Semiquincentennial Movie Project #29: Cloak & Dagger

 

The Semiquincentennial  Movie Project is an ongoing celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. During the course of this project your humble blogger is choosing a movie a week to represent each of the 50 states in the Union, as well as a movie scheduled for 4th of July weekend that will represent the nation's capitol, Washington D.C. The order of the weekly entries will coincide with the order of each state's entry into the fold (although, not necessarily coinciding with the date of their entry into said fold).

 

Week #29: Texas -

 

 

 

The state of Texas was established on Dec. 29, 1845 

Details about Texas:

State bird: mockingbird

State flower: bluebonnet

State tree: pecan

Additional historical trivia:

There is a radio station in Waco who's call letters are WACO. Only one other city in the U.S. has that distinction: WARE in Ware, PA.

The first ever rodeo was hosted in Pecos in 1883.

Texas has the largest and longest-running State Fair in the US.

Maybe not the longest running college rivalry, but the Texas - Oklahoma Red River Rivalry is (probably) the most watched annual football game.  

Dr Pepper was invented in Waco.

The first Six Flags amusement park opened in Texas, so named because at one time or another Texas has been a country under six nations (Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Conferderate States of America and the USA).

Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in the US.  

Texas has the largest state capitol building ("Everything is bigger in Texas" is not just hubris).

The King Ranch in Kingsville is larger than the state of Rhode Island. (Again...)

The world's largest set of cowboy boots, 35 ft. tall, stands outside North Star Mall in San Antonio (ditto)

There are 15 states combined that could fit inside Texas' borders (Maybe I'm overdoing it here...) 

The Alamo in San Antonio does NOT have a basement (PeeWee Herman made me add that one...) 

Famous people born in Texas: Willie Nelson (of course), Gene Autry, Beyonce, George Strait, Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, Lance Armstrong, Nolan Ryan, Rogers Hornsby, Brittney Griner, Drew Brees, Earl Campbell, Vince Young, Larry McMurtry, Steve Martin, Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey, Carol Burnett, Tommy Lee Jones, Sissy Spacek, Dabney Coleman (see movie below), Henry Thomas (again, see movie below) and US Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson 

Note: You can say I'm overdoing it this time on trivia, but Texas IS my home state, so...

 

 

Cloak & Dagger (1984): 

Growing up is tough. It can be especially tough, as a kid, when your mother is dead and your father is somewhat distracted by being a single parent trying to raise a kid on his own while trying to work a job.

There is a tendency, at least as far as films go, for the kid to dive deep into a fantasy world, with the requisite imaginary friend. At this point in my life I really can't remember if I had any imaginary friends. But then, I had both of my parents still around until I was well into my 50's, and a sister who is still with me. I had a stable childhood, and although I did not have very many real friends that I palled around with, I don't think I would have had to create an imaginary friend to accompany me on my "adventures". And even if I did, I seriously doubt that imaginary friend would have gotten me into the kind of trouble that Jack Flack gets young Davey (Henry Thomas) into.

 

Davey is a typical kid on most levels. He is heavily into video games, and even into role-playing games. I should point out here at this point that I was a product of an era that preceded Dungeons and Dragons and the rest of the RPG games that flooded the childhood experience in the late 70's and early 80's (and even to this day). I might have been attracted to it had I had a different upbringing. Note: In my experience I was well into my 20's before I was ever introduced to actually playing Dungeons and Dragons. Being raised in a fundamentalist Baptist church household, even the mention of the game brought up serious religious problems, because D&D and the like were considered doorways into Satanism. I've since become more enlightened. D&D and the like are just harmless fun. 

I imagine Davey plays D&D, but his primary interest is in spy role-playing. As such, his hero is Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman), a dime store knockoff of a James Bond type spy. Jack is a dead ringer for Davey's father, Hal (also played by Coleman). It seems to me that Jack is the character that Davey wishes his father really was, thus emphasizing the fact that Jack and Hal are played by Coleman. 

 

 

But Davey's obsession with spy games takes a dark turn when his friend, Morris (William Forsythe), sends Davey on a "mission" to the local tech lab, (ostensibly to get him out of Morris hair, I think). 

 

Davey takes his friend, Kim (Christina Negri) with him on this mission, still trying to play out this spy game for what it's worth. Except that Davey runs into a real spy game. Three guys kill off a laboratory worker who, before he dies, passes off a video game cartridge called Cloak & Dagger to Davey, with the mission now being that Davey get the game to the FBI.

 

It turns out that the game cartridge is disguised as a regular copy of a video game, but has some hidden data that the bad guys are looking to get their hands on. Remember this is 1984, so even though they never come right out at say it, the implication is that the hidden data is going to be handed of to enemies of the US (probably the Russians, who were in the middle of the Cold War with the US).

 

The bad guys, who are played by Michael Murphy, Eloy Casados and Tim Rossovich, are unscrupulous, to say the least. They have no intention of letting even a little kid stand in the way of the big payday they are expecting. Much of the film involves these three trying to retrieve the game cartridge and kill off (yes, I said "kill off") Davey. These unscrupulous characters even are trying to take out young Kim. (Ye gods!)

 

Over the course of the film Davey's imaginary friend keeps helping young Davey with "advice" better suited for a real adult spy rather than a youthful wannabee. It's hard to actually like Jack, since his main goal seems to be to stay the course of the spy he is supposed to be without any care or remorse for his young companion. Often he puts young Davey in extreme danger. But his goal of getting the game cartridge away from the bad guys takes precedence over any such trivialities as "child endangerment".

 

But since Jack is a product of Davey's imagination, perhaps all the blame can't be put on Jack. More fault could be handed of to Hal who seems a bit clueless how to raise a kid on his own. And then, since Jack is a carbon copy of Hal in Davey's mind, perhaps Davey is just trying to create his own father figure who is much more adventurous than the dull air traffic controller Hal is.

To his credit, Davey gradually matures on his own, realizing that Jack is not the sort of friend that he really needs.  But, since he does still have to do something about the un-American forces that are determined to win at all costs, he does have to grow up pretty fast. He has to. At one point he is faced with a situation where he has to either kill or be killed.

 

There are a couple of twists that I found extremely interesting in this film. For one thing, the three hoodlums have a backing that was almost unexpected. At least, at the beginning. It may be obvious to you before very long into the film that not everybody in this film is exactly who they seem to be. The surprise may be, however, the actors who played the parts. I bet my sister, who is a fan of old movies, would be shocked that a couple of "good guys" could play evil characters.

Cloak & Dagger was released in the summer of 1984. It was, in fact, released on the same day as Red Dawn, and with competition from such blockbusters as Purple Rain and The Karate Kid, as well as Star Trek III and Revenge of the Nerds, which were (probably) still in the theaters, it probably wasn't going to have much of an impact in the first place. The main reason, it seems, for it's August release, was that the big event was the Summer Olympics, and since most kids would have not been very interested in that event, it was thought that the theater would be pulling a larger crowd of kids.

