Dalton VS Dalton THE POLL

[Mr.E.Nygma]

The Living Daylights or Licence To Kill?

The results will be clearly seen with a poll

 

[Kevin Roegele]

Hmmmm......you know, I can't decide.

The Living Daylights is a better Bond movie.

Licence to Kill is a better movie, but doesn't quite deliver as a Bond movie.

 

[Clouseau]

i've never been a big fan of either one... TLD is Dalton's attempt at doing a Roger Moore script, LTK is Dalton's attempt at doing a typical 80s action TV script, and in neither case am i particularly impressed...

i vote for TLD, just because, as Kevin stated, it feels more like a Bond film... not really thrilled with it, though...

 

[AndrewBerger]

TLD is Dalton's attempt at doing a Roger Moore script

I really can't see Roger Moore in the Pushkin interogation scene.

 

[Furious Styles]

It's hard to decide.

I've always felt The Living Daylights just fizzles away near the ending after such a great buildup. Meanwhile, I can't stop raving about the ending of LTK. Villian discovers Bond, Bond escapes certain death, building/drug plant explodes, chaos ensues, giant oil tanker chase, awesome action scene AKA Bond flips tanker onto one wheel to avoid missile, throw in an airplane chasing after Bond chasing after Sanchez (another great shot), more explosions, Bond faces Sanchez one final time*Furious Styles smiles fondly*

Never understood while people degrade Dalton, then get a hard on about Craig......

 

[Agentsands77]

I much prefer THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, even though it has its own flaws.

LICENCE TO KILL is a film with a great deal of potential, but it just has some absolutely awful execution. Firstly, it looks like it was a made-for-TV movie with absolutely bland direction and production design. Secondly, the story is so clearly dark in tone, but is ultimately made inconsistent by adding stupid comedy elements with the character of Q and that bar fight. And thirdly, the acting from the two lead female characters is awful.

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, I feel, is just the better executed adventure that remains a blast to sit through. That said, with a slightly better script, a better director, and a better cast, LICENCE TO KILL could have blown it away.

 

[Agentsands77]

Never understood while people degrade Dalton, then get a hard on about Craig......

Dalton doesn't deserve degrading, necessarily, but he did miss out on some key elements of the Bond character. Firstly, he just wasn't all that cool. He was often very tense, and he lacked that relaxed, nonchalant attitude that I feel is very important. Secondly, his relationships with the ladies was laughable - the dude has no sex appeal. I definitely applaud how he rescued the series from self-parody, though, and he did have some great stuff to bring to the part. It's worth noting that I think his performance in LICENCE TO KILL was much better than his performance in THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS - I wonder if he had done a third film whether or not he would have been very better.

Craig, I think, is very cool and can pull that element of Bond off really well (MUNICH really showcased that for me), and also has a very strong sex appeal and pull, despite having unconventionally good looks. There's definitely a very powerful masculinity there.

 

[Wyrminarrd]

Licence to Kill is a great movie and in my oppinion the best of the Bond movies.

Dalton is my favorite Bond, he brought a hard edge to the character and you could really believe that this was a guy with a licence to kill

 

[MLX]

Licence to Kill, I found TLD to be very boring.

 

[Mr.E.Nygma]

Licence to Kill, I found TLD to be very boring.

Can I understand how?

 

[Clouseau]

I really can't see Roger Moore in the Pushkin interogation scene.

i can... raising his eyebrow at the girl when he forces her to strip... raising his eyebrow at Pushkin when he says he's innocent... raising his eyebrow again when at the end of the scene when he says he says Pushkin has to die...

if he can let the Egyptian guy fall off the roof in TSWLM, and he can kick Locque off a cliff in FYEO, i'd say Moore's Bond could definitely pull off this scene...

 

[AndrewBerger]

i can... raising his eyebrow at the girl when he forces her to strip... raising his eyebrow at Pushkin when he says he's innocent... raising his eyebrow again when at the end of the scene when he says he says Pushkin has to die...

if he can let the Egyptian guy fall off the roof in TSWLM, and he can kick Locque off a cliff in FYEO, i'd say Moore's Bond could definitely pull off this scene...

The Roger Moore of 1971-1973 could've done it but definitely not the Roger Moore of 1985+. His style changed inbetween TMwtGG and TSWLM from the cold, ruthless character of the novels to the wink and a nod superhero that I really can't see as threatening enough to hold a gun straight to a mans head.

