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I used to think he is boring but feel he is a very good actor and could change his voice for Bond. I saw him in a Madonna video and saw James Bond. Well, the image anyway.
Don't get me wrong, because I thought Dalton's voice had incredible presence and was so commanding. You would not want him angry!
I have to agree. Craig's voice is very similar to Owen's. Owen's is a little duller but it's hard to say Craig's a huge improvement.
And everytime I watch it...from the end of the foot chase (which is Ok at best) to the train scene where he first meets Vesper, this is a very poor James Bond film. the Miami scene is parody at best and is not a patch on OP's "stopping the bomb" scene
True! Dalton and Moore did angry very well. Roger could be the tough Bond when he wanted and he is not as lightweight as his detractors say. I will always have a fondness for Roger as he was my first childhood Bond but Dalton was my first cinema Bond. I love them both!
And I bought the romance in Living Daylights more than the romance in CR with Vesper. I could see Bond marrying Kara one day but Vesper was too independent to stick around for long. She was tougher than Bond on a personality level on the train. She dominated him and stole the scene!
And Roger oozes more charisma than Daniel does. They had to work on Craig to get any whilst Roger was naturally charming and disarming. Daniel makes Dalton look like a comedian!:) There were scenes in CR where I thought Daniel was playing The Terminator. He had no human feeling in the scene where you see the dead girl in the M scene and that is before his heart gets broken. He was supposed to be that way after his betrayal and not before. Bond was never a machine.
The Miami scene is depressing and belongs in a Hannibal Lecter movie! I mean the build up to the scene where the guy tries to stab him.
And Roger had a commanding voice like Tim. He had the class! Craig though a great actor has good fortune because few expected him to survive past one film. He got the grace that Dalton deserved far more! I wish Dalton had a third movie.
I'm going to be honest. It's better than GE! they even make a slightly mocking reference to it in the Q scene ("we don't do........here")
Ok err...
1. FRWL
2. OHMSS
3. GF
4. SF
5. CR
6. GE
7. TSWLM
8. TB
9. DN
10. OP
*Based upon first viewing I actually enjoyed it more than I did CR. Royale was a "slow burner" for me.
Michael Karmen, on the other hand, informs you in the Gunbarrel walk music for LTK that the film is a grittier and Bond is much angrier.
The Craig films are nothing new, just Hollywood recklessness
In CR, when he says "the bitch is dead" it's so poorly said, so wooden, don't buy into it at all.
First I'd like to start by stating some facts. I've been a big Dalton fan for most of my life, I rate TLD as one of my favourite Bond films, I usually prefer a darker interpretation of Bond (yes, I read Fleming, before someone asks). There was always something that bothered me about Dalton, something I can't quite point but it's always there, making him second and never first (Connery) on my list. I always found he lacked screen presence and I never found him irresistible. I love the scenes where he's serious, a cold-blooded assassin, a ruthless spy. His attempts at humour always felt a bit forced to me (sometimes worked, sometimes not).
I was ready to hate Craig as Bond since the moment he was cast. I knew he was a good actor and he had impressed me more than once but he looked too different! After the disaster of the film that I refuse to name (I forced myself to watch it 2 weeks ago and felt physically sick) I thought Brosnan should be given the chance of at least one last decent film. I thought the same thing about Dalton, perhaps if he had gotten his third it would work better. I still think GE would have been perfect for him. When I saw CR I was blown away by Craig's performance within the first seconds. I don't like CR much as a film, there are many things that make me cringe but Craig is perfect throughout and he has that something I always felt lacked Dalton, a commanding presence.
Both Dalton and Craig are obviously intelligent actors, drinking the character directly from Fleming's books. That is where the similarities end for me. Yes, they are both intense and violent but in different ways. They are the only actors that in some way show the wheels turning inside their heads, you never know what to expect next (like a promise of violence) but again they show that in a different way.