Unfortunately that didn't happen. It only pulled in about $10 million in box office receipts. And the expected tie-in with the video game fell through when it was only released as an arcade game and was not immediately put out for home use. This despite the fact that the movie hinges on this Atari Cloak & Dagger video game that was supposed to be a release for the home video game market.

 

Henry Thomas, the star of Cloak & Dagger, was just coming off a star making role as the best friend of a creature from another world (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial). His career as a child actor was fairly limited, only appearing in a handful of films, but unlike other child actors of the day, he was able to transition to adult roles later in life. Recently he has appeared in no less than three movies based on stories by Stephen King (Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep and Pet Semetary: Bloodlines).

Dabney Coleman, who passed away in 2024, had a prolific career. You may remember him as the sexist boss Franklin Hart in 9 to 5, or as the soap opera director in Tootsie. He was the murderer in one of my favorite Columbo movies in 1991 (Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star). 

Michael Murphy is a familiar face, having appeared in such films as the big screen version of M*A*S*H*, Nashville and Batman Returns, but possibly may be more familiar as a voice. He was the narrator of the PBS series of "American Experience". Tim Rossovich, who started out as a professional athlete in the NFL, often cropped up in film and TV in the late 70's and 80's. 

Christina Nigra may look vaguely familiar. If you saw Twilight Zone: The Movie you may remember her as the annoying little brat who keeps pestering John Lithgow in the "Nightmare  at 20,000 Feet" segment, or possibly as Evie Garland's best friend in the TV series Out of This World.

The cast is rounded out with the appearance of a couple of classic movie and TV stars, John McIntyre and Jeanette Nolan, as an elderly couple who may or may not be on Davey's side in his adventure.  

For pure entertainment, I think Cloak & Dagger is a decent movie, It somehow is able to appeal to both the kid and the "kid at heart" and genuinely holds the viewer's interest, despite a few flaws. 

The MacGuffin of the film seems to be a little flimsy to me; how the video game could hold such detailed information that could only be accessed if you got to a specific level of playing it seems to be a little contrived, at least as far as 1984 technology is concerned. Nowadays it would be child's play to hide info this way, and even the youngest wannabe computer kid could crack it with no effort...

The other thing, although obligatory in a kid-friendly movie, is that the three main bad guys are pretty much incompetent. Any real professional criminals could have pulled off eliminating an 8 year old kid without much problem, but these guys probably couldn't eliminate a snail trapped in a 4" x 4" box... 

The highlight for me is the setting of the film. It takes place in San Antonio, and even though I never visited San Antonio until about 8 years later, it still looked familiar to me. The obligatory scene at the iconic Alamo (you CAN'T set a movie in San Antonio without featuring a scene with the Alamo..) is one of the highlights. (Of course, that HAS to be the place where the hoodlums drop off their illicit contraband).

Give this film a try, if for nothing else to see how Henry Thomas was not just a "flash in the pan" with his star making role in E.T. 

Well, that's it for this time. Drive safely, folks. And leave your imaginary friends behind. They are only going to cause you trouble.

Quiggy

 

 

 

Gold Gems

This is my first entry in the Vincent Price Blogathon hosted by Realweegiemidget Reviews and Cinematic Catharsis

From the TV cartoon series Pinky and the Brain:

Pinky:  "What are we going to do tonight, Brain?"
The Brain: "Same thing we do every night, Pinky...try to take over the world!"
























Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)
Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966):


The essence of American International's Dr. Goldfoot movies is parody.  The hit movie series of the 60's was Sean Connery and his James Bond films.  The most recent one of these had been Goldfinger (1964).  Dr. Goldfoot was an evil scientist, who like many of Bond's nemeses, had a goal to try to take over the world.

In the first outlet for the series, Dr. Goldfoot's nefarious plan is creating girl robots who entice rich men, marry them and then drain them dry financially, to the benefit, of course, of Dr. Goldfoot.

In the second entry, Dr. Goldfoot, in cahoots with the Chinese, endeavors to start World War II between the Russians and the Americans, the ultimate goal being to destroy the two superpowers and divide the spoils between the Chinese and our "hero", Dr. Goldfoot.  To enable this, first Dr. Goldfoot sends his newly developed girl robots, accompanied with bombs, to blow up the NATO generals.  Then he hijacks an American plane with a hydrogen bomb, to blow up Moscow.

The agent, if you can call him that, is from Security Intelligence Command (S.I.C., which is pronounced "sick", leading to a couple of snickering moments when the agent says he is a "S.I.C. agent").  In the first film, the agent is played by Frankie Avalon and in the second the agent is played by Fabian, both heralding back to American International's popular "beach movies".  (In fact, in one scene in Bikini Machine, Annette Funicello makes a guest cameo.)

Both movies are highlighted by an elaborate slapstick chase.  In the first movie it is Dr. Goldfoot chasing the agents and in the second it is the agents chasing Dr. Goldfoot and his cohorts.  In both the chase is just a ploy to extend the length of the movie with numerous sight gags, regardless of the plausibility.  (i.e. a streetcar that leaves its rails and rolls down the highway or a hot air balloon that manages to keep pace with a jet airliner.)

In between you get Vincent Price at his campy best.  Sure, Price made a great evil villain, but he could pull off comedy pretty damn decently, too.  Neither of the Goldfoot entries are anywhere close to classics in the comedy realm.  And there are some flaws in the second entry.  For one thing the Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs film serves not only as a sequel to the first movie, but it was also made as a sequel to a favorite Italian series.  Hence the appearance of Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrrassia as a pair of Italian dolts who help our secret agent in his quest to stop Goldfoot.

For those Mario Bava fans in the crowd, it may disconcert you to know that Bava was the director of the second feature.  Definitely not up to the standards of Black Sabbath or Kill, Baby, Kill, and maybe Bava fans have a right to be disappointed.  It would be the only time that classic horror actor Price teamed up with classic horror director Bava and that's a shame.

These movies are fun, but I highly doubt they are re-watchable, even for Price fans.  But since you are probably qurantined at least for part of the day right now, it can make for a somewhat enjoyable break from all that housekeeping or whatever it is you are doing to keep active.

Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy

 

Spy Games

This is my entry in the D-Day Blogathon hosted by Hamlette's Soliloquy and Coffee, Classics and Craziness

D-Day was the ultimate beginning of the end of World War II on the German front.  It was also the end of  Operation Fortitude, which involved a intricate plan, to convince the Germans that the actual invasion would occur not in Normandy, as the Operation Overlord plans for the D-Day invasion  called for, but farther down the coast in Calais.

