1987 saw films like Lethal Weapon, 1988 films like Die Hard. LTK was a try to jump on that genre but the remaining Bond fans didn't buy it back then, it was too much of a change too fast.
Watched Die Hard last night, hadn't seen it in ages, with Kamen's score, Robert Davi, Grand L Bush it struck me that the team involved in writing LTK really didn't have much creativity and just took the 80s American action film blueprint and copied it with a few Bond inserts.
1987 saw films like Lethal Weapon, 1988 films like Die Hard. LTK was a try to jump on that genre but the remaining Bond fans didn't buy it back then, it was too much of a change too fast.
Watched Die Hard last night, hadn't seen it in ages, with Kamen's score, Robert Davi, Grand L Bush it struck me that the team involved in writing LTK really didn't have much creativity and just took the 80s American action film blueprint and copied it with a few Bond inserts.
I love Licence To Kill and it just sucks that almost everyone hates it, I think it is an amazing film and Timothy Dalton is just fantastic as Bond, far better than the other bond actors for me. The only thing I didn't like was the score, which is one of the weakest by far.
I love Licence To Kill and it just sucks that almost everyone hates it, I think it is an amazing film and Timothy Dalton is just fantastic as Bond, far better than the other bond actors for me. The only thing I didn't like was the score, which is one of the weakest by far.
I think you'll find that there is a lot of love for Licence TO Kill these days -{
I love Licence To Kill and it just sucks that almost everyone hates it, I think it is an amazing film and Timothy Dalton is just fantastic as Bond, far better than the other bond actors for me. The only thing I didn't like was the score, which is one of the weakest by far.
And the Hair, don't forget the Dracula Hair. I like the film, it was ahead of the curve, and ploughed furrows in terms of character and interpretation that would not fully pay off until CR. Terrible PTS, superb villain, bad clothes, lovely Bond girl, terrible secondary female, saggy mid section, great finale...overall a mixed bag, despite looking cheap and TV like. It has more positives than negatives and is owned by Dalton.
Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
My least watched Bond movie. Which in a way is weird, because I love the 80's, I love Florida and I love Miami Vice. But this does not feel like a Bond movie at all to me. Anyway, Pro-Con's:
Pro:
- Talisa Soto cannot act, but she is gorgeous
- All the Q scenes
- del Toro is a great sleazy henchman
- The Florida scenery looks beautiful as always
- Some element from LALD novels are a nice touch
Con
- Davi played it well, but he is like a Miami Vice villain
- Dalton's wardrobe is awful. He doesn't look like a suave agent at all
- PLot is generic 80's movie stuff. Could have been a Chuck Norris action movie
- The ending with Felix talking about fishing while his wife has been slaughtered. Hmm..
- Pat is a boring Bond girl
- Production values. It just looks like a cheap action movie.
All in all, it just doesn't do it to me. It is too much Die Hard light, dated, generic action movie, missing the sophistication, style and charm of a Bond movie.
I just finished watching it again. It's a very good bond movie but I have to agree with others in that it feels like a cheap production movie only sticking to the USA and Mexico, the score is very bland and forgettable and it feels too dark. Timothy Dalton is my favourite Bond actor but this film sort of left me feeling a bit cold this time around. Another problem I had was that neither of the two bond girls are memorable, and that MI6 are nowhere to be found in this movie, hardly. It's a great bond film, but it's not as good as FYEO or TLD and maybe even OP to some extent.
Pro
-It has a funicular.
-Pam Bouvier’s black halter top dress.
-Pam Bouvier’s white swimsuit.
-Pam Bouvier’s Olympic Swimmer style haircut. (Shades of Maggie from Northern Exposure…anyone?)
- I found the wedding plot warm and sweet, until tragedy struck.
- The iguana was a high point.
Cons
-The ascots.
-I can’t figure out where the 32 Million it cost to make went.
-It is a really good movie to watch if you have the flu because you can start it, take your Dayquil, fall asleep, and wake up at the end and it does not matter.
- The iguana was a high point.
The 16th in the series, and still a strong Bond film for me even if my last viewing did leave me a little disappointed. I love Timothy Dalton's Bond and he is my favourite actor in the series, followed closely by Roger Moore. Great performances from him in his two films, and great directing from John Glen once again.