 

[Clouseau]

The Roger Moore of 1971-1973 could've done it but definitely not the Roger Moore of 1985+.

funny... i didn't think he did another Bond film after 1985... almost sounded like you were saying his style was only different in AVTAK... but then...

His style changed inbetween TMwtGG and TSWLM from the cold, ruthless character of the novels to the wink and a nod superhero that I really can't see as threatening enough to hold a gun straight to a mans head.

you say he wasn't menacing enough from TSWLM on, but both of the "cold" examples i gave above would seem to go against that, as one's from TSWLM, and the other's from FYEO...

it's true that Moore's Bond was much lighter than Connery's, but i still see that he could play the hard side of Bond when the script called for it...

and even if i were to concede that perhaps this one particular scene from TLD was more catered to Dalton than Moore (which i am not fully ready to do), i still get the impression from the vast majority of the film that the bulk of it was written with Moore in mind...

 

[AndrewBerger]

funny... i didn't think he did another Bond film after 1985... almost sounded like you were saying his style was only different in AVTAK... but then...

If he was in TLD, it would've been 1987 thus after 1985. No need to be snide.

you say he wasn't menacing enough from TSWLM on, but both of the "cold" examples i gave above would seem to go against that, as one's from TSWLM, and the other's from FYEO...

Those were two scenes out of two films. That's like me saying "Well Dalton had that one liner about 'salt corrosion' in TLD, he could've pulled off MR!".

 

[Clouseau]

Those were two scenes out of two films. That's like me saying "Well Dalton had that one liner about 'salt corrosion' in TLD, he could've pulled off MR!".

not exactly, but it proves my point, which was that Moore could have pulled of that "one scene" in TLD just fine!

 

[Everyman]

I never udnerstand why some people like LTK so much. It is not very Bondian, just a typical 80s action movie, with a typical 80s revenge plot, against a typical 80s uber druglord. Most of the Bondgirls aren't that attractive either (although I do like the character of Lupe Lamore, sadly very underwritten). TLD is the better Bond movie, with a stronger plot, even though the badguys aren't really impressive. I agree with the poster above who said that Dalton cruelly lacked the cool element of Bond.

 

[Furious Styles]

Most Bond films are a product of their time, so in retrospect, although LTK is looked at now as a failure or simply another "typical" 80's action film, on the heels of Lethal Weapon and Die Hard, I think it would have been hard to justify basing the film on anything else.

Drug Dealers were Public Enemy #1 in the 1980's, so it's more than likely Bond would come across them in some shape, the AIDS epidemic was just starting to push its way into the social conciousness of people, so they couldn't have Bond nailing chicks left and right and the 80's was the zenith of the "action film" and so on and so forth. Now that doesn't mean the film is a masterpiece, or that this is a "classic Bond film," however, on the heels of characters like John McLane and Martin Riggs, it is understandable why they tried to mold the character to better suit Dalton's acting capabilities.

You can even see it today with Daniel Craig and Casino Royale. To think that characters like Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer have not influenced their opinion of what Bond should be heading forward is laughable.

 

[Everyman]

I don't mind Bond movies being a product of their time, I just thought that LTK lacked the spy angle necessary to make it a Bond movie. Even Leiter was suddenly in the DEA, for some obscure reason.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

The Roger Moore of 1971-1973 could've done it but definitely not the Roger Moore of 1985+. His style changed inbetween TMwtGG and TSWLM from the cold, ruthless character of the novels to the wink and a nod superhero that I really can't see as threatening enough to hold a gun straight to a mans head.

Moore was most ruthless in 1981's For Your Eyes Only.

 

[That-Guy]

Even though License to Kill doesn't really have the "Bond" feel to it, it's still an awesome movie, so I picked that one. But the cargo-net airplane battle and the Astin-Martin carchase in The Living Daylights are friggin' awesome.

 

[Dr. Fate]

I thought he was fine in both.

 

[Everyman]

I thought he was fine in both.

I think the question is more like "which was his best Bond movie".

 

[Kevin Roegele]

In his favour, Dalton did two good movies, whereas Connery, Moore and Brosnan all did atleast one lame movie (Diamonds are Forever, A View to a Kill, Die Another Day).

 

[Dr. Fate]

I think the question is more like "which was his best Bond movie".

My bad.

 

[Clouseau]

In his favour, Dalton did two good movies, whereas Connery, Moore and Brosnan all did atleast one lame movie (Diamonds are Forever, A View to a Kill, Die Another Day).

i dunno about that... depends on who you ask... a lot of people might say that Connery, Moore, and Brosnan at least did one GOOD movie, as opposed to Dalton, both of whose films they despise!