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Licence to Kill: Recut by Problem Eliminator

Problem Eliminator

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Original film name: Licence to Kill
Fanedit name: Licence to Kill: Recut

Original running time: 133 min
Fanedit running time: 127 min
Time cut: 6 min

Synopsis: Licence to Kill stands out in the Bond series for its sense of danger, brutal villains, and Timothy Dalton's driven 007 – but it's got problems, including off-tone comedy, perplexing love interests, and an obligation to franchise expectations. Licence to Kill: Recut aims to eliminate these problems. The intended result is a better-paced film that maintains a serious tone, streamlines Bond’s romance with Pam and Lupe, and reduces Q’s presence so the character doesn’t overstay his welcome.

Cuts and additions:

- Added fanedit disclaimer.
- Cut modern MGM logo.
- Cut Sharkey asking Della to drive around the block again. The comedic tone of this scene clashes with the dark tone of the previous scene.
- Cut DEA agents running in slow motion. Apparently this was filmed as part of a “Chariots of Fire” gag – however, the music got cut and the shot was left in. The shot is goofy, so it’s gone.
- Cut Bond’s line “Let’s go fishing.” Not funny and doesn’t really make sense.
- Added “Recut” to title.
- Trimmed Bond and Della talking about the wedding cake. She keeps kissing Bond, which is weird enough, but I couldn’t stand the breathy “Thank you” and trotting after him. She seems way too horny for Bond considering she just married another man.
- Cut Felix and Della cutting the wedding cake. This part of the movie doesn’t feel like a Bond movie. The sooner it’s over, the better.
- Cut establishing shot of wedding party.
- Cut Della kissing Bond and saying “we love you.” See earlier note about how horny she seems for Bond.
- Cropped out extras running out of frame when Bond parks in front of Felix’s house.
- Cut police detective talking to Bond and Sharkey in Felix’s house. Not important.
- Cut Krest talking to Lupe about the rigged beauty contest. The audience is supposed to find her beautiful, and her cheating to win a beauty contest undercuts that.
- Fixed jump cut when Krest is shooting at Bond.
- Trimmed shot of Bond looking scared after being attacked with a decorative swordfish. He’s tougher than that.
- Cut Bond lying down with Pam in the boat. The implication is they sleep together here, but it’s too early in the relationship. Pam slowly warms up to Bond over the rest of the movie.
- Cut Moneypenny crying and calling Q Branch. It’s a bit much to see her this upset, and we learn later that she called Q for help anyway.
- Cut shot of Bond in the street outside bank. Bond is almost entirely obscured by extras walking in front of the camera.
- Cut Lupe’s line “You loco? You’ll get us both killed.” Unconvincing delivery.
- Cut rest of Q’s scene after he meets Pam. The standard gadget scene feels out of place considering Bond went rogue. We learn enough about the signature gun later anyway (Q gives it to Bond, it’s disguised as a camera, and it’s activated by Bond’s palm print). This also removes the laser camera gag and Pam acting frosty towards Bond (I want a more clear through line of her warming up to Bond, rather than playing hot and cold).
- Cut the start of Sanchez’s meeting with the Asian drug dealers, as well as the shot of Q waiting in the street. Not important, and I wanted to stay with Bond’s perspective here.
- Cut Bond telling Pam to go home and her looking sad after he leaves. These beats already happened earlier, and they happen again later, so this is repetitive.
- Cut Lupe’s line “I love James so much” and Pam getting angry about it. It’s a bad line, badly delivered, and the love triangle idea is outdated and boring.
- Cut Q disguised as street sweeper. This feels too silly.
- Cut Pam’s plane being dismantled at airport. She acquires another plane immediately, so this scene is pointless.
- Moved the cocaine facility explosions up so they start sooner. This makes it slightly easier to believe that Sanchez would abandon the burning facility.
- Cut the third soft lens shot of Pam (meant to make her appear angelic, along with the white robe and yellow halo) when she’s shooting Dario. For some reason, there are two shots with soft lens, then one without, then another with. Now there are only two soft lens shots in total.
- Added explosion noise behind Bond shouting “Come on!” as he and Pam leave the cocaine facility. Not sure why he’s shouting – now he has a reason.
- Cut Pam grabbing the bag of money from Joe Butcher. I like this character, he’s good comic relief, but his last scene is unnecessary.
- Cut Felix laughing during phone call with Bond. He sounds too chipper considering