Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies

Sometimes I wonder if Goldeneye should be viewed as a minor miracle. After License to Kill, the franchise seemed lost. I’ve already written how that movie is unfairly blamed for the series’ near demise when the culprits were really a combination of bad luck, legal woes and the fact that many of the principal creative forces either moved onto other projects, retired or passed away. But Goldeneye brought Bond roaring back. The film was a critical and box office hit and got people excited about the character again. With Brosnan a huge hit with audiences and young enough for a good run of films, it looked like smooth sailing was ahead for the iconic franchise.

Unfortunately, I believe a strange period of stagnation was about to kick in. Every film under Brosnan’s tenure was very successful, but time has not been kind to them. It’s sad to say the films never lived up to the potential that Brosnan had, but it's true. And most people I ask look back on those films and say, “Ugh, Brosnan. Those films were terrible…except for Goldeneye, of course.” Which is actually not fair to Tomorrow Never Dies, which is actually not that bad. The cracks are beginning to form, but overall it is a perfectly fine entry to the franchise.

Ambitious media mogul Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce, Game of Thrones) is launching a new 24-hour news network, and needs a great hook to snag audiences away from the other networks right out of the gate. What better news story to grab viewers’ attention than a war?  He is able to get his hands on tech expert Mr. Gupta who has a ‘Global Positioning System’ and then starts wreaking havoc with Chinese and British military guidance systems in order to increase tensions between the two world powers. For good measure, he sinks a British warship and makes it appear as if the Chinese launched the attack. The ‘Chinese massacre of British sailors’ is a good story that explodes in the press, but British intelligence is immediately suspicious because Carver’s news outlet had the scoop hours before any other station heard about it.  Bond is set in to investigate – a search that is at times both helped and hindered by a Chinese agent Wai Lin (the always super cool Michelle Yeoh, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

In general, there isn’t that much to say about this movie. It is mostly perfectly fine. The acting is generally good. Brosnan and Yeoh are both great, and share a fun chemistry together.   It is interesting to point out that Agent Wai Lin almost got her own spinoff movie, and I would have welcomed that. Yeoh is a terrific Bond girl – looking comfortable with the spy work and certainly kickass in battle. Some of my friends complained about Jonathan Pryce as the villain, but I thought he was fun as the crazed media mogul. And I am happy the franchise tried something different, poking fun at our obsessive “everything now and all the time” media culture instead of settling for your standard megalomaniacal villain bent on world conquest. The same media obsession that drives Carver in this movie has only grown worse thanks to the explosion of the internet and social media, so let’s give the movie some credit for playing with that idea two decades ago.

The rest of the team does an admirable job. After flirting with a synthesized score in Goldeneye, the producers hired David Arnold (Stargate) who gave us a traditional, brass-blaring, old school Bond score. It's definitely good stuff. The movie looks really good, too, with Oscar-winning Director of Photography Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood) behind the cameras. Director Roger Spottiswood (The Sixth Day) does a fine job balancing the humor and action, and he actually stages one of the better sequences of the Brosnan years – when Brosnan is trapped by a master assassin named Dr. Kaufman (Vincent Schiavelli) in a hotel room while a small army of thugs try to break into his car in the neighboring garage. A perfect combination of thrilling, suspenseful and genuinely funny, it is hands down the best sequence of the film.

Unfortunately, there are just as many things to complain about in Tomorrow Never Dies. After the encounter with Dr. Kaufman, the movie heads downhill. It’s not a steep dip, but certainly a steady decline. There is a motorcycle chase through Saigon which is entertaining enough, but should have been much better considering they are being chased by a helicopter. And then the movie continues to get steadily worse and worse until it devolves into your standard fare action movie by the end…and not even really a good one. It’s more like one of those direct-to-video flicks that Steven Seagal and Jean Claude van Damme are churning out these days. It’s just…unremarkable. I’m not opposed to big action finales in the Bond films, but this one just smacks of the “we need to be bigger and louder” mentality that has plagued a lot of action films in the 1990s. I suppose it is another example of Bond changing with the times, which has always been the franchise’s strength. But while the explosions kept the character relevant (and may have put butts in the theaters), I think the films took a creative step backwards. The spy work was becoming more and more subpar (and occasionally even bordering on ridiculous) and was turning into just a means to get to the next explosion.

