James Bond Films: Ranking Best To Worst

7. Goldeneye

This contains one of the ballsiest, brashest intros to a Bond film that simply states to an audience who may have had doubts Bond would ever return amidst legal wranglings, or that such a character had no place in a post-cold war world that 007 is back, and he€™s here to stay. I challenge anyone to deny that, say what you will about Pierce Brosnan, but this was one hell of a debut. He successfully manages to balance what made every preceding Bond so great- he has Moore€™s suaveness, some of Lazenby€™s vulnerability, Dalton€™s intensity and Connery€™s brutality. Whilst the poor score lets things down a little, we are given one of the series€™ best henchmen in Xenia Onatopp, and the film successfully reinvents the character whilst keeping all the staples that make him great- the beautiful women, the witty one-liners (one of my favourites, €œthat depends on your definition of safe sex€), the scarred villain complete with dastardly plan and secret base, the gadgets€ This had perhaps the toughest job out of any of the reinventions we€™ve seen throughout the franchise- the world landscape had changed so dramatically, the absence had been so long, this was make-or-break. And Director Martin Campbell and Brosnan pull it off with aplomb, even managing to squeeze in some realy dissection of what Bond is about, courtesy of M, Natalya and Alec Trevalyan.