Running for 25 films and counting (though currently in something of a reported stalemate, production-wise), Eon's James Bond series is cinema's greatest and most historic franchise. It should therefore be no real surprise that the gold standard of film franchises has stacked considerable gold hardware over six decades and counting. With the first wins coming from Sean Connery's enormously popular era, and the most recent including a string of prizes for the Daniel Craig outings, the spy action thrillers based on Ian Fleming's British agent 007 have won a total of six Academy Awards. The following intends to rank the awarded films from worst to best, along with context of Bond's long-running relationship with Hollywood's biggest night.
5 'Spectre' (2015)
Oscar Win: Best Original Song
Placing dead last on this list is a movie that should rank near the bottom of any Bond ranking. A misuse of the goodwill generated from the imperfect but largely spectacular Skyfall, Daniel Craig's penultimate Bond film starts with a spectacular if chilly pre-credits sequence in Mexico, then gives way to a bloated and convoluted thriller that attempts to do too much and achieves very little. There's an unconvincing romance with Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), and much worse, a new villain (two-time Oscar winner Christoph Waltz gives an actively bad performance).
Spectre received mixed reviews, and strong box office that was nevertheless far removed from the $1 billion and change haul of Skyfall. It's nobody's favorite Bond. It did receive one Oscar nomination and one win, for Sam Smith's song "Writing's on the Wall." The ballad sounds a fair amount like Winnie-the-Pooh, but it's not as bad as some fans might suggest. It certainly sounds Bondian, with lush brassy stylings and bombast. Many fans have compared it unfavorably to Radiohead's "Spectre," which was also in the running to play during the film's opening titles.
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Spectre
PG-13
Thriller Action Adventure8.7/10
- Release Date
- November 6, 2015
- Runtime
- 158 Minutes
- Director
- Sam Mendes
Cast
-
Ben Whishaw
-
Lea Seydoux
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
RENT
BUY
- Writers
- John Logan, Robert Wade, Neal Purvis
- Prequel(s)
- Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall
- Sequel(s)
- No Time to Die
- Franchise(s)
- James Bond
- Main Genre
- Thriller
- Budget
- 250 million
- Studio(s)
- Sony
- Distributor(s)
- Sony
4 'No Time to Die' (2021)
Oscar Win: Best Original Song
Spectre's successor is all at once one of the most transporting Bond films, and one of the most endlessly frustrating. Reportedly the most expensive Bond picture ever made, and racking up a near-three-hour runtime that perhaps no entry could ever fully justify, No Time to Die pits Bond against bioterrorist Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek, cast freshly off an Oscar win) while plumping up the love story with Swann.
No Time to Die has a ripper of a pre-title sequence, myriad exciting set pieces and some strong acting. It's often soapy and unappealingly downbeat too, and the contrived ending just feels like some kind of punishment. Then there's Billie Eilish's title track, which won the Oscar for Best Original Song. It's a beautiful, rather delicate song that's as on-brand for Eilish as it is for Bond. The Grammy-winning Angeleno was 17 at the time of recording; she sings with a maturity and wisdom beyond her years that evokes Judy Garland.
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No Time to Die
PG-13
Action Adventure Thriller10/10
- Release Date
- October 8, 2021
- Runtime
- 163 Minutes
- Director
- Cary Fukunaga
- Writers
- Cary Fukunaga, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Robert Wade, Scott Z. Burns, Neal Purvis
- Prequel(s)
- Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, Spectre
Cast
-
Daniel Craig
-
Rami Malek
- Franchise(s)
- James Bond
- Budget
- $250 Million
- Studio(s)
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Distributor(s)
- Universal Pictures
3 'Thunderball' (1965)
Oscar Win: Best Visual Effects
Thunderball is an uneven and flawed Bond film that's nevertheless an absolute essential. Based on a story that would be the source of litigation for decades, Connery's fourth outing sees the superspy on location in the Bahamas, where SPECTRE operative Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) is plotting an extortion scheme with two nuclear warheads as leverage.