There are a few other things to complain about – Teri Hatcher is wasted as the second Bond girl, Carver’s wife Paris, and the super big thug of the film, Stamper (Gotz Otto) is about as bland a super thug as you can get. But all in all, I don’t want to sound too negative. I really should emphasize that Tomorrow Never Dies is actually fairly entertaining; but we are beginning to see the cracks that are about to form into the earthquakes that are The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day. Ugh, I hate those movies.

Oh, I can't end the review without mentioning one of my favorite things!!!  I need to comment on how the film dates itself.  I love that Mr. Gupta's secret weapon is a Global Positioning System...as in a GPS.  Every time he unlocks his special box and pulls out this cumbersome device, I look over at my phone and think, "wow, with my phone, I can reroute the guidance systems on Chinese jets.  Who knew my iPhone had that much power!  This isn't a criticism of the movie, and I am sure that in 1997, we were all in awe of this magical GPS device.  But damn, if it doesn't date the film when we're watching it now. It's actually pretty funny!

RANKINGS:

This is a bit tricky, actually.  And full disclosure, I think nostalgia is going to interfere with an objective opinion on this one.  I know that this movie belongs in the middle of the pack, but where is the question.  Is Tomorrow Never Dies a better film than Octopussy, For Your Eyes Only and Live and Let Die?  Yeah, it very well could be.  But I would definitely watch those three before I put in Tomorrow Never Dies, so that makes the ranking tricky.  I think in the end, I will put it right above Live and Let Die.  There are so many things I love about Roger Moore's debut, but unfortunately there is also so much stupidity in there that I could not in good conscience put it above Tomorrow Never Dies, whose sins are less...well, let's call them painful.  So Brosnan's second effort will come in at #10.

1. Thunderball
2. From Russia with Love
3. Goldfinger
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. Goldeneye
6. The Living Daylights
7. Dr. No
8. Octopussy
9. For Your Eyes Only
10. Tomorrow Never Dies
11. Live and Let Die
12. License to Kill
13. Man with the Golden Gun
14. Diamonds are Forever
15. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
16. Moonraker
17. You Only Live Twice
18. A View to a Kill

MVP:
This is an easy one. While I really liked the addition of Wai Lin to the franchise and wished she had joined Bond in a few more adventures, this is still Brosnan’s party.  As I mentioned in my Goldeneye review, he is really the first Bond since Connery who is believable in all the character traits that personify the character.  The man was simply born to play Bond. And he is terrific here. It's an easy pick for MVP.

BEST LINE:

Miss Moneypenny: You always were a cunning linguist, James.

TRIVIA:

I couldn't pick just one!  Tomorrow Never Dies has a bunch of fun trivia connected to it, and I really couldn't decide between these three.

1. Did you know Anthony Hopkins was actually cast as Elliot Carver?  But the production was so chaotic, with script rewrites happening daily, that he walked after only a few days on the production. He opted to make Mask of Zorro instead, directed ironically by Goldeneye's helmer, Martin Campbell.  Good choice, too.  I love Mask of Zorro and think Hopkins is fantastic in that role!

2. Before filming the motorcycle chase, the director pulled Pierce Brosnan aside and told him he was supposed to drive the bike.  He then pulled Michelle Yeoh aside and told her the same thing. The result can be seen on camera, as both agents run to the motorcycle and try to climb on at the same time.  Their bumbling confusion is real, and reinforced the idea of Agents Bond and Mai Lin always trying to outdo each other.  It also ended up being one of the more amusing parts of the movie.

3. For the first time in movie history, a film made its budget back entirely in product placements! There were so many sponsorships in Tomorrow Never Dies that the producers made a profit before the film even hit theaters.  That's pretty fascinating, and shows the power of the Bond Brand.  Can you believe the franchise was this powerful when less than 10 years earlier the industry was ready to declare it dead?

