Staff Picks: Favorite James Bond Movies

A special category for Issue 007!

Casino Royale

Alex Chester

I could talk about how I grew up watching the Bond franchise. How Pierce Brosnan came backstage to a show I was in when I was a wee lass and I about near swooned. No, I’m not gonna regale you with that. I want to talk about a specific scene in Casino Royale where Daniel Craig is tied to a chair naked.

This scene made me want to become a dominatrix. I kid, but in all seriousness, Daniel Craig is a beautiful specimen of a man and I would happily have him tied up, naked, in a chair, any day of the week.

Goldfinger

Alison Lea Bender

This was the first Bond movie I watched when I was a kid. I was probably too young to be watching it. All I knew was that Sean Connery was hot, I wanted to be Pussy Galore, and at 10 years old, I wanted to be driven around in an Aston Martin DB5. #Luxury

Spectre

Olivia Chen

Not much to say about these movies, but I am rooting for Idris Elba as the next 007!

Skyfall

Lauren Hardie

Like Alex, I grew up watching Bond films. While I didn’t examine the films with academic-level attention, I’m pretty sure I learned all there is to know about men and how to attract them from Timothy Dalton, Sean Connery, and Pierce Brosnan (show up half naked, speak in accented one-liners, get treated like trash, die/write yourself out of the script early). But I’m not going to get into the damaging layers of sexism, white (male) savior complex, gratuitous violence, etc., because we’re here for fun, not angry comment threads. The Bond film that sticks with me the most is Skyfall -- Adele’s phenomenal theme song, Javier Bardem’s creepy-ass villain, and Bérénice Marlohe as a (Hapa!) Bond girl. Certainly not Daniel Craig’s best Bond, but a great way to learn how men show they care (like lamenting the “waste of good scotch” when you’ve been murdered).

Spectre

Autumn Henry

The tasty, sexy, mysterious opening scene to Spectre is a 4-minute continuous shot that immediately drew me into this film. I love Daniel Craig as 007. He debuted when I was 26, so I consider him to be my generation’s James Bond #blessed. 007 always does his bidding in exotic locations but the alluring combo of Mexico, Italy, and Morocco in Spectre has me hooked on film #24. All this being said, I am 100% Team Idris as the next Bond.

Skyfall

Melissa Slaughter

Is this answer basic AF? The Bond movie where Adele did the music? Probably. But guess what? It’s genuinely the only one I like.

Let me take you back to my college years. My boyfriend at the time went through a kick of having weekly James Bond parties. He’d dress up, serve martinis, and we would watch early Bond films with a few of our friends. I must have fallen asleep during every single movie: From Russia with Love, Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger, on and on. James Bond just isn’t my thing.

But put a swole Daniel Craig in a movie with Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw and I’ll watch it. Those are my feelings on Skyfall. I like the darker tone, and the action, and the old British backstory. But most of all, I like watching Daniel Craig and Judi Dench get into hijinks. Therefore, I claim Skyfall as my favorite Bond movie.