Licence To kill

ahh mr bond

I watched the ITV1 screening of LTK Friday night(as did most on this site). I like it more and more each time I watch it, ofcourse with the cut scenes.(my VHS tape is CUT!).
What I think of LTK:
-The exotic loctaions-Sanchez's villa is the type of place I would LOVE to stay.Just seems so Romantic?!?
-The Story is not the best but it works nicely.(the moneypeny scene is a bit pointless though).
-The music-Michael Kamen's score is fantastic,using the essential Bond bars adn themes in the right places.
-The action is good, I love the tanker chase and the watersking behind the plane bit.
-Good badies in Robert Dvai and Belico DelToro, (must admit the drug connection is not really Bond like, but a nice change)
-The Q scenes
-The gun barrel
-Timothy Dalton's take on 007.It's much more realitsic and tough, more so than Connery (?).I like it.
-Last but not least, the girls...Talisa Soto

The most shocking and perhaps, the least "Bondish" of the 20 films, I think LTK is great! What do you think?

trumanlodge007

well, theres actually a thread or two already discussing LTK somewhere.

and actually, i think it is one of the most "bond-like" movies (at least, in a literary sense). its much less fantastic and more down to earth. much more personal and much less comic than all the other films, witch is closer to flemings bond than the others.

Willie Garvin

I'm with Trumanlodge007 on this.Many filmgoers unfamiliar with Ian Fleming's novels are conditioned to see a James Bond who saves the world on a regular basis, and who never breaks a sweat while doing so.But that's not Fleming's character as much as it is Eon's often larger-than- life version of 007.

Not since From Russia With Love,Thunderball,On Her Majesty's Secret Service and parts of For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights has there been a 007 movie that depicted the literary James Bond on the screen as well as Licence to Kill.Bond is a man who bleeds,gets beaten up and captured occasionally-- yet he keeps on going regardless.He's not a superhero.The entire plotline of LTK with 007 going off to seek revenge against the people who tortured and maimed his best friend is taken from an unfilmed portion of the Live and Let Die novel.This is a very "Bondian" motion picture indeed.

ahh mr bond

Just something else which occured to me.
Dalton's "Bond, James Bond" at the casino is probably the most pathetic delivery of the B,JB line in any of the films.

Willie Garvin

Sean Connery had the best delivery but almost everyone else pauses for a reaction after stating their name.As if to say,"I'm famous.Aren't you impressed?"They're nearly announcing the name--which isn't normal.

But not Dalton.He's supposed to be a secret agent after all,-a spy- and James Bond is a very ordinary name.I like the way he says it.

FelixLeiter ♀

I like the way Pierce Brosnan firts says it in Goldeneye at the Casino, to Xenia. I've got a recording of it on my computer.
I've just tried to listen to it but there's something wrong and there's no sound coming out, though it appears to be playing. Have to sort it out later...
Anyway, I just like the way he says 'James', he says it a certain way and it's just so...great.

i expect u2 die

Quoting Willie Garvin:
Sean Connery had the best delivery but almost everyone else pauses for a reaction after stating their name.As if to say,"I'm famous.Aren't you impressed?"They're nearly announcing the name--which isn't normal.

But not Dalton.He's supposed to be a secret agent after all,-a spy- and James Bond is a very ordinary name.I like the way he says it.

Agreed, Dalton's delivery of the line is completely void of vanity, which is perfect!

Lady Rose

Quoting i expect u2 die:

Agreed, Dalton's delivery of the line is completely void of vanity, which is perfect!

Absolutely.When anyone asks me my name,I just tell them.Its not a major event.Then again it has become a bit of a JB trademark and is part of cimematic Bond.However,Pierce was a touch Austin Powers in his delivery.


I have just beeen watching LTK and there are two scenes which make me tingle.The first is the Killifer confrontation 'you earned it...' etc and the second is when Bond is in Krests cabin with Lupe and he sees Sharkey has been murdered and says 'you better find yourself a new lover'.Absolutely perfect IMO.

mythrenegade

For most of us, Bond is not a literary character. What we know and love is Bond as presented by EON, and LTK is out of character. I love FRWL and FYEO, but this film doesn't fit the series very well and I don't enjoy it nearly as much as the others.

I realize Dalton has his fans, but I'm not one of them.