Pro's:
- Something different in the bond formula, a revenge story that DAF should have been other than another basic Bond
- Timothy Dalton shows real emotion during dark scenes once again
- Robert Davi is a terrific actor and played perhaps the best villain in Franz Sanchez
- Dario's a great henchmen and quite threatening, just wished we had seen him more
- Krest is hilarious
- The ninjas scene where Bond is tied up always amused me
- 'Q's bigger role in the film, rather like OP
- Great pre-credits sequence and one of my favourite title songs
- David Hedison returning as Felix Leiter
- Second half of the movie is awesome, from the hotel onward
- All the scenes in the casino and hotel are just so Bond, and memorable
- Bond's first interaction with Sanchez in the casino
Cons:
- I'm surprised to say this, given that I like serious Bond more but I felt that Dalton was too angry throughout
- Talisa Soto is a wooden actress, and Carey Lowell was rather forgettable and unattractive for me personally
- Locations are among the worst in the series, only better than DN, DAF and TND
- Michael Kamen's score is horrible, like how many here feel about Bill Conti's score in FYEO (Which I loved)
- The big mistake when Sanchez's henchmen shoots a stinger and hits a truck that was never in it's range to begin with
- Cheap production values, very noticeable for me during the bar fight
- Bond and Bouvier falling in love directly after a verbal fight on the boat
- My biggest flaw - lack of 'M' who is a loser in the film, and the rest of MI6. Not even an appearance at the end of the film which shows lazy film production.
- The first half of the movie is weak as compared to the second half
- Less action scenes than the rest of the 80's Bond films
Overall, with all that said, it is a very impressive bond film ranging from good-great for me. I do prefer TLD and only wished we could have seen more of Timothy Dalton, in '91 and '93.
- Cheap production values, very noticeable for me during the bar fight
- Bond and Bouvier falling in love directly after a verbal fight on the boat
Those were among my little niggles in that thread. The comic bar fight was just a flat out bad idea regardless of production values. It should never have been filmed in the first place for a Bond movie.
Bond and Pam on the boat felt like it was filmed for the end of the movie but used instead for their initial meeting. Pam is turned on by Bond negotiating and being a total cheap skate? Hmm and if they're such an item early on, why such confusion later in the movie...
I must be in the minority here, but on a recent viewing of LTK I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the score.
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
The comic bar fight was just a flat out bad idea regardless of production values. It should never have been filmed in the first place for a Bond movie.
Correct. But it is so funny, for me a highlight of the film.
- Cheap production values, very noticeable for me during the bar fight
- Bond and Bouvier falling in love directly after a verbal fight on the boat
Those were among my little niggles in that thread. The comic bar fight was just a flat out bad idea regardless of production values. It should never have been filmed in the first place for a Bond movie.
Bond and Pam on the boat felt like it was filmed for the end of the movie but used instead for their initial meeting. Pam is turned on by Bond negotiating and being a total cheap skate? Hmm and if they're such an item early on, why such confusion later in the movie...
I must be in the minority here, but on a recent viewing of LTK I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the score.
LOL. Why can't a bond movie just be perfect for once with hardly any flaws to NOT affect your rating? Only FYEO did it for me in that sense which is why I have it #1. I feel that John Glen and producers were lazy with LTK, seeing as they wanted to film somewhere in Asia (if I recall correctly) but couldn't due to not obtaining rights. Glen did a wonderful job with FYEO, OP and TLD in my opinion, but the other two (although I still really enjoy them) were lazy consisting of either stunt doubles, less action, silly moments, drab locations or out of place material.
The comic bar fight was just a flat out bad idea regardless of production values. It should never have been filmed in the first place for a Bond movie.
Correct. But it is so funny, for me a highlight of the film.
Was that stripper on drugs or something? She doesn't like bail until half way through the fight.
I think the bar fight should have taken place in Thailand. It would fit well with the plot and Thailand would have given Bond some badly needed globetrotting.
I think the bar fight should have taken place in Thailand. It would fit well with the plot and Thailand would have given Bond some badly needed globetrotting.