For me they are equally good actors (great in fact), they were both classically trained, both came from stage. But I find Craig more versatile, a more complete actor (and again, I'm not saying better) and that gives him the edge over Dalton. Moreover Craig's presence is massive, that's why he stole so many scenes throughout his career. Dalton is a very good looking man but Craig is absolutely striking (so far I only met one woman who didn't find him attractive by the way), his tone of voice and the way he moves (almost slippery) just add to his screen charisma. They both have their own way of acting, they own Bond in their own right, but differently!
I hope this wasn't too boring, I usually hate long comments :)
An intelligent comment, you write very well @Sandy
I agree completely regarding your views on CR. Craig and Vesper are the best bits in it...everything else is bland and rather boring and one dimensional
I think it's only a war because they occupy the same ground that no 2 other actors do (Moore/Brosnan is a non-starter for me). They are both terrific actors and to be honest, my criticism of Craig comes purely from the films he was in, likewise, my praise of Dalton comes from the same reason. I prefer TLD and LTK to CR and QOS. I disagree when people say that Dalton and Craig are Fleming's Bond...they are one side of Fleming's Bond. Moore played an aspect of Fleming's Bond, as did Connery.
The thread suggests differences between the two. I do think Dalton is more mature and more...wolfish in his portrayal. He seems the more grittier out of the two. Craig's Bond is comfortable with the ladies whereas Dalton's seemed almost scared of the women (though this may have something to do with the AIDS scare in the late 1980's)
Not it was not boring. I can totally respect your view. At least you made an effort with your side of the argument. I like Craig too, though in my perception Dalton amplified the presence when it was necessary in a scene. But he played a more subdued Bond.
I do think Dalton would have benefitted from a better director to pull everything he had. I did mention somewhere on this thread about the support Craig got. I think Dalton was capable of making his Bond sexier in the presence department but in the Bond novels he is more bland. And because Dalton had signed on for three films he assumed that he would get the chance to show that side in his third.
Have you seen Dalton in Framed?
Better make that two...
(lol, sorry, just couldn't resist). I don't think Craig is as ugly as some people complain him to be, but I am afraid he doesn't float my boat...
Craig still didn't top Dalton for me. But he did suprise me, he really did. He nailed it. He has to be in my top 3 now.
He's really good in it - and got plenty of laughs from the audience I was with.
I loved the "bulldog" line he makes early on.
You have such impecably good taste apart from GE. Such a shame!
@thelivingroyale, does it make it into your top 5?
edit: ok just saw your post in the other thread... curious to know what your top 5 looks like exactly, though.
@BAIN123 There were some really funny bits, and Craig does the one liners perfectly.. More laughs than in any other Craig film.
Dalton's Bond scared of women? Have you seen him in Sins with Joan Collins. Man it would be a piece of piss for him as an actor to take a woman's clothes off. No, in my opinion he played it as someone who distrusts them because many spies were captured by using female agents. Also I remember women complaining about the sexism in Bond films during the 80's and perhaps why they toned it down. But I think Dalton would have increased it later. He said he wanted to do a tumble style scene.
To me Dalton was a man who could have his way with a woman if he wanted to but she was not his main interest on the job. I know he could easily play the seducer Bond and I saw him do a Bond like taking the clothes of woman in The Doctor And The Devils in 1985. And he does it with ease.
Dalton took over at a time when they wanted change and were experimenting with what might work and be accepted.
Again because Connery and Moore were more promiscuous, that is probably why some did not like Dalton's take. But that would be silly would it not?
Don't get me wrong, but I would have liked Dalton to have more kinky scenes. Though the scene where he throws Pam Bouvier on the bed has a sexually charged element to it. But a lot of people missed that subtlety and thought maybe Tim's Bond did not like women in that way.
There was sexual tension between him and Pam Bouvier for sure. And it is there to be seen. Sexual tension can be as effective. When she says "Sweet dreams Mr Bond!", Dalton looks pissed off and tries to take it out on Q. He is playing the game with her and does not give in. Very sophisticated. it is so obvious he wants to do the business with her but plays it to his advantage by keeping the tension going.
