James Bond Week: The Living Daylights Film Review

Directed by John Glen

Starring: Timothy Dalton, Maryam d’Abo, Jeroen Krabbé

Rated PG

After 12 years of having Roger Moore play the role of James Bond, it was finally time to have a new actor step into the role. Timothy Dalton stepped into the Bond in the mid to late 80’s with critical success. The Living Daylights centers around Bond who is tasked with finding out why someone is killing spies. In a complicated plot, Bond faces off against an arms dealer (played by Joe Don Baker) who is also tied to the Soviet-Afghan War and a Soviet defector (played by Jeroen Krabbé).

Re-watching The Living Daylights was enjoyable to say the least. Although still having some humor in the film, it was interesting watching Dalton bring his own interpretation of Bond to the big screen. There are some elements of dark moments in the film, but it wouldn’t be until Licence to Kill where these malarial would be fully fleshed out. It was a nice change of pace to not see jokes after jokes in the film, but considering the screenplay was written with Moore in mind, it still has the feeling of a lighthearted film.

Along with the tone, the story is finally brought back to reality. I know it is custom to have these types of story lines be about a manic wanting to destroy the world. While it is enjoyable to view those types of plots, it can be a bit tiring to watch film after film. The Living Daylights stepped away from the outlandish plots we’ve seen in the Moore era to a more grounded one. The story of an arms dealer wanting to sell weapons is not the most exciting, but a nice change of pace. It’s almost as if the series saw itself speeding ahead and decided to slow down once Dalton came on board.

While the film is enjoyable to view, unfortunately, the main villain of the film is dull and forgettable. At first, it is hard to distinguishing who the main villain is. But once we know who the main villain is, there is nothing memorable about him. The only memorable thing about him is that he plays with historical wax figures and that’s about it. He poses no threat to anyone in the film and doesn’t even seem menacing at all. Over the years, Bond villains are known to be memorable, whether its good or bad, and this one doesn’t bring anything to the table. It’s unfortunate to say that Joe Don Baker as Whitaker is probably one of the worst Bond villains.

But with that being said, the film is a decent telling of a spy story that is based in reality. The film finally moved away from Moore era jokes and focused on telling a story with humor as an after thought. While the film does have a terrible villain, this is not an element that drags the film entirely down. Overall, its a nice entry in the Bond series that has some redeemable qualities that is worth a watch.

3/4

James Bond Week: Moonraker Film Review

Directed by Lewis Gilbert

Starring: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale

Rated PG

In the late 70’s, Roger Moore played the role of James Bond and continued to do so until the mid 80’s. In Moonraker, Bond faces off against Hugo Drax (played by Michael Lonsdale) , a millionaire who steals his own space shuttle. Bond is sent to investigate Drax, only to find out that Drax is playing to send a select few to space so he can destroy the Earth, only to have his select few repopulate the Earth. Bond is assisted by CIA agent, Dr. Holly Goodhead (played by Lois Chiles), as they go around the world to places such as Venice, Rio de Janeiro, and even outer space.

If the plot of the film sounds familiar, that is because it is a carbon copy of the previous film in this series, The Spy Who Loved Me. Both films deal with a millionaire who want to destroy the world and create a new one. They both have a female spy from another country that is assisting Bond in his adventures. I can only figure that the film producers like the story of the previous film so much, they decided to use the same one for the next film. But with that in mind, it almost feels lazy to keep the same plot points of the previous film, with some notable exceptions. I know the story isn’t the selling point in these types of films, but it almost feels unoriginal when the film doesn’t come up with its own story. To add insult to injury, the film can get dull at a few moments. There are multiple enjoyable moments, but the ones that are slow are painfully slow.

In my previous Bond review, I mentioned Goldfinger was a lighthearted film that was enjoyable. While Moonraker is both of those things, the film is almost laughable at how camp it is. While it is fun to watch Bond say a funny one liner, its feels different when there’s an entire scene dedicated to humor. For example, there’s scene where Bond is on a gondola in Venice that was specifically made to be humorous. Bond is driving the gondola on land and it shows that this is supposed to be humorous. This is an unnecessary scene that adds no value to the film and is only there because the film wanted to be funny. The difference between the humor in Goldfinger and Moonraker is that the humor in Goldfinger felt like an afterthought, while the humor in this film feels like it should be on the main stage.

But with all those gripes, Roger Moore still brings his charm to the role as Bond. The late actor played the role as a ladies man who threw in jokes often. Connery also played the ladies man, but also was tough. Meanwhile, Moore doesn’t play the role as a tough agent, mostly because his puns get in the way of that. As the role of Drax, Michael Lonsdale plays the villain almost like a cartoon character. Lonsdale certainly seems to have fun with the role as he probably knows this is a ridiculous film to begin with. Finally Lois Chiles plays the Bond girl, Dr. Goodhead. Unfortunately, she makes a forgettable Bond girl as she gives a wooden performance in a role that doesn’t give her much to do.

Overall, Moonraker has its moments, but its a slow film that has too many jokes. Roger Moore gives a performance filled with charm but unfortunately his role cannot save the film. Moonraker is not one of the best Bond’s films and is film best viewed as background noise as the story and the humor won’t certainly draw your typical audience in.

