but as a hyper-intelligent scientist, she's not exactly convincing, taking the notion of stunt casting to a new, wholly ridiculous level. It's not really fair to even blame Richards (because who in their right mind would turn down this gig?), but the screenwriters and especially the casting department should have known better. She's lovely to look at, but ultimately distracting when trying to pay attention to the story (and not always in a good way).