What's so good about this entry?

Most Bond fans, and my friends love this entry and think it's one of the best ones. But I do not understand why this is, and I have always put this in the lesser Bond movies, the bottom 9 for sure.

My reason is the villains are probably the worst villains in the series, in that they are so dull. Whitaker being the dullest, and Necros, probably the least interesting, or intimidating, of all blonde henchman. But Whitaker and Koskov seem dull, even almost bumbling, really.

I also find Kara to be really hard to like, even though you want to. This is probably not the actress's fault and was just following direction, but she played it as an over the top school girl, constantly wide eyed all the time. The worst moment in the entire movie is when Bond and her escape the prison, and she says to him "You were fantastic! We're Free!!". The way she says is so cringe inducing and I cannot get over it. She's possibly the most cringe inducing Bond girl of the whole series, if there can be a catagory for that.

So mainly her and the really dull villains are why I keep failing to see what is so great about this one. I keep wanting to, so can anyone help me out?

I think there's a somewhat (I'm gonna say it) gritty, quasi-realism to it. Certainly when contrasted with Moore's entries. The villains are "dull" because they're not cartoonish megalomaniacs looking to build underwater cities or whatever.

FWIW I like Koskov as a character, even if he's not an overly evil moustache-twirler. I find him funny and a bit of a goofball.

Kara might not be a brilliant character or brilliantly-acted, but I suppose she, as with the villains, is a more down-to-earth character.

So why is TLD in my top 5? Well, among a host of reasons:

- One of the most well-done and faithful to Fleming portrayals of James Bond
- Possibly the best PTS of the series
- Banger of a title song
- Brilliant sniper sequence
- Great bants between Bond and Saunders
- Exciting attack-on-M16 sequence (featuring the best non-Bond fisticuffs of the series)
- Fun gadget car action
- As mentioned, Koskov is zany and almost likeable
- Rhys-Davies as Pushkin and, of course, the great scene in the hotel room
- The Necros fight
- Awesome John Barry score; perhaps even a case of saving the best for last

Nailed it, CJB. It's the series' first example of everybody involved upping their game for an anniversary-marking franchise entry (the other being Skyfall, of course ... we'll draw a discreet veil over DAD).

Oh okay.  I like funny characters in a Bond movie, I just don't think the villain should be goofy necessarily, and maybe that's more of an allie's job, or something like that.

But I don't think the villains are dull, just because they are not megalomaniacs.  Sanchez in LTK is not a megalomaniac, and just wants to get rich off of selling drugs, but I find him to be a much better villain compared to the TLD villains for example.

I also think there are down to Earth Bond girls, such as say Vesper Lynd or Natalya Simonova for example, who are not cringeworthy in the process. I think I might like the previous A View to a Kill better than TLD, in some ways at least, because even though it's a tired formula, it still managed to have a stronger villain, and a not as cringeworthy Bond girl for me.

I'll take Kara over Stacey any day.
(Please?)