Which is the better of these Bond movies?

[Sleeping in EQ]

My buddy and I had a little dispute this afternoon.

Both are bad, but one is definitely better than the other.

[Pelado]

Since I don't remember watching either of these movies (mostly skipped the Roger Moore ones), my vote is based on which movie's poster has the most scantily-clad ladies.

[Commando]

I picked Moonraker on the strength of one my favorite bond villains- Jaws. My top favorite is probably Whisper from Live and Let Die.

[creekster]

which one did you choose? I thought Moonraker was laughably bad and the female lead was dull and uninteresting. Sad.

[PaloAltoCougar]

I won't defend either, but gave the nod to Moonraker, in part because the villain (Hugo Drax) uttered a few good lines, like "Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him." Plus, I was always mildly irritated by the guy who played Tattoo (or "Pontoon", as Sonny Bono kept calling him).

[beefytee]

Looks like critics picked Moonraker, while the audience picked Man with the Golden Gun on rotten tomatoes:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/man...the_golden_gun
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1014217_moonraker

I've general found that audience scores are more reliable. I initially realized this when I went to First Man based on the rotten tomato score and hated it.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/first_man

As is usually the case, the audience has it correct for the two 007 movies. Both are bad movies not work watching, but Moonraker is especially painful.

[Sleeping in EQ]

which one did you choose? I thought Moonraker was laughably bad and the female lead was dull and uninteresting. Sad.

I think The Man with the Golden Gun is better. It certainly has some major problems--J.W. Pepper and the karate school nonsense stick out as particularly awful--but TMWTGG is trying to be a quirky Bond film (Diamonds are Forever and The World is Not Enough also try to do this) and sometimes it succeeds.

TMWGG also has better Bond girls than does Moonraker. Britt Eklund is a total knockout and Maude Adams is appealing (but she's somehow prettier in Octopussy. Her acting is better in the later film too).


Both films have a strength--gorgeous, on-location footage.

[Sleeping in EQ]

Moonraker does have a better title song than does TMWTGG. Shirley Bassey can out sing Lulu every day of the week.

The shots in the glassworks in Venice are elegant; the Bond movies won't recapture such elegance until CGI.

I do like the creepy scene where Jaws is dressed up for Carnival and is walking down the alley.


But on the whole *ugh*

[BigFatMeanie]

I picked TMWTGG because I served in Thailand and like to hear some of the Thai spoken in the movie. But they're both really bad.

[Northwestcoug]

"Moonraker" was the first 007 film I saw. Therefore, it is the standard that I judged all other Bond movies well into my 20's.

[frank ryan]

I voted Moonraker because I can remember it.

[Scott R Nelson]

I voted for The Man With The Golden Gun because the space scenes from Moonraker were just a bit too much.

But I think A View To A Kill might beat both of them as the worst Bond movie. Especially after they rearranged the geography of Northern California to make the plot work.

[Sleeping in EQ]

I voted for The Man With The Golden Gun because the space scenes from Moonraker were just a bit too much.

But I think A View To A Kill might beat both of them as the worst Bond movie. Especially after they rearranged the geography of Northern California to make the plot work.

A View to a Kill might be the worst; it's certainly part of the conversation.

All of these films--TMWTGG, Moonraker, and AVTAK--are bad.

Having said that, I think there's a decent spy movie failing to emerge in THWTGG: Christopher Lee's character as a kind of shadow version of Bond, the Dutch-angle shots of both the MI6 world and the villain's world, the statuary in the Thai garden that is replaced by actual people, Bond engaging in actual investigation, etc. The plot, such as it is, holds together, and there's a certain creativity to the whole thing.

With Moonraker, you have a re-heating of elements from The Spy Who Loved Me in a post-Star Wars film world. There are too many plot holes and character motivation problems to count. You also have Bond dropping one-liners in almost every scene, a bland, cold Bond girl, the transformation of Jaws into Wiley E. Coyote, and some of the worst action in any Bond film (on the tram car, the anaconda, and in outer space).

People sometimes miss the fact that some of the most annoying characters in Bond are American stereotypes (JW Pepper, Stacy Sutton, Christmas Jones). We have our silly Sherlock Holmes impersonations, and our English cousins sometimes go for the broad, clueless American character.

[mtnbiker]

Both are terrible, but I go with TMWTGG simply because of Christopher Lee.

[Eddie]

So hard to choose!

Honestly - what's not to love about the space battle scene in Moonraker? It's like they took the underwater battle scene from Thunderball and moved it to space! And seeing Jaws hook up with the gal with coke bottle glasses - finally realizing there's no place for them in Drax's perfect world with the help of Bond dropping some key lines. That's entertainment, right there.

On the other hand, watching James Bond battle sumo dudes was entertaining too. Probably a little better plot in The Man with the Golden Gun. But still not one of my favorite 007 films.