007 Journals: Tomorrow Never Dies

Well coming off of Goldeneye I feel like we see Brosnan at his best and it never get's better than that film. Not to say he becomes a bad Bond but he defiintly hits a level in Tomorrow Never Dies and stays there for the remainder of his tenure as Bond. That place is one of less seriousness. He still comes off as great Bond, but there is definintly more wit and he seems a little more comfortable in the sense that "I'm James Bond so of course I'm going to win" that is until the stakes suddenly spike. This is a movie I'm not a hundred percent sure how I feel about it. It's entertaining. Brosnan is great. Really the whole cast is great. The story and some of the beats however, I just struggle to find my stance on them. I see this as a movie that every time I watch it I would probably rank it differently. With this time I will probably be finding my score as I talk about it, so let's just get into it.

First off the film starts strong. The opening is maybe one of my favorites, even if it is another plane stunt just like the last film. It's a great action scene that's as good as any finale in any other Bond film, and it's only the first ten minutes of the movie. In fact all of the action in the movie is great and there's a lot of it. So needless to say you'll never feel bored while watching this particular film. There are a lot of solid gun fights and is probably the most gun heavy Bond film to date. The only real complaint I have about the action is there are two chases that are both great (the car in the garage and the helicopter chasing the bike) but both maybe go on a little too long. The car one in particular is injected with a little more lunacy just because of the fact that he's remote controlling it the whole time. That was kind of a big groan but the scene is entertaining enough that I let it slide. I also want to point out some of the stunt work. The fighter jets in the beginning are great, I also really love the bike chase that has them trying to drive the motorcycle while handcuffed. Something I had never seen before that was played out very well and just an impressive stunt. Then there's the banner on the building. I don't know if that was actually performed, or at least performed on the side of a building, but it's a cool idea nonetheless. The underwater scene in the battleship actually gave me anxiety, mostly because that embodies everything that makes up my nightmares. There's also quite a bit of brutal action at the end and Carver's death is one of extreme brutality and prejudice from Bond. Something we haven't really seen from Bond since The Spy Who Loved Me. An excessive villain execution. Though I felt the acting from Jonathan Pryce could have been more convincing. It looks like he could have totally slipped out.

Other than that little ending moment, Jonathan Pryce turns in a great Bond villain performance. Jonathan Pryce is chewing some major scenery in this movie but it's because of this that his character works. His entire scheme is maybe the most ludicrous but somehow the most interesting and unique. Carver doesn't want to control the world, he wants to control the media. It's an interesting idea and he shows his prowess very early on with the threatening of a nation's president. This is an aspect of the film that maybe makes more sense and has a bigger impact in the current age with how the media is portrayed today. The idea that there is a media mogul just controlling the way the world is perceived is not that ridiculous of an idea anymore. I can see how in 1997 it would have been a harder pill to swallow but I'm for it now. The problem I really have is how he doesn't seem to think anything through. Hey let's try to start a war between China and England and not think that these governments might just talk to each other and see what's up? Something that surprisingly doesn't happen but Carver just feels like an insane person that is in way over his head pretty much every step of the way. Bond even seems like the assignment is child's play for a long part of the run time. What I don't understand is that when it becomes absolutely clear that Carver is behind everything why Bond doesn't just contact Mi6 right away and be like "Yeah it's him. Call up the Chinese government and let them know what's up." Mission accomplished. It's a glaring hole in the movie and the biggest thing that bothered me. I just feel like a lot of this could have been avoided. Carver is just a clinically insane man who has too much money and was able to buy an army with no idea how to use them.

I always love when Bond gets to work with another agent of some kind and Wai Lin is a great example of this. I love how they keep crossing paths during their missions and how it eventually leads to their team up. She's a great Bond girl, more so by the fact that she's a female secret agent and very capable. Something we haven't seen since, again, The Spy Who Loved Me, but Michelle Yeoh is way more believable in the role. Another complaint I have which I shared with Goldeneye is that there is not enough M. There is more of Judi Dench in this film but she doesn't do a whole lot. She also seems to trust Bond completely which she didn't in the last film. I wish that dynamic could have been drawn out a little but we do get that in the Craig films. This does however mark the first appearance of Colin Salmon who will reappear in the rest of the Brosnan films as M's right hand. He doesn't do a lot in any of the films but he is a welcoming face and a great actor. Also Joe Don Baker makes a small return but there's not much to really say about him this time. He's the same character and does even less than he did before. I feel obligated to mention Teri Hatcher as Paris, Carver's wife and Bond's former flame, but she adds little to the plot which is something the actress herself was disappointed by. It was worth mentioning that she was pregnant during filming and that may be why she enters and exits the film so quickly. She gives Bond some emotional motivation but it could have been sold a little better.

So the real question here is where do I stand? Well the film has a lot of ridiculous moments and unfortunately a lot of it comes from the story (though I really wasn't a fan of Bond messing with Wai Lin's gadgets. Too silly). There's a lot of plot holes to pick at and it's odd that this is what they follow up Goldeneye with. However it's entertaining. There's a lot of action, I was never bored, and Brosnan is still great even as a less serious Bond. Goldeneye is far superior but Tomorrow Never Dies is still a decent Bond film. Honestly I feel okay giving this a four out of five this time around but I feel like it could drop the next time I watch it and then go back up a time after that. It really just seems to depend on your mood if you will like this movie or not. It's flawed but it's fun. Also I want to point out that out of the three blonde henchman we have had so far this one is my least favorite. Also this film might get a star boost just for it's amazing theme song. One of the best.

