Last Bond Movie You Watched.

There's a reason it was my no.1 disc when the Wolfpack Laserdisc podcast had me on for top 5 best sounding releases. Back in the day they would transfer theatrical audio mixes to disc without remixing them for nearfield environments, EQ'ing them for multiplatform playback from everything like soundbars to streaming all the way down to smartphones.
TND has a beast of a soundmix and is my favorite 5.1 mix period. Goldeneye comes close as does DAD but TND is just a joy for sound geeks start to finish...save for those two very tiny spots of ADR. ("You have 48 hours to investigate M" and Brozzer's little lip smacking noise when throwing away the shotglass in front of Paris.)
It helps the LD transfer is the best dang LD I've ever seen and completely outdoes the first DVD which used the same master.

Thankfully it does sound great on every format and they've never remixed it praise the heavens. This would be my ranking and all sound outstanding for their formats:
1. DTS LD
2. Blu-ray hdma
3. LD Dolby ac3/LD Dolby surround 2.0
4. DVD Dolby Ac3 and UE DVD Dolby/DTS
5. VHS hifi 2.0
6. VHS linear
7. LD and VHS mono folddown

I'll have to revisit your thread, HGTB, and compare visuals.

The Living Daylights

Fuelled by whatever, we go on.

The PTS toys with us. Moore or not Moore? Mooresque moments such as the Gib monkey surprising Bond, the "ere you're dead" and so on.
However, our Double Oh's are a bit dense. I mean 006 or whoever Glyn Baker is takes his sweet time to get ready and is 'killed', then 004 is climbing and the Patrick McGoohanesque SMERSH bloke has time to drop a tag.
Cuts to a 'hairdryer' shot of Dalton. Eyes narrowed, hair fluttering....So be it, this is 1987. The PTS has the advantage, compared to any Bond since '69 perhaps, of our actor seemingly doing his own stunts. Granted there's a bit of back projection but Dalton is clinging on in places.

I skip the woman. I'm not mad.

A-ha Seems right for 87 I guess.

The song seems right for us to centre in 'Dalton's world'. Bratislava is appropriately dark, grim, wet and whatever. The music is fantastic, perfectly ties in with Saunder's dialogue and the tension we're meant to expect.

The post 'shooting' allows Bond to demonstrate his status "the boot...first place they'll look!".
I wonder if Dalton chafed at the direction here. I suspect he did for LTK, but I cannot help but wonder he does here for TLD.
Jereon Krabbe, well, I've said it before but he does a 5 star job here. You instantly warm to Koskov here. He's keen on Bond, he's keen on his freedom. Krabbe is thereby one of the best actors in a Bond film. He's scared of doing the journey, he's jittery....

..."You're the first!"

Thankfully we still have John Barry. To bridge that gap. Had we another conductor I'm not sure such moments as Koskov's escape would work. As it is we or I skip poor Q's breathless ascent and admire the Harrier get clear, this coming a mere five years after its powerful debut in the Falklands.

Can't help but feel that the song should've come after this moment.

"Whoever she was, must've scared the living daylights out of her..."

Boom.

Yet out first post-assignment glimpse is Bond casually smoking and it somehow fits in with Fleming's Bond.

Of course our Penny likes Manilow. No one's perfect, God knows what Penny would be into now.

Ah the Aston, the Vantage Volante. If only it appeared more than once.

Krabbe shows his range here again. Bond seems to like him, seems to trust him which makes what happens after all the more galling. All the while some fantastically British touches such as the milk float being driven in by Necros (indeed, thumbs up for the acting on show here. Masquerading as whoever to get inside the SIS compound).

I always like 3-4. He kicks into action straightaway and I always hope he gets through. He puts up a damn good show.

There's something about the M office scene. Dalton's Bond looks the part, feelings the Fleming part.

Dalton's Bond at least has some sense of humour with the whistling.

Whatever we say about Bliss, she's quite fetching with the style she has here.

Make the most of the V8 now.

Would Moore's Bond sit so willingly through classical music? I can't help but think not.

Barry's music is beautifully atmospheric for late Cold War. The closest he got for Moore was the OP stuff in Germany.

The Aston gets to show itself off and Dalton has some good lines here. Enough to stun Kara at any rate,

I always do like her look of outrage after Bond shows her the damage. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

Oh I owe him everything! Yes well...

Hang a tick they know him in Austria?

