Amazon.com video review:
Timothy Dalton's second and last shot at playing James Bond
isn't nearly as much fun as his debut, two years earlier, in the 1987
The Living
Daylights. This time Bond gets mad after a close friend (David
Hedison) from the intelligence sector is assassinated on his wedding
day, and 007 goes undercover to link the murder to an international
drug cartel. Robert Davi makes an interesting adversary, but as with
most of the Bond films in the '70s, '80s, and '90s--and especially
since the end of the cold war--one has to wonder why we should still
care about these lesser villains and their unimaginative
crimes. Still, Dalton did manage in his short time with the character
to make 007 his own, which neither Roger Moore did nor Pierce Brosnan
did. --Tom Keogh
Amazon.com video review:
Seven films. Four Bonds. One set. This sprawling collection surveys
over 30 years of James Bond skullduggery, from the cold war tensions of
the 1960s to the international free-for-all of the present. Sean Connery
remains the coolest of the Bonds, a ruthless agent with dry martini wit and
a way with the women, and in Goldfinger his steely presence helped
forge the Bond formula of tongue-in-cheek wit, wondrous secret agent toys
created by Q, and megalomaniac supervillains bent on world destruction.
Thunderball upped the Bond ante with the most ambitious
adventure--and
budget--to date. Roger Moore brought an altogether lighter tone to 007 with
Live and Let Die, softening Connery's rough edges with a more
romantic persona as the films became even more exotic. After a brief
digression into outer space, For Your Eyes Only returned Bond to
globetrotting high adventure and teamed him with his most endearing ally
(Topol as a gregarious smuggler). Timothy Dalton made his second and final
appearance as Bond in Licence to Kill, the toughest of the Bond
films
since Connery's early efforts. Though not a fan favorite, it's a sleek,
solid adventure with an edge missing from the Moore pictures. Pierce
Brosnan
is the latest to take on 007's licence to kill, combining the best of
Connery's cool and Moore's humor. GoldenEye is the best Bond film in
years, a grand globetrotting adventure with lovely Bond girls and a tough
new M (Judy Dench). Tomorrow Never Dies doesn't recapture that magic
mix of action, gadgetry, and romance, but does feature the first Bond girl
to match 007 blow for blow: Hong Kong action superstar Michelle Yeoh. Taken
together, this set is a veritable cross-section of the many faces of James
Bond. All that's missing is George Lazenby. Do I hear a nomination for
set 2? --Sean Axmaker
