13 replies to this topic

[ChandlerBing]

Being one of the more Anti-Daltonites on this site, and maybe even on the Internet itself, I am going to take the Dalton challenge. I am going to go back and watch more The Living Daylights AND License To Kill again and see if my opinion might just change. I like to think I am very open-minded about things, and you never know, things could change. I will come back on here after I get through both movies. I don't have either of them on DVD, but instead have them on widescreen VHS. When I have finished watching them, I'll let you all know.

I came over here to the college campus this afternoon listening to the soundtrack to The Living Daylights, so you never know, right?

[Loomis]

ChandlerBing, I salute you! I look forward to reading your comments, be they good or bad.

[kevrichardson]

Originally posted by ChandlerBing

I came over here to the college campus this afternoon listening to the soundtrack to The Living Daylights, so you never know, right?

"The Living Daylights" soundtrack is very good . i would have never believe that it for told the end of John Barry as a Bond Composer . Good luck on the rest of your search .

[Righty007]

Goodluck, ChandlerBing. The Living Daylights is bad but Licence To Kill is great.

[SirMiles83]

I'm interested in hearing your responses ChandlerBing. My opinion is that TLD and LTK are very good films, TLD more than LTK. I love both films for the serious plots, gadgets, action and acting, but they seem different from other Bond films because Tim seems to portray a different kind of Bond to which we are unfamiliar. He is a great actor, and plays a great spy in TLD, and LTK, and perhaps a good portrayal of Fleming's Bond, but he lacks something that makes him different from all other Bonds: humor. Humor has been a staple with the film-Bond. It seems alien to have a Bond that doesn't wise-crack, and make jokes. I know he made some but they were drowned by the seriousness he played the role with. I respect those two films a lot but without the familiar light touches other Bond films had with humor, they seem different.

[Daltonitus]

Oh I dunno, Tim has plenty of humour, but it's not 'ohh look some tittys' or some smut joke. It's....hard edge

[Righty007]

Originally posted by Daltonitus
Oh I dunno, Tim has plenty of humour, but it's not 'ohh look some tittys' or some smut joke. It's....hard edge

Everyone including Sean Connery thinks Dalton had no humor as Bond. It's true, the only reason you think he was funny is because your obsessed with him. Whatever "hard edge" is, Timothy Dalton did not have it!

[ChandlerBing]

Well, last night I put in License To Kill. I was shocked and amazed, first that I watched it all the way through without any interruptions, and two, it's not a glorified episode of Miami Vice. As a graduate student, I am usually in and out of my apartment, headed off to the computer lab, research, etc. When I watched LTK last night without interruptions, all the way through, wow.

Precredits: That guy who gets garotted looks like Barry Williams who played Greg Brady! Weird! Opening marred by unconvincing close-ups of Dalton hanging from the helicopter flapping like a bird against a static background. I am not sure green screen would have helped that stunt. Rear projection is terrible, look at Moonraker, so what can you do?
Credits: Kinda sad since it was Binder's last sequence before he died. It's not very good.
The movie actually holds together very well up until the idiotic bar brawl where I was expecting another Dalton to show up (Patrick Swayze played a bouncer named Dalton in the Joel Silver 1989 cheesefest RoadHouse--more on Joel in a minute). The scene with Bond and Pam on the boat was awkward, but who knows, Bond and Honey Rider got it on on a boat, but still!
Good mention of Bond's past marriage. More needs to be done with that. OHMSS DID happen!
The cast is pretty decent. Benicio's accent comes and goes at funny moments. "La senorita, Bouvier..don't I know you from somewhere?" What the hell? Talisa Soto looks hot, but can't act. You guys complain about Denise Richards, for God's Sake! Carey Lowell looks hot, better with longer hair, though. Hard to believe she married Gerbil Boy. Davi is interesting. Much was made about how Davi was playing pineapple faced Noriega. When I watched this movie last night, all I could think of was Sodomy Insane himself. It was interesting.

