21 replies to this topic

[Rich Douglas]

I just picked up goldfinger (which was on sale for $11) and LTK on dvd today and must say, as I'm sitting here about 1 hr 17mins through LTK, I have really found it enjoying! I haven't seen it in a while (since i was a kid) as I dont remember it being this entertaining. I know the film has taken alot of blows, and alot of people can't stand it, but I think it is a well done film, I LOVE the revenge aspect. Daltons bond harkens back to the Bond we know from the books, ruthless, suave, and somtimes downtright coldblooded. I also am noticing how well Michael Kamen's score fits the film. Granted the score and film are not the best in the series but I certainly am glad to own it, and find it to be very very entertaining. Now I've got about half of the films on DVD and am slowly replacing my VHS tapes with dvd. In all honesty (although i know I'm going to get some **** for it ) I think LTK is one of my favorites, alongside OHMSS of course.

Rich

[rafterman]

I've really grown to like it too...you're not alone.

[PaulZ108]

Can't say that I have. I don't hate it (certainly not to the extent taht some do) and I do love the film, but it just doesn't feel like a Bond film. It gets too caught up in the revenge aspect and seems to forget to establish that it's still a Bond film and ends up feeling like one of those 80's movies about some renegade cop or someone out for revenge.

It's not Dalton that hurts it, though. The Living Daylights is VERY Bond and it spends quite a lot of time in my DVD player.

[IrishCrown]

I have both Daltons on widescreen VHS if anyone wants them. Hardly ever been played. They were in one of the boxed sets from a few years back, and I got all of them, even the Dalton movies in there.

[Felix's lighter]

I don't know - once the casino scenes start up and you see Sabchez with his jewelled lizard, it starts to really feel like a Bond film. Ditto with the drug refinery scenes and the whole Wayne Newton thing - it's little touches like that that make it distinctly a Bond film.

[brendan007]

i dont hate it, its a bond film and i couldnt never hate a bond film. it is definetly my least liked though. it just feels unbond and in some ways it feels like a cheap tele movie. its not necessarliy daltons fault, i too love The Living Daylights, i just think they just took daltons portrayal too far.

[5 BONDS]

living daylights and licence to kill are very good Bond films no matter what people think.

Licence to kill is action packed and Dalton gives his own style.

Check out his look when Carey Lowell exposes her gun in the lift. Very Bondian I think.

[IrishCrown]

Does anyone find it odd that BOTH Jimmy Dean AND Wayne Newton have both been in Bond films?

[Canada]

I love the Dalton films, somehow the Bond copy-cats did better those years. Perhaps it was the advertising campaign.

[Jamie007]

I think its a great Bond film. Its also the first one I ever saw. A little dark maybe, but I prefer a darker Bond then a comic Bond like in some of the Moore films. It also feels more like a Bond film then Tomorrow Never Dies. (Though dont get me wrong, I also love the Brosnan and Moore movies).
Jim

[Double-0 Six]

I also enjoy Licence to Kill, both as a Bond film and as an action film. I think the problem people have is that it's just a little bit too different to what has gone before ... maybe that just makes people cautious about enjoying it.

I wish Daltan had done more Bond films, The Living Daylights is one of my favourites, and LTK is high up the list.

[Sir James]

LTK is a great Bond film, I seem to go through highs and lows with it though. There have been times when it was out of place if not in my top five, now however, it just makes it into the top ten. But a real dark and Fleming like Bond.

[Alexborn007]

I remember back when I first started getting into Bond (11 or 12 years old) and I got the 2nd VHS set with the Moore and Dalton movies. LTK was the one that I put in first. There was a modern edge to it that I found interesting. Today, I still find it to be a decent break from the high profile plots Moore was dealing with (and Dalton in TLD). Its far from perfect, as there's no really decent humor and I still am baffled why Wayne Newton was chosen for his role....really baffled actually. The religious aspect was odd, but in the end I enjoyed the aspect of Bond battling drugs and going rogue. The music was really good at times, but others made me feel like I was watching a Die Hard or Lethal Weapon movie. Kamen had it pretty well with the Bond theme, but just too reminiscent of his other work (Arnold had this too with TND, but he had an awesome score to make up for it). And, BOND DRIVES A CADILLAC!?!?!? The always brilliant Q plays a fantastic part, and that made up for a lot.

[jeff319]

License to Kill is fantastic. I'd rank it as #9 in the Bond series, among the greats such as OHMSS and Goldeneye.

Dalton is incredible as Bond... the only time we've seen Bond portrayed in such a dark and angry manner. The story is probably the strongest one (it balances out, and is never overly convoluted) since TSWLM.

It's a pity that MGM pretty much screwed LTK's chances when it was released. They should have released it around Thanksgiving, as they have been doing with the Brosnan Bond films.

Michael Kamen's score is refreshingly different, and it fits the film. Unfortunately, Gladys Knight's theme song is absolutely horrible, one of the worst in the series.

[Blofeld]

I too, really enjoyed LTK. More than TLD which had a great pre-credit sequence, but I felt it was a little slow at times. It's funny to watch LTK now and see a very young (21 or 22 at the time) Benicio Del Toro as Dario. I would very much like to see John Glen direct another Bond film in the near future. He and Brosnan could collaberate well together and make a great film.

[Trevelyan]

I saw LTK for the first time in 3rd grade. I only saw it again a few weeks ago -- and I thought it was terrific. Although, my friends (who I saw it with) said it wasn't "Bond enough" for a Bond film. I mean, it's a GREAT movie, one that TD did a great job on. It's one of my favorites -- definitely breaking away from the Bond movie formula!

But, you could easily dub out the names of the characters, the fact that Q is from MI6 (replace it with >insert Bond's new name here<'s uncle who enjoys making weird gadgets!), dub out "Moneypenny sent me!", change it to something like "Your ex-girlfriend sent me!" -- and it would still be a terrific movie -- AND NOT BE BOND!! (A GHASTLY IDEA!)

What does everybody else think?

[Dr. Tynan]

I love this movie too, it's my favourite Bond movie.

[IrishCrown]

On the DVD, the deleted scenes have Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas making cameos as they tail Bond to the airport. They're after Sanchez, too, because Sanchez killed Sonny Crocket's wife, who was played by Sheena Easton. Check it out.

[David Somerset]

I think Fleming would have approved of LTK. Dalton deliberately pushed it in the drection of Flemings books and largely succeeded. Cinema audiences wanted a more humourous Bond it seems and I am sad that we lost possibly two more Dalton films in 91 and 93.

[007.5]

I've always been a fan of Licence to Kill and the criticism of it is very harsh and at times unjustified. The petrol tanker chase was magnificent and Dalton was great in the role of renegade Bond. I like the grim sounding Bond theme in the gun barrel preamble as Dalton swaggers across the screen.

[Neil S. Bulk]

This film is better than:
You Only Live Twice
Diamonds Are Forever
Live and Let Die
The Man With The Golden Gun
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy
A View To A Kill
The Living Daylights
Tomorrow Never Dies
The World is not Enough
Die Another Day

It's a superb Bond film, deeply rooted in the world of Ian Fleming.

Neil

[SeanValen00V]

My favorite Bond film, Dalton's Bond, Flemming enriched, Davi's Sanchez mirror image of Bond, like in Casino Royale, both actors read the book and used its elements, heck even the pre-title sequence uses both greats in great scenes.