Best and Worst Bond film title

MilleniumForce

Best: From Russia With Love

Has a spy/crime sound to it.

Honourable Mentions: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Living Daylights


Worst: Die Another Day

Sounds like any other forgettable action film, not much of a Bond title.

Dishonourable Mentions: The Man With The Golden Gun, Licence to Kill

AlphaOmegaSin

Best

You Only Live Twice

It has the Element of Mystery to it

Honorable Mentions - License To Kill , For Your Eyes Only

Worst

Die Another Day

The same Reasons as yours

broadshoulder

Best

The Spy Who Loved Me

honourable mentions - from russia with love, casino royale, for your eyes only

Worst

Die another Day

for the true stinker it was

and Tomorrow Never Dies

002

From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only have all always struck me as being particularly strong Bond titles.

Surprisingly, the one-word titles seem the most insipid: Goldfinger, Thunderball, Octopussy and Goldeneye all appear to range from the comic to the downright pornographic. Only Moonraker sounds like it holds any promise (shame it didn't).

I agree that Die Another Day is about the worst the series got, title-wise.

Jarvio

The Living Daylights is the best title, whilst Licence To Kill or OHMSS are the worst for me

Thunderpussy

Live and let Die has always been a favourite of mine. -{

The Wicker Man

Usually any film using a Fleming book title sound great. He had a talent for dreaming up some amazing character names and I think his book titles have a similar quality. You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, Dr No, From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only - even if I knew nothing of James Bond those titles would make me want to watch those films.
Whereas for me Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day sound like any other action film.

Matt S

Best: From Russia with Love, The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only

Worst: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day

Harry Palmer

Best titles: For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights (but there are many good ones: OP, OHMSS, YOLT)

Worst: (easy,) the utterly nonsensical Tomorrow Never Dies

AlphaOmegaSin

The Wicker Man wrote:

Usually any film using a Fleming book title sound great. He had a talent for dreaming up some amazing character names and I think his book titles have a similar quality. You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, Dr No, From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only - even if I knew nothing of James Bond those titles would make me want to watch those films.
Whereas for me Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day sound like any other action film.

1+

Fleming was a brilliant Writer {[]

MilleniumForce

The Wicker Man wrote:

Usually any film using a Fleming book title sound great. He had a talent for dreaming up some amazing character names and I think his book titles have a similar quality. You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, Dr No, From Russia With Love, The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only - even if I knew nothing of James Bond those titles would make me want to watch those films.
Whereas for me Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day sound like any other action film.

I think it's because films don't need to rely on titles to get people to see them, whereas books rely partly on titles to get people to want to read it. I guess it also has to look good on a book cover as well, whereas if you're making a film poster all that matters is having a memeorable image.

One thing someone made me think about when talking about DAD is that Die Another Day sounds like a Die Hard sequel!

Gassy Man

Best title in terms of originality, description, irony, poetry, and immediacy, as opposed to just liking the movie or thinking it sounds "cool"?

That would have to be On Her Majesty's Secret Service. It sounds classical, British, intriguing, alliterative, fitting.

Worst title?

That would have to be Licence to Kill. It's obvious and literal.

Matt S

MilleniumForce wrote:

One thing someone made me think about when talking about DAD is that Die Another Day sounds like a Die Hard sequel!

Die Hard Another Day?
Live and Let Die Hard?
Tomorrow Never Dies Hard?

Matt S

Gassy Man wrote:

Worst title?

That would have to be Licence to Kill. It's obvious and literal.

It's not even literal because Bond does not have his licence to kill in that film.

AlphaOmegaSin

License To Kill was supposed to be License Revoked originally.

And I've always personally found the Title straight to the Point -{

broadshoulder

Die another Day was put together by committee

superdaddy

Thunderpussy wrote:

Live and let Die has always been a favourite of mine. -{

mine to in fact it is also my favorite Fleming novel and Bond film -{

Barbel

I do think that Fleming had a magic touch dreaming up his titles and can't fault any of them- they intrigue, as said above. Of the non-Fleming film titles, I'd say TND and DAD are the weakest.

Matt S

Barbel wrote:

I do think that Fleming had a magic touch dreaming up his titles and can't fault any of them- they intrigue, as said above.

Are you even a fan of The Hildebrand Rarity?

That one and especially 007 in New York might not make such great film titles.

Barbel

Matt S wrote:

Are you even a fan of The Hildebrand Rarity?

That one and especially 007 in New York might not make such great film titles.

Well, a few years ago I'd have bet against "Quantum Of Solace" ever being used as a film title- you genuinely never know!

Thunderpussy

Just my opinion but Property of a lady and The Hildebrand Rarity would make
Good film titles, perhaps 007 in New York could be used as a secondary title I.e.
" live and let die : 007 in New York" ?

Penfold Heart

Hi all.

I guess I will start here:

I like Casino Royale, Thunderball, The Living Daylights and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I am not so keen on Octopussy (it just sounds odd to me, even though I get the concept) and The Spy Who Loved Me.

Risico is also interesting, but from what I understand from the story it is just a guy with a Greek accent saying the word "risk" in English?

Barbel

Welcome to AJB, Penfold Heart- we have an introductory guide for new members here http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/45180/int … the-forum/ and please feel free to introduce yourself at http://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/34154/wel … s/page/50/

PS- In the story "Risico" Kristatos is Italian, rather than Greek.

AlphaOmegaSin

Welcome Penfold {[]

The Property Of A lady would have been a good Title for Dalton's third Film -{

walther p99

Even though the original title actually makes way more sense, I've always loved Tomorrow Never Dies.

Dutchfinger

I agree with what most people say here. Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day sound the most generic and don't have the same quality as a Fleming sounding title. Pretty much all titles that Fleming came up with are great! - I also really liked Skyfall as a title!

However a Fleming title that doesn't work as good as the others for me would have to be The Man With The Golden Gun. Just "The Golden Gun" would have maybe been more powerful.

MilleniumForce

Thunderpussy wrote:

Just my opinion but Property of a lady and The Hildebrand Rarity would make
Good film titles, perhaps 007 in New York could be used as a secondary title I.e.
" live and let die : 007 in New York" ?

I like Property of a Lady and The Hilderbrand Rarity. 007 in NewYork sounds like a foreign title of Lve And Let Die, you know when the change the title?

I think e weakest of his titles besides 007 in New York was the Man With The Golden Gun. I don't know why, but I just imagine if you replace the word Gun with Sword and it would sound like a forgotten samurai movie.

AlphaOmegaSin

In my Opinion, The Man With The Golden Gun is probably Flemings's most imaginative Title.

Dutchfinger

MilleniumForce wrote:

I think e weakest of his titles besides 007 in New York was the Man With The Golden Gun. I don't know why, but I just imagine if you replace the word Gun with Sword and it would sound like a forgotten samurai movie.

It's funny how I posted the exact same thing just a few second earlier than your post! )

Matt S

Dutchfinger wrote:

However a Fleming title that doesn't work as good as the others for me would have to be The Man With The Golden Gun. Just "The Golden Gun" would have maybe been more powerful.

The man is what's important, not the gun. A book or film called "The Golden Gun" would make me think it's something Indiana Jones is trying to find. James Bond is after the man, not the gun.

Gassy Man

Matt S wrote:

Gassy Man wrote:

Worst title?

That would have to be Licence to Kill. It's obvious and literal.

It's not even literal because Bond does not have his licence to kill in that film.

Well, it is in the sense that it gets taken away and returned to Bond by the end of the film. One could argue that thematically that's what the whole story was about.