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IGN's Best of Bond

SPECTRESPECTRE
edited October 2012 in Bond Movies Posts: 51
IGN (known mostly for its video game reviews, but they also "review" films including the entire James Bond series) conducted a Playboy VIP-sponsored Bond poll this month. There were five categories ranging from Best Bond movie to Best James Bond and every Bond film except for the non-Eon films and Skyfall was included. Unfortunately the sample size isn't mentioned, but should at least be in the thousands given the popularity of the website and the number of comments on each page. The The results were as follows:

1. Best Bond Movie: Casino Royale

Top Nominees/Runners Up:
GoldenEye
Goldfinger
From Russia With Love
Dr. No

My Vote: Goldfinger

I'm kind of dismayed that CR won even though it is a great film, but as one commenter alluded since the first four Connery films were so excellent the votes were dilluted between them. You'll notice that Goldeneye was a top pick in all 5 categories, probably due to ign visitors' nostalgia for the N64 game. It was a very solid movie though.

2. Best Bond Villian: Ernst Stavro Blofeld

Top Nominees/Runners Up:
Jaws
Alec Trevelyan
Oddjob
Auric Goldfinger

My Vote: Blofeld

This was pretty much a foregone conclusion. They should have made a seperate category for "henchmen" though.

3. Best Bond Song: Live and Let Die

Top Nominees/Runners Up:
You Know My Name
Goldfinger
Goldeneye
Nobody Does It Better

My vote: Nobody Does It Better

This wasn't surprising either, although it seems that most people voted for their favorite (mine is TLD) rather than objectively considering the "best" song.

4. Best Bond Girl: Vesper Lynd

Top Nominees/Runners Up:
Honey Rider
Anya Amasova
Pussy Galore
Natalia Simonova

My vote: Pussy Galore

This was somewhat disappointing. Lynd was a great character played by a great actress, but Rider and Galore are Bond icons. Simonova making the top 5 clearly shows the Goldeneye bias. :-)

5. Best James Bond: Sean Connery

Top Nominees/Runners Up:
Daniel Craig
Pierce Brosnan
Roger Moore
Timothy Dalton

My vote: Sean Connery

I held my breath for this one, but I'm glad Connery one, albeit by a slim margin. Craig is great, but Connery is James Bond. My personal ranking is pretty much in line with the winners and top nominees, except I would put Brosnan over Craig (purely personal preference since I think Craig is the better Bond). Lazenby, (not surprisingly) is the one who missed the top 5.

I'm interested in hearing anyone else's take on this poll or who you would have voted for.

Btw the results can be found at: IGN's Best of Bond

Comments

  • StirredNotShakenStirredNotShaken Toronto
    Posts: 2,400
    IGN are useless IMO for reviewing anything that isn't video games (and even then they're pretty pathetic; they'll find a way to get a CoD game on a top ten list of ANYTHING).

    Casino Royale at #1 is the way it should be, even when it wasn't my #1 (it is now) I always held the opinion that objectively it was the best film in the series, in its' own right. Disappointed with the nominees though, very textbook. GoldenEye should be there, as should FRWL but where's OHMSS? TLD? Hell, even a Moore film for god's sake! It's shocking TSWLM didn't even make top five.

    I could agree with Blofeld if it was a specific incarnation of him. Having all of them includes Gray's portrayal, IMO the worst villain in the series and perhaps ever. I'm also disappointed with that list. Really? Jaws and Oddjob aren't even villains. Goldfinger is dull as titanium. Really shows that the people who voted in that have mostly only seen the "iconic" Bond films and not the hidden gems. Where's Sanchez? Le Chiffre? For people who love Dr. No, how is the original Bond villain not there? Oh that's right, the idiots at IGN opened the poll to henchmen as well.

    At least on the songs list there are songs I like. However I do not agree at all with LALD. Out of those five I'd give it to YKMN. Nobody Does it Better could also win out for me.

    Vesper as the best Bond girl is an inspired choice. What do you mean she's not iconic? The only two in that list who are in my top ten are probably Pussy and Natalya. They didn't get it right the first time with Honey and Barbara Bach is probably the worst actress ever to play a Bond girl. I love the character, I love how she's written, and Bach is stunning, but she can't act her way out of a paper bag. That brings her down for me.

    Textbook list again for the Bond actors. I get why people vote for Connery and I'll take him topping a list but it does get very tired after the billionth time. He was great and I have all the love for how he created the cinematic James Bond, but there are two who did it better and one who did it just as well. At least Craig beat out the groan-inducing Brosnan though. Very disappointed with Dalton at the bottom. IGN have always been assholes towards him. I doubt they've even seen his two.
  • SJK91SJK91
    Posts: 1,310
    Anya Amasova as a runner up for best Bond girl? Um....

    Otherwise, I think the choices (and runner ups) are fairly respectable. Maybe a little too much GoldenEye love, but it's still a good film.
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    What the thump - Dalton came in last of all the James Bonds, or am I reading incorrectly ?

    And, Vesper Lynd as best Bond girl - ridiculous, and you couldn't even see the characters face half the time for mascara, although Andress is good for second place with the iconic Honey Ryder

    Blofeld is OK for best Bond villain but would of picked Dr No or maybe Hugo Drax or even Donald Grant for that category.

    Casino Royale is not best Bond movie, and they've got Goldfinger as one of the other best placed entries, but at least they got something right with having McCartney and Wings Live and Let Die as best theme intro. That can't be disputed
  • AgentJamesBond007AgentJamesBond007 Vesper’s grave
    Posts: 2,630
    How dare they forget Tracy when it comes to best Bond girl?
  • 00130013
    Posts: 1,817
    AgentJamesBond007 wrote:
    How dare they forget Tracy when it comes to best Bond girl?

    Casual viewers, not true fans.
  • The_ReaperThe_Reaper
    Posts: 1,092
    Interesting choice. I wonder how fanatical the fans there are about the series or if they are only casual viewers that don't know much about the franchise. Yes, I'm a Bond snob and proud of it.
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    The_Reaper wrote:
    Interesting choice. I wonder how fanatical the fans there are about the series or if they are only casual viewers that don't know much about the franchise. Yes, I'm a Bond snob and proud of it.

    That's a fair point. I think a number of people seem to 'follow the crowd' when it comes to Bond. By that, those who aren't actual enthusiasts or have a tangible interest in the series, and simply accept say, "Goldfinger is the best release, because that is the general consensus" for example

    I think these things work better when they are done by real fans of the series who have an extensive knowledge, rather than causal viewers who take in a release once a year and are basically, amateurs to the franchise or not aware enough to offer a proper valid opinion
  • identigraphidentigraph
    Posts: 1,052
    Everyone's opinion is valid, casual viewr or avid fan but it seems the Bond films do suffer from a lot of accepted myths, film magazines are very guily of producing predictable best of Bond lists.
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