[007 Lists about James Bond] Top 3 Theme songs

After the teaser, the theme song really sets the mood for the movie. They add the teasing effect and sets you in the mood. From the asian tune of You Only Live Twice or the pop beat of Duran Duran or the soul-filled voice of Adele, they provide an added link between the movie and its time. The big band sound of the 60s to the pop song of the 80s to the complex tunes of today, they let you know when the movie was made.

This list was quite interesting to compile because of the variety and mood of the songs themselves. Definitely a fun day/playlist that will take you through time.

I did not include the James Bond theme from Doctor No, the big band tune that recurs in every movie. Simply because there it is instrumental, it was disqualified from this list, otherwise it would be a clear winner for this list.

Top 3 Movie Theme Songs

3- Nobody does it better (Carly Simon / The spy who loved me) This one won out by just barely a nose. Perhaps it is because I remember it from my earliest days. Carly Simon's voice is beautiful and the lyrics really showcase James Bond's personal view about the ladies. The Spy who loved me is a great movie with a lot of East/West interaction and the song completes it.

2- Goldfinger (Shirley Bassey/ Goldfinger) Sublime big band theme with the powerful voice of Shirley Bassey over it. She comes off as someone who is both drawn to and repelled by Goldfinger. Although the Goldfinger of the song is James Bond, not Auric Goldfinger. Integrating the James Bond theme towards the end with the brass is a powerful combination. Oh and the Simpsons' Max Power Theme song on the same tune is awesome.

1- Live and let die (Paul McCartney & Wings/ Live and let die) This very Beatles tune feels larger than life from the opening verses to the powerful riff then its brutal reggae beat. As a fan of prog-rock, is there a non-prog-rock that better embodies it? Guns N Roses redid it in the 90s but as usual, the original is so much better.

007 Lists about James Bond: Top 3 worse villains

As many great villains in the franchise, there are quite a few that don't just make the cut.

I had to think about the worst people in James Bond. And I don't mean Most Evil, just these villains that simply SUCK.

Now when I created this list, I have Michael Longsdale's Draw from Moonraker as number one, but as I thought about it more, the movie was terrible, but his plan was actually pretty sweet, and he found the means to get it done. So I decided to drop him from the top 3. So a decent villain and a terrible movie can go together.

Top 3 Worse Villains

3- Franz Sanchez (License to kill) I make no qualms saying that I think License to Kill - and the whole Timothy Daulton era was easily the worse of all Bond eras. Franz Sanchez who was a drug dealer. He was just horrible. While there are a few villains who were nothing special, this dude had no real gimmick. He had no gimmick, no unique ability, nothing. He was just a drug dealer with a hot wife and a goons.

Although not every villain needs to be over-the-top, for example Kristatos from For your eyes only had none of those special gimmicks, but he was a credible and interesting character. Sanchez is not.

I remember as a kid watching that movie just wanting for him to die, without feeling anything special about it. At least he died and no one heard or cared about him again.

2- Max Zorin (A view to a kill) This one was tough to put on this list, but I just had no choice. I love Christopher Walken. Max Zorin was a character that had a background so completely unbelievable, and we're talking unbelievable within the paradigms of the Bond universe here.

His origin had everything to become one of the top villains: a Nazi genetic experiment, load of money, and mob connections. But Walken's portrayal and the plot made him such a complete psychopath that I cannot see why anyone would be willing to join with him or give him millions of dollars. He was a complete caricature of an industrialist with a look vaguely resembling Andy Warhol.

So why do he rate so high in the level of suck? Other than being Chris Walken, what did the dude have? He was a psychopath that could not handle himself and would fly off the handle at the drop of a hat regularly. No way such a person would rise to such level. I think even the cast did not believe in the plot or Walken's rendition.

Sorry Chris.

1- Colonel Moon (Die Another Day) Colonel Moon's goal to restart a war between North and South Korea just felt underwhelming. Badly. Like I like Will Yun Lee as an actor but yeesh. Even pulling a face change couldn't help the character be move believable. He didn't even seem interested in starting a war. It's like watching Face-off again.

Oh and shall I speak of this fake Iron Man costume that make him even more ridiculous. The GIJoe movie failed. This failed too. Writing this list made me realize how terrible that movie was.

