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But that's enough of Sir Rog, may he rest in peace, for now. We're on to the groundbreaking The Living Daylights, starring none other than Timothy Dalton!
Let's see how my card looks...
Title Track: DN
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN (I...guess I'm taking Brad Whittaker for this? He's perhaps the single worst Bond villain, and certainly the worst name. Koskov wouldn't fare much better, of course.)
Main Bond Girl: DN (Kara is sweet, but come on.)
Henchman: TLD (The best of the Red Grant clones, without question.)
Overall Plot: DN (I'm still not entirely sure what the plot of TLD is.)
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: TLD
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN (Can't beat the good doctor's lair.)
Suspense: TLD (DN is great, but the most suspenseful scene is probably Dent's assassination attempt. There's no big countdown or "Can Bond rescue the girl?" drama.)
Minor Characters: TLD (Koskov, Pushkin, Sanders, and Kamran Shah give TLD the win.)
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN (Dalton is great, but he's just a bit too hammy.)
10-7 for Dr. No! TLD put up a great fight, better than expected, but it wasn't quite enough. Shall we see your scores now?
Title Track: TLD (I've grown to like it because I like the movie)
Title Credits: DN (like the dots)
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TLD (Necros has some great fight scenes). It's close. DN's henchmen are a unique bunch
Overall Plot: TLD
Dialogue: DN. Close.
Score: TLD
Settings: DN (Jamaica still looks exotic)
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN (I'll give this to DN since I gave henchman to TLD)
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
TLD: 6 (my 1 rank)
DN: 11 (my 6 rank)
In an not entirely surprising twist, Dr No beats TLD in the battle of the elements. It does so much right. But first, I put more weighting towards some of the elements above, and overall I like TLD better as a package.
Title Track: TLD
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: TLD
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: TLD
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: TLD
Action: TLD
Humour: TLD
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TLD
Bond Performance: TLD
TLD: 12
DN: 5
Title Track: TLD
Title Credits: TLD
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: TLD
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: TLD
Dialogue: TLD
Score: TLD
Settings: TLD
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: TLD
Glamour: TLD
Bond Performance: TLD
TLD: 14
DN: 3
Title Track: TLD
Title Credits: TLD
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: Hahahahahaha seriously ????!!! .....DN
Henchman: DN (Prof Dent )
Overall Plot: TLD
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: DN
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TLD
Bond Performance: DN
TLD: 8
DN: 9
Title Credits: TLD
Main Villain: TLD
Main Bond Girl: TLD
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: TLD
Dialogue: TLD
Score: TLD (best of the best)
Settings: TLD
Action: TLD
Humour: TLD
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: TLD
Glamour: TLD
Bond Performance: TLD
TLD: 16
DN: 1
Title Credits: TLD
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: TLD
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
TLD: 7
DN: 10
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: TLD
Henchman: DN
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: DN
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
TLD: 4
DN: 13
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: DN
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: DN
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
TLD: 3
DN: 14
Wow, and I love TLD too, though it's aged a bit to be sure.
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: TIE
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: TIE
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: TIE
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: TLD
Bond Performance: TLD
TLD: 7
DN: 7
TIE: 3
Title Credits: TLD
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: TLD
Score: TLD
Settings: DN
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: TLD
TLD: 9
DN: 8
Title Credits: TLD
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: TLD
Score: TLD
Settings: DN
Action: TLD
Humour: TLD
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: TLD
TLD: 10
DN: 7
In some ways, these are polar opposite films. TLD is romantic, DN sexy. TLD has snow and cities, DN has the beach. TLD has a much stronger first half, DN the second half.
Title Track: DN
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: TLD
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: TLD
Action: TLD
Humour: TLD ("Why didn't you learn to play the violin?")
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: TLD (Pushkin, Saunders)
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: TLD ("Whoever she was, I must have scared the living daylights out of her.")
TLD: 9
DN: 8
Title Credits: DN - We're bang smack in the middle of Binder's going through the motions era here whereas DN feels fresh and energetic.
Main Villain: DN - Wiseman is superb against anyone but with just a boyish cad and a brash American bully as his competition makes for an easy win.
