Why don't people like Timothy Dalton as Bond?

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I haven't seen either The Living Daylights, or License to Kill. All I've ever heard from friends though is that these are the lesser Bond films and that Dalton sucks. That can't be true, as Dalton is awesome no matter which way you slice it. I'm thinking about buying these on DVD this year, they're only $10 each new. That's after I get the Pierce Brosnan movies first, since those are the best, except Die Another Day which really did suck.

Anyway, certainly the Timothy Dalton Bond movies are good right?
 

Darklighterx

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Dalton was great as Bond imo. I always liked License to Kill.
 

DangerousK

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I haven't seen either The Living Daylights, or License to Kill. All I've ever heard from friends though is that these are the lesser Bond films and that Dalton sucks. That can't be true, as Dalton is awesome no matter which way you slice it. I'm thinking about buying these on DVD this year, they're only $10 each new. That's after I get the Pierce Brosnan movies first, since those are the best, except Die Another Day which really did suck.

Anyway, certainly the Timothy Dalton Bond movies are good right?

Timothy Dalton was very good as James Bond.

He was much better than Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore IMO...I think George Lazenby's performance is really overlooked by many...Connery was Connery....and Daniel Craig seems to be very good as 007.

I loved the two Dalton movies...I really wish he would have been able to make a couple of more Bond films.
 

evil wasabi

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Timothy Dalton simply looked terrible in a tuxedo as bond. That's all. Dalton is a great actor, and whether you see him in Wuthering Heights, Hot Fuzz, or even Beautician and the Beast, his performances are perfect, oftening making the intolerable become enjoyable. But he wasn't Bond, and neither was Brosnan, who I rank as the actual worst Bond.
 

Poonman

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My 0.02

Daniel Craig is hot.

Like, "Vladimir Putin" hot.
 

SouthtownKid

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Many Bond fans agree that Dalton is probably the closest portrayal to the character of the original novels. Both movies have flaws, but also have good points. I like Living Daylights a lot more, and it has become, over the years, one of my favorites in the series. It has some great action set pieces (including some stuff that is interesting to see now, like taking the side of the Afghani Mujahideen against the Russians back when we still considered them 'freedom fighters'), great locales, great score by Barry, and a great reveal introduction of Dalton as Bond. Dalton shows a bit of a world-weary side to Bond that comes up occasionally in the books, but was never portrayed by any of the previous Bond actors.

License to Kill, I like a lot less. They tried to go in a slightly darker, more realistic direction, kind of like they would later do with the Daniel Craig movie. That's not the problem. The problem is that they didn't commit to the new direction -- they chickened out midway through the movie and so you have a really unsatisfying (for me) combination of darker with silliness. A lot of it could have been avoided by not having all the Q stuff in the middle of the movie which really undercuts the tone. Aesthetically, the movie suffers from a really limited number of exotic locals as compared to other Bond movies -- it kind of picks a place and stays there. It also suffers from being one of the Bond movies that John Barry wasn't able to score.

On the plus side, Wayne Newton is awesome in his small role, and I occasionally use his "Bless your heart!" line. Yeah, that sounds stupid when you read it, but you'll understand when you see the movie. There's also some important continuity for the series involving the recurring character of Bond's FBI friend, Felix (some of which was taken from one of the novels).

They're both worth watching, although I think Living Daylights is a better movie. Both are directed by John Glen, who came up through the Bond movie ranks, having previously been editor and second unit director on films like 'Majesty's Secret Service' and 'Spy Who Loved Me.' He began directing the series with the mostly excellent 'For Your Eyes Only,' and directed the series all the way through to 'License to Kill.' Some good and some less good in there, but definitely far from the worst.

Er, I hope that answers your question.
 
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Thanks for the input. I had never pursued seeing them really because I had often thought something was strange about Dalton only getting the 2 movies. It's like a Baseball player, you put up big numbers, you get a big contract. Didn't seem to happen with his 2 movies, but I think I'll finally give them a shot this year sometime.

@wasabi: Fuck you, Goldeneye is the best Bond movie ever. You know this.
 

Loopz

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The Living Daylights is a fucking awesome Bond movie. I also thought Dalton was a bad motherfucker. Everything was working against him in License to Kill though, it was just a weak story that wasn't Bond enough and had nothing to do with Dalton's talent.

I also think Pierce Brosnan is a dull bitch and maybe the least interesting Bond to watch ever.

Connery > Dalton > Moore (ha ha) > Brosnan = That dude I never saw.
 

evil wasabi

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Thanks for the input. I had never pursued seeing them really because I had often thought something was strange about Dalton only getting the 2 movies. It's like a Baseball player, you put up big numbers, you get a big contract. Didn't seem to happen with his 2 movies, but I think I'll finally give them a shot this year sometime.

@wasabi: Fuck you, Goldeneye is the best Bond movie ever. You know this.


Goldeneye?

Shit movie.

Great N64 game.
 

terry.330

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I also think Pierce Brosnan is a dull bitch and maybe the least interesting Bond to watch ever.

I like Pierce as an actor (The Matador FTW) but yeah he wasn't a good Bond and I think a good part that comes from him not really enjoying being in those movies.

Dalton had the chops for it, the look and the attitude it just wasn't meant to be which is a shame.
 

SouthtownKid

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Eh, Goldeneye was at least the best of the Brosnan Bonds, although that's about all I'll give it. Interesting score by the guy who did Nikita.

World is Not Enough was almost good... could possibly have even been great if they could have looped all of Denise Richards' dialogue. As it was, it was almost like they were trying to do a Goldfinger remake -- it's definitely a regurgitated version of Goldfinger's caper. I like the pre-credits sequence of that movie a lot, though.