Goldeneye

Goldeneye

"Bond is back!"  So proclaimed headlines across the country when Goldeneye was released in 1995. It had been 6 years since the last film of the franchise, License to Kill, had flamed out at the box office.  The following years were tortuous for Bond fans, as production on the next sequel was stalled because of legal woes with the studio, MGM. The franchise was hurt still more with the departures of Bond director John Glen and actor Timothy Dalton, and the deaths of Bond stalwarts, scriptwriter Richard Maibaum and title artist Maurice Binder.  But the worst blow of all came with the illness of producer Albert "Cubby" Broccoli, the patriarch of the franchise who had guided the films since the beginning.  It was beginning to look like Bond, the father of the modern action hero, was going to be gone for good.

Eventually, MGM's legal woes were dealt with and Broccoli's Eon Productions was able to get back into the business of making movies. And it was time for a complete makeover.  Cubby Broccoli was too sick to serve as anything other than a consulting producer, but he left the franchise in the capable hands of his daughter Barbara and stepson, Michael Wilson. There must have been a lot of doubt in the months leading up to production.  Would Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson be able to recreate the magic?  Did it even matter? Maybe nobody cared about Bond anymore.  The character only really seemed relevant during the Cold War.  He was now a man out of his time, a secret knight of a British Empire that no longer existed.  As an action hero, he had been eclipsed by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis.  What there a point to resurrecting the franchise?

The answer is a resounding yes.  With determination and perseverance, Broccoli and Wilson showed that Bond wasn't only still relevant, but still deserved to be in the upper echelon of badasses. Maybe Ian Fleming's Bond wasn't relevant in the new post-Glastnost world, but Eon Productions' Bond sure as hell would be.  I think part of the reason Goldeneye is so successful is because it tackles this lack of relevance head-on. In the film, Bond is called a dinosaur - both because of his old school sexist attitudes and because he might not have a relevant place in the new world order.  The former is a pretty brilliant move because it allows Bond to be Bond while having the rest of the world either look down on him (like the new M) or amusingly roll their eyes at his antics (like the new Moneypenny). And the latter - the idea of trying to find one's place in the post-Cold War world - becomes a major theme in the film for multiple characters.

There is a lot to admire about Goldeneye, but let's start with the crew.  Director Martin Campbell was a solid director who had already proved he could handle both action (No Escape) and tense thrillers (the original Edge of Darkness).  The script, by Jeffrey Caine (Oscar-nominated for The Constant Gardener) and Bruce Feirstein (Tomorrow Never Dies) was witty, exciting and genuinely original for a franchise that had been around for three decades by that point. And I have to give major credit to Broccoli and Wilson for one major crew change - a MAJOR upgrade in the overall casting.

Let's be honest, Bond films were not known for their acting. Of course, it was important to cast Bond and his main villain well, and occasionally, the Bond girl (though for every Diana Rigg, there is a Tanya Roberts).  But generally, this was not a franchise for thespians. And then Goldeneye brings on Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench, Sean Bean, Robbie Coltrane, Tchéky Karyo, Joe Don Baker, Famke Janssen, Izabella Scorupso and an amusing blink and you'll miss it cameo from Minnie Driver.  That's a major cast upgrade and they all come to play. There is not a weak link in this group!

But I ramble.  Let's move into story, shall we?   There might be some spoilers here so be warned! After a top secret stealth helicopter goes missing and a Russian research center is inexplicably destroyed, Bond moves in to investigate, only to find himself facing one of his oldest friends, a long thought dead agent named Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean).  Trevelyan has access to a nuclear satellite called Goldeneye and Bond has to stop him before he uses the satellite's power to destroy London. The story is entertaining throughout, and includes some great classic Bond moments, like a world record-breaking bungie jump, a thrilling tank chase through St. Petersburg, and a memorable romp in a sauna.

Let's focus on that sauna scene for a second, where Bond is seduced/attacked by the evil Bond girl, Xenia Onatopp, played with vibrant gusto by Famke Janssen.  This scene shows the Bond character at his best - he is charming, sexy, funny, ruthless and probably a little too over confident.  And what a great fight with Onatopp, a powerful woman who gets off on killing people (literally). Her preferred method of assassinating people is by straddling them with her thighs and squeezing them to death, a process she enjoys...er, maybe a little too much.  She is hands down one of the best Bond girls of the entire series, and she is just as sexy and ruthless as Bond, and absolutely bat shit crazy (even to the other villains).  She is matched with a great performance by her villainous boss, played by Sean Bean.  For one of the few times in the series, we are blessed with a villain who is definitely Bond's equal.

