19. Die Another Day
Let me explain why this is not bottom of the pile. Like everyone else, I do really hate it. A lot. Its just dreadful. Its the crappiest 40th birthday party you could ask for, really. Its like every birthday Ive had since I was 11- pretty boring, unoriginal But rewatching it made me realise if you could out Toby Stephens Gustav Graves (eurgh), Halle Berry and everything set in Iceland and the latter half of Bonds excursion to Cuba, you have the makings of a decent Bond film. I really like when Brosnans Bond is imprisoned and has to escape- to be fair, we hadnt seen this kind of Brosnan- you know,
good- since Goldeneye, so it was nice to have him back, however briefly. It was the closest wed get to Craig or Dalton for a while, and his relationship with M here is vaguely interesting. Once he meets John Cleese the whole thing just gets really bloody stupid, and not in a fun way. If you cut the CGI surfing, an incredibly boring henchman and a bloody stupid Icarus, this could have been a lot better. As it stands, for the first half alone this is raised above the lower entries. Disagree if you may, but perhaps the reason Im soft on it is that it was the first Bond film I ever watched at the cinema, so Im willing to admit that may cloud my judgement somewhat.