Roger Moore's Favorite James Bond Movie Is One Of Sean Connery's Worst

Screen Rant ^ | December 11, 2021 | Padraig Cotter

[L.A.Justice]

Roger Moore's favorite James Bond adventure is one of the least-loved adventures from the Sean Connery era. By the time Sean Connery appeared in his fifth Bond adventure You Only Live Twice, he had grown tired of both the franchise and the overwhelming amount of attention it brought him. He had become so identified with the role that he longed to break free of his 007 typecasting, and George Lazenby was later hired as his successor for On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

[L.A.Justice]

Sadly, it's arguably the weakest adventure with Sean Connery's Bond, with the star himself going through the motions while the movie's tacky sense of humor and lame setpieces fail to impress, outside of a fun car chase through Vegas. One major supporter of Diamonds Are Forever was the late, great Roger Moore, who during a conversation with the Hudson Union Society in 2012 declared it his favorite Bond movie.

I think DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER is not a bad Bond film...It has some good moments...The movie came out in 1971...50 years ago...

Jill St. John and Lana Wood are still alive...Jill St. John is 81 years old...

[fieldmarshaldj]

Connery looked prematurely old (at just 40 !) and worn-out in “Diamonds.” Curiously, when he came back 12 years later to play in the “Thunderball” remake of “Never Say Never Again”, he was back in fighting shape.

It’s a shame Lazenby screwed up after filming OHMSS that led to his firing, because he’d have done better in DAF, setting him up for a showdown with Blofeld after murdering his wife.

[Secret Agent Man]

Arctic Monkeys has a good cover of Diamonds are Forever

[EEGator]

They never went sailing with Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken…

[max americana]

Moore and Connery are/were (respect) good friends. No malice at all.

[SaveFerris]

I had the red Mach 1.

Not that one, of course, LOL.

[atc23]

1.) Goldfinger

2.) You Only Live Twice

3.) Thunderball

Best Theme: Nancy Sinatra “You Only Live Twice”

[rbg81]

2.) You Only Live Twice

That was my favorite Bond film until Skyfall came along. In many ways, it’s cheesy, but I love the character of Blofeld and the Ninja assault at the end.

[ealgeone]

OHMSS was terrible. It had that bad late 60s film color. And I never liked sevalis.

[JennysCool]

Diamonds Are Forever, and many of Roger Moore's Bonds, are marred, really, by no fault of their own. They just happened to be made in the '70s, with those horrible clothes and "'70s colors" and "hip" ethos. They are artifacts of that time.

I've always been glad Moore made A View To A Kill in the '80s. It's gritty, closer to Fleming, and has way less polyester in both clothes and attitude. It's his last Bond, but in many ways it's close to the early Connerys, and the older, a little craggier, Moore is first-rate in it.

[JennysCool]

You Only Live Twice remains just fantastic to my mind. I like everything about it, the Japanese setting, Tanaka (easily Bond's best cohort), "Little Nellie," Donald Pleasance's Blofeld, the cranky Q. Everything about it is dynamite. I wish i could see it on a VERY big screen.

And, as mentioned, Nancy Sinatra's theme with the accompanying graphics is legendary.

[Chode]

ouch...

[frank ballenger]

My favorite is Diamonds Are Forever, also. I think it is a perfectly balanced film with steady, moving pace and no dead spots. And Jill St.John and Lana Wood were just right.

I was a total Bond fanatic from first ones through end of the Roger Moore ones. Just couldn’t accept all the brutally serious later ones.

My wonderful wife wished the silly humor of Sheriff J.W. Pepper and the rest had been taken out and the Ian Fleming novels emphasized. I think the opposite but have always enjoyed the interplay of opinions, and everything else, between her and me.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Any movie with Bambi and Thumper in it is a winner.

[KC_Conspirator]

“Bert Saxby? Tell him he’s fired.”

[fieldmarshaldj]

Couldn’t disagree more. Thought it was perhaps the best story in the franchise. Loved the oversaturated colors of that film era. Great moog score, too. Telly Savalas was an unusual casting choice, but he was better for the physical scenes than Donald Pleasance would’ve been against a fit and young Lazenby.

[marktwain]

outside of a fun car chase through Vegas.

There isn't any car chase through Vegas in "You Only Live Twice".

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Mamie Van Doren is still alive which I couldn’t believe. 90 years old.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Moore’s best was “For Your Eyes Only.” AVTAK was cheesy fun and a rip-off of “Goldfinger”, but Rog was clearly too old and the huge weak spot was Tanya Roberts. I’d have altered the storyline to have Fiona Fullerton’s alluring Pola Ivanova working with Bond instead.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

I saw Goldfinger again a few months ago and wow that brought back a hell of a lot of memories. I saw it when I was a kid and remember the gold lady dead on the bed freaked me out and Oddjob crushing the golf ball with his bare hands. Yes, that definitely is the best Bond with Shirley Bassey singing that song. The guy who wrote it John Barry said he ripped off the first line of music from the song “Moon river”. The dialogue in that was also great, I forget how it goes, but the killer line in that is “Do you expect me to talk?” “No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!” lol lol