Which leads me to some of my criticisms of the film, which also has to start with the villains.  At this point, the franchise no longer had the rights to the Blofeld character (as detailed on in my For Your Eyes Only review).  So Bond needed a new arch-nemesis to pester him film after film.  And here, we have a golden opportunity to achieve that with an interesting character who can actually give Bond a run for his money, a former spy with a fascinating back story and a believable grudge against England, and played by an exciting actor, Sean Bean, who can hold his own on-screen against the charismatic Brosnan. And instead of using this character to fill the gap left by Blofeld's absence, they kill him off at the end of the film (and in an incredibly lame way, by the way).  Maybe this isn't so much of a flaw as it is a missed opportunity, but it continues to frustrate me every time I see the film.

Other problems with the film could also be considered pet peeves. As a fan of the crazy stunts in the Bond films, I loathe the scene where Bond jumps off a cliff after a plunging airplane, somehow falling faster than the plane, catching up to it, climbing in, running to the cockpit and then taking control of the plan to fly away and escape. Hell no.  That's just too much.  Even if the Bond stunts were sometimes hard to believe, you still had stunt teams figuring this stuff out.  It was real people doing real crazy stuff. We get a taste of the stunt team's expertise with the record-setting bungie jump in the movie's opening scene, but then we go off the rails into special effects land with the cliff dive. In this scene, the production team just went the easy route and used special effects to create an utterly unbelievable moment...something so ridiculous that it took me out of the movie...and these are the types of shenanigans that would only grow worse and worse throughout Brosnan's tenure, eventually leading to the invisible car and tsunami surfing in Die Another Day. That pain begins here, with the stupid cliff jump, folks!

So the film isn't perfect (I didn't even get into the atrocious score by Eric Serra!), but does it matter? Goldeneye overall is a really good film, and a terrific inaugural outing for Brosnan and Campbell.  Bond was back, and he was better than ever.  There was hope for the future!

RANKINGS:

This one is tough. I really admire Goldeneye, but I'm not sure I would put it in the upper echelon.  I think it will fit nicely in with Dalton's debut, The Living Daylights.  In some ways, The Living Daylights is better - it's plot is more intriguing and the fights are better.  But I think I have to give the edge to Goldeneye.  The big differences are the cast (especially Brosnan and Janssen) and because I admire how the film cleverly updates Bond and makes him relevant in the post-Cold War world. Most importantly, this is the film that saved the franchise.  And it deserves some major points for that!

So here are the updated rankings:

1. Thunderball
2. From Russia with Love
3. Goldfinger
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. Goldeneye
6. The Living Daylights
7. Dr. No
8. Octopussy
9. For Your Eyes Only
10. Live and Let Die
11. License to Kill
12. Man with the Golden Gun
13. Diamonds are Forever
14. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
15. Moonraker
16. You Only Live Twice
17. A View to a Kill

MVP:
We really haven't talked about the biggest change in the franchise - that there was a new Bond in the lead here.  So let's get into it, because Brosnan is the clear MVP, but had as much to do with revitalizing the franchise as anybody else.  He was young, fresh faced, and energetic.  And most importantly, he seemed to effectively embody all the different aspects of Bond's persona.  For the first time since Connery, we had someone who was utterly believable flirting and fighting, someone who could be intense when the occasion called for it, and then flip on a dime and throw out a joke immediately after.  He is definitely different from Sean Connery - I can imagine Brosnan as an upper class, prep school kid with oodles of charm and confidence who then joined the Secret Service and learned to fight.  He started with the polish and then learned to be gritty from there as he needed to.  I kind of have the opposite impression with Connery - who I imagine as rough and tumble neighborhood badass who learned how to be charming and elegant. But both of them are unique as Bonds in that they really have all the check boxes filled.  Would Brosnan ever be as good as Connery? Doubtful - Connery was the first and will always be the best.  But what Goldeneye showed us is that Brosnan had that potential.  He is terrific in this movie, and gets the easy MVP.


