The Living Daylights/Maid to Order/The Lost Boys/Stakeout

Roger Ebert - Host: [reviewing "The Living Daylights"] A lot of social observers have taken note of the fact that Bond, the old ladies man, has a very conservative affair with just that ONE woman in this movie, unless of course, you count the fact that in the pre-title sequence, they always have at least one scene where Bond drops in on some beautiful woman unexpectedly. Maybe that lack of Bond's traditional promiscuity in this film reflects the fear of AIDS in our society, I don't know, but it puts a lot of responsibility on Maryam d'Abo 's shoulders as the only Bond woman in the whole movie. And after such legendary Bond girls as Ursula Andress, Maude Adams, Kim Basinger, and Britt Ekland, frankly, I didn't find her interesting. She just didn't seem to have the psychic weight to carry this role. She plays a Russian cello player who's innocently caught up in the espionage, but the plot is never the point anyway in a Bond picture. It's just the relationships and the stunts, and my bottom line is, the movie has great stunts, it has good special effects, it has a Bond who needs to work on his sense of humor, and it has a Bond girl who is not in the great tradition.

Gene Siskel - Host: And I...

Roger Ebert - Host: So I should add: Thumbs down.

Gene Siskel - Host: Me too, Roger. I was disappointed in the film. I'm not as impressed, actually, with Dalton as you are. Uh, he's better than Roger Moore, but for me, that's not much of a compliment. He's nowhere near Connery was. It's a classic figure. To me, he looked a little mousy. Uh, this Pierce Brosnan, I saw him in a new film coming up, "The Fourth Protocol", I think he might make a better Bond. He has more of the verve for life. This guy seems a little reticent. The other thing that you mentioned, I think, is very accurate about the Bond woman, she's not very appealing. And then the third point I'd like to make is, all of the stunts that work are borrowed from the earlier films. The ticking clock, you know how it count down to 007 in the original, did it, the spinning wheel, it's all taken from stuff before. They got nothing new here, really, Roger...

Roger Ebert - Host: Well, I'm not sure...

Gene Siskel - Host: ...And that's why it doesn't work.

Roger Ebert - Host: ...Exactly how much new you expected them to have. At this point in the series, they've exhausted the entire life work...

Gene Siskel - Host: You got it.

Roger Ebert - Host: ...And everyone else who can think of a plot.

Gene Siskel - Host: Exhausted.

Roger Ebert - Host: Now, I've gotta go back now and defend Timothy Dalton. Now, you mentioned Pierce Brosnan, who was also offered this role.

Gene Siskel - Host: Yeah.

Roger Ebert - Host: Dalton, I think, does have a very good screen presence here. I think that he, the last I would describe him as is "mousy". I think...

Gene Siskel - Host: Mousy...

Roger Ebert - Host: ...That's an astonishing thing for you to say.

Gene Siskel - Host: Well, I did. I called James Bond a mouse, and I live to say it.