MovieChat Forums > The Living Daylights (1987) Discussion > this is almost a Roger Moore film withou...

this is almost a Roger Moore film without Roger Moore:

posted 18 years ago by frana43
40 replies | jump to latest

There are some scenes in this film that are very laugh-out-loud, for a serious Bond film:

(1) the guy who is forced to lie down in the transporter device, and finds out he's the first to try it out;

(2) the woman in the overalls who briefly seduces a man to distract him from his security checks;

(3) the villain bursting into a hotel room, and gasping in surprise at the topless Maryam D'Abo whom he sees;

(4) during the battle scene, some tanks knock over a showering cubicle, revealing a pair of naked men with their backs to the camera;

(5) 'Put him on the next plane to Moscow...in the diplomatic bag'.

But otherwise, this is a more serious Bond film than "Diamonds Are Forever"
or some of the Moore vehicles - while, of course, "License To Kill" has NO funny scenes at all.

[–] Chelios24 18 years ago

Don't forget Q's line about the "Ghetto Blaster"

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Culfy 18 years ago

"License To Kill" has NO funny scenes at all.

Bond and Q being forced to share a bed together?

Bond and Leiter parachuting into a wedding?

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] ThingyBlahBlah3 16 years ago

Bond and Q being forced to share a bed together?

Seriously, I think that was the funniest bit in the entire series, especially the way Desmond Llewellyn was checking both beds for firmness while the hot chick went off into the other bedroom.

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[–] Kenneth-8 18 years ago

That's what I tried to say in an earlier post. It isn't a flat-out humor-laden romp like most of Moore's epics were, but there are some really silly bits that seem a little out of line with the rest of the film's serious tone. It was like the producers didn't want to change gears too suddenly so this was a "transition" film between Moore's lighter films and the more darker, novel elements that characterized Dalton's reign. It's like they revised the script to be more serious when Dalton arrived, yet maintained some of the funny stuff that presumably was in the original draft when Moore was thought to come back. That said, this was a great film that was better than AVTAK and showed Dalton could hold his own as Bond, plus he had great chemistry with his leading lady. It's not too silly like Moonraker or not too serious like LTK so it was a good balance.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] fl_99 18 years ago

Goldeneye is an excellent film for Brosnan as he combined well the witticism with the dark, serious scenes. Dalton would have done great, maybe even better on the dark, serious scenes of the film, but I cannot see him deliver the one-liners in that movie as well as Brosnan did. Regarding Moore in that movie, I can see deliver the one-liners just as well or better than Brosnan, but I cannot picture him in the darker and serious scenes.
Believe or not, I don't think Connery, Craig and Lazenby can do Goldeneye as well as Brosnan or Dalton or Moore.
Goldeneye is more tailored for Brosnan.

TLD can be either tailored for Dalton or Moore. However, if it were tailored for Moore, it would have the same mood as FYEO, where the one-liners are there, but with a more serious tone.

[–] FinnurE 18 years ago

The role of Pushkin was also originally that of General Gogol, but I think they replaced him because the actor was too old, and in stead did a cameo at the end.

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[–] mdh1875 17 years ago

There's plenty of funny moments in License to Kill:

Bond grabbing the boobs of the statue when sliding down the building.

All the scenes with Q.

Putting the guy in the drawer full of maggots and saying "bon appetit".

Saying "touche" when the bad guy grabs the swordfish.

The scenes with Wayne "Bless your heart!" Newton.

And quite a few more.

[–] fl_99 18 years ago

In spite of these funny scenes, Dalton did admirably well.

He (Dalton) is an underrated actor.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Lord-Z 17 years ago

I think that the most glaring leftover from Moore is the carchase, where he pulls all these deus-ex-machinas gadgets out of his hat. You could almost hear John Glen screaming "Lift that damn eyebrow". Except for that, I think that they were able to rewrite it to suit Dalton pretty good.

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[–] [email protected] 16 years ago

I was able to at least appreciate the gadgets on the car - like Q Branch had progressed in leaps and bounds since the 60s - but I thought that run downhill on a cello case was definite Moore material.

Ironically, one of my favorite scenes in Moore's 'For Your Eyes Only' has him holding his own in a car chase in a Citroen 2CV - Bond makes the best with what he's got at hand.

[–] Kinematico 17 years ago

Perhaps the script was written having in mind Roger Moore but the movie feels very different than those Roger Moore's comedies.

This one is NOT a comedy as most Moore's Bonds, and I give the credit to Dalton for that. It was so refreshing to see a more serious and credible Bond after seeing Grandpa Moore dressed as a clown or shagging at his 60 the scary Grace Jones.
ughhh

[–] frana43 17 years ago

If only Dalton had been available to play 007 in "A View To A Kill" -
then the love scene with Grace Jones would be a lot less nauseating.
Dalton should also have acted in "Octopussy" - with a better script.

As for his acting, Dalton is much less under-rated than Roger Moore.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] frana43 17 years ago

But Dalton is a more talented actor than Moore - right?

[–] Imthemanonthesilvermountain 17 years ago

Right. His two Bondmovies are very underrated.

[–] Forlorn_Rage 13 years ago

It was so refreshing to see a more serious and credible Bond after seeing Grandpa Moore dressed as a clown or shagging at his 60 the scary Grace Jones.
ughhh

Imao, "Grandpa Moore." Yes, he should definite have been replaced sooner. He looked good in the 70's, but after that he started scaring with all those wrinkles. Plus, it would've been great to see more of Tim Dalton's untapped talents.

[–] fgeorge_76 15 years ago

Rumor had it that Eon was gunning for Pierce Brosen in 1987. It felt like a Brosen Bond movie without Brosen. The more darker scenes, however, would have been played slightly different if Brosen had played him.

I'm not sure if Dalton was a great Bond, or it was that case again (like OHMSS) where the writers wrote a hell of a script and movie just in case Dalton couldn't pull it off. Unlike Lazenby, Dalton did pull it off.

[–] sanddragon939 15 years ago

Somehow I find it hard to see Moore ever doing the early Bratislavia sniper scenes or delivering some of Bond's more intense pieces of dialogue. I also have a hard time imagining him in the action scenes.

[–] Tjanssen411 11 years ago

No Rumor...

Brosnan was cast as Bond after NBC canceled Remington Steele...

Upon smelling Money in having 'James Bond' in house NBC Un-Canceled the show and Forced Brosnan to do a 5th season/series of TV Movies which eventually created a scheduling conflict and since His Steel Contract Preceded his Bond Contract he had to wait to play Bond until Goldeneye almost a Decade later

while He recovered, his Remington Steele co-Star Stephanie Zimbalist was similarly forced out of her role in Robocop, and never made the move films or arguably did much of anything Post-Series

-- My guess is TLD was originally written for Moore... then rewritten for Brosnan... and then maybe slightly tweaked one last time when Dalton came on board... then LtK was specifically written for Dalton knowing they had him contracted... and then with 6 years, the end of the 80s and end of the Cold War between LtK and Goldeneye, It was Written with Brosnan in mind from the start