Many actors depend on timing to deliver their lines; Dalton relied on a measured response to another actor. When Saunders said "You're late, this is a mission, not a fancy dress ball!" Tim just lets it hang there as he reads the other man. I see stuff going on in his eyes. Is he thinking "Saunders suddenly reminds me of someone I've killed."?
Then he lets it go: "There's time."
Brilliant actor, that one.
He was absolutely stunning in The Lion in Winter and completely holds his own against Katherine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole and Anthony Hopkins... it really is an awesome movie and a lesson in acting to any aspiring actors out there.
:-)) no surprise there but I'm glad you enjoyed SF and rate Craig higher than you previously did.
He manages the quips to a degree that he's equalling Connery for me, he also in Skyfall is presenting to me a Bond with so much more depth, he presents a version of Fleming's Bond, maybe not the version Dalton did, Craig mixes it more with the cinematic version but with a confidence I never saw in Dalton.
I don't remember Fleming writing about some suave playboy who causes havoc and destruction with no accountability and said oof allot when he got punched. Seriously you must be reading different Fleming to me, I've seen that interview with Moore when he attributes his performance to the element of Bond that doesn't like killing but he does because it's his job in one of the books, it might have started out like that but can you honestly tell me that it is Fleming's Bond in Moonraker?
Seriously OP is now getting held up as lost Bond classic? The film with a sequence that contains John Glenn doing a dreadful pastiche of Raiders of The Lost Ark ( quite ironic considering Cubby turned down Spielberg to direct an entry) and has Bond screaming like Tarzan and that line about keeping you in curry for a week, someone's grasping at straws surely?
Fair enough no one is taking away from Rog that he was suave, smooth with the ladies and had great comic timing but to try and say he plays a more Fleming Bond than Craig and that OP has more tension than any Craig entry? No one would take away from him what he was known for he does better than anyone else but now you are trying to attribute the darker side of the character to him the side that Dalton and Craig are known for the Fleming Bond, you can't have your cake and eat it.
Oh @Shardlake you were doing so well
You go and see Skyfall, you think it's good and Craig is good (which I am delighted to hear) and then feel the need to attack Roger Moore's era...very bizarre.
Whether you like it or not, Moore portrayed a side of Fleming's bond just as Craig is doing now. Fact. You cannot deny Moore's Bond wasn't in Fleming's material because it was. The Fleming stories were out of date by the Moore era and unfit as they were so needed major revamping. Moonraker is a consequence of that and whether you think its good or bad, it happened and contributed to the continuing success of the Bond series. Without Moore, Bond would be dead. You couldn't have FRWL, OHMSS, LTK or CR in Moore's time because the world had moved on/wasn't ready for those type of films. Just as if Moonraker was made today, it would too be rejected as being out of it's time.
As for your bashing and unfair criticism of Octopussy, I am speechless. Octopussy is a classic and is better than any Craig entry (still to see Skyfall but tbh, I won't judge Skyfall in terms of ranking until the DVD comes out). Let's turn the tables: how is CR/QOS/SF a classic where OP fails to be? It's a matter of opinion. Octopussy is a great film and there is just constant quality throughout. And yes it is most tense and exciting. Compare the bomb scene in OP to that in the Miami Airport in CR...CR is nothing compared to OP. And here we go...the Moore bashers bring out the Tarzan argument. 4 seconds in a whole 2 hour film and that's the only criticism they got...it's so weak and boring now. Yes it was a mistake and not good but seriously, Richard Branson in CR? The Mongoose/Snake fight in CR? Mr Mendel in CR? Or aren't we not allowed to mention them because it's Craig??
OP is the most tense Bond film held together by Roger Moore. His acting is seriously brilliant and he is tense and portrays Fleming's bond to a tee...I have never said Moore is darker than Craig/Dalton because that would be stupid. I am saying people like you fail to acknowledge the serious and dark moments of Sir Roger in his movies. And that is both a shame and biased. If Dalton/Craig had done Octopussy minus the Tarzan scene, you would rave about it. Because it's Moore, you don't want to give him credit