And Dalton? He never did impress me in the physicality department. I suppose I wouldn't have a problem with him if I hadn't seen Connery and Lazenby decking the way they did. He acquits himself far better than Moore, who had a long array of red heads who stepped in. Witness Moore in his fight at the Pyramids. That's Martin Grace in there doing a lot of it. Dalton, I felt, really overplayed the scene with resigning. I got to thinking if Bernard Lee had been M in that scene, Dalton--AND BOND--would have been quaking in his boots, and never would have mentioned resigning. Dalton plays anger very well. Unfortunately, he's playing anger 80% of the time throughout the movie. He grins a few times, but it's too far and in between. In Dalton's defense--God help me--he did later on wish there were more moments of humor.
LTK, at times, feels a lot like a Joel Silver action movie from the 80s. The guy who played Sharkey was in one or two of those films, as was the guy who confronted Bond and Sharkey in Leiter's hospital room. And then there's Davi, who was in Die Hard, screaming, "Yee-haw, just like %$#@* Saigon, hey, Slick?"

I'd give LTK 2 out of 4 stars. It's a Bond movie all right, but it's not one of the better ones.

[Righty007]

I give it a 4/4 stars.

[Daltonitus]

I'm obsessed with Dalton, well not really.

Although I admit we share attitudes and opinions.

Sure, his films aren't full to the brim with fun and games, but that was his point.

His expression saying 'you're the first' and the reaction by Koskov - that's funny.

"Kara we're in a Russian airbase in the middle of Afghanistan" - that's funny.

"He got the boot" - funny, but not har har.

As for being serious 80% of licence to kill....well, when you're best buddy just got chewed up, his wife murdered (which you yourself had to go through once...) and then the cops sit on their *** cos the guy who did it has too many connections....well I woulda personally been angry 90% of that film, furious even

Please tell us when you have seen TLD

[Mister Asterix]

Come on DALTONITEs this is your chance to win this man over. Tell him the beautiful moments to look for in The Living Daylights, those moments that make you see Dalton as the perfect Bond. C.Bing already has some pre-conceived notions of why not to like Dalton, but you can tell him where the perfection is. Make sure he sees the little things that you see. This maybe your only chance.

[Loomis]

When I watch a Bond film, the film as a whole matters far more than the actor playing 007. I love THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and LICENCE TO KILL not so much because of Dalton (I wouldn't call myself a Dalton fan as such), and not merely because they're Bond adventures, but because I think they're well-made movies with good stories and characters (I'd compare them favourably to a number of other Bond outings), and full of that good old-fashioned Bond film panache. Dalton is only one element of TLD and LTK, and I don't see how those films may be acclaimed as masterpieces or dismissed as turkeys solely on the basis of his contribution.

ChandlerBing has, quite rightly, looked at LTK as a whole to decide what it has to offer apart from the lead actor's interpretation of Bond, and I'd suggest others do the same. Forget about Dalton and whether he's "authentic", or "too serious", or "too theatrical", or whatever, and let TLD and LTK wash over you. Focus your attention on other things: the other actors, the writing, the cinematography, the music, the production design. What I'm saying is, don't look on these films as Dalton vehicles, or imagine they stand or fall by his performance. When TLD and LTK first came out, I really didn't care for Dalton, and it's only recently that I've come to appreciate his contribution to the Bond series. However, even back in the days when I was as much of a Dalton-basher as the next guy, I was still able to admire and enjoy the two Bond films he appeared in.

[ChandlerBing]

As soon as Friends is over at 7 tonight, I'll put in The Living Daylights and put up my review tomorrow.

[Daltonitus]

Good point Loomis.

Lets imagine I hated dalton.

The LTK gunbarrel would still be my favourite and TLD score would be too.

Theres more than just Dalton, but I think the person behind Bond is important, what with him being the lead role and all...

My only chance to say why Chandler should wake up and smell the roses is it Asterix...well, I would say that watching TLD not thinking it's going to be 'too serious' is a must. No preconcieved notions. Just watch it and let it make you happy. I even manage that with TWINE sometimes, my most disliked Bond.

Oh and one final tip for TLD. Pretend the Felix is Hedison