Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-11-29 (Friday)

Ian J. Ball <ijball@mac.invalid> wrote:

I saw part of "The Living Daylights" with Timothy Dalton, which I had
never watched before, on Pluto's "007" channel.

Why not watch the whole movie? This was made either during or after
MGM's 27th bankruptcy. Despite the studio bleeding cash they scraped
together 98 cents. I think they made something decently entertaining.
Spending more money on a James Bond movie doesn't make it entertaining.

This was, technically, Dalton's only Bond flick. They were deluding
themselves that Roger Moore would be able to make another movie but he
didn't return. They barely revised the script that was written for
Moore, and it shows. Dalton brought such a serious performance to the
character despite the usual Bond absurdities that the audience could
only imagine what might have been if Dalton had truly been given a Bond
script to showcase his talents.

Maryam d'Abo wasn't bad as the Bond girl. We expected little from her
performance but she turned out to be pretty decent.

Joe Don Baker plays a very different character than he will in the two
Pierce Brosnan movies.

I like Licence (note the British spelling) to Kill (1989) a lot, but
it's James Bond stuck into a story lacking a proper Bond villain. The
set piece tanker truck chase is terrific, one of the most original car
chases I've ever seen in a movie.

There was a script, never to be produced, for a third Dalton flick, buy
MGM went bankrupt for the 28th time, prevent it from going into
production.

And thanks to my niece's Netflix account, I was finally able to watch:

Anyone But You (the 'Flix) - Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell (from
"Twisters" - where did this guy come from?!) star in an amusing,
semi-raunchy romcom.

Hey! I warned you. I warned everyone on Usenet!

. . .

   Comedic wackiness ensues!

Yer drunck.

   This wasn't deep, and it breaks little new ground (the Aussie himbo
played by Joe Davidson was amusing), but Sweeney and Powell make this
entertaining.

Barf

   I would have preferred an ending that at least attempted to break
the romcom mold, but otherwise this was mostly fun.