Joel

Nightshooter

I don;t read the books often, although I am familiar with Ian Fleming's Bond. I do indeed like Bond as a sort of "perfect man", however, I really enjoy watching LtK. I don;t believe that it is out of character, anyway. It is a strong movie, with great scenes, okay women, a great enemy, and a great Bond. I love this movie. But I love all the Bond movies, so what do I know?

brendanyates

Timothy Dalton is absolutely inspired as Bond. Tall, dark, handsome, debonaire, bad tempered and human.

Put it this way, the current real life James Bonds after Bin Laden are obviously of the Roger Moore variety, if they were of the Timothy Dalton variety Bin Laden would be dead - no messing.

Who makes you feel safer?

Nightshooter

I don;t think that a cave is a Bondlike enough location... unless it was a super secret missile launch site, or something. Hehe. My sister thinks that Tim Dalton is the best looking of all the Bonds.

ahh mr bond

So does my mum

Lady Rose

Whilst watching the end of LTK today, I noticed something that I had never noticed before.

Whilst Bond is crawling all over the tanker trying to get in and Sanchez is shooting at him,the bullets ricocheting off the tanker play the Bond tune!!!


Is this a well known fact that I have been totally oblivious too for the past 16 years???I have seen LTK so many times I have lost count so I was a bit blown away to discover this!!!!

Just goes to show,no matter how many times you watch these movies you can still find new things.

delon64

daltons shaken not stirred line in ltk is great...he uses it as a put down to get rid of pam...splendidly reinventing the rather tired catchphrase...and yes lady rose it is kinda well known about the bullet sounding bond theme but i agree the films do bear countless viewings

Miles Meversey

Couldn't agree more. It is a fantastic film in every conceivable way - grossly underrated. Dalton's performance is arguably the greatest of the whole series and certainly the most like the original literary creation. The baddies were fantastic and all different: Dario/Heller/Truman-Lodge. It is a story fundamentally about Bond's inner self, the whole drug-world storyline is totally peripheral to what M.G.W was trying to point the audience towards. I think whether you like licence to kill has be a good test of how sincere a bond-fan you are!

I think the chemistry between Dalton/Lowell was similarly great - perhaps the character of Pam Bouvier could have done with a little 'beefing up', though she still played very well. The violence was by no means excessive, and I thought the Q storyline was a good way of appeasing the mainstream's taste's. The connections to OHMSS and Live and Let Die (novel) work magnificently well. I have to say that I treat this point as the end of the 'series proper' (the last of Fleming's Bond) - lets hope Bond 21 gets us away from the monotony of the last 10 years, and back to the quality of the earlier periods.

Ataru Moroboshi

A "different" Bond film, with some kind of Golan Globus B-series flavour.

It's my second favourite of the whole series: I love its hard-boiled, almost non-stop action, Dalton acts like the literary James Bond, Robert Davi is a GREAT villian, there's a gory component, an astounding final chase, an outsanding Gladys Knight song (my favourite Bond
song), and that B-series flavour is terrific!

Bond_James

I agree, i've yet to actually see that scene. Also, despite it being the least bondish, is still had a strong plot and included some of the crutial elements of bond. Cars, women, guns, and some threat to the world. Overall, I did enjoy the movie and it was it the middle of good and bad.

Robinson

Quoting Miles Meversey:
I treat this point as the end of the 'series proper' (the last of Fleming's Bond) - lets hope Bond 21 gets us away from the monotony of the last 10 years, and back to the quality of the earlier periods.

Now I disagree with this on 2 counts. First of all, Licence To Kill, while still an excellent film is only superficially connected to the rest of the series. The villian is vastly different, the plot is virtually original and Bond is more violent and moodier than ever before. The Moneypenny scene, as someone pointed out is rather pointless and only appears to have been added just to satisfy the Bond purists out there. On the other extreme, Q's large role also makes the film stand apart from the rest of the series where he has only a regular cameo appearance.

Secondly, I think its wrong to dismiss the Brosnan's away from the Flemingite "model". Naturally, certain changes have been made but this has just been a part of the regular ongoing process of updating the character to the ever changing audience, much the same way as Licence To Kill had done by including a story about the drugs trade.

