November 1, 2008

The Bond Countdown #16

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |
[2] Comments 

Licence to Kill (1989)
John Glen
Bond, James Bond: Timothy Dalton
Arch Rival: Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi)
Bond Girl: Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell)

Licence to Kill (1989)

Licence to Kill (1989)

Timothy Dalton takes up the role of James Bond for one more time in the sixteenth offering in the series. In this one, Bond must avenge the murder of Della, wife of Bond’s CIA friend Felix Leiter and that takes him on the trail of a Mexican drug lord Sanchez, who has established a huge scientific base for the production of narcotic material and has planned to expand his control to as far as East Asia. Bond, with the help of CIA friend Pam Bouvier, flies across the country and infiltrates Sanchez’s loyal group, virtually becoming one of them. He is also helped by Sanchez’s beautiful mistress Lupe Lamora, who seems to have fallen for Bond. He starts his double crossing game and puts down his rivals using Sanchez himself. But Sanchez isn’t as big a sucker as he seems.

Timothy Dalton gives a one-two punch with Licence to Kill after immensely impressing with The Living Daylights. It is a pity that Dalton didn’t play in more Bond films, for he is the best Bond after Connery. The film brings back Bond’s off-the-cuff humour back and it usually helps. Action scenes are all top-notch and make the Roger Moore flicks seem like cartoons. Sanchez makes a great villain and just his stare seems enough to tell that he means business. Look out for a young Benicio Del Toro as Sanchez’s personal assistant. A worthy Bond.

 

October 31, 2008

The Bond Countdown #15

Posted by Just Another Film Buff under All Posts, Hollywood, Marathon | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
1 Comment 

The Living Daylights (1987)
John Glen
Bond, James Bond: Timothy Dalton
Arch Rival: Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé)
Bond Girl: Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo)

The Living Daylights (1987)

The Living Daylights (1987)

After an excruciating seven film streak as the English spy, Roger Moore steps down to make way for Timothy Dalton to step into Bond’s shoes – and how! The Living Daylights is a real thriller that has Bond defending a Russian general Koskov who has defected and is under threat from the KGB. Bond succeeds at that but soon finds that he has been tricked and the defection was but an excuse to turn the MI6 organization against the KGB head Pushkin who, as per Koskov’s statement, has started a mission to put down prominent American and British secret agents. Koskov, meanwhile, is allied with the American arms seller Whitaker who is an admirer of tyrants and warlords. Bond along with Kara Milovy, Koskov’s girlfriend, also tricked by him, and a group of Mujahedins try to stop Koskov from getting a huge amount of Opium out of Afghanistan and in turn get ammunition into the country.

Timothy Dalton is one of the most underrated and least spoken about Bond. Even the one hit wonder Lazenby is praised often. Though not as handsome as Connery or Brosnan, he sure can play the part effectively. The film, by the way, is one of the best Bond flicks and the stunts top all the earlier Bond films. The cracker of a climax where Bond fights in mid air is breathtaking even by today’s standards and thank god, no bad puns. The Afghan connection may raise a brow or two today.