To the effort of Operation Fortitude,  the Allied forces had installed a vast array of plywood planes and various other war accoutrements that were designed to convince aerial recon planes by the Germans that the invasion was set for Calais.  Close inspection of he force would have revealed the subterfuge, but from a height of a few thousand feet in the air, the planes and other war materiel would look like a full scale force.

But what if the Germans had discovered the ruse?  You think the D-Day invasion was bloody?  It might have been even bloodier or perhaps have even failed had some enterprising German spy stumbled across the ruse.  This was the plot of Ken Follett's extremely entertaining novel The Eye of the Needle in 1978. The novel was made into a major theatrical release in 1981 featuring Donald Sutherland in the role of the German spy, Henry Faber.

Eye of the Needle (1981):

Henry Faber (Donald Sutherland) is an inconspicuous government employee.  He has established himself as a friend and confidant to those that surround him and appears to all extents and purposes to just be a regular guy.  But in fact Faber is a spy for the German High Command, one known as "the Needle". So called because of his preference to dispatch his enemies with a knife.

When he is caught by his landlady using a transmitter in his room, he kills her and takes off, leaving behind some evidence that he was the culprit, but that doesn't faze him in the least.  He still has his mission, that of letting the Germans know of whatever secrets he has attained.

While scouting near an Allied command post, Faber discovers that the planes that are parked there are all fake.  He immediately figures out the subterfuge and heads toward the coast where he can connect with a U-boat and head back to Berlin with his information.

Unfortunately for Faber he chooses the wrong time to try to hijack a boat.  Although he is successful at commandeering the boat, a storm hits the coast.  Floundering at sea with the boat that is ill-prepared to sail under such conditions, he ends up crashing on Storm Island.

There he encounters two of the residents, Lucy and David Rose (Kate Nelligan and Christopher Cazenove).  He manages to convince the two that he is the unfortunate survivor from an ill-advised boating excursion and that he is just a regular guy.  But David is rather suspicious.

David had been scheduled to be an RAF pilot back in 1940, but on his wedding night he and Lucy were involved in a car accident and David was crippled.  He has  been relegated to Storm Island where he has become rather standoffish to his wife, as a result of his inability to come to terms with his condition.  Although the two did manage to give birth to a son, David has since been rather cold and their romance has suffered.

As a result, Lucy finds herself attracted to their new visitor.  And Faber himself, although initially seeming to use the attraction to benefit his own nefarious purposes eventually finds himself falling in love with Lucy.  Thus setting up the denouement.  Because, although he has killed David with the same dispatch as he has with others who stood in his way, when Lucy discovers his true identity he cannot bring himself to kill her.

The movie was fairly successful, making $17M in it's initial release.  Sutherland shines as the extremely cold Faber.  Although the plot is pretty much the same as any number of other novels and movies that surround the subterfuge during the war, the film has you hanging on until the very end.  One little complaint, however.  A great scene in the book did not make the movie, but in the book it further enhances the cold-bloodedness of Faber.

In the novel there is a scene where Faber has to meet a confidante who has information to pass on to Faber.  Meeting in the dark, the confidante insists that Faber turn on a light so he can be sure that he is talking to the real Faber.  Faber complies, but after receiving said information, Faber dispatches the fellow spy with his knife, claiming "you saw my face."

Drive safely, folks.  And don't pick u any strange men you see on the road.

Quiggy

The Bond Age (Pt. XI)

 

 

2017 marks 55 years of James Bond on the movie screen.  To celebrate this momentous year, I am undertaking to review the entire oeuvre of Bond films, all 24 of them (at this juncture in history), two at a time.  These will appear on the 7th day of each month  (Bond's agent number being "007").  At the beginning of each entry I will give my personal ranking of each movie and of each movie's theme song.  (These are subjective rankings and do not necessarily agree with the view of the average Bond fan, so take it as you will).  I hope you enjoy them, nay, even look forward to the next installment.  As an added note, I am deeply indebted to Tom DeMichael, and his book James Bond FAQ,  for tidbits of information with which I am peppering these entries.                                                                                                                                                                                                  -Quiggy

It had to happen, sooner or later.  By 2006, any available actor who could play the James Bond character, and had been alive when the first Bond movie came out, would have been 55.  Pretty old for Bond.  Yes Roger Moore played Bond when he was almost 60, but he had already been established in the Bond role for years.  If you are going to start a new franchise Bond, though, you want to at least start out with him being a bit younger.

There was a legal snafu once again that delayed production of the next Bond film.  In the interim Pierce Brosnan had been ousted from the potential fifth portrayal of the superspy, and producers began to look for a new face for Bond.  I personally remember the discussion when it was announced that a new actor would play Bond.  Hugh Jackman, Jude Law, Colin Farrel and Jason Statham were among the ones the producers considered.  Personally, I thought Jason Isaacs would have made a good Bond.  But the producers chose Daniel Craig, only the second Bond actor to have been born in England.

Of course, Bond women, being what they are, had been being played by actresses not old enough to have been around when Dr. No came out for years.  Bond women are always young and alluring and who wants to see a 50 year old grandmother make out with James Bond anyway?  (For the record, the first Bond woman who was not yet born when the first Bond movie was released was Talisa Soto (as Lupe in License to Kill)

Another younger addition to the Bond saga was in the position of director.  Of course, directors can be of any age, youth is not a requirement there.  Martin Scorcese could conceivably be tagged to be a Bond director and no one would bat an eye.  (At least not because of his age, anyway)  The first James Bond movie in the Daniel Craig era to be directed by a youngster to the scene was Quantum of Solace. It was directed by Marc Forster, who was born in 1969.

The reboot of Bond harkens to an earlier style of Bond in the way of gadgets, too.  In the first two Bond's of the Daniel Craig era there was no character of "Q", and thus there were no especially intricate weapons and gadgets, just your basic car and gun.  (Thus I dispensed with the Best Bond Weapon category for this entry)

The final note is, I should point out that with the new Bond there is a running theme of a secret organization behind all the bad guys throughout the four (so far) Daniel Craig movies.  While each one is separate in it's story, some of the action refers to the running theme, and while each one could conceivably be watched out of order, you will find some of it a little confusing if you do so.

Casino Royale (2006):

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: # 15

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song: # 9

Best Bond Quote: Bond: (to Le Chiffre as he is torturing Bond) "I've got an itch down there... Do you mind?"

Best Bond Villain Quote: Le Chiffre: (during the same torture scene as above) "Wow.  You've taken good care of your body... such a waste"

The movie starts in Prague where Bond has tracked down a double crossing agent of MI6, and executes him.  One point made is that at this point Bond has still not achieved his 007 status because he has not had two confirmed kills.  (Seems a little contrived to me, and I would have thought Bond would have been much younger before he was given his 007 status. )

The movie opens with a song by Chris Cornell, the singer for  Soundgarden, and one which has more of a feel for the style that I think works better for a Bond movie.

