10 Best James Bond Movies Of All Time

4. Casino Royale

MGM

Casino Royale was, arguably, the first Bond film that non-Bond fans could truly enjoy. With the misogyny, eye-rolling humour and general wackiness ditched in favour of a Bourne-like realism, Casino Royale made an effort to scrap the Bond template and start all over.

Casino Royale was the second time Martin Campbell revived the James Bond series (the first being with GoldenEye), and the director - in recognition of how overblown the films had become - grounded the secret agent back in reality. Well, as close to reality as James Bond can get - Casino Royale still involves mad spectacle and ends with a battle in a building sinking into Venetian waters.

With the emphasis on character, the newly cast Daniel Craig puts in his finest 007 performance as a tortured brute of a secret agent, but Eva Green more than matches him as one of the all-time great Bond girls. Not that she really qualifies as one - Vesper Lynd is so well-written and brought to life with such vivacity by Green that she makes a match for Bond like no other there's been.

Contributor
Contributor

Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1