I'm really late to this thread but you ranking GoldenEye made me watch it again. OMG. This is patently not the second best Bond film ever made. I just watched Spectre, and while not at all ideal, it was clearly better than GoldenEye. GE was just okay, even accounting for its chronology. It has some pretty serious flaws...the whole storyline between Bond and the Kenneth Branagh figure is unbearably unrealistic (even in context). Also, the dialogue is so unattuned to it's time...its like it wanted to be hip and misogynistic but also being all about the modern 90's. This is actually a big hallmark feature of a bad Bond movie. Bond can and is misogynistic (often), but please do not make it contemporarily relevant! It has nothing to do with modernity or post-modernity. This is one of Bond's greatest attributes (or revulsions) as a fictional character. He is and will be misogynistic.

This is part of what we have led to believe 007 is, apart from 009 or any other agent. 007 is different. He may be these negative attributes but he's also more passionate, lethal, and loyal than any other agent. GoldenEye didn't showcase this. I think there's something to be said for the Daniel Craig movies in this regard...they really distilled something out of the awesome, amazing, and mixed Connery and Moore movies. There's not only mythos but an ethos that pervades Craig's Bond movies that was not all together tangible previously. Brosnan came closest to recreating this but I don't think it ever solidified. And I like the Lazenby and Dalton movies, but it didn't add to Bond, as a character.

Craig has done more for Bond as a character than any other performer. So much so that Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre, could easily stand alone as their own franchise without the lineage.

But... GoldenEye... C'mon... watch it again and tell me it's that good