While some view Pierce Brosnan as a quality Bond in his seven-year run, it’s a greatly overlooked iteration of the agent who beats him out, according to critics. Even with four films under his belt, Brosnan stays at a distant fifth place at 60.8%, easily bested by Timothy Dalton’s 76.5%. The latter appeared in two films, bringing an edge to the franchise which wouldn’t be recovered until Daniel Craig took over. Both “The Living Daylights” and “Licence to Kill” were enough to put Dalton in fourth place as the best Bond per critics, with the two movies even making the top 20 of Looper’s ranking of Bond films from worst to best.
That leaves the last position to tongue-in-cheek 007 extraordinaire Roger Moore, who lands as the worst official Bond in the franchise with an average critic rating of 57%. But there’s also one unofficial Bond, David Niven, who starred in the 1967 spoof “Casino Royale” and was ranked well below Moore at 26% for that one movie. For now, rumors are still circulating as to who Daniel Craig’s successor as the next James Bond might be, but we can only hope he finds himself at the higher end of the list when his tenure comes to an end.