Main Bond Girl: TLD - Honey is just fit in a bikini whereas Kara is an actual character.
Henchman: TLD - Necros without doubt the best of the Grant clones. A very solid henchman.
Overall Plot: TLD - Plenty of twists and turns and some great Cold War stuff in the first half especially. DN by comparison is just a fairly solid detective story.
Dialogue: DN - Seems a little bit slicker all round although the Bond/Saunders scenes have some really good stuff.
Score: TLD - Rule one of music: Barry always trumps Norman.
Settings: TLD - I'm always a sucker for some nice Cold War locations.
Action: TLD - PTS, Green 4 fight, Volante chase and the piece de resistance on the Hercules. One of the best.
Humour: DN - Some very dry zingers tossed off by Sean and it's really one area where Dalts simply cannot compete.
Cinematography: DN - The made for TV cinematography one thing that really drags the Glen era down.
Benign Bizarre: DN - Nothing really of note in TLD so metal hands and tarantulas take it.
Suspense: TLD - The opening scene in the opera house is a cracking but of Fleming and that's enough to win this one as DN doesn't have a lot.
Minor Characters: TLD - Saunders, Pushkin, Shah and even a particularly irked Frederick Gray all hit the spot.
Glamour: DN - TLD just feels a little cheap in this respect.
Bond Performance: Tie: Possibly the only time I'm going to give anyone parity with Sean's peerless turn in DN.
DN: 7
TLD: 9
Tie: 1
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: DN
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
TLD: 3
DN: 14
Two films I rate highly
FRWL: 278 / 161 / 4 || 20 / 3
GF: 200 / 120 / 3 || 18 / 1
TB: 199 / 136 / 5 || 10 / 10
YOLT: 180 / 189 / 3 || 10 / 12
OHMSS: 278 / 90 / 7 || 19 / 0 / 1
DAF: 100 / 221 / 3 || 2 / 17
LALD: 176 / 198 / 0 || 7 / 16
TMWTGG: 111 / 241 / 5 || 5 16
TSWLM: 190 / 183 / 1 || 11 / 11
MR: 170 / 255 / 1 || 6 / 19
FYEO: 138 / 265 / 5 || 6 / 17
OP: 187 / 199 / 5 || 10 / 13
AVTAK: 136 / 272 / 0 || 5 / 19
DN wins/tie/loss: 8 / 2 / 3
DN score win/tie/loss: 8 / 0 / 5
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: TLD
Dialogue: TLD
Score: TLD
Settings: TLD
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
TLD: 8
DN: 9
Title Credits: DN (I like the zippy dots of DN. It has an urgency really lacking in this fallow 80s period of Binder's titles.)
Main Villain: DN (an easy win for Julius. I like Koskov but Whitaker is near the bottom of villains.)
Main Bond Girl: TLD (kara is more vital to the plot and has a developing relationship with Bond, she also gets into the action more.)
Henchman: TLD (Necros is one of my favourite Bond henchmen. His attack on the Bladen House is one of the best sequences that doesn't include Bond in the series.)
Overall Plot: TLD (TLD's twisty, turns plot can be confusing but I really enjoy the shifting narrative from defection to assassination to arms dealing.)
Dialogue: DN (I was almost going to give this to TLD . Good dialogue across the board in the pushkin/bond meeting, every scene between Saunders and Bond as well as Koskov's lines. By DN's all business approach with deadpan veiled threats and gallows humour.)
Score: TLD (Barry at his best in his Bond swan song)
Settings: TLD (DN's Jamaica has a special place in my heart - but I'm a sucker for any Cold War settings in a bond as well as Vienna and the Ferris wheel from the Third Man. I really like Gibraltar as a setting and Tangiers and Afghanistan too)
Action: TLD (Gripping PTS, the mid-air fight with Necros, the Aston chase, the Russian base assault.)
Humour: TLD (I love Koskov's delivery. And even Dalton with the 'you'll be the first' line and some playful interactions with Kara.)
Cinematography: TLD (close but I really love those sunrise shots in Afghanistan.)