No doubt benefiting from the pop-culture mania of its predecessor, Goldfinger, Thunderball was a leviathan at the box-office, the third-highest-grossing film of 1965 behind only The Sound of Music and Doctor Zhivago (it was the highest-grossing film in the series until Skyfall when adjusting for inflation). Thunderball was a formidable technical accomplishment—producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman never really skimped on the production values, ever—and the thriller ultimately netted an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. The underwater scenes in Thunderball were cutting-edge for the time, though viewing the film today they undeniably hamper the film's pace.
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Thunderball
Approved
Action Adventure Thriller8/10
- Release Date
- December 11, 1965
- Runtime
- 130 minutes
- Director
- Terence Young
Cast
-
Sean Connery
-
Claudine Auger
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
James Bond heads to the Bahamas to recover two nuclear warheads stolen by S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Agent Emilio Largo in an international extortion scheme.
- Writers
- Richard Maibaum, John Hopkins, Jack Whittingham, Kevin McClory, Ian Fleming
- Main Genre
- Action
2 'Skyfall' (2012)
Oscar Wins: Best Original Song, Best Sound Editing
The only James Bond movie to win multiple Academy Awards, Skyfall is also the highest-grossing film in the series (even after adjusting for inflation), one of 007's greatest and most transcendent pop-culture moments. The centerpiece of Craig's tenure embraces the Bond formula in many ways, and defies it in others. This is a visually spectacular marriage of blockbuster and arthouse film, a revenge thriller where we really get into Bond's psyche.
Skyfall won two honors at the 85th Academy Awards in February 2013. First, in a rare tie, Skyfall won for Best Sound Editing alongside Zero Dark Thirty. Then there's Adele's title song, a moody and precise home-run that charted globally before winning the franchise's first Oscar for Best Original Song. The English singer-songwriter also performed the track with an orchestra and choir in one of the night's biggest moments.
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Skyfall
PG-13
Action Thriller Drama- Release Date
- November 9, 2012
- Runtime
- 2h 23m
- Director
- Sam Mendes
Cast
-
Judi Dench
-
Ralph Fiennes
-
Naomie Harris
-
Helen McCrory
WHERE TO WATCH
RENT
BUY
James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
- Writers
- John Logan, Robert Wade, Neal Purvis
- Prequel(s)
- Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace
- Sequel(s)
- Spectre, No Time to Die
- Franchise(s)
- James Bond
- Budget
- 200million
- Studio(s)
- Sony
- Distributor(s)
- Sony
1 'Goldfinger' (1964)
Oscar Win: Best Sound Effects
Goldfinger is the first James Bond movie to win an Oscar, the best James Bond movie to win an Oscar, and, for many, the absolute zenith of cinema's greatest franchise. The third Eon picture sees Bond facing off against a villain (Gert Fröbe) who's an intellectual threat, his henchman who poses a physical threat, and an attractive pilot (Honor Blackman) who's perhaps more complex than she seems. This is one of scarce few movies in history where virtually every moment is iconic, and deservedly so. It's glossy, morbid, and often the suspense is nearly unbearable.
In a year when My Fair Lady dominated the Academy Awards, Goldfinger received one Oscar nod and one win, for Best Sound Effects. It's a well deserved achievement for a film that was state-of-the-art in all technical aspects and has aged like a classic in every sense of the word. It's pure escapism, but it holds up as one of the greatest films of the 1960s.
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Goldfinger
Approved
Action AdventureCrime
Thriller- Release Date
- September 20, 1964
- Runtime
- 110 Minutes
- Director
- Guy Hamilton
Cast
-
Sean Connery
-
Honor Blackman
-
Gert Fröbe
-
Shirley Eaton
WHERE TO WATCH
Streaming
- Writers
- Richard Maibaum, Paul Dehn, Ian Fleming
- Main Genre
- Action
NEXT: Every James Bond Movie, Ranked