Yeah but still, that's the one scene in the film that reaaally doesn't fit in with Bond, but another type of film. Someone else on this topic mentioned that LTK could be a Chuck Norris movie, to which I laughed at because it could easily be compared with something on that nature.
Yeah but still, that's the one scene in the film that reaaally doesn't fit in with Bond, but another type of film. Someone else on this topic mentioned that LTK could be a Chuck Norris movie, to which I laughed at because it could easily be compared with something on that nature.
Wadsy, like other fans on here, I too am saddened to see LTK slip in your rankings. Even though I basically agree with your list of Cons I still see LTK as a top Bond film. Have you read John Glen's book For My Eyes Only? I'm sure you would love it. Glen says something to the effect of LTK being the one he was most proud of.
For what it's worth, I think LTK holds up better today than Die Hard. No film is without flaws. Just ask CinemaSins... )
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Firemass, there are some bond movies that always stay exactly where they are in the rankings no matter how many times I see them. However, the two bond movies that frequently change, AVTAK and LTK are two of them. There are so many things about LTK that are good, making it top five worthy, but the things I dislike really affected me this time around, don't know why.
I never saw the two Daltons at the theatre when they came out, and didn't know anybody who did. I first saw them maybe 15 years later when I got a dvd player.
The irony is these two films were finally doing what I'd wanted to see in the films since I'd first read the books a decade earlier. But I just couldn't get anybody to go to the movies with me, for whatever reason Bondfilms were very uncool at the time.
PROS
-the definitive DaltonBond film, much more appropriate to his nervous twitching and fuming than his first film
-lots of Fleming, much more than Dalton's first film and at least as much as For Your Eyes Only:
the middle section of Live and Let Die, elements from the Hildebrandt Rarity, an image from Diamonds are Forever (Lupe dealing cards), and the main plot points from the Man with the Golden Gun (despite what Wilson says)
-the LaLD content was one of those bits from the books once considered unfilmable, alongside the torture scene from Casino Royale.
-if you like this sort of thing, this is by far the goriest Bond movie, with one atrocity to the human body after another, starting with Lupe's lover's heart. None of the usual fall-over-and-go-to-sleep typical Bondfilm deaths here.
-ripped from the headlines plot. Senior Bush would invade Panama mere months later to depose Noriega. Dalton may have had the most realistic adventures, no fictional organisations or evil industrialists for his Bond.
-I've never seen Miami Vice, so the alleged similarity doesn't bother me
-the tanker convoy does resemble the Road Warrior, that's a fine and tasteful influence.
-since they're returning to LaLD, it's a good idea to bring back HedisonLeiter. You could edit out all the endless chase scenes from the middle of the Roger Moore film, and splice in the first 30 minutes of this film, and all you'd need to do is digitally alter Dalton's face.
-the wedding scene also references Tracy, and Della's death hours later echoes the end of OHMSS. Bond's subsequent mission of revenge thus fills in that expected response to Tracy's death we never got the first time round.
-early appearance of Benicio del Toro. Even as a youngster he is already completely loopy looking. His first line is "we gave 'er a nice 'oney-mooon!". Lots of nasty stuff is shown graphically onscreen in this movie, what little is left to the imagination is truly disturbing.
-the treacherous Killifer is Big Ed Hurley from Twin Peaks. He was also the lead caveman from Quest for Fire.
-the most Q content of any film, and this time his gadgets almost seem like the kind of thing a quartermaster would hand out. He is the one element that reminds us this strange gory revenge trip is a Bond film.
-the new M finally gets some lines, revoking Bond's license to kill is his big moment, then he's gone from the series forevermore.
-The Night Manager in turn borrowed a lot of this films general plot structure. I didn't know John leCarre was a Bond fan, so that may be coincidence.
CONS
-I don't like Kamen's music or the title song.
-the bar where Bond meets Pam Bouvier is not up to his usual standards.
-Wilson has claimed the last half of the movie is based on Yojimbo, rather than Fleming's ...Golden Gun. Which is a very hip inspiration, should interest a different crowd in this latest Bondfilm. By coincidence I just watched Yojimbo the other week, and the comparison is very general, however, and the plot-point by plot-point comparison is much closer to ...Golden Gun. (Villain is a crude common thug, he owns a hotel in the Caribbean, he hires Bond as a mercenary, he has a meeting with foreign agents which Bond eavesdrops on, he takes his foreign collaborators on a field trip which becomes a hunt for Bond, etc etc). Why does Wilson deny it, especially when there's so much Fleming in the film already?