BEST LINE:

Bond: No, no, no.  No more foreplay.

TRIVIA:
Casting Bond has to be one of the most difficult jobs in Hollywood.  With the world's most iconic action hero, the amount of scrutiny and publicity that you have to deal with is massive.  Everyone has an opinion.  And one of the miracles of the Bond series is that for the most part, they've done a great job of casting the part. As far as I am concerned, there has only been one misfire, George Lazenby, though a lot of people even disagree with me on that.  Cubby Broccoli had his eye on Pierce Brosnan for a long time.  In the 1980s, Brosnan was the star of a hit show called Remington Steele, in which he played a thief who was very Bond-like.  It looked like the show was about to be canceled, and Brosnan would be available to play the role.  He was thrilled.  Bond was his dream role; it was the part he was hoping his career would lead to.  Meetings with Broccoli went well, the media was buzzing, and it looked like he was about to get the part. And then the network, probably trying to cash in on all the media attention, renewed Remington Steele, forcing Brosnan to return to the show. Brosnan lost the part, and the mantle was taken up by Timothy Dalton (though the quest to hire Dalton is also an interesting story as I wrote here!). Brosnan was distraught, but fate (and Bond) were not done with him!

I also have an Honorable Mention bit of trivia.  Remember that amazing sauna fight I mentioned? Well, the fighting/making out got so intense that Famke Janssen broke a rib!  The moment is when Brosnan slams Xenia into the marble wall.  Janssen told him to really go for it, especially since they thought the walls were padded. Despite the pain, she kept going with the scene like nothing had happened, and that is the shot we see in the film!

Licence to Kill

Licence to Kill

And now we come to the franchise killer, Licence to Kill.

Financially unsuccessful and generally derided, Licence to Kill is almost always ranked at or near the bottom of the canon.

And that is totally unjustified.  Certainly not without its major problems, Licence to Kill just isn't that bad, and it attempts to nudge the franchise in a direction that it wouldn't experiment with again until the Daniel Craig years.

There are a number of reasons why people don't like this movie.  Among the biggest complaints is the plot itself.  Bond neither takes on enemy spies nor is the squeaky wheel that ruins the nefarious plans of megalomaniacs; Licence to Kill has much smaller fish to fry.  There is a nasty drug kingpin named Sanchez (Robert Davi), and Bond is gonna bring him down.  But even if the world is not at stake in this film, there are very personal issues to wrestle with. Sanchez attacked CIA agent and longtime Bond ally Felix Leiter (David Hedison) on his wedding night, killing his bride and lowering him into a shark tank until his legs were eaten off.  Now Bond wants revenge.  M and his other superiors at MI6 tell him back off.  So Bond goes rogue, determined to take down Sanchez on his own.

Nowadays, the idea of Bond quitting MI6 doesn't seem like a big deal.  Pierce Brosnan abandoned MI6 in Die Another Day, and it seems like Daniel Craig has made a nasty habit of it in most of his movies.  But in 1989, this was pretty shocking.  Bond was the Britain's secret weapon, loyal to Queen and country.  He never loses his cool, and to have him desert his post to fight some feisty drug dealer was surprising and controversial to many.  It doesn't bother me, especially since Licence to Kill features Bond doing more genuine undercover spy work than Roger Moore did during his entire tenure. He works his way down to Mexico, infiltrates Sanchez's gang and sets out to destroy it from the inside.

There is actually a lot of interesting stuff going on in this film, and it has a lot of good qualities. Timothy Dalton takes the seriousness and sense of danger up another notch in this film, making his run in The Living Daylights seem almost joyous in comparison. He's cruel and dangerous here, and that is cool to see.  I think the rest of the cast also does good work, particularly Carey Lowell as Bond's new CIA ally Pam Bouvier, and Robert Davi and a VERY young Benicio del Toro as the villains.  Long-time Bond helmer John Glen's direction is assured and reliable (he is even quoted as saying this is his favorite Bond film), and there are some exciting stunts - including some ridiculous tricks with 18-wheeler trucks, which would be laughably bad if it weren't for the fact that they were really doing them!  That makes the absurd become something impressive!