So I re-watched the movie recently and waited for him to finish his monologue with a "Hail Hydra" which would have made sense as the scene was essentially the same as the ending of Captain America: The First Avenger. I know, I know, the First Avenger came years later. However, in CA:TFA, the confrontation made sense and the Red Skull at least had a goal that made people care.

Just no. Just no.

At least he died and we never had to remember him.

Until I created this list.

*Groan*

007 Lists about James Bond: Top 3 Bond Girls

This list was perhaps the toughest one to write and to narrow down to a few. There are so many great ladies that graced the screen with 007 that to limit myself to "just" three was very very difficult. With a few exceptions (Grace Jones), most of the ladies could have made this list.

So I will go with the three that most stuck to mind.

Top 3 Bond Girls

3- Agent XXX

I chuckled so much when I first heard the name of the Soviet Agent from The Spy who loved me. I did not know why or exactly what that meant, but I knew it was funny. The relation between her and Bond was always one that would end interestingly. After all, did not Bond kill her previous man?

The plot of the movie allowed for a number of great moment, and Jaws as the villain added to the story. She was resourceful and playful, very much a female-version of Bond, which I thought made the role so interesting.

2- Teresa Bond

Ahhh. Diana Riggs...

Perhaps it is my own love of The Avengers? Whatever, I loved that she re-branded her Mrs. Peel role in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. She brought that playfulness, but also a no-non-sense feel to the role.

Plus she is the only woman who ever managed to capture James Bond's heart got to marry him. She is without a doubt, the most referred-to character in all the Bond movies. With references and jabs in at least six other movies.

Oh and how many Bond girls can say they were related to the Queen of the Iron Throne? She's just the best.

1- Honey Ryder

From the moment Honey Ryder walked out of the water in Dr. No the tone and feel of not only the movie, but the whole series changed. How can she not be the greatest of the Bond Girls when she was the first one, the one that set the tone.

Hummm that I could go to the Bahamas on an secret island that she would come out of the water...

Sigh...

Dreams

JP

007 Lists about James Bond: Top 3 Villains

I have been thinking about a few lists and if there is a series that I love and that lends itself so well to these kind of lists than James Bond. From the days when I was a kid, I remember watching for the action and the gadgets. Then as I grew up, the bond girls. Hummmm

Since the franchise has been running for over fifty years, it is great to look over the movies I loved - and hated - for decades.

So let's start...

Top 3 Villains

3- Jaws

There are few characters that marked my young imagination as much as Richard Kiel's interpretation of the steel-jawed killer known as Jaws.

From the unstoppable, relentless, merciless juggernaut he was in The Spy who loved me, I was just terrified. My brother and I would scare each other by mimicking him and his slow bite attack method.

He wasn't as awesome in Moonraker (then again who was?) but still his presence and appearance drew my interest immediately. I loved the fact that Bond always goes for the Kirk-punch to the jaw to remind himself of the steel teeth.

2- Goldfinger

I remember watching the movie that bore his name and being completely taken aghast by the deviousness of his plot at Fort Knox. That he used Pussy Gallore's Flying Circus wasn't lost on me.

His method of killing: by painting a woman with gold paint stuck to my imagination as particularly horrible.

The man who loves gold always left me with a soft spot as someone who is extremely ruthless in the pursuit of his one and only goal: gold.

Forever embedded in my mind as the pinnacle of greed, Auric Goldfinger is someone I love to hate every time he comes on TV.

1- Hans Blofeld

How can one think of 007 and not think of his arch-enemy of the early days: Ernst Blofeld! The man with the white cat is the archetype and living symbol of villainy. As the true mastermind of evil, Blofeld takes the cake: he has means and resources, is completely without mercy and seeks to advance the cause of Spectre.

He appears a number of times throughout the 60s and 70s, played by many different actors, though the actor that stuck most to my mind was You Only Live Twice's's Donald Pleasance.

The many actors that played him, like Bond himself, gave him a slightly different flavor. In a way, I think Blofeld, like Bond, is a codename that is passed on from person to person. Whereas he is always a little different, but remains the same.

JP