-Pam Bouvier is not one of the more memorable Bondgirls. She does look pretty sharp after her make-over, and in posing as Bond's secretary, literally does play the part of Mary Goodnight, both from the book and the film. But otherwise does not contribute much to the plot.
In one of the documentaries Carey Lowell claims her character did not sleep with Bond, but we do watch the two of them getting cozy then descending below deck after the barfight ... Maybe DaltonBond was just such a boring lover his BondGirls have completely forgotten the experience?
I haven't scrolled back to the beginning of this thread, but I am sure the point has been made that Del Toro was one of the genuinely scary villains in the franchise. The guy just looks and sounds sick.
Watched LTK again recently. Thought Bond’s formal, top-hat-and-tails wedding gear in the PTS still seemed a bit Roger Moore-ish. Missed John Barry on the soundtrack. And the cosy familiarity lent to the proceedings by seeing dear old Q out in the field seemed almost as incongruous as Sheriff Pepper would’ve been in this more sober, serious context. Nor did the ’007 going rogue’ idea, with MI6 men pulling guns on him, feel very satisfactory. Would’ve preferred to have M give Bond unofficial sanction to go after Sanchez: "Get him, James", M murmured, when at last they were safely out of earshot, and those damnably clear grey eyes were full of unspoken understanding as, with a deftness born of long practice, this man whom Bond respected more than any other lit his pipe.
On the plus side, Robert Davi made a strong, Scaramanga-esque villain, Del Toro an effective henchman, and the lighter scene at the end was a nice, Sergio Leone-style moment (in keeping with the alleged Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars influence). And although appreciating Dalton’s more ‘literary’ interpretation of Bond, I can see how general audiences would have missed the customary ironic detachment which is, perhaps, an element of 'star quality'.
Comments
As a Die Hard fan, this thread may be of interest.
LTK needed John McTiernan directing.
-{
Davi got some interesting fanmail from women who liked that scene :v
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Craig 5. Lazenby 6. Brosnan
I think you'll find that there is a lot of love for Licence TO Kill these days -{
-{
And the Hair, don't forget the Dracula Hair. I like the film, it was ahead of the curve, and ploughed furrows in terms of character and interpretation that would not fully pay off until CR. Terrible PTS, superb villain, bad clothes, lovely Bond girl, terrible secondary female, saggy mid section, great finale...overall a mixed bag, despite looking cheap and TV like. It has more positives than negatives and is owned by Dalton.
Pro:
- Talisa Soto cannot act, but she is gorgeous
- All the Q scenes
- del Toro is a great sleazy henchman
- The Florida scenery looks beautiful as always
- Some element from LALD novels are a nice touch
Con
- Davi played it well, but he is like a Miami Vice villain
- Dalton's wardrobe is awful. He doesn't look like a suave agent at all
- PLot is generic 80's movie stuff. Could have been a Chuck Norris action movie
- The ending with Felix talking about fishing while his wife has been slaughtered. Hmm..
- Pat is a boring Bond girl
- Production values. It just looks like a cheap action movie.
All in all, it just doesn't do it to me. It is too much Die Hard light, dated, generic action movie, missing the sophistication, style and charm of a Bond movie.
1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Craig 5. Lazenby 6. Brosnan
-It has a funicular.
-Pam Bouvier’s black halter top dress.
-Pam Bouvier’s white swimsuit.
-Pam Bouvier’s Olympic Swimmer style haircut. (Shades of Maggie from Northern Exposure…anyone?)
- I found the wedding plot warm and sweet, until tragedy struck.
- The iguana was a high point.
Cons
-The ascots.
-I can’t figure out where the 32 Million it cost to make went.
-It is a really good movie to watch if you have the flu because you can start it, take your Dayquil, fall asleep, and wake up at the end and it does not matter.
- The iguana was a high point.
Ironically all it has going for it is that it is a Bond film. Otherwise it probably would be a forgotten, average 80s film.
"Better make that two."
