Top 10 Best James Bond Movies of All Time

Live and Let Die (1973) is Roger Moore’s first take on the iconic and coveted role of James Bond.

While most fans won’t include this film on their personal top 10 lists, we love this film for its leaning towards the ‘blaxploitation’ action movie trend of the 1970s.

Here we see James Bond as he goes into a mission to investigate the deaths of three of his colleagues ending in the Harlem pursuit of the main villain Kananga, played excellently by actor Yaphet Koto.

Considered by some as the seediest of the Bond films, License to Kill (1989) is about a rogue James Bond on a mission to exact his revenge on a drug kingpin who fed Bond’s American partner to a shark.

As entertaining as it is gory, License to Kill (1989) is more like a Golan-Globus Cannon Pictures film than what fans are used to.

The film is also notable for some amazing performances from Wayne Newton and Benicio del Toro as antagonists and Frank McRae as Bond’s companion, Sharkey.

Daniel Craig returns for a third time to play the iconic British spy in Skyfall (2012).

In this installment of the series, we see Bond on an important mission to track down a Silva, played by Javier Bardem, a man from M’s past who came back to bring down the M16.

With only a field agent to assist him, Bond must save undercover agents around the world and put a stop to Silva who we will discover to be a former agent as well.

Of course, our list of James Bond movies wouldn’t be complete without mention of the film that started it all, Dr. No (1962). It is one of the best James Bond movies ever made.

Here we see James Bond, played by Sean Connery, for the first time. Bond goes on a mission to Jamaica to put a stop to a megalomaniac of a villain whose headquarters is on the island.

In the film, we are also first introduced to the concept of the ‘Bond girl’ with Ursula Andreas playing the first one–Honey Ryder. If you haven’t seen this one yet, watch out for the scene where Honey walks out of the water in a white bikini. Reminds you of something?

Thunderball (1965) is the film with the most number of iconic Bond moments.

In the film, Sean Connery returns to assume his role as Agent 007 now on a mission to retrieve warheads from a SPECTRE underwater lair in the Bahamas. You know what this means. We see some awesome underwater scuba fights complete with scary hungry sharks and spearguns.

The film is definitely a fun film to watch earning it a spot on our list of best Bond movies of all time.

Pierce Brosnan’s first film as James Bond, GoldenEye (1995), is the first James Bond movie made in the modern filmmaking style. While Brosnan performed well, this remains the only ‘good’ Bond film he starred in according to critics.

In GoldenEye (1995), Agent 007 faces off against Agent 006, a former ally turned enemy. When a powerful satellite program falls into the hands of Agent 006, played by Sean Bean, it is up to our favorite British spy to save the world from sure destruction.

But that is not an easy task considering as he encounters an assassin Xenia Onatopp, played by Famke Janssen, who uses pleasure as a weapon against him. GoldenEye is considered one of the best James Bond movies of all time.

From Russia with Love (1963) is the critically-acclaimed sequel to the first Bond film Dr. No.

Resuming his role as Agent 007 Sean Connery returns to play the British spy on his mission to assist the defecting Soviet clerk Tatiana Romanova in Turkey where SPECTRE so happens to be hatching a revenge plot against him.

In the film, we see the debut performance of Desmond Llewelyn’s Q, a role he will play until the 90’s. The film’s plot is based on Bond creator Ian Fleming’s novel of the same name.

We see a new actor take on the role of James Bond falls in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. George Lazenby assumes the role.

In the film, we see Bond fall in love with Tracy di Vincenzo, played by Diana Rigg (yes, Lady Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones), who is praised for being the first Bond girl to make audiences pay attention to the love story as much as the action that’s happening on screen.

The film is also credited for showing a deeper side to the character that previous films failed to do.

Casino Royale (2006) is Daniel Craig’s first film as James Bond. The film also rebooted the franchise while setting a higher bar for the next films to match.

In the film, we the beginnings of Agent 007’s career as an M16 agent seeing him on a mission to bankrupt a known terrorist financier through a game of high-stakes poker. We also get to meet Vesper Lynd, played exquisitely by Eva Green, for the first time.

The film received critical acclaim upon its release and is credited for being one of the best James Bond films to come out of the franchise.

Hands down the best Bond movie out of the 24 is Goldfinger (1964).

The film tops our list of best James Bond movies because it’s widely said to be the film where the character James Bond really comes into his own. What more, it has one of the flashiest of the Bond villains Auric Goldfinger, hence the title.

In the film, Bond investigates the activities of the gold magnate, Goldfinger. Eventually, he will uncover Goldfinger’s odious plan to contaminate the United States Bullion Depository.