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Pretty sure MK12 had worked several Forster films, including STRANGER THAN FICTION, where they were doing very clever riffs on the FIGHT CLUB ikea graphics throughout the film. I really wish they'd kept MK12 on; I mean, they kept Gassner, even if he hasn't really gotten to cut loose again since QUANTUM, and I find the SKYFALL credits look like a riff on Tim Burton's stuff, in a bad way.
Krabbe is an inspired casting for a poorly written role. He could have played Blofeld. Or a crypto-Blofeld, which maybe Koskov should have been.
She's not a very good actress. Oddly, LTK has some of the best (Del Toro, Davi) and worst casting in the series (Soto, Zerbe, Stroud, Newton, etc.). Dalton is just middling for me in this entry (I love him in TLD), as is Lowell.
Zerbe is very good. You almost feel sorry for him when he's pleading with Sanchez.
I'm kind of mixed on Dalton, Lowell ("hell I knew something was wrong") and even Hedison here.
(Hedison's mumbling of "Della" when he comes round from the attack doesn't sound very convincing to me)
Really? He's pretty bad. His interrogation of Sanchez is hammed up to the extreme.
Killifer is a big, giant ham. ("Why that's...nine hunnred, thirty six yeeeeeears.")
Talisa Soto...less said the better. Carey Lowell actually had a good turn on Law & Order for a number of years, but in LTK she isn't so great. Perhaps it was Glen's lack of direction.
Even David Hedison, who's mauling scene is pretty good, hams it up big time at the beginning of the film. ("OKAY. BUT STRICTLY AS AN OBSERVER!") I cringe every time I hear that line.
However, Anthony Zerbe was great.
Here's one: there are really only four flawless Bond movies:
DN, FRWL, GF & TSWLM.
OHMSS (like TLD & QOS) is close, but still slightly flawed by uneven-ness IMO.
TSWLM, however, sets its tone & plays rather flawlessly by its own rules!
TSWLM is a legend, imho of course. I was just thinking about that film today. I haven't seen it in years, and it never disappoints. Epic.
I believe the flawless ones are:
DN, FRWL, TB (despite sped up stuff and underwater work - it was 1965 for pete's sake, so they deserve a break). Basically the Young trio.
TSWLM (Moore at his best is beautiful to watch - and it's Gilbert's best)
CR (Craig joining the greats, directed by Campbell)
:-?
My controversial opinion in Licence To Kill is that Dalton is scripted to have inconsistencies that don't suit him well. At times he is brooding and out of control, but then he blinks right into hamming it up with Carey Lowell. It doesn't help that their chemistry feels off. Another thing the film tries to do is expand his friendship with Q, but there are further oddities with how he treats Q. It's very easy to mistake his attempted concern for Q's wellbeing in the field to be disapproving of his involvement. Roger and Pierce had a much much better tone with Q to make this sort of plot device work.
I'm afraid this might be a lot closer to the truth of the matter than one may think. I don't think there was much in the way of acting occurring here, at least not that I could tell.
I agree with you on the inconsistencies in LTK, although I'm a latecomer fan of this film. They should have probably just not have involved Q & the chemistry with Bouvier does seem off as you suggest as well. I always felt Dalton was uncomfortable playing the smoothie with the ladies though...he seemed better when in confrontation mode.
The Living Daylights commonly gets knocked because the script was written in the shadows of Roger, but I felt like Dalton nailed it. It had more agreement within the character that he played and that makes for a very immersive and enjoyable viewing experience. His chemistry with Kara is not great, but I tend to put that one more of her. She is just very unimpressive as a Bond girl and doesn't act particularly well to elevate her stature.
It's easy to knock Dalton for his smoothness with the ladies, but he only had a small sample to work with. I think he needed to have a more worthy actress opposite himself to go places where the girls of Roger seldom went. He needed to have a girl he could get a connection with at a psychological level - kind of like a Vesper or Severine. That would have made for a good show.
Edit: Talisa Soto is the closest thing he got and I quite enjoyed their scenes together. Perhaps not on a performance level, but in terms of the characters they were portraying, she was the closest thing to his proper match. This makes the end of Licence To Kill all the more mismatched to me.
:))
Wow, I feel like I saw a completely different movie. I love Dalton's chemistry with d'Abo; it feels real and romantic for the first time since, well, Tracy. Plus, there is a bit of Bond manipulating an innocent that works and gives him a bit of a harder edge. I also think Dalton plays great off Saunders--of course in the sniper scene but also at the amusement park.
I didn't find D'Abo particularly convincing in TLD either, but that may be down to her characterization, which appeared overly innocent, and her acting, which I wasn't all that fond of. The women I know from the former Eastern bloc are quite resourceful & strong, like Natalya from GE, so that could be why I didn't quite buy her naivete.
I agree that their relationship felt somewhat genuine, but that wasn't too difficult, since Roger Moore's relationships as Bond were mostly flirtatious, Melina in FYEO excepted.
When he went back to get the cello, that was a nice moment.
Bond/Saunders is great though....just great. Shades of Bond/Kerim.