Tomorrow Never Dies is a real strong contender for 'worst Bond movie of all-time.' Only 'Golden Gun' definitively beats it for the 'all-time worst' crown.

'Die Another Day' suffers from the same problem as Dalton's 'License To Kill.' It starts off strong with a darker tone, Bond gets captured, tortured, traded back, has to escape from his own people who no longer trust him. I remember thinking in the theater, "Holy shit, are they actually going to make a good movie here?" Unfortunately, the whole thing then immediately falls apart as the producers once again chicken out of taking a darker route, and it quickly degenerates into another strong contender for worst Bond movie ever.


About Dalton as Bond: I think pretty much anyone they put in the role would have failed. Audiences were too used to Moore, even as old as he was by then. They needed a rebound Bond to come in and fail, so they could then bring in someone else that people would accept. It didn't help that License To Kill wasn't very good. But I definitely would have liked to have seen at least another couple Dalton Bonds.
 

smokehouse

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Sean Connery>Daniel Craig>Random scrotum>Roger Moore>Timothy Dalton>almost any other actor on the planet>Pierce Brosnan

Brosnan's Bond always seemed like a whiny Brit cunt to me...
 

Korigama

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Tomorrow Never Dies is a real strong contender for 'worst Bond movie of all-time.' Only 'Golden Gun' definitively beats it for the 'all-time worst' crown.

Seriously? Tomorrow Never Dies is the only other Brosnan Bond I liked aside from GoldenEye, and I'd still say one of the better ones. The World Is Not Enough, however, was easily the most boring from that era, and Die Another Day was just...bah.

No personal opinion on Craig (still haven't seen Casino Royale), but I've definitely never heard anything positive regarding Dalton until now.
 

SouthtownKid

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Seriously? Tomorrow Never Dies is the only other Brosnan Bond I liked aside from GoldenEye, and I'd still say one of the better ones. The World Is Not Enough, however, was easily the most boring from that era, and Die Another Day was just...bah.

No personal opinion on Craig (still haven't seen Casino Royale), but I've definitely never heard anything positive regarding Dalton until now.
By your own admission, you're not a big Bond fan. Not trying to tell you what you should or shouldn't like; just saying that you're coming at it from a different perspective.

Like DangerousK was pointing out, a lot of casual viewers also write off the Lazenby movie, when actually, it's one of the better movies in the series. But you get people who are big fans of the movies and have maybe read the Flemming novels, and they usually give more credit to Lazenby and Dalton.

As for Tomorrow Never Dies, it's got one of the lamest plots, campiest villains (in a series of campy villains), the helicopter-chopping-up-the-ground gag is too unbelievable even for a Bond movie (worse even than the mack truck popping a wheelie in License to Kill), and Terri Hatcher in her brief role manages to drag the movie down nearly as much as Capshaw does Temple of Doom. IMO.
 

Cernex

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Timothy Dalton was great as Bond. There was something about his performance that made you BELIEVE he wasn't a character, but the guy himself. He never did waht, say, Tom Cruise or Denzel Washington do: act the same fucking way every fucking character they have.

And also, his physical resemblence and the fact his portray of Bond were the closest to the source material (the novels) doesn't hurt. "The Living Daylights" is, next to Thunderball (SILLY ME!) one of the greatest Bond movies of all time, if not the best.

Of course, there's also "From Russia with Love"...

Also, was I the only one who really HATED Casino Royale and Craig altogheter?

El Cernex
 

vincewy

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I disagree about Die Another Day and License To Kill, the story lines are awesome, what kills both movies:

License To Kill - one thing that turns people off is Dalton's reactions, on quite a few ocassions he almost freaked out (he can't keep his composure), this is something that differs among the actors, even if the scrips are written exactly the same.

Die Another Day - The new M Judi Dench really turns me off as well as the new Moneypenny, so I can say Bond movies are death in the water after Goldeneye. Judi Dench is really insecure and runs on powertrip. Nobody should ever question Bond's actions and decisions. I won't collect another Bond movie until they get rid of Judi Dench. This is the generalization after Goldeneye. What makes this movie even worse, the effects are totally fake and unrealistic, who can believe the types of stunt Bond can pull off. It's too bad since this movie has my favorite story line, failed (which rarely happened to Bond), captured, and stripped off 007 designation.

How I rank the Bonds -

Connery>Moore>Dalton>Brosnan>Craig (fag)>Lazenby

Brosnan's ratings are down large due to the movie themes and the supporting actors.
 

Cernex

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How I rank the Bonds -

Connery>Moore>Dalton>Brosnan>Craig (fag)>Lazenby

Actually, replace Moore for Lazenby and THEN replace Craig with Moore, and you'll have mine.

I mean, Moore was pretty awesome in "Live and Let Die" if you ask me. And "The Man with the Golden Gun" was pretty sweet too.

Of course, there's also "A view to a kill"...

El Cernex
 

SouthtownKid

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Die Another Day - The new M Judi Dench really turns me off as well as the new Moneypenny, so I can say Bond movies are death in the water after Goldeneye. Judi Dench is really insecure and runs on powertrip. Nobody should ever question Bond's actions and decisions.
M constantly questions Bond's actions. Always has. Every M -- movie or book -- not just Dench.

About Dalton looking "almost freaked out": Dalton played him as a human being, more like the character of the books, rather than a guy who could remain calm in a car going over a cliff in a tornado while being stung by a scorpion and on fire.
 
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