Goldeneye made a deep effort and succeeded in my view in making a modern, up to date film that was still consistant with the rest of the series. Tomorrow Never Dies followed the same formula as YOLT and TSWLM. TWINE is arguably the most character driven story since OHMSS and DAD, despite its critics still tried to reintroduce to Science Fiction awe that Moonraker that brought in. Bond has always been a mixture of familiarity and change. The Brosnans have just followed this trend.

A_Water_Pistol

I've never noticed that either. But i do think that licence to kill shows bond with a harder edge, timothy dalton would've gone on to be one of the great bonds had he done a few more movies, don't ya think?

FelixLeiter ♀

I do think. I think it's a shame that he only did 2 and he'd of been great if only he'd done a couple more movies.
I think the same about George Lazenby. It would of been nice if we could of seen a bit more of him.
I sometimes seem to think as well, that Pierce Brosnan hasn't done enough. When I have my Bond Marathon's (I watch every Bond film in a certain amount of time) it's always a shame when I run out of Brosnan films.

Napoleon Plural

Yes, Lady Rose, the bullets do play the Bond theme but I only noticed it after it was pointed out many years later.

I don't like LTK, liked it at the time. But Dalton, with his dodgy hair and sideburns looks like a cross between a BBC newsreader and Count Dracula. And it doesn't really convince - all PG violence for the most part, Leiter etc way too corny.

Tilly Masterson 007

Quoting Napoleon Plural:
all PG violence for the most part.

I thought it was certified as a 15.

The only bond film to have a different cerificate to the others.

FelixLeiter ♀

It does.

nate

Have to agree with ahh mr. bond. It IS the worst b,jb. Followed very closely by Lazenby. All in all, great film. Top 10

doubleoh

IMO LTK is one of the top 5 of the series...it does not follow the strict Bond formula of other films since GF. Timothy Dalton's portrayal was superb...very convincing and vulnerable, much like the literary Bond.

Jimmy Bond

Miles Meversey wrote:

I think the chemistry between Dalton/Lowell was similarly great - perhaps the character of Pam Bouvier could have done with a little 'beefing up', though she still played very well. The violence was by no means excessive, and I thought the Q storyline was a good way of appeasing the mainstream's taste's. The connections to OHMSS and Live and Let Die (novel) work magnificently well. I have to say that I treat this point as the end of the 'series proper' (the last of Fleming's Bond) - lets hope Bond 21 gets us away from the monotony of the last 10 years, and back to the quality of the earlier periods.

I disagree. Now, I think LTK is a great movie (the best 80's Bond, by far), but to say that it is the last Flemming Bond film is unfair. To my estimation, GE and especially TWINE ring as Fleming as possible. GE especially, feels like TLD and LTK's natural continuation - with elements to steer up the mainstream audience, of course. And TWINE is as character driven as GE, LTK, OHMSS and FRWL. Even DAD's first half reminds of modern Fleming.

Really, the last 10 years, as you said, weren't so bad, at all...

Dan Same

I have always thought that LTK had a terrific concept (Bond goes renegade to get revenge). Pity that it had to star Dalton instead of Brosnan or Connery, or even Moore.

I have always felt that like TMWTGG, LTK was greatly let down by the execution of the concept. In this case, I put most of the blame at the feet of Dalton.

Templar07

License to Kill is a awesome Movie. I saw this at the movies like 30 times. I still say Dalton is the Best Bond. When i read the books that,s who i see as Bond. The movie could be one of Fleming,s books. But Dalton should have did a third Bond. Goldeneye would have been a awesome third movie. Not that it wasn,t a great movie.

Everyone is entitled to their own views on movies or what have you. So if u didn,t like the movie, That,s your right. To the People that said they haven,t read the books. You have no idea what your missing. they are great reading.

Jimmy Bond

Recently watched LTK, loved it! Every time I watch it, I love it even more.

Its the best Bond in th 80's, by far!

Alex

LTK is an interesting affair. Small scale, fresh plot, great villain, one very appealing Bond girl - and Dalton was one of the best actors to don the tux. There are a few dull moments and some lame dialogue/delivery, but none of it is from 007 or Sanchez. You add one feisty CIA fox to the mix and I can forgive all lesser sins, they surely aren't enough to ruin what is a good solid and intelligent effort from Cubby and Co. And not to mention Q's enlarged role to soften the hearts of a few veterans.

It's not as great as TLD, but then few really are. And it's vastly superior to TND and DAD. But that's only my opinion. Please don't gasp in shock.