In Uganda, a terrorist named Obanno meets with Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) who arranges to take possession of , and launder, the ill gotten gains of the terrorist.  Le Chiffre is a less than scrupulous banker.  He gambles with the money and also is shotselling stock in an airplane company, one which goes against the prevailing norm because the company's stock is only expected to increase.  But Le Chiffre knows something the stock analysts don't.  (His plan is to blow up an experimental plane that the airplane company is about to introduce).

While Bond is trying to track down a terrorist bomber, he and another agent find him at a street match between a mongoose and a cobra.  THe other agent inadvertently  gives himself away and the bomber takes off with Bond in pursuit.  It ends with Bond shooting the terrorist and escaping the local army.  M is not happy with Bond's penchant for killing potential prisoners who might give information to MI6  (a theme that runs constantly throughout the Daniel Craig series).

A major portion of the movie involves a high stakes poker game (in the novel it was baccarat, but the producers felt that most of the audience would have no idea how baccarat was played so went this route instead).  The goal being to make Le Chiffre lose his money (which you already know is not his anway: it belongs to the terrorists). Initially Bond loses his entire stake, and his money supplier from the government, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), declines to supply the money for the "buy back in".  Fortunately a Cia agent, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), lets Bond take over his position in the game, with the caveat that the Americans get Le Chiffre after Bond is through with him.

It should come as no surprise that Bond beats Le Chiffre and takes all his money, and it should also come as no surprise that this doesn't set well with Le Chiffre.  Leading to the torture scene referenced above.

Double crosses and intrigue still reign supreme as always.  There is more to this movie than just the poker game, of course, and you will not see some of the surprises coming.  The movie is fairly good, and Le Chiffre makes one hell of a good villain, even if his goal is not the typical world domination scheme one comes to expect from a Bond Villain.

Quantum of Solace (2008): 

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: # 16

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song: # 16

Best Bond Quote:(after leaving the villain stranded in the desert, with just a can of motor oil)  Bond: "I'll bet you make it 20 miles before you consider drinking that".

Best Bond Villain Quote:   (to Camille, referring to Bond) Greene: "MI6 says he's difficult to control.  That's a nice way of saying everything he touches seems to wither and die."





 
Stepping off from the end of Casino Royale, Bond arrives at an MI6 field location with a captive, Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), for interrogation.  Mr White claims that MI6  knows nothing about his organization, despite the fact that they have people everywhere.  Whereupon one of the agents present reveals himself as a rogue and shoots up the place killing everyone except Bond, and fortunately, M.  During the ensuing chase of the rogue agent, Bond ends up killing him.  Of course, M is displeased because they still know nothing about this "secret" organization.

For the first time in a Bond film, the opening theme song is a duet.  Alicia Keys and Jack White (of the White Stripes) do the honors.  It's not entirely a bad song (although, to the consternation of White it was later used in a diet soda commercial.  Which I think is prescient since the title of the song is "Another Way to Die"...)

Money found on the agent leads Bond to a man named Slate, and Bond ends up killing him too.  (Things just aren't going well for MI6 to find out information, it seems.) It turns out that Slate was supposed to be an assassin to kill Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko, yes a Russian actress playing a Hispanic, but she pulls it off).  Bond meets up with Camille, but they depart and Bond follows her to a dock where she meets with Dominic Greene (Matthieu Amalric).

It turns out that Greene was the one who tried to have her killed.  Instead he gives her to General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio), wh will kill her after he's finished having fun with her.  Bond gives chase to the boat that Medrano is on and rescues her, which doesn't really please her.  See, Medrano had killed her family, and she was out for revenge, planning to kill Medrano.

The secret villainous plot revolves around Greene, who is acting as an environmental entrepreneur, supposedly trying to help the world.  But what he is secretly doing is diverting water and buying up land, intentionally trying to corner the market on water by creating a drought.  He plans to make big money by selling back the water to the thirsty country.  (Yes, another somewhat ridiculous evil plot, but the action and intrigue work in its favor this time.)

Because Bond seems to be out of control, MI6 sends an agent, Strawberry Fields (really!) (Gemma Arterton) to arrest him.  Bond uses his charm to convince her to hold off, and continues on his mission.  This was probably Fields' biggest mistake because, reminiscent of Goldfinger, Fields is later killed by having been drenched in oil and left to die on a hotel bed.

After resolving the current case, Bond traces down Lynd's (from Casino Royale) former lover and finds out another piece to the puzzle of the secret organization that seems to have worldwide fingers in every pie.

That wraps up this foray into the spy world, folks.  See you next month with the final installment.

Quiggy

  

The Bond Age (Pt. X)

2017 marks 55 years of James Bond on the movie screen.  To celebrate this momentous year, I am undertaking to review the entire oeuvre of Bond films, all 24 of them (at this juncture in history), two at a time.  These will appear on the 7th day of each month  (Bond's agent number being "007").  At the beginning of each entry I will give my personal ranking of each movie and of each movie's theme song.  (These are subjective rankings and do not necessarily agree with the view of the average Bond fan, so take it as you will).  I hope you enjoy them, nay, even look forward to the next installment.  As an added note, I am deeply indebted to Tom DeMichael, and his book James Bond FAQ,  for tidbits of information with which I am peppering these entries.                                                                                                                                                                                                  -Quiggy

By the time the series reached the dawn of the new millennium, the Bond saga had been going on for 40 years.  Many of the series regulars over the years had come and gone.  We had seen a woman take over as M, we had seen four separate actors don the tuxedo and persona of Bond, and we had even seen the departure of the stalwart Lois Maxwell, and her unrequited passion for Bond.  The only remaining figure who was still being played by it's original actor was "Q" (Desmond Llewelyn).  But even that was not a taboo role to change.  In The World is Not Enough, we still had Llewelyn's "Q", but looking forward to the eventual retirement of the actor, a new associate was introduced in this outing.

John Cleese, the Monty Python star, was introduced as an assistant to "Q".  Although he was not actually named in the film, Bond quips that if Llewelyn was "Q", Cleese must be "R".  The introduction turned out to be more prescient than the producers had thought.  Shortly after the movie was completed, Llewelyn was tragically killed in a car accident in December.  Having John Cleese take over the role added a bit of a twist to the character.  He continued the role of being exasperated by Bond's nonchalance with his gizmos, but he also added a twist of an acerbic wit, reminiscent of some of his characters on Monty Python's Flying Circus.

The World is Not Enough (1999)

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the movie: #14

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the theme song: # 14

Best Bond Quote:  I couldn't resist...The last line as Bond and Dr. Christmas Jones make their ubiquitous liaison in the finale:  Bond "I thought Christmas only came once a year."