On the other hand, I don't want to defend the film too much.  Licence to Kill is definitely not some sort of misunderstood masterpiece.  It has some serious problems.  This is a long film, and it could have used some serious stream-lining. And entire subplot with Wayne Newton really serves no purpose and is just a time-kill.  The film is utterly devoid of any humor at all, which is definitely a mistake.  I really do feel that a key component of this franchise is that Bond enjoys his job, and we enjoy watching him enjoy his job.  Licence to Kill is just way too grim.  A shark ate off Felix's legs, for crying out loud!

And of course, if I am listing the horrible thing in this movie, I have to reserve a space for Carey Lowell's bad wig in her first scenes.  Thank goodness they let her go with her natural short hair for the rest of the movie. Yeesh.

But the biggest problem is that there are stretches where Licence to Kill just doesn't feel like a Bond film.  Ultimately, I think the quality that had been Bond's greatest strength for two decades backfired this time around - and by that, I mean the ability to adapt with the times.  The late 1980s was the heyday of the rated R action movie, and stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone ruled the box office.  Gore and violence was in.  This was the age of Lethal Weapon, Robocop, Die Hard, Commando, Predator, and Rambo...and James Bond wanted to cash in.  There are some truly grisly deaths in Licence to Kill - shockingly so for a PG-13 movie.

The other way the producers bowed to the issues of the late 1980s was by making Bond monogamous because of the AIDs crisis - he only sleeps with Pam Bouvier in this film.  And while it is noble that they wanted to acknowledge what continues to be a very serious crisis, it is certainly out of character for Bond to ignore all the other women in the film.

I know the Daniel Craig films are also grim, and it must drive Timothy Dalton up the wall that Craig's tenure is praised for the very reasons that Dalton's tenure is derided.  But the simple fact of the matter is that by trying to pursue what was popular in the late 1980s, Licence to Kill loses track of what makes Bond so special and unique. It devolves into your standard late 1980s revenge flick, just with a better actor in the lead.  And that is a very serious problem, and certainly contributed to its under performance.

Licence to Kill took a beating at the box office for another reason - bad luck.  The film was released in 1989, which was a bonanza year for franchises.  It just got swallowed up by franchise films like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Ghostbusters 2, Batman, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Back to the Future II, Karate Kid 3, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and Star Trek V.  Wow.  No wonder the film failed to ignite the box office.

But here is where I need to defend the film's legacy.  It was not a disaster.  It did not kill the franchise. Yes, for awhile it did look like there would be no more Bond films, but that had nothing to do with Licence to Kill.  There was a run of bad luck. Ongoing fierce legal battles with a bankrupt MGM (the parent company of Bond's distributor, United Artists) left the franchise mired in lawsuits and tangled in development hell.  With the production seemingly delayed indefinitely, Dalton retired from the role (important to note - he left; he wasn't let go). After five films, director John Glen also decided to throw in the towel.  Then two of Bond's iconic team members passed away - open titles designer Maurice Binder and screenwriter Richard Maibaum, both of whom had been with the franchise since Dr. No.  Worst of all, Cubby Broccoli himself had to step back from the driver's seat, as he was struggling with serious health concerns.

You can't blame Licence to Kill, but for a few years, it really was starting to look like James Bond was dead.  Thank goodness for Goldeneye.


RANKINGS:

This was a tough film to rank.  Licence to Kill has its problems, but its not a badly made film.  I think it is going to rest nicely right below Live and Let Die...squarely in the middle of the pack.

1. Thunderball
2. From Russia with Love
3. Goldfinger
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. The Living Daylights
6. Dr. No
7. Octopussy
8. For Your Eyes Only
9. Live and Let Die
10. Licence to Kill
11. Man with the Golden Gun
12. Diamonds are Forever
13. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
14. Moonraker
15. You Only Live Twice
16. A View to a Kill

BEST LINE:

When Bond is arguing with M about seeking vengeance against Frank Sanchez:

M:  This private vendetta of yours could easily compromise Her Majesty's government.  You have an assignment, and I expect you to carry it out objectively and professionally. 

