Every James Bond Movie Ranked Worst To Best

The first thing you notice about Timothy Dalton is his 007 debut is how perfectly suited to the role he is. Not only does he look the part, but he's Ian Fleming's Bond through-and-through; the perfect balance of ruthless, vulnerable, and charming that Daniel Craig would come to effortlessly improve upon in around twenty years time.

The general consensus around Dalton's two-movie stint as the world's most famous spy is that audiences simply weren't ready for the gritty, multi-layered complexity he brought to the franchise.

After years of watching Roger Moore's take on Bond, seeing Dalton come in to brutally battle an arms dealer was a major shock to the system, though time has proved The Living Daylights was exactly what the series needed to separate itself from what came before.

In an ideal world, Dalton would have been given a lot more time to hone his skills, but even so his debut makes for a staggering achievement in action filmmaking that's in desperate need of a re-appraisal.