This is definintely a top 5 Bond film. Really Connery and Craig are the only true Bonds and you only have to listen to the former Bond actors saying so. Both Dalton and Moore have said that Craig's films are the true heirs of Dr. No and FRWL, and I completely agree.
Moore only made two great Bond films in TSWLM and FYEO, and I put those way below Craig's films or Connerey's. Brosnan only made one good Bond film in GE. I feel bad for Brosnan, because I know he wanted to be more serious with the roll, but the film makers gave him stupid lines that would even make Roger Moore cringe.
I'm so glad they did away with all the sillyness in the Craig films and gave us a real spy novel with a character that is a real assasin. The opening scene in CR where Bond plugs the guy in the middle of telling him his second kill would be much easier, that is freaking James Bond. It's right out of the scene in Dr. No where Bond plugs the professor who was trying to kill him in his sleep and he says "that's a smith and wesson, and you've had your six" and then shoots him twice.
Whatever you think of OHMSS, the fact is that Lazenby was a horrible actor, infact he wasn't an actor. The worst actor to ever play Bond, so while the plot of the movie was excellent, unfortunately they had a dull glamor boy playing the lead who pissed off the other established actors in the film, and the director. Even Diana Rigg has said that Lazenby was the architect of his own demise. When you have other actors opening bashing the job you did, you didn't do a good job.
The most under appreciated Bond was Dalton. Both of Dalton's films were IMO better than Brosnan's. They were more serious toned, and they got away from the silly clownish Roger Moore movies that were more of a parody of Bond than a Bond film. Dalton had an unfair backlash, and his movies were way ahead of their time as far as the darker tone. Other than Connery and Craig, Dalton's performance was the closest to what Flemming wrote of the character.
My top 10:
1.) skyfall
2.) From Russia With Love
3.) Casino Royale
4.) Thunderball
5.) Goldfinger
6.) Dr. No
7.) Licence to Kill
8.) The living Daylights
9.) The Spy Who Loved Me
10) Goldeneye
Quantum just misses the list, because it had too many structural problems. Craig's performance was spot on as always.
10 worst Bond films:
1) Moonraker
2.) Die Another Day
3.) Man With the Golden Gun
4.) View to a Kill
5.) Live and Let Die
6.) The World is Not Enough
7.) Octapussy
8.) Diamonds are Forever
9.) Never Say Never Again
10.) Tomorrow Never Dies