James Bond: Then you have my resignation, sir.

M (furious): We're not a country club, 007!

TRIVIA:

The scene where Bond confronts M and then resigns from MI6 was filmed in Ernest Hemingway's old house in Key West.  Hence the line: "Well, I suppose this is a farewell to arms."  Ah, you gotta love inside jokes...

MVP:

What is the best thing about Licence to Kill?  Despite my earlier criticism of Timothy Dalton's humorless take on the role, he is still clearly the best thing about the movie.  He's a consummate professional and he was willing to take the character to some truly dark and dangerous places, and that needs to be applauded. And I do feel bad that he gets slammed for some of the same reasons Daniel Craig is praised.  It seems hardly fair!

The Living Daylights

The Living Daylights

Despite the fact that A View to a Kill is almost unwatchable in my opinion, the film still managed to be a financial success.  But it was clear to everyone that Roger Moore could no longer appear in the role of James Bond - most of all to Moore himself.  Change was in the air.  And it wasn't only the lead actor who needed to be a refresh.  The genius of producer Albert Broccoli is that he kept adapting the franchise to fit with the times.  While the essence of the Bond character stayed the same, the approach to the films shifted considerably over the decades.  If you didn't already know going in, it would be almost inconceivable that Dr. No and A View to a Kill belonged to the same franchise.  And now, in 1987, it was time to rock the boat again.  No more over-the-top baddies imbued with super strength by the Nazis and no more killer blimps.  It was time to bring Bond back to reality.

With the Cold War heating up again, Bond (Timothy Dalton, The Lion in Winter) is assigned to help Soviet general Koskov (Jeroen Krabbe, The Fugitive) defect from East Germany.  During the post-defection debriefing in a MI-6 safehouse, Kostov reveals that the KGB is launching an initiative called "Smiert Spionom," which translates to "Death to all Spies."  Basically, the KGB is going to target all Western spies to escalate tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.  Before he can go into more details, the safehouse is attacked by KGB operative Necros (Andreas Wisniewski, Die Hard).  After wreaking havoc, Necros kidnaps Koskov and escapes.  Deciding that "Smiert Spionom" is more important than recovering Koskov, M orders Bond to assassinate the head of the KGB (John Rhys Davies, Raiders of the Lost Ark) before international tensions turn into full scale war.

Of course, being a Bond film, there is more to the story, but why spoil it?  Instead of super villains and secret lairs, we are given a true Cold War thriller, and for the most part, it really is quite good.   The plot is interesting, the action and stunts are great, John Glen's direction is assured, and John Barry's music delivers the goods.  The villains, which also include an American arms dealer Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker, Walking Tall), are all entertaining. Wisniewski is particularly effective as the henchman Necros, towering over Timothy Dalton, and participating in two of the franchise best fights since the Sean Connery days.

The movie certainly has its problems. Bond's allies this time are a bit less engaging than the villains. The main Bond girl Kara (Maryam D'Abo, The Browning Version) is Kostov's girlfriend and an accomplished cellist, and really does not belong in the movie after the first 45-minutes.  Her role in the plot complete, she is only there to serve as a distraction to Bond and the audience, and that is a bit annoying.  I also found the attempts at humor to fall a bit flat; a leftover feature from the Roger Moore years that seems at odds with the new tone being established here.  It does seem like everyone is working through the process, looking to see what works and what doesn't with their new approach. That results in a few bumps on the road - but only a few.  For the most part, this really is quite a good film and easily ranks in the top half of the franchise.