007 Journals: License To Kill

So the year is 1989 and License to Kill is the second, and last, Timothy Dalton James Bond film. So this movie more than previous Bond films feels like a direct translation of what was popular in it's time of release. Hyper violent action movies are all the rage. We had Rambo, Robocop, Lethal Weapon, and of course Scarface which helps influence another part of this movie. This is probably the one entry in the series that feels the least like a Bond film. If you changed the characters names you wouldn't even know the difference between this and any other 80's movie. It's so referential that there's even a Road House style bar fight, because that's what was popular. We have a plot surrounding a drug kingpin where he might as well have been named Tony Montana and the violence is so ramped up from previous films that it just comes off as very reactionary. So with all of this in consideration, the real question is how does it fare as a Bond film?

Well I said it before and I'll say it again. I loved Dalton as Bond in The Living Daylights and I love him even more in License To Kill. This is a very different Bond film where he's not on a mission, it's just a personal revenge story which is something we've never seen Bond do before. He goes rogue to the point that Mi6 even tries to kill him, but then quickly forgets and ignores him. We've seen Bond go rogue before but never like this. So this film features Robery Davi as Sanchez, a ruthless drug lord who has no problem kidnapping Bond's best American friend Felix, and having a shark eat one of his legs. Pretty dark stuff. In fact this movie is so much bloodier and darker than any Bond film that sometimes it's actually curious as to how this movie got approved. We've had a few excessive violence scenes here and there in some of the other movies but this time it was played realisticaly vs seeing Kananga bet blown up like a balloon. It comes off pretty shocking when this film comes around and we have shark wounds and squib shots when previously if someone took a bullet it generally meant grabbing at your chest and falling over.

So while Bond is out for revenge Sanchez is working on building up his cocaine empire (because Scarface) and he has a mistress played by Talisa Soto who is an actress that I always want to like but just have trouble believing. She is beautiful but her acting is always so flat. This was one of her first roles so it's not any better here and is probably the worst I've ever seen her. She just doesn't know how to emote her lines and just sounds monotoned everytime she speaks so I could never tell what emotion she was trying to get across. Bond also has an ex CIA ally played by Carey Lowell who does a better job of carring the female presence in this film. She's tough, she's beautiful, and carries her own in the action scenes better than some previous Bond girls. One weird casting note I'd like to make is Benecio Del Toro as one of Sanchez's hit men. Now there is no super villain aspect to Sanchez, he's just a regualr drug lord which to me makes him a compelling and fearful character because he's based in reality. Del Toro, who looks about eighteen, plays one of his men and while he doesn't have a lot of screen time he sure makes the best out of it by hamming up almost every line he has. Now I wouldn't expect anything less since that's basically what he will become known for but it definitly screams "Hey, I don't get to say much in this movie so I'll make sure they remember everything I say by making it ridiculous." and it completely works. He comes off creepy and insane, pretty much how he does in the real world, and it makes him an odd but memorable character. That honeymoon line alone will be hard to erase from your brain. 

Okay there is something we have to get out of the way. Bond fights ninjas. I know! It's so out of place and random but hey, Ninja's were popular. In all fairness it was contextualized pretty well but man I wish that scene was just Bond fighting some random suited up thugs and not ninjas. There are definitly some issues with this movie. We already spoke about the ninjas, there's the out of place over the top violence, and honestly Dalton surprised me by not delivering the quips with conviction. Overall I think Dalton is a very versitile Bond. He can be tough, he can be angry, he can be loving, he can be dominating, but he just felt uncomfortable about some of his lines when it came to the quips. Although they don't really fit in this dark of a movie and there aren't that many of them but the few that sneak through really should have just been omitted. Not all of the performances were on par either. I already mentioned how flat Talisa Soto comes off but I have to say that this version of Felix is my least favorite. The performance was cringe worthy and he felt like he was acting in a different movie. I disliked a lot of the opening of the movie just because of Felix. He also seems way older than Bond which just comes off odd to me. This actor played Felix in an older Roger Moore film (I think Live and Let Die) so it seems odd to bring him back many years later and have him with a younger looking Bond. Also my biggest gripe but it doesn't affect the movie much is that they never explain how Bond gets reinstated into Mi6. 

For everything that didn't work in this movie I feel like there were twice as many parts that did. The action and stunts are fantastic and there are a lot of them. Bond was clinging to a lot of viechles trying to violently throw him off and it all looks great. Some of the best stunt work in the series. I also really like the plot. It's simple and unique for a James Bond movie. Dalton is the perfect actor to play a darker Bond and while I can see how this dark of a film might have been an issue back then, I think this movie holds up better now in 2015 where we are all desensitized from violence. One of my favorite things about this movie is Q. He gets more screen time than he has before and actually takes part in the mission. I wish we had more of Q like this throughout the series because it was a lot of fun to see him take part in the actual plot. There was even the moment that makes me pine for the James Bond and Q roommates sitcom where they go to sleep in the same room and Bond quips "I hope you don't snore Q." Give me that show!

UPDATE: I forgot to mention the plane stunt that would later be redone in The Dark Knight Rises. As much as this movie pulled from other 80's movies it's interesting to note a movie of the current day borrowing from a movie almost built around being referential. 

Between the two Dalton films I think I like The Living Daylights more since it feels more like a traditional Bond film but License To Kill is still a great time. I rank them both four out of five but The Living Daylights is just slightly better in my opinion. This isn't a film I would say anyone should watch as their first Bond film, you definitly need to see at least a couple more before this to really be able to appreciate it. I'll miss Dalton as Bond but now we move into the era of Bond where I was first introduced. Next will be my first Bond movie Goldeneye.