There's a moment you wonder why Bond feels the need to take Kara about the funfair then we get to Saunders. As always I feel his death keenly. We might not have seen him much in TLD but there's enough, such as the slight smile before he heads for the door, to feel for him.

"Bad accident back there."

Always love "Yessss...I got the message."

Perhaps in his moment of pissed off, Bond throws "He's with Whitaker" out there. He's saved by "the patron of the arts" bullshit.

And so, jarringly a little, we cut from the coldness of Austria to Tangiers. Proper Romancing the Stone territory.

yet we cut to Bond's confrontation with Pushkin. Already JRD has shown his mettle here but here is Dalton's Bond clad in a great suit.

"Correct, you should've brought lilies!"

There's no love lost as Bond explains the agents dead. "My condolences!"

Always love the "damn stupid!"

Oh I can only imagine if Dalton had been given Peter Hunt perhaps to work with. However, there's a finality to Barry's music as Bond gets Pushkin onto his knees. There's a real edge to Dalton's Bond therefore. No sitting in a shower with Vesper, no whatever in QOS...

"Then I must die."

Dalton Bond's one moment of ultra weakness is so willingly getting into a car with a couple of bimbos. Of course that leads to Felix. I say Felix, this Felix.

I'll overlook Felix and go to Afghanistan.

"Kara, we're in a Russian airbase in the middle of Afghanistan!"

Yes, my man!

"Not now, how about later?"

Good ol' Kara

Art Malik is quietly cool. This is the antithesis of the Michael Douglas films.

Pre-Deakins there is some fantastic shots, camels and sunlight in shadow, lens flare etc

Then all hell breaks lose. Compared to the previous few films it has a 'real' look to things. No set, just the open airfield and whatnot.

At this exhaustion kicked on but I shall return.

Watched FRWL and GF. Still think those first three movies are so good. They feel pretty fresh and original. While the Bond elements are in place they still had the potential to do things differently with the script and direction. By TB the formula is the template. I don’t think any other Bond movies quite have that fresh/original feeling like the first three except for maybe OHMSS.

I always  forget how many wonderful shots GF has. Shame Hamilton’s other Bond films don’t have that same flair to them.

On a side note, I always liked the portrayal of Felix and Bonds relationship in GF. It’s probably one of the only Bond movies where it feels like they are actually friends/have a relationship. Wish they would bring that aspect back.

Good write up, Hilly. TLD remains my favourite post-60's Bond. Grabs your attention in that sterling PTS and never lets you go.

Moore wrote:

On a side note, I always liked the portrayal of Felix and Bonds relationship in GF. It’s probably one of the only Bond movies where it feels like they are actually friends/have a relationship. Wish they would bring that aspect back.

Yep, just a shame Daniel Craig and Jeff Wright have all the charisma of a turnip patch.

Still more impactful than the first black Leiter (Bernie Casey in NSNA), I'd argue. Literally nobody seemed to notice/care.

TLD is the film where they finally flicked the lighter flame on. Starting with FYEO they tried to do a Fleming Bond and over FYEO-OP-AVTAK tried variations to get it to fully click-on TLD it does. Everything feels effortless about the picture and not only does it have the Fleming sweep but it also remembers to be a Bond film at the same time. Thus the silver anniversary Bond has one foot in classical adventure fantasy and one foot firmly in the real world.
It is horrendously underrated of course.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Still more impactful than the first black Leiter (Bernie Casey in NSNA), I'd argue. Literally nobody seemed to notice/care.

True. Mr Bean was the real ally of that film.

Watched TWINE the other day, it was the first Bond film I saw in the cinema and I was underaged at that time for its ‘12’ rating

I was reading a Matt Helm book set in the Bahamas, and it kept mentioning Cay Sal Bank until I just had to watch Licence to Kill. Now to watch something a little more fun to wash that away...

well lads, I sort of ended TLD on Friday night just at the airbase so for sake of completeness will wrap it up.

--

One of the best staged battles in a Bond film, it's one hand the fact it's in the open, it looks 'real' and seeing the actors haring about makes it more. It harks back to the likes of the USMC parachuting into the water in TB, the Piz Gloria fight and even the oilrig battle with things popping off everywhere. Sure, I like the set-based pieces in TSWLM, MR certainly but there was something always with TLD.
The lighting in the Afghan scenes has this feel it, the angles of some shots such as when you see from Bond's POV hidden in the lorry and see Necros on the tailgate with the view beyond.