2/4

James Bond Week: Goldfinger Film Review

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Starring: Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe, Honor Blackman

Rated PG

This week, I thought it would be fun to explore one of my favorite film series, the James Bond series. For the next five days, it will be interesting to dig deep one Bond film per decade, played by a different actor. Today we start off the first Bond actor, Sean Connery.

In 1964, Sean Connery returned to the role as James Bond with Goldfinger with great success. Often praised as one of the best Bond films, the film centers around 007 facing against Auric Goldfinger (played by Gert Fröbe) a villain who is in love with gold. Goldfinger is plotting to break into Fort Knox and poison its gold with radioactive material in order to increase his personal worth of gold. Now its up to 007 to stop Goldfinger before the villain achieves his plans.

The film is one of the first 007 films to be lighthearted and use the same tropes future Bond films would use. The contemporary artist singing over the credits, Bond and Q scene, and the use of the Aston Martin. The film almost feels relaxed and knows what its doing, in part because this is the third film in the series. By then, the producers knew what worked and what didn’t. While excellent films, the first two films almost felt like they were trying to embody the works of Alfred Hitchcock. Goldfinger is finally where the series becomes its own and became the spy series everyone tried to copy.

One of the reasons why Goldfinger feels different is due to the stellar performance of Sean Connery. Connery is often praised as one of the best Bond, and Goldfinger proves why he should get that title. Connery finally feels comfortable as the role, as he did have two films to see what works best. Connery can charm a women and win a fight at once, as proven by the cold open of the film. Connery is only as good as Bond because he is perfectly fitted with the villain Goldfinger. Fröbe plays the titular character as a calm and collective villain who doesn’t have to prove his is evil. He doesn’t have to yell or kill people directly to get his point across, just a smug look on his face does the job.

Accompanying the film is John Barry’s beautiful score that compliments the film well. The score features a multitude of instruments including a lush harp. Listening to the score not only enhances the film, but almost makes the film feel like its in a time most of us will never live. As mentioned before, elements of Goldfinger set the standard for future films in this series and the score is one of those elements.

Goldfinger is fun, energetic, and entertaining overall. Sean Connery gives a great performance as Bond as he finally feels at home with the character. If anyone were to start watching the Bond series, Goldfinger would be a great start. Its an iconic film that is certainly fun all around.

4/4

GoldenEye Film Review

Directed by Martin Campbell

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco

Rated PG-13 for a number of sequences of action/violence, and for some sexuality

In 1989, the Bond series was not doing too well with the release of License to Kill not doing so well at the box office. At to the fact that the film series and its producers were in legal battles after the film was released. Soon, their star Timothy Dalton decided to not continue forward with the role as James Bond. The Bond series was in hot water and desperately needed a comeback. Six years later, the Bond series came back with its new star, Pierce Brosnan, and in a new era where the Cold War was over. GoldenEye represented a new era for the Bond series and successfully came back to its former glory.

GoldenEye is 17th film in the James Bond series, starring Pierce Brosnan as Bond. In this film, Bond has to face off against a former MI6 agent, played by Sean Bean, who is set on financially destroying London. Not only does Bond face off against a former MI6 agent, but also a Russian Colonel, a sex crazed female assassin, and a geeky hacker.

GoldenEye is, of course, the first outing of Brosnan as his role as Bond. Brosnan does a fantastic job portraying Bond but as his first film, he is trying to find his footing as Bond. He has the same jokes and one liners as Roger Moore did, but also can be brutal as his predecessor, Timothy Dalton, did. Truth be told, Brosnan is not my favorite Bond due to having poor films under his belt, but GoldenEye is an exception. He does a well enough job here but the action is the main star of the film here.

The action in the film is fantastically made and its all due to director Martin Campbell. The film starts with a great action sequence that begins with a bungee jump down a dam. Although the film logic doesn’t make sense, considering the scene began on a dam, the sequence ends on a mountain with a bang. The entire cold open is great but that’s just the beginning! The highlight of the film is a tank chase in Russia that features the iconic 007 theme.

The only downside is that the plot that the villain reveals is confusing and hard to follow. It is tradition to have complex schemes in Bond films, but I could not follow the film and it’s scheme, despite how many times it is explained. In addition, “M”, played by Judi Dench, is not featured as much as I wanted to. Earlier in the Bond films, “M” would appear in the beginning of the film and explained the mission Bond was going into. They were rarely featured outside the beginning of the film because their role was already used. The same rule applies to Dench’s “M”, she only appears in the beginning/middle of the film. Dench is a talented actress who should have appeared more in the film. Luckily, we got to see more of “M” in future films, the producers probably realized it would be a shame to waste the talents of Judi Dench, and soon Ralph Finnes.

Overall, GoldenEye is a fun and enjoyable addition to the Bond series. Pierce Brosnan plays it safe by playing a mash up of previous Bonds that came before him, but the film is still enjoyable and has top notch action. GoldenEye is a must watch for any fan of the Bond series.

3.5/4