Pro's:
- Something different in the bond formula, a revenge story that DAF should have been other than another basic Bond
- Timothy Dalton shows real emotion during dark scenes once again
- Robert Davi is a terrific actor and played perhaps the best villain in Franz Sanchez
- Dario's a great henchmen and quite threatening, just wished we had seen him more
- Krest is hilarious
- The ninjas scene where Bond is tied up always amused me
- 'Q's bigger role in the film, rather like OP
- Great pre-credits sequence and one of my favourite title songs
- David Hedison returning as Felix Leiter
- Second half of the movie is awesome, from the hotel onward
- All the scenes in the casino and hotel are just so Bond, and memorable
- Bond's first interaction with Sanchez in the casino
Cons:
- I'm surprised to say this, given that I like serious Bond more but I felt that Dalton was too angry throughout
- Talisa Soto is a wooden actress, and Carey Lowell was rather forgettable and unattractive for me personally
- Locations are among the worst in the series, only better than DN, DAF and TND
- Michael Kamen's score is horrible, like how many here feel about Bill Conti's score in FYEO (Which I loved)
- The big mistake when Sanchez's henchmen shoots a stinger and hits a truck that was never in it's range to begin with
- Cheap production values, very noticeable for me during the bar fight
- Bond and Bouvier falling in love directly after a verbal fight on the boat
- My biggest flaw - lack of 'M' who is a loser in the film, and the rest of MI6. Not even an appearance at the end of the film which shows lazy film production.
- The first half of the movie is weak as compared to the second half
- Less action scenes than the rest of the 80's Bond films
Overall, with all that said, it is a very impressive bond film ranging from good-great for me. I do prefer TLD and only wished we could have seen more of Timothy Dalton, in '91 and '93.
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Craig 5. Lazenby 6. Brosnan
Those were among my little niggles in that thread. The comic bar fight was just a flat out bad idea regardless of production values. It should never have been filmed in the first place for a Bond movie.
Bond and Pam on the boat felt like it was filmed for the end of the movie but used instead for their initial meeting. Pam is turned on by Bond negotiating and being a total cheap skate? Hmm and if they're such an item early on, why such confusion later in the movie...
I must be in the minority here, but on a recent viewing of LTK I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the score.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Correct. But it is so funny, for me a highlight of the film.
"Better make that two."
LOL. Why can't a bond movie just be perfect for once with hardly any flaws to NOT affect your rating? Only FYEO did it for me in that sense which is why I have it #1. I feel that John Glen and producers were lazy with LTK, seeing as they wanted to film somewhere in Asia (if I recall correctly) but couldn't due to not obtaining rights. Glen did a wonderful job with FYEO, OP and TLD in my opinion, but the other two (although I still really enjoy them) were lazy consisting of either stunt doubles, less action, silly moments, drab locations or out of place material.
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Craig 5. Lazenby 6. Brosnan
Was that stripper on drugs or something? She doesn't like bail until half way through the fight.
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Craig 5. Lazenby 6. Brosnan
Fights all the time. So the stripper wasn't bothered,
As it was just an ordinary night.
Yeah but still, that's the one scene in the film that reaaally doesn't fit in with Bond, but another type of film. Someone else on this topic mentioned that LTK could be a Chuck Norris movie, to which I laughed at because it could easily be compared with something on that nature.
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Craig 5. Lazenby 6. Brosnan
"Better make that two."
Wadsy, like other fans on here, I too am saddened to see LTK slip in your rankings. Even though I basically agree with your list of Cons I still see LTK as a top Bond film. Have you read John Glen's book For My Eyes Only? I'm sure you would love it. Glen says something to the effect of LTK being the one he was most proud of.
For what it's worth, I think LTK holds up better today than Die Hard. No film is without flaws. Just ask CinemaSins...
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
1. Dalton 2. Moore 3. Connery 4. Craig 5. Lazenby 6. Brosnan
The irony is these two films were finally doing what I'd wanted to see in the films since I'd first read the books a decade earlier. But I just couldn't get anybody to go to the movies with me, for whatever reason Bondfilms were very uncool at the time.