Benign Bizarre: DN (easy win for DN with dragons, metal hands, three blind mice and mink lined prisons)
Suspense: TLD (for the sniper sequence and Necros mid-air fight)
Minor Characters: TLD (close - I like Quarrel and Felix especially but I'll go for Pushkin, Saunders, Kamran Shah and Green Four!)
Glamour: DN (a close one - I like the opera and tuxedos of Vienna and luxury hotels and swimming pools of Tangiers. But DN has that early sixties glamour.)
Bond Performance: TLD (controversial as it may be seeing as Connery's performance in DN is such a stone cold classic benchmark. But I truly adore Dalton's performance in TLD. It is the perfect blend of Fleming Bond and EON Bond. His look in the PTS, his killer attitude in the sniper sequence, his rebuff of Saunders when he brings up M - 'if he fires me I'll thank him for it.' Dalton also has one of the great Bond scenes with Pushkin and the whole scene with kara moments after Saunders' death is excellent acting. He is really responding to Maraym d'abo's every word with subtle shifts in attitude - from protecting her, to being shocked when she says she knows Whitaker, to being suspicious of her to being angry and then purposeful when he says 'yes, I got the message'.)
TLD: 12
DN: 5
Two of my absolute favourites going head-to-head. TLD is my number four. DN would be number six. The two performances may well be my favourite Bond performances ever. Both films are special for me.
Title Credits: TLD
Main Villain: TLD
Main Bond Girl: TLD
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: TLD
Dialogue: TLD
Score: TLD
Settings: DN
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: TLD
Glamour: TLD
Bond Performance: TLD
TLD: 14
DN: 3
No surprises for me. DN still is hanging around top 10, but TLD has been in my #2-3 spot for a while.
Title Credits: TLD
Main Villain: TLD
Main Bond Girl: TLD
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: TLD
Dialogue: TLD
Score: TLD
Settings: TLD
Action: TLD
Humour: TLD
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: TLD
Glamour: TLD
Bond Performance: TLD
TLD: 16
DN: 1
Title Track: DN
Title Credits: AVTAK
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: AVTAK
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: AVTAK
Settings: DN
Action: AVTAK
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
AVTAK: 4
DN: 13
Title Credits: TLD
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: DN
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: DN
Action: TLD
Humour: DN
Cinematography: DN
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: DN
Minor Characters: DN
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
TLD: 4
DN: 13
Looks like we came to the same conclusion.
What is the reasoning for the Bond Villain and Girl ratings? IMO these are weak points of TLD (a great film)? Koskov is a wet lettuce and Kara is borderline retarded in her naivety and overall portrayal....:)
Music to my ears, @suavejmf ,music to my ears...bravo Sir !!
Koskov is a little runt who, to steal a line from Ronin, "Is weak when he puts his spikes on". But that isn't a bad thing, and he has Necros, so he doesn't need to be threatening. Plus there is Whittaker too.
As for Kara, her naivety and innocence is endearing, that is the appeal.
Exactly!
Barry007, have you been passing your meds to other people?
Oh only a chosen few....once you stir the powder into a drink the Anti-Kara usually works,i just haven't perfected it on a permanent basis yet,sometimes it wears off the subject after a while...
Title Credits: DN
Main Villain: DN
Main Bond Girl: TLD
Henchman: TLD
Overall Plot: DN
Dialogue: DN
Score: TLD
Settings: TLD
Action: TLD
Humour: TLD
Cinematography: TLD
Benign Bizarre: DN
Suspense: TLD
Minor Characters: TLD
Glamour: DN
Bond Performance: DN
TLD: 10
DN: 7
Closer than I would have expected.
I just find Dr. No to be a very weak villain. As this is a versus game, TLD's decent duo easily win. I like the way they're overly charismatic, deceptive, and also a tad neurotic.
D'Abo's character is such a rarity: naive, sweet, and unashamedly down-to-earth. What I'm trying to say is that Kara could actually be a real person in a real world. And D'Abo was a fine actress... Something I cannot say about the (dubbed!) Andress who was all looks.
One thing I've noticed since joining this board is how the Kara haters are excessively vocal about their disgust towards the character. Akin to how some people get enraged about certain Bond actors. Most odd.