And what about Dalton?  The Welsh actor is considered one of the "lesser" Bonds, probably because he only made two films and the latter one appeared at one point to be the franchise killer (until Pierce Brosnan brought the Bonds roaring back).  In general, Dalton is dismissed with a "meh" and his films are considering forgettable.  I find this all very confusing.  First of all, Living Daylights was a well regarded success upon its release and Dalton's second film License to Kill is nowhere near as bad as people say. And as for Dalton himself - people seem to criticize him for doing exactly what Daniel Craig is praised for - bringing some darkness and danger to the character.  This criticism must drive Dalton crazy!  Overall, I think Dalton is really quite good.  He brings a new physicality to the role, throwing himself into fights and stunts that Roger Moore hadn't been able to do for a decade.  He is also utterly believable as a dangerous and cold-hearted spy. In fact, Dalton might get the "spy" piece of the Bond character better than any of the other actors who played the part; he is downright brilliant. Unfortunately, there are a few other important pieces to the Bond character than Dalton is not quite as good at. He is generally not very believable with the ladies; it's almost as if he is being forced to sleep with them.  And he is also mostly humorless, even more so than Craig.  A key part of Bond is that he enjoys being Bond.  Dalton's Bond is focused on his duty and doing what's right, but he is not necessarily enjoying himself in the process, and I don't think that was the right approach to take.  But all in all, I think that can be forgiven. He is a great actor and he is doing really good work in this role. He deserves to be re-evaluated!

Okay, back to the movie.  As I mentioned above, it's far from perfect. But The Living Daylights is a good and sometimes even great entry in this franchise.  Definitely see it!

RANKINGS:
Okay, The Living Daylights shoots right up to the top of the list - not in the upper echelon, but close.  It is certainly better than all of Roger Moore's films, except for The Spy Who Loved Me.  That's one of the classics and would be hard to top, but I think Dalton's first entry to the franchise fits comfortably just below it.

1. Thunderball
2. From Russia with Love
3. Goldfinger
4. The Spy Who Loved Me
5. The Living Daylights
6. Dr. No
7. Octopussy
8. For Your Eyes Only
9. Live and Let Die
10. Man with the Golden Gun
11. Diamonds are Forever
12. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
13. Moonraker
14. You Only Live Twice
15. A View to a Kill

BEST LINE:
Bond: Stuff my orders.  I only kill professionals.  That girl didn't know one end of her rifle from the other. Go ahead. Tell M what you want. If he fires me, I'll thank him for it...Whoever she was, I must have scared the living daylights out of her.

TRIVIA:
Bond casting is always an interesting source of trivia.  It really is a huge deal whenever the part is recast; you are replacing an icon and the world knows it.  A number of interesting choices have been considered for the part, everyone from Cary Grant to James Brolin to Mel Gibson.  In fact, Pierce Brosnan was almost cast in The Living Daylights (I'll save that trivia for my Goldeneye review) before the producers decided on Timothy Dalton.  Dalton was also almost cast on multiple occasions before finally getting the role.  When Sean Connery left the series after You Only Live Twice, Dalton was considered for the part.  I don't know if Broccoli and Saltzman decided to look elsewhere or if Dalton turned down the part, but I think this was the right call - Dalton was way too young at that point.  He never would have worked (even if he would have saved me the torture of having to watch George Lazenby).  He was considered again in 1971 after Diamonds are Forever, and again in 1981 in For Your Eyes Only, when it wasn't clear whether or not Roger Moore was returning.  In fact, he was actually offered the role for Octopussy and A View to a Kill, but turned them both down due to scheduling conflicts.  So Broccoli really, really liked Dalton enough to chase him for twenty years!

MVP:
For The Living Daylights, I am not going to say a person.  Yes, I like Dalton.  And I like the direction by John Glen and the music score by John Barry (his last Bond score, by the way).  No, the MVP for The Living Daylights is not a person.  It is a stunt.  Probably one of the coolest stunts I have ever seen!  Spoilers here: Bond's final fight with Necros takes place in the cargo hold of a military plane The loading door of the plane opens and both combatants slide out of the plane, just barely grabbing ahold of a cargo net to keep them from falling to their deaths.  And then they proceed to fight while hanging on this net.  And two stunt men really spent hours filming scenes of punching each other while being dragged around by a cargo plane. The closeups are obviously filmed on a set, but the wide shots were filmed pretty damn high.  That is just insane.  INSANE! And incredibly dangerous.  My hats off to the stunt team.  I have to say this is the best stunt in franchise history! And an easy winner for my MVP award.

Here it is if you want to see it: