The 11 Highest-Rated ‘James Bond’ Films Of All-Time

In total, there are 27 movies starring James Bond, 007 as the lead character. Sir Sean Connery was the first to star as the Ian Fleming-created British spy and after Connery every single portrayal of James Bond has been judged by that standard.

Now in case you had not heard, all of the James Bond movies just hit Netflix and can be streamed today. To save everyone time on where to start we have listed out all the 11 highest-rated James Bond movies of all time based on IMDB ratings and Metascores.

The Highest-Rated James Bond Movies Ever

While I might not necessarily agree with the order in which the ratings fall, I do think that overall these are probably the 11 best James Bond movies of all time. Though I do think Never Say Never Again (1983) where Sir. Sean Connery came back deserves to be in the mix despite being a non-EON film. But I digress, let’s break check out the highest-rated James Bond movies of all time!

11. You Only Live Twice (1967)

• 6.8 IMDB Rating (125K ratings)
• 61 Metascore
• 1 hour, 57 minute runtime
• Rated PG

This was the 5th installment of the James Bond franchise, sandwiched between Sean Connery’s You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service starring George Lazenby who only appeared in one Bond film.

In You Only Live Twice, Sean Connery is working with Japanese Secret Service to prevent the outbreak of a world war between Russia and the United States. Roald Dahl has a screenwriting credit on this film!

10. Spectre (2015)

• 6.8 IMDB Rating (491K ratings)
• 60 Metascore
• 2 hour, 28 minute runtime
• Rated PG-13

Directed by Sam Mendes, his second film in the Bond series, 2015’s Spectre was the 4th of 5 Daniel Craig led Bond films. James is chasing down details about the evil SPECTRE organization and Christoher Waltz plays the criminal mastermind in this film. Great stuff all around.

Fun fact, for the Dia de los Muertos scene in Mexico City it wasn’t the Day of the Dead at all and staged for the film. Obviously. But Mexico City, which had never held an official Day of the Dead celebration before this movie, loved seeing it so much on film they started holding a Mexico City Day of the Dead parade in subsequent years.

9. Thunderball (1965)

• 6.9 IMDB Rating (135K ratings)
• 64 Metascore
• 2 hour, 10 minute runtime
• Rated PG

Of all the James Bond films, this is the only one I can say that I’ve gone SCUBA diving inside of a cave in The Bahamas named after this movie and which was used as a set for filming. Right off Staniel Cay in The Bahamas, the Thunderball Cave was awesome to swim around inside and see two huge grouper (fish) lurking.

The jetpack in this film is legit and was flown by engineer Bill Suiter who is said to have been 1 of 2 people on earth at the time qualified to fly it.

8. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

• 7.0 IMDB Rating (123K ratings)
• 80 Metascore
• 2 hour, 5 minute runtime
• Rated PG

The 10th installment of the franchise, and the third Roger Moore-led movie, 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me had James chasing after stolen nuclear warheads. I have never been a big Roger Moore guy but this movie was fantastic.

Legend has it, that in order to land the official ‘James Bond Car’ for this movie the PR manager of Lotus parked an unreleased Lotus Esprit across the street from the Bond set so they would see it. Car companies were jockeying for any chance to be in the film franchise but this stunt landed the Lotus Esprit a spot in the movie.

7. Dr. No (1962)

• 7.2 IMDB Rating (191K ratings)
• 78 Metascore
• 1 hour, 50 minute runtime
• Rated PG

This is the film that started it all! The very first movie in the James Bond franchise, led by a young Sean Connery in 1962. The 78 Metascore on IMDB is the third-highest of the pre-Craig era.

While it wasn’t Ian Fleming’s first story, it was picked as the first film because it was easily adaptable to the big screen and only required one international filming location (Jamaica) so the studio could gauge success before blowing it out in the next movie.

6. GoldenEye (1995)

• 7.2 IMDB Rating (283K ratings)
• 65 Metascore
• 2 hour, 10 minute runtime
• Rated PG-13

As a millennial, this movie was everything. It also spawned arguably the greatest multi-player shooter of its generation.

Goldeneye was, by far, the best work of Pierce Brosnan’s stint as James. It also marked the first use of CGI in the Bond franchise when VFX were employed in the opening credits to create the smoking gun barrel.

5. From Russia With Love (1963)

• 7.3 IMDB Rating (155K ratings)
• 83 Metascore
• 1 hour, 55 minute runtime
• Rated PG

1963’s From Russia With Love was the second James Bond film to hit the big screen. Sean Connery as James is on a quest to recover a stolen encryption device taken by the SPECTRE organization.

Sir Sean Connery would later refer to this as his personal favorite Bond film. And this movie led to Steven Spielberg casting Robert Shaw in Jaws after seeing him play Grant in From Russia With Love.

4. No Time To Die (2021)

• 7.3 IMDB Rating (480K ratings)
• 68 Metascore
• 2 hour, 43 minute runtime
• Rated PG-13

This is/was the most recent James Bond movie to hit theaters, back in 2021, and the last of Daniel Craig’s stint as 007. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, No Time To Die has an IMDB Metascore of 68 and overall rating of 7.3 but there may be some possible recency bias there in play.

Daniel Craig is said to have handpicked Ana de Armas to play Paloma in this film after they worked together in Knives Out two years prior.

3. Goldfinger (1964)

• 7.7 IMDB Rating (214K ratings)
• 87 Metascore
• 1 hour, 50 minute runtime
• Rated PG

If we are going on IMDB rating, Goldfinger is the second-highest rated movie in the franchise but if we are judging them on Metascore then Goldfinger is by far the highest-rated Bond film of all time with 87 Metascore.

This was the third movie in the franchise and Sir Sean Connery was at his best. Goldfinger himself, played by Gert Fröbe, is arguably the most iconic Bond villain throughout the franchise’s history. According to Hollywood lore, Aston Martin was hesitant to provide 2 of their cars for this movie and the film’s producers had to buy them outright. But after the immense success it paved the way for never having to buy cars for a James Bond film again.

2. Skyfall (2012)

• 7.8 IMDB Rating (766K ratings)
• 81 Metascore
• 2 hour, 23 minute runtime
• Rated PG-13

Daniel Craig’s 3rd of 5 films as 007, Skyfall has a Metascore of 81 and is the second-highest rated film in the franchise on IMDB with a 7.8 average rating from 766,000+ reviews. This film included more of M than any other that I can recall and that always stood out to me.

Javier Bardem absolutely crushed it as Silva, the villain, and this was only the second James Bond film in the history of the franchise where James himself sustained a gunshot wound. The other was Thunderball back in 1965.

1. Casino Royale (2006)

• 8.0 IMDB Rating (736K ratings)
• 80 Metascore
• 2 hour, 24 minute runtime
• Rated PG-13

At number 1 is 2006’s Casino Royale. It has an IMDB rating of 8.0 with 736K+ ratings and a Metascore of 80. Casino Royale was the first of Daniel Craig’s five Bond films and it coincided with the height of the ‘Poker Boom’ leading to some of the more asinine portrayals of professional poker featured on screen.

Eva Green was a perfect ‘Bond Girl’ and Mads Mikkelsen crushed it as Le Chiffre (the villain). Is this the most memorable of all the great James Bond movies throughout the years? Let us know what you think down in the Facebook comments or you can email me anytime at cass@brobible.com! And again, all of these movies can now be streamed on Netflix which is what sparked the idea for me to do this in the first place.