One thing about the battle I still like is seeing Dalton in the Herc's cockpit. I've not read yet about the details of the production (such as whether, I assume, an actual pilot was beside him out of sight) but when the camera zooms in and you see Dalton sat there it makes it feel more real (such as him clinging to the roof of the Land Rover in Gib). Granted Kara, who is a decent character, seems to dangerously veer towards 'classic' Bond girl territory and of course Blonde territory (Bond's exasperated face after he keeps repeating his gestures for her to drive into the plane remain funny) but thankfully we don't linger on it too much.
Though I always chuckle at Koskov. As I've said before, this film features two characters that we start off with a certain feeling with and then by the end, we've changed. Saunders you think is this stuck up prat who is being a pain in the arse to our man Bond, then by the end you feel for him when he's bumped off. Koskov you like, he has this charisma and by the end, certainly before the end, you want to shoot him.

However, in this battle it's his cries about the plane: "No! You'll blow up the plane!" Alright Sinbad, keep your wig on. His mate is similarly unintentionally funny. Also we do have slight Moore/Glen touches, the Russkies in the shower for instance.

Art Malik is decent in this fracas as is Barry's score. It might not be his best but there's something engaging and of course energetic about the TLD instrumentals (in this case, "Hercules Take Off").

I have for what seems a lifetime defended Dalton's one-liners etc. I still think some weren't helped by something abruptly coming right on the end of the line. His need to know is cut off by the window rolling up, the boot line by the mountain top appearing and so on. And on the Herc', some of his lines land awkwardly as if Glen wanted him to sound dramatic and Dalton would rather play it his way (which was the best way). "Where are you going?/To defuse a bomb!" Sure it IS dramatic but I can't help but think Dalton felt IF's Bond wouldn't be like that, not always. "I have to drop a bomb!"

Since I was little, I've admired stuntmen and been fascinated by film stunts. The TLD air fight is no different. Seeing them hanging off the back of it on the net and doing their thing there is still a slight holding of breath.

Though that final scene with Whitaker is what it is, Dalton has some great expressions such as when he's facing Whitaker who continues to play with his toys. Come on man, I'm holding a gun at you.
Rhys Davies is once more great, as he starts talking you see Bond almost pissed and of course the diplomatic bag line saves it.

Seeing Barry cameo is still good (though I wonder what he thought playing a classical conductor when he's conducted some pretty bitchin tracks before).

And there we go. In 1987 the world was bright as far as Bond was concerned. Roger Moore feels a different lifetime, Bond feels more grounded and the next film is two years away.

I've always felt that Dalton's second answer to Kara's question "where are you going?" should have had more inflection.
"To defuse a bomb."
"To drop a bomb."
Personally, I like that "He got the boot" was cut off by a gasp rather than a pause for a laugh. It kept up the tension for a moment longer.

I'm in the middle of my summer Bond-a-thon here which is always exciting and to make it better I found a Bond virgin to watch them with. By the time I was half way through the Roger films I was already feeling that meh feeling about watching Dalton. I felt like just skipping them both and even though I don't mind The Living Daylights the idea of ever watching Licence To KIll again was a real drag. But since she hadn't seen any Bond before I thought better watch them all in order. 
My eyes were rolling out of my head before the opening scenes. I got on my exercise bike and figured I would bike the first hour of the movie so I could at least get my cardio in while suffering through it. Get two birds stoned at once kind of thing. But the more the movie went on the more I found I was liking it. I kept waiting for the bottom to fall out but by the time Bond arrived in Isthmus I was getting into it more and more. By the time it ended I couldn't remember what it was I disliked/hated about it in the first place. Sure there are a few parts to criticize but no more than any other in the franchise and why nitpick.  I always did like the concept of him going rogue. I just originally didn't like him or the execution. But that's awesome because I no longer have that gap in the middle of the series and enjoy it as much as any of the others. I doubt it will ever be in my top 5 but def see why others like it so much now.Now if only I can find a way to like Spectre.

Hey, Sarai ... good to see you around again . You disappearing off here just as the pandemic was kicking in did give me pause, I must confess.

Blunty!!!!!!!!! :) good to see you too

The World Is Not Enough

For me still the best of the Broz films and one of the best in the entire catalog. That epic opening, strong female characters that seem to only be present in Brosnan entries and the most complex villains. My only complaint is that Elektra and Bond didn't have a few more scenes together, developed more of a love story to make her demise all the more devastating.

Sarai wrote:

I'm in the middle of my summer Bond-a-thon here which is always exciting and to make it better I found a Bond virgin to watch them with. By the time I was half way through the Roger films I was already feeling that meh feeling about watching Dalton. I felt like just skipping them both and even though I don't mind The Living Daylights the idea of ever watching Licence To KIll again was a real drag. But since she hadn't seen any Bond before I thought better watch them all in order. 
My eyes were rolling out of my head before the opening scenes. I got on my exercise bike and figured I would bike the first hour of the movie so I could at least get my cardio in while suffering through it. Get two birds stoned at once kind of thing. But the more the movie went on the more I found I was liking it. I kept waiting for the bottom to fall out but by the time Bond arrived in Isthmus I was getting into it more and more. By the time it ended I couldn't remember what it was I disliked/hated about it in the first place. Sure there are a few parts to criticize but no more than any other in the franchise and why nitpick.  I always did like the concept of him going rogue. I just originally didn't like him or the execution. But that's awesome because I no longer have that gap in the middle of the series and enjoy it as much as any of the others. I doubt it will ever be in my top 5 but def see why others like it so much now.Now if only I can find a way to like Spectre.

There's definitely something in the idea that LTK improves once we hit Mexico Isthmus. It feels genuinely dangerous and exotic, as opposed to setting certain scenes in the average pub, hospital room and police station. I feel setting is completely overlooked in movies but it's so hugely important in visual storytelling and Bond is no exception (it's why, for example, the briefing scene in TND works so well; it taking place in the car and on the go amps up the urgency). Further, the characterisation of a rogue Bond feels more rounded and mature. Sowing the seeds of doubt in Sanchez after having earned his trust is much more interesting and characteristic of 007 than what the current - and endlessly - rogue Bond manages.

Sarai wrote:

The World Is Not Enough

For me still the best of the Broz films and one of the best in the entire catalog. That epic opening, strong female characters that seem to only be present in Brosnan entries and the most complex villains. My only complaint is that Elektra and Bond didn't have a few more scenes together, developed more of a love story to make her demise all the more devastating.

Like small portions in a fine restaurant as opposed to feeling stuffed after a buffet (one of many fears I have for NTTD!), it's certainly a film that leaves you wanting more.

So I assume TWINE has kicked TND from the top spot on your list then?

I'm having a hard time ranking the Broz films right now so could probably switch out the order anytime. The more you watch them the better they get and each new one feels better than the last. It was Die Another Day tonight and I still can't find any problems with that movie. For me it's just straight out enjoyable Bond from beginning to end. If I had to rank now it would be TWINE,TND,DAD then Goldeneye but a 10/10 on all.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Sarai wrote:

Blunty!!!!!!!!! :) good to see you too

gives me chills

Spectre still possessing that sterile feeling a few of you guys mentioned. It's really clunky getting from point A to B at any given time too. don't loath it but it is rather a chore to get through

Caught Goldeneye on ITV4 Friday Night. Still think it's Brosnan's Best.

Sarai wrote:

I'm in the middle of my summer Bond-a-thon here which is always exciting and to make it better I found a Bond virgin to watch them with. By the time I was half way through the Roger films I was already feeling that meh feeling about watching Dalton. I felt like just skipping them both and even though I don't mind The Living Daylights the idea of ever watching Licence To KIll again was a real drag. But since she hadn't seen any Bond before I thought better watch them all in order. 
My eyes were rolling out of my head before the opening scenes. I got on my exercise bike and figured I would bike the first hour of the movie so I could at least get my cardio in while suffering through it. Get two birds stoned at once kind of thing. But the more the movie went on the more I found I was liking it. I kept waiting for the bottom to fall out but by the time Bond arrived in Isthmus I was getting into it more and more. By the time it ended I couldn't remember what it was I disliked/hated about it in the first place. Sure there are a few parts to criticize but no more than any other in the franchise and why nitpick.  I always did like the concept of him going rogue. I just originally didn't like him or the execution. But that's awesome because I no longer have that gap in the middle of the series and enjoy it as much as any of the others. I doubt it will ever be in my top 5 but def see why others like it so much now.Now if only I can find a way to like Spectre.

**in my best Stromberg voice**

Well, well, well. Not only has Sarai returned, she has reached rapprochement with LTK. Detente, indeed!

haha nice to see you Khan. You know after all the mockery I threw at that film I almost didn't want to admit to liking it now. I considered not saying anything