Best Bond Villain Quote: Renard: "There's not point in living, if you can't feel alive"

Best Weapon:There are lots of neat little things in this one.  I'm particular fond of the helicopter that has five circular saws attached to it for use in tree trimming.  Of course, you just KNOW that's not the only use they have...

In one of the longest opening sequences ever in a Bond film, James Bond is in Spain, where he is retrieving a satchel full of money.  While he and the Swiss banker who is holding the money converse, the banker is killed by his personal assistant, just as the banker was about to name the killer of another MI6 agent.  The killer gets away.

 Bond returns to MI6 HQ where he gives the satchel of money to its rightful owner, Sir Robert King.  But King has been rigged so that a lapel pin explodes killing him while he is inspecting the money. Bond sees the same assassin from Spain, and gives chase. She commandeers a boat, and Bond hijacks an experimental boat from Q to try to catch her.  An exciting chase scene around the Thames makes for a very good opening.  Bond ends up injuring his shoulder as the assassin explodes in a flaming balloon.

 The opening credits feature a song by a band called Garbage.  The song, however is not truly garbage, although it does push the envelope a bit with the sultry style that lead singer Shirley Manson brings to the song, but as far as I'm concerned, it is much better than some of the other songs that were chosen over the years.  I still feel a hard-driving style, like the themes for A View to a Kill and Live and Let Die fit the Bond theme more, but I'll take this one.

Bond is eager to go after the killers, but M decides that his injury is too severe, so she denies him the opportunity to be on the case.  Bond of course has other ideas, and he convinces his physical therapist to give him a clean bill of health.  Bond takes off to investigate the terrorism angle, first by meeting up with King's daughter, Electra (Sophie Marceau).  Electra has taken over her father's oil business, and is overseeing the installment of a pipeline.

It turns out that the money that Bond retrieved is somehow connected with an extortion ransom that Sir Robert had paid to get his daughter released from being kidnapped by an anarchist named Renard (Robert Caryle).  Renard has one unique attribute.  He is dying from a bullet lodged in his brain, which has the effect of rendering him immune to feeling pain and gives him extraordinary endurance.  Bond is sent to protect Electra from further harm, but she is initially indifferent, since she thinks MI6 is responsible for her father's death, by not preventing the assassination.

Bond and Electra go skiing to view the pipeline and are attacked by some terrorists.  Bond manages to save Electra, and wins her trust.  Bond then goes to see an old nemesis, Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane), who now runs a casino.  Zukovsky tells him about the Renard connection.  Electra shows up at the casino, and promptly loses a million dollars to Zukovsky.  She dismisses the loss when Bond expresses his dismay and  tells Bond "there's no point in living, if you can't feel alive".

Bond follows a lead and goes to Kazakhstan where he meets nuclear scientist named Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards), {who must be the most improbable scientist ever, but this is Hollywood and they were trying to reach a younger audience}.  Jones betrays Bond, who was posing as a scientist, to Renard.  She doesn't know who he is, she just was suspicious of him.  Renard, it turns out, is working on getting a nuclear bomb which he plans to use to blow up the pipelines that compete with Electra's pipeline.  If you are already ahead of me, you know what that means.  And so does Bond.  He confronts Electra, who it turns out, has been a victim of what is called the "Stockholm syndrome" in which a victim ends up falling into a romantic relationship with her captor.

The finale has Bond, with Jones, who is now on his side after discovering who he really is and what Renard's evil plans entail, trying to stop Renard from his plan.The movie works on several levels, but this trope of using nuclear weapons to cause havoc has started to become passe' in my opinion. Still, I think that the story is entertaining enough that it keeps one riveted throughout.  My only quibble is the casting of Denise Richards as a nuclear scientist,as I intimated earlier.

Die Another Day (2002) 

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the movie: # 9

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the theme song: #19

Best Bond Quote: (Bond has just turned over a briefcase full of diamonds, rigged with a bomb) Bond: "Don't blow it all at once."

Best Bond Villain Quote: Graves: "You only get one shot at life.  Why waste it on sleep?"


Best Weapon:  Without a doubt, it's the invisible car.  I want one of those!


Bond is in North Korea with a couple of South Korean agents.  He poses as an arms dealer where he trades a satchel full of diamonds for a cache of weapons from Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee), along with his aide, Zao (Rick Yune) .  But he is revealed as a impostor, and  he is exposed.  A chase ensues which ends in the death of Colonel Moon, but Bond is captured by General Moon (Kenneth Tsang), the colonel's father.

As the opening credits roll, featuring one of the worst Bond theme songs in recent years, by Madonna, instead of seeing the classic dancing shadows and such that one has come to expect, we instead are treated to scenes of Bond being tortured while in captivity.

After the credits, Bond, who is now almost unrecognizable with shaggy long hair and beard, has been traded in exchange for Zao, who had been captured by the West during Bond's captivity.  M, who thinks that Bond probably revealed secret information while in captivity, has revoked his  007 status and plans to have him removed to a re-education facility (or possibly imprisonment, it's kind of vague to me).  Bond insists that someone must have betrayed him and wants to go after the traitor, but M refuses.

Bond engineers an escape from the hospital and goes to Hong Kong where he gets help from a Chinese agent.  He makes a deal with the head agent because the Chinese have had three of their secret agents killed by Zao.  The Chinese agent sends him to Havana where Zao has gone to a gene therapy clinic.

In Havana, Bond encounters Giacinta "Jinx" (Johnson (Halle Berry), who it turns out has her own agenda.  It turns out, as Bond later discovers, that Jinx is an agent for the American NSA.  While Jinx performs her own operation, Bond finds Zao as well as the diamonds that had been given to Colonel Moon. The diamonds now have a signature of Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), a wealthy industrialist.

Bond seeks out Graves and manages to make an enemy of him right away.  Graves has an assistant, Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) who is helping him.  But Miranda turns out to be an agent of MI6 and is trying to find out what Graves' plans are.  Graves has created a satellite called "Icarus" which, ostensibly, is his gift to the world.  It can focus light from the sun to create ideal climates in areas for growing food.

But of course, that isn't Graves real objective.  You see, the Icarus satellite can also be used to create a giant laser than can be focused to destroy military installations.  Something quite similar to the object Scaramanga created in The Man with the Golden Gun, but 30 years later, technology has made an even more devastating weapon possible.

And once you find out what Graves true agenda is, you will be just as surprised as I was.  I won't reveal who Graves actually turns out to be (although you may guess just based on that passing comment).  The last 20 minutes of the movie is what puts this one so high in my personal rankings.  That and the invisible car of course, which I still want..

Time to go off and try to save the world.  Or at least save the part where I live...


Quiggy

The Bond Age (Part IX)

 

 

 

2017 marks 55 years of James Bond on the movie screen.  To celebrate this momentous year, I am undertaking to review the entire oeuvre of Bond films, all 24 of them (at this juncture in history), two at a time.  These will appear on the 7th day of each month  (Bond's agent number being "007").  At the beginning of each entry I will give my personal ranking of each movie and of each movie's theme song.  (These are subjective rankings and do not necessarily agree with the view of the average Bond fan, so take it as you will).  I hope you enjoy them, nay, even look forward to the next installment.  As an added note, I am deeply indebted to Tom DeMichael, and his book James Bond FAQ,  for tidbits of information with which I am peppering these entries.                                                                                                                                                                                                  -Quiggy

Timothy Dalton was a success in two outings as Bond.  A third Dalton Bond film was in the works when disaster struck the series.  A lawsuit had been filed between the producers and MGM/UA, the distributors, of the series.  It seems that there was some problems with how the company and the producers viewed licensing agreements which had been signed way back in 1962.  This caused a lengthy delay in the production of the next movie in the Bond series, during which time Dalton's contract expired.

Whether the producers chose to go a different direction or Dalton just simply declined to renew his contract is a matter for the history books.  But the Bond role was open again.  Brosnan was he obvious choice, although serious consideration was given to Ralph Fiennes and, believe it or not, Mel Gibson(...?!).  Brosnan had been passed over, if you remember, because of his work on the American TV series Remington Steele.

A new Miss Moneypenny was cast for the new Bond, an actress named Samantha Bond.  (Is that kismet, or what?)  Also the new Bond would have a new M.  Not only that, but a woman boss.  Judi Dench was pegged to play Bond's superior, and thus the only actor left to reprise his role in the series was Desmond Llewelyn as "Q".



GoldenEye (1995)

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: # 6

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song: # 18

Best Bond Quote: (The lead in to this one has Bond and his psychologist barrelling down a winding road when Xenia appears in her Ferrari.  The psychologist says "I like a spirited drive just as much as the next girl.." and then spots Xenia.  "Who's that?" she asks)  Bond:  "The next girl."

Best Bond Villain Quote: Janus:  "Kill him!... The man just won't take a hint."
(A very close second is Boris's oft repeated "I am invincible!" (Which you find out at the end is not necessarily so...)

Best Weapon: Love the pen that is really a disguised grenade.

 In a scene that it turns out takes place prior to the fall of the Berlin wall and the dissolution of the Communist Soviet regime, the film opens with Bond (Brosnan) working in conjunction with another agent, Alex Trevelyan, 006 (Sean Bean), in an infiltration of a Soviet military chemical weapons facility. Colonel Ourumov (Gottfried John) captures 006 and tries to lure Bond out of his hiding place.  The colonel kills 006, but Bond manages to escape in a rather exciting chase sequence.

In the opening credits, the song "GoldenEye" is sung by Tina Turner and it was written by Bono & The Edge of U2.  With that combination of talent, you would THINK that the output would be nothing less than spectacular.  However, in my opinion the song is a bit cold and static.  The Billboard charts for the Hot 100 would seem to bear that out.  It did not crack the top 100 (although it did make the Billboard Dance Hits chart, so some people must have thought it was dance-able...but not me).  In its defense, neither of the Dalton Bond themes cracked the top 100 either, but this one just doesn't pop for me.

One of the first things that will catch your eye in the opening credits is that Sean Bean's name appears right after the title.  Now unless Sean Bean has an ego the size of Marlon Brando, and managed to get top billing for a measly five minutes of screen time, that should be a clue that 006 may not really dead, so Spoiler Alert (for the slow on the uptake)!.... he's not.

Nine years later:  On a winding road Bond is driving with an MI6 psychologist (Serena Gordon).  Bond is pretty much scaring her already with his driving when a mysterious woman in a Ferrari shows up, and Bond's ego refuses to let him lose the race.  Narrowly avoiding a couple of accidents, Bond eventually lets the woman win to avoid wrecking into a bicycle entourage.

Later Bond meets the woman at a baccarat table where he manages to introduce himself and find out her name, Xenia Onotopp (Famke Janssen).  His charm is pretty much wasted on her because she is only concerned with her goals.  Which is later revealed to be a hijacking of a new Russian helicopter.  It turns out she is in cahoots with now-General Ourumov to hijack a former Soviet defense system called "GoldenEye".

What GoldenEye is is a system whereby a satellite in space can fire electromagnetic that can isolate an area and cause an area to lose its power to operate all electronic systems within the area.  The pair enter the Russian facility where the operation systems of Golden Eye is housed and Xenia kills all of the personnel inside.  Well, all but Boris Grishenko (Alan Cumming) who had "conveniently" stepped out for a smoke, and Natalya Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) who had, fortunately, gone to the kitchen for some coffee.

Onotopp an Ourumov activate GoldenEye and cause the facility and surrounding area to be laid waste and put in the dark.  At MI6 HQ, this event is viewed by Bond and the rest of those present.  Bond is taked with finding Golden Eye and whoever stole it.  He goes to St. Petersburg (the cold one in Russia, not the warm one in Florida...) where he meets CIA agent Jack Wade (Joe Don Baker), who apparently is now Bond's contact after Felix Leiter's disablement in The Living Daylights.

Baker's Wade is a bit of a smart ass, but I always have liked Baker's acting.  He tells Bond how much he hates the secrecy, passwords and codes of the "stiff-assed Brits", but helps Bond get to a former enemy, an ex-KGB agent now nightclub owner named Valentin Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane).  Through a bit of negotiation, Bond gets Zukovsky help him to meet up with the leader of  Russian crime syndicate, known only by the name "Janus".

When Bond finally meets up with "Janus", guess who he really is.... well, if you read the half-assed attempt at a spoiler alert above, you've already guessed.  It turns out that it's our beloved co-agent 006, who apparently DIDN'T die at the hands of Ourumov.  Trevelyan was really a descendant of Russian Cossacks, whom history details as having allied with Nazi Germany against Russia.  After the war, they surrendered to the British and requested asylum, but the Brits turned them over to the Soviets and they were later executed by Stalin .   It turns out that Alex has been planning this whole revenge scheme for years, to pay back both Russia and England for betrayal.

The last part of the movie involves some pretty exciting battles between Bond and Alex, with the goal being to try to prevent Alex from doing the same thing to London that he had done to the Russian facility earlier in the movie.  With the help of Boris, who is in cahoots with Janus, the suspense mounts as to whether the enemies just might succeed this time.

Brosnan's first outing as Bond is top notch.  There was an attempt to return to the nonchalant quips that had been sorely missing from the Dalton movies, and many of these were a bit flat, but still, it was nice to get to see Bond's humorous side come back to the films.

 Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: #23

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song: #23

Best Bond Quote: (I'm not passing this one up. Moneypenny is talking to Bond requiring him to report to MI6.  He is in a romantic tryst with his Danish teacher.  He tells her Goodbye in Danish.) Moneypenny: "You always were a cunning linguist, James."

