Things that I liked about LTK (not necessarily limited to five):
*I commend EON for wanting to stray from the usual Bond formula by making a revenge thriller. In a sense, LTK is the closest that we'll ever get to a follow up to OMHSS (discounting the pre-credits teaser for For Your Eyes Only).
*I liked that they gave Desmond Llewelyn something to do other (basically, the biggest role that he ever got in the Bond series) than give and explain to Bond his gadgets (again straying from the usual Bond formula). Q sort of functions as the middle-man/go-between the British Secret Service, for which Bond is "on leave from".
*Robert Davi gives one of the best villain performances in Bond history. Franz Sanchez could both be charming and sinister. He is also actually pretty multidimensional for a Bond villain, when he kept to his word in paying off Kilifer for busting him out. It's ironically, just like w/ Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill, Christopher Lee in The Man with the Golden Gun, and Telly Savalas in OHMSS, where the villain is arguably cooler and more charismatic then Bond.
*I like the concept of Bond having to rely more on his wits (like the whole Yojimbo angle involving Bond infiltrating Sanchez's operation), since he's being on his own rather than easily rely on his gadgets and physicality.
*Dalton's Bond seems to have a regular personal life (he unlike w/ other Bonds like Connery, Moore or Brosnan, he's not trying to get every hot chick to bone him right from the jump) and deeply cares about people (such as the Leiters and Sharkey) outside of being a secret agent.
*Some of the action sequences/stunt work like the tanker chase at the end, the van carrying Sanchez crashing off the bridge, and the pre-credits title sequence (involving Bond hooking Sanchez's plane) are very well executed.
*Carey Lowell makes a very sexy and feisty (without being too annoying like Halle Berry's Jinx in Die Another Day) female companion/counterpart for Dalton's Bond.
*Patti LaBelle's "If You Ask Me To" during the closing credits. It in a way, was a perfect song to close out the "classic" Bond era before the modern relaunch w/ GoldenEye.
Things I didn't like about LTK:
*There isn't enough at stake. Yes we know that Bond wants revenge on Sanchez for what happened to the Leiters, but still, it doesn't feel as epic as you would normally expect a Bond movie should be. Perhaps more should've been made about Bond having to play cat & mouse w/ MI6 (who are trying to ship him back to London). Bond should've had to face some sort of real consequence for his vigilantism by having to confront M (instead of the final scene w/ Felix on the phone telling Bond that M wants him back as if everything was neatly tied in a bow).
*The production values don't serve the movie well. They really do feel like a bland made-for-TV movie. For a movie that seems to want to mimic Miami Vice, there isn't a whole lot of visual flare. When Timothy Dalton took over, I wish that in retrospect, EON got a fresh creative team instead of keeping John Glen as director for example.
*Some of the dialogue is very clunky, lazy and awkward such as the scene in which Lupe (after only knowing Bond for maybe 2 days and Bond had previously put a knife behind her back) tells Pam and Q that "She loves James so much!" There was also the scene in which Felix despite losing his leg and his wife on their wedding day, is upbeat when talking to Bond on the phone as if nothing traumatic happened.
*Timothy Dalton isn't given enough to do other than act like an angry sourpuss (which is sort of understandable considering the plot, but still, it didn't necessarily have to be a James Bond movie). When he first meets Sanchez in the hotel, you can right away tell that Dalton has a personal agenda ("I'm more of a problem eliminator!") w/ Sanchez. Bond doesn't seem cunning enough w/ his demeanor (in order to properly fool Sanchez into believing that he's on his side). Also, Bond is awfully reckless here (he's really a straight up anti-hero at times), by indirectly getting his allies like Sharkey and Kwang killed.
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Enigmatic-Ocean
11 years ago
Man, I really like a lot of your points especially about how Patti Labelle's "If you ask me to" rounds out the series. I always (even as a kid back in 1989) felt that that song and the view of the city during the closing credits was very final. I also really liked how Q actually had a role in this. I am going to watch this film again this week and comment on more of your comments after I do.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe...
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Irishdrummer007
8 years ago
" I always (even as a kid back in 1989) felt that that song and the view of the city during the closing credits was very final"
I thought I was the only one who felt this way.
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Enigmatic-Ocean
8 years ago
I probably saw this movie a year or so after it came out (HBO use to play it constantly). I remember thinking (despite what the end credits said) that it was going to be the last Bond film-period. Looking back I think that my reasoning had to do with this movie being SO different from ALL of the previous Bond films. Where were the "Evil Russians" where was Specter, where was the plot to rule the world? None of that was anywhere... It was simply a revenge flick. Yet, despite its simplicity I really enjoyed this film. However, to me, the end of the film felt like the end of an era. The city, the song, the fish winking and thus the obvious breaking of the fourth wall was complete finality. I have heard that this was the final Bond film to have the same people working on it who had been involved since the beginning of the franchise. So, if that is the truth than my gut instinct about this film was right and so was yours. I still feel like it is a wonderful film even if at the same time it is absolutely terrible. .
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R_Kane (15828)
7 years ago
You are not alone. This is a very underestimated, let alone unappreciated, movie.
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TMC-4 (20149)
2 years ago
As corny as the fish winking at the viewers (especially for such a dark and violent, by Bond standards movie) by the pool (when Bond and Pam are kissing) at the end, for some weird reason, I still find it very charming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0oQGuZePlI
Maybe considering that this was in hindsight, not only Timothy Dalton's final Bond movie, the last Bond movie of the 1980s, but the final Bond movie that we would get for some time (a whopping six years before GoldenEye would come out), it was more like they were telling us "goodbye...for now".
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TMC-4
8 years ago
LTK really (if that was the route that they were going for) needed a more modern, edgy director. A director and creative team (and not just holdovers from the Roger Moore era like John Glen) would have catered the films to Timothy Dalton's strengths rather than pulling in one direction while Dalton tried to break new ground with the character by pulling him in a different direction. One suggestion that I read elsewhere was Brian de Palma (even though, EON seems reluctant to want to hire an American director).
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