PROS
-the definitive DaltonBond film, much more appropriate to his nervous twitching and fuming than his first film
-lots of Fleming, much more than Dalton's first film and at least as much as For Your Eyes Only:
the middle section of Live and Let Die, elements from the Hildebrandt Rarity, an image from Diamonds are Forever (Lupe dealing cards), and the main plot points from the Man with the Golden Gun (despite what Wilson says)
-the LaLD content was one of those bits from the books once considered unfilmable, alongside the torture scene from Casino Royale.
-if you like this sort of thing, this is by far the goriest Bond movie, with one atrocity to the human body after another, starting with Lupe's lover's heart. None of the usual fall-over-and-go-to-sleep typical Bondfilm deaths here.
-ripped from the headlines plot. Senior Bush would invade Panama mere months later to depose Noriega. Dalton may have had the most realistic adventures, no fictional organisations or evil industrialists for his Bond.
-I've never seen Miami Vice, so the alleged similarity doesn't bother me
-the tanker convoy does resemble the Road Warrior, that's a fine and tasteful influence.
-since they're returning to LaLD, it's a good idea to bring back HedisonLeiter. You could edit out all the endless chase scenes from the middle of the Roger Moore film, and splice in the first 30 minutes of this film, and all you'd need to do is digitally alter Dalton's face.
-the wedding scene also references Tracy, and Della's death hours later echoes the end of OHMSS. Bond's subsequent mission of revenge thus fills in that expected response to Tracy's death we never got the first time round.
-early appearance of Benicio del Toro. Even as a youngster he is already completely loopy looking. His first line is "we gave 'er a nice 'oney-mooon!". Lots of nasty stuff is shown graphically onscreen in this movie, what little is left to the imagination is truly disturbing.
-the treacherous Killifer is Big Ed Hurley from Twin Peaks. He was also the lead caveman from Quest for Fire.
-the most Q content of any film, and this time his gadgets almost seem like the kind of thing a quartermaster would hand out. He is the one element that reminds us this strange gory revenge trip is a Bond film.
-the new M finally gets some lines, revoking Bond's license to kill is his big moment, then he's gone from the series forevermore.
-The Night Manager in turn borrowed a lot of this films general plot structure. I didn't know John leCarre was a Bond fan, so that may be coincidence.
CONS
-I don't like Kamen's music or the title song.
-the bar where Bond meets Pam Bouvier is not up to his usual standards.
-Wilson has claimed the last half of the movie is based on Yojimbo, rather than Fleming's ...Golden Gun. Which is a very hip inspiration, should interest a different crowd in this latest Bondfilm. By coincidence I just watched Yojimbo the other week, and the comparison is very general, however, and the plot-point by plot-point comparison is much closer to ...Golden Gun. (Villain is a crude common thug, he owns a hotel in the Caribbean, he hires Bond as a mercenary, he has a meeting with foreign agents which Bond eavesdrops on, he takes his foreign collaborators on a field trip which becomes a hunt for Bond, etc etc). Why does Wilson deny it, especially when there's so much Fleming in the film already?
-Pam Bouvier is not one of the more memorable Bondgirls. She does look pretty sharp after her make-over, and in posing as Bond's secretary, literally does play the part of Mary Goodnight, both from the book and the film. But otherwise does not contribute much to the plot.
In one of the documentaries Carey Lowell claims her character did not sleep with Bond, but we do watch the two of them getting cozy then descending below deck after the barfight ... Maybe DaltonBond was just such a boring lover his BondGirls have completely forgotten the experience?
I liked Pam , Kamens soundtrack was better than todays generic music imo , the pts is classic Bond
The sleazy bar is a bit fun , doesnt really destroy the movie for me
Theme song is all right , not as good as AVTAK or TLD but decent enough , esp the opening few bars fits the movie with its dark edge
Newton as con man Butcher gives me a chuckle
This might be Browns best performance as M : "this is not a country club , 007 !"
On the plus side, Robert Davi made a strong, Scaramanga-esque villain, Del Toro an effective henchman, and the lighter scene at the end was a nice, Sergio Leone-style moment (in keeping with the alleged Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars influence). And although appreciating Dalton’s more ‘literary’ interpretation of Bond, I can see how general audiences would have missed the customary ironic detachment which is, perhaps, an element of 'star quality'.