I’d rank them based on six criteria:
Plot – Does it make sense in the context of the world of James Bond? Or does random weird stuff just happen?
Action – Are the action sequences impressive, even after repeated viewings?
The Bond girls – Are they both beautiful as well as well-rounded characters?
The music – Both the Bond song and the score.
James Bond – Is the actor good in the film, not just as Bond but also in scenes with other actors?
The villain – is the villain a worthy Bond adversary, with a grand plot and justification? And is his henchmen cool?
So just for fun, I did this in an excel file for all the films… and here’s the Top 10 (IMO):
#1 Goldfinger
#2 Casino Royale (#1 and #2 was a tie, so I put Goldfinger on top)
#3 Goldeneye
#4 Skyfall
#5 You Only Live Twice
#6 The Spy Who Loved Me
#7 The Living Daylights
#8 On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
#9 Thunderball
#10 From Russia With Love
Four from Connery, two from Craig, one each from Dalton, Brosnan, Lazenby and Moore.
On the bottom? Quantum of Solace. Not even Die Another Day was as bad as that one…