Best Bond Villain Quote:(I'm giving this one to Carver's henchman.  Read the review below for more explanation):  Stamper:  "I owe you an unpleasant death, Mr. Bond."

Best Weapon:  That cell phone is a monster.  I want one with all tose apps and gizmos.

In one of the best opening sequences ever, Bond is surreptitiously filming a conclave of terrorists.  Back at MI6, the Admiralty overrides M's wishes and orders a missile strike on the terrorist conclave.  Too late they find out that there is a plane with nuclear warheads on it.  More than just a terrorist enclave will suffer.  But Bond to the rescue, he does some Bond magic and flies the plane out...

You know what?  I can't do it.  I can't even BEGIN to give this movie any respect.  Aside from that dynamic opening, the movie just goes down hill from there.  Oh, the very beginning shows a bit of promise.  A British ship is warned it is in Chinese waters, even though the British GPS systems on board say they are not.  And a fancy torpedo controlled by some bad guys (not the Chinese) does some fancy maneuvering and completely destroys the ship.

But from there it goes headlong into one of the most ridiculous scenarios ever.  Our bad guy this time?  Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), a media mogul who is trying to start World War III.  Why?  For ratings, of course.  He wants to be top dog in the news industry and nothing is above the line in order to get that position.  Something similar happened 100 or so years ago when William Randolph Hearst tried to manipulate political forces to get his newspaper headline stories.

The movie even references this history when Carver compares himself to Hearst.  But I don't think Hearst was the person the producers wanted the film-going public to think of when they saw this movie.  Probably less than half of the people who went to the theater to see it even recognized Hearst's name when Elliot Carver mentioned him.  Personally I think the producers wanted people to think of Rupert Murdoch, Fox News Media mogul.  Hell, Pryce even resembles Murdoch in the film.

And a villian trying to start WWIII just for ratings?  Please!  Even Blofeld's plan in On Her Majesty's Secret Service seems intelligent by comparison.  And how about that song?  Yes, decent orchestration, but Sheryl Crow was probably the worst choice they could have found to sing it.  What? couldn't they entice Shirley Bassey to give it another go?  I'm sure it would it would have been thousands of times better.

Sorry to end on a down note, but you could always go back up and read the "GoldenEye" review before you leave the theater...  drive safe, folks

Quiggy

The Bond Age (Part VIII)

 

 

2017 marks 55 years of James Bond on the movie screen.  To celebrate this momentous year, I am undertaking to review the entire oeuvre of Bond films, all 24 of them (at this juncture in history), two at a time.  These will appear on the 7th day of each month  (Bond's agent number being "007").  At the beginning of each entry I will give my personal ranking of each movie and of each movie's theme song.  (These are subjective rankings and do not necessarily agree with the view of the average Bond fan, so take it as you will).  I hope you enjoy them, nay, even look forward to the next installment.  As an added note, I am deeply indebted to Tom DeMichael, and his book James Bond FAQ,  for tidbits of information with which I am peppering these entries.                                                                                                                                                                                                  -Quiggy

It had to happen sooner or later....  After working on A View to a Kill, Roger Moore finally followed through with his threat to retire from the Bond role, and a casting call went out for someone to take the reins.

The call went out and the final decision was to have Pierce Brosnan take over the role.  But wait a minute.  Brosnan had just finished up playing a role in a TV series, Remington Steele, which had been cancelled.  Except that after hearing about their star being cast as James Bond, and thinking that was good publicity for their show, the network decided to renew the series.  Thus Brosnan was committed to another season of the show and was unavailable.  Worse, the next season only aired 6 episodes before it was cancelled permanently.  But by then it was too late for Brosnan.

Timothy Dalton, who had been among the finalists years before to replace Connery was tagged for Moore's replacement.  (He had decided he was too young the first time, and also did not want the task of replacing Connery, but by 1987, he was ready to give it a try.)

The role of Miss Moneypenny also became available. Lois Maxwell had decided to retire along with Moore, and a younger (and infinitely sexier) Moneypenny was cast, with Caroline Bliss in the role.  With or without the glasses she affected to distinguish her from Maxwell, she still looked the part of a Bond girl, so it must have been pure professionalism that Dalton's Bond did not succumb to her charms.

The Living Daylights (1987):

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: # 19

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song:  # 8

Best Bond Quote:  (After hearing Koskov tell him an old Russian saying) "We have a saying, too, Georgi.  And you're full of it."

Best Bond Villain Quote:  (wielding an M80, after Bond has expended the 8 bullets in his gun.) Whitaker:  "You've had your 8, Bond.  Now I have my 80."

Best Weapon:  A key chain that has two really cool features, both responding to a certain whistle from Bond.

In the opening sequence, Bond and a handful of other agents are in a war game exercise where they have to infiltrate a stronghold, defended by fellow military personnel.  The agents who are shot by the defenders (with paint guns) are out of the game.  But there is someone who is not playing by the rules, and kills several people, both agents and defenders.  When Bond discovers the deception, a chase ensues on the mountaintop in a truck filled with explosives.  And I don't guess I have to tell you how that scene ends...

The opening credits, which includes a song by the Norwegian band  a-ha, leads into the main story line.  Russian General Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé) wants to defect to the West.But there is information circulating that the Russians plan to kill Koskov as he defects, so Bond is tasked with preventing the assassination.

Bond sees the beautiful Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo), a cello player in the orchestra with the rifle, and instead of killing her as instructed, he merely wounds her.  Koskov escapes to the West.  But at a safe house, a tall blond killer called Necros (Andreas Wisniewski) infiltrates the place and causes chaos, in which in the interim, Koskov is kidnapped from the safe house.

Koskov is a weasel, and it's almost telegraphed from the start that he is playing both sides of the candle against each other.  So it's no surprise to find out that it isn't the Russians who recaptured Koskov.  It was all part of an insidious double-cross, or triple-cross or even quadruple-cross.  It turns out that Koskov has been playing games with Kara, pretending to be her lover.  In fact, he had set her up, too.  She was supposed to fire blanks at Koskov during his defection, but she was also supposed to have been killed by Bond or the MI6 agent sent to prevent his "assassination",  thus eliminating a loose end in the plan.

It turns out there was a complicated plan in which opium was traded for guns and guns were traded for diamonds and the whole plot centers around trying to get Koskov's boss, General Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies, the actor who played Indiana Jones' friend, Sallah), assassinated.  In help for this matter is the false rumor that Koskov spreads to MI6 that Pushkin is planning on reinstating the Stalin era plan of smiert spionim. ("Death to spies").  This is totally untrue, and Bond discovers the whole ruse.  He also helps Pushkin out by faking Pushkin's death at the hands of Bond.

