Excluding Never Say Never Again and the first go at Casino Royale, which were not produced by Eon, there have been 24 James Bond films so far. And all of them can be ranked by critically-reviewed quality, courtesy of their Metacritic scores. Metacritic is an aggregator that monitors all professional reviews of a movie, coming up with one weighted score. Whereas Rotten Tomatoes works out a percentage based on the simple binary options of whether a critic gives a good or bad review; Metacritic is a little more complex – looking at exactly how enthusiastic or unimpressed each review is, and giving a weighted score out of 100.
By that metric, Goldfinger is out on top.
The 1964 movie, Sean Connery’s third in the 007 role, has an 87 score on the site – two points ahead of its predecessor, From Russia With Love, which is in second place with 85.
Daniel Craig fills the next two slots: 2012’s Skyfall is in third with 81, and 2006’s Casino Royale is in fourth with 80.
It’s Connery again in fifth: the first ever film, Dr No, rounds out the Top 5 with a weighted score of 78.
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Down at the wrong end of the list, Roger Moore’s A View to A Kill from 1985 is in last place with a score of 40.
The Man with the Golden Gun is next – another Moore effort – coming 23rd out of 24 with a score of 43.
Pierce Brosnan’s films don’t fare too well, either: GoldenEye (1995) is seventh, but The World Is Not Enough (1999) is 17th, Die Another Day is 18th and Tomorrow Never Dies is 22nd.
Scroll down to see how all of them square up.
1. Goldfinger (1964, Sean Connery) – 87
2. From Russia With Love (1963, Sean Connery) – 85
3. Skyfall (Daniel Craig, 2012) – 81
4. Casino Royale (Daniel Craig, 2006) – 80
5. Dr No (Sean Connery, 1962) – 78
6. Moonraker (Roger Moore, 1979) – 66
7. GoldenEye (Pierce Brosnan, 1995) – 65
8. Thunderball (Sean Connery, 1965) – 64
9. Octopussy (Roger Moore, 1983) – 63
=10. You Only Live Twice (Sean Connery, 1967) – 61
=10. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (George Lazenby, 1969) – 61
=12. Spectre (Daniel Craig, 2015) – 60
=12. The Living Daylights (Timothy Dalton, 1987) – 60
CONTINUES BELOW
14. Diamonds Are Forever (Sean Connery, 1971) – 59
=15. Quantum of Solace (Daniel Craig, 2008) – 58
=15. Licence to Kill (Timothy Dalton, 1989) – 58
17. The World Is Not Enough (Pierce Brosnan, 1999) – 57
18. Die Another Day (Pierce Brosnan, 2002) – 56
=19. Live and Let Die (Roger Moore, 1973) – 55
=19. The Spy who Loved Me (Roger Moore, 1977) – 55
21. For Your Eyes Only (Roger Moore, 1981) – 54
22. Tomorrow Never Dies (Pierce Brosnan, 1997) – 52
23. The Man with the Golden Gun (Roger Moore, 1974) – 43
24. A View To A Kill (Roger Moore, 1985) – 36