Bond is arrested as an assassin by russian agents, with Koskov still playing his ruse as the now head of Russian KGB.  The police put Bond and Kara in prison, but as usual Bond finds a way to escape.  He also frees a fellow prisoner, an Afghan, who turns out to be a leader in the Mujahadeen.  (This being prior to the events of 9-11, the Mujahadeen were still regarded as allies, especially since they were enemies of the Russians.)  Art Malik, who has made somewhat of a career in Middle eastern roles, plays the rebel leader.  And he eventually, although somewhat reluctantly, repays Bond for helping him escape by helping bond in his mission.

Koskov's real ally is Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker), a wannabe leader and mercenary who basically sells his services to the highest bidder.  It is he who is involved deeply in the diamonds/opium/arms trade.  He is also a gung-ho military man who among his delusions of grandeur imagines himself to be the consummate war strategist.  In his fortress hideout he has a room in which he re-enacts famous battles with toy soldiers, complete with sound effects from a high tech sound system, and busts of famous generals of the past around him.  (although, as a credit to his ego, they all have his face...)

The only thing that keeps The Living Daylights from being ranked even lower on my scale of Bond movies is the presence of Joe Don Baker as the renegade military man.  Baker is a pleasure to watch in almost everything I've ever seen him.  (He was fantastic as Buford Pusser in Walking Tall.)  The character is essentially a cardboard cutout of a mercenary leader, but Baker puts more pizzazz into the character than a lesser actor could have achieved, and even though I am glad to see a villain get his comeuppance in a Bond film, this is one where I kind of wish he had survived...

Timothy Dalton created a new image of Bond which stayed as far away as possible from the witty predecessor of Roger Moore.  It seems to hearken more back to Connery, although Dalton did put his own spin on it.  But he is not one of my favorite Bonds.  I wouldn't even rank him above Brosnan.  But I must admit, as you will learn if you read further, that one of my favorite overall Bond movies is his second try at the role.

Licence to Kill (1989):

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Movie: # 5

Quiggy's Personal Ranking of the Theme Song:  # 13

Best Bond Quote:  (Having just been given the snub by a potential sexual conquest with Pam) "I hope you don't snore, Q."

Best Bond Villain Quote: (Actually a note attached to Felix Leiter, but we will assume it was written by Franz Sanchez:)  "He disagreed with something that ate him."


Best Weapon:  A gun that looks like a camera, but is engineered and works only from Bond's hand print, making it totally useless when one of Sanchez's henchman tales it away from him.


There are more current and future stars in this outing than you could shake a stick at.  Priscilla Barnes, who took over the resident blonde role after the departure of Suzanne Somers on Three's Company, is cast as the tragic figure of Mrs. Felix Leiter.  Benicio del Toro, in a very early role, is Robert Davi's right hand man, a superb villain.  Anthony Zerbe and Wayne Newton (yes, THAT Wayne Newton) also appear in significant roles.  Grand L. Bush, whom you will recognize by face, if not by name, because he has been in dozens of action movies, is Hawkins.  The same goes for Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.  Both are regular actors, if you like the type of movies I most frequently review.

The opening sequence features Bond and his pal, CIA Agent Felix Leiter (played this time by David Hedison) on their way to Felix's wedding to the future Mrs. Leiter (Priscilla Barnes).  A Coast Guard helicopter intercept the entourage and informs Leiter that Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi), a notorious drug kingpin, is on United States soil, and the game is afoot to capture him.  Despite being on their way to a wedding, Leiter and Bond join the chase.  After an impressive action sequence which also involves Bond hooking up Sanchez's plane with a wire and taking him into custody, the two parachute in to the wedding.

The opening credits feature what was to be Maurice Binder's last work as credits designer for a Bond film.  He would pass away from lung cancer in 1991.  The song featured was done by Gladys Knight, one of the first songs to be done after the disbanding of her backup group, known as Gladys Knight and the Pips.

At a CIA interrogation, Sanchez makes a blatant statement that he will escape, and says that he will pay 2 Million dollars to whomever helps him.   It works because one of the agents present, Killifer (Everett McGill), takes the bait (and the cash).  Sanchez takes over in his revenge by kidnapping Leiter and killing his new bride.  He feeds Leiter to the sharks.  Bond hears about Sanchez's escape and goes to Leiter's house where he finds Della dead, and Leiter barely alive.

Bond goes to investigate a boat owned by Milton Krest  (Anthony Zerbe) and discovers evidence of what happened to Leiter.  He also confronts Killifer, who tries to bribe Bond, but Bond is having none of it.  He is now on a mission of revenge.  Bond is taken to a secret quarters where M (Robert Brown) informs him that he is supposed to be on assignment, but after a confrontation, Bond finds his 007 "license to kill" is revoked.

Bond begins a systematic plan of revenge, his ultimate goal being the death of Sanchez.  Sanchez's right hand man, Dario (Benicio del Toro),  encounters Bond as Bond meets with Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell), a pilot and ex-CIA agent.  Escape from Dario is eminent, but Dario can identify Bond.  Bond makes his way back to Krest's boat, where he hijacks a load of drug money from the associate.  He takes the money and opens an account in Isthmus City, Sanchez's home base, and begins a systematic plan to infiltrate the drug kingpin's team of trusted servants.  He has the help of Q, who is probably going to be in deep trouble with M later for helping Bond out.

Professor Joe Butcher (Wayne Newton), a sleazy tele-evangelist, uses his television program to inform potential buyers of the drug prices and sales.  Sanchez's financial adviser,  Truman-Lodge (Anthony Starke) informs Sanchez of the deals that are made via the tele-evangelist's program.  The base of operations for the drug processing are located in Butcher's supposed meditation retreat.  A concept that, although logistically unbelievable (it involves mixing the drugs with gasoline to disguise them, which are later reprocessed back into pure cocaine), is revealed.  The drugs are packed into four tanker trucks and ready to go.

At the plant, Bond destroysthef  , as the tankers leave the facility. One of the action sequences that ensue involves what I consider one of the greatest stunts of all time.  As Bond is driving one of the tanker trucks, several of Sanchez's henchman stand by and fire a Stinger missile at him.  Bond uses a boulder on the road to cause the tanker to do a wheelie to avoid the missile.  While a two wheelie in a car is not necessarily passe', I think this nine wheelie is absolutely fantastic.

Davi is possibly the best and most fearsome Bond villain of all time.  He definitely manages to exude more of the unmitigated despicableness that makes a Bond villain memorable. Despite the fact that this movie has no real "conquest to dominate the world" like most of the Bond entries, and despite the fact that I really don't care for Dalton as Bond for the most part, this entry ranks as #5 on my list simply because of Davi's ad de Toro's performance, and the aforementioned "favorite stunt".


Well, folks, the martinis are calling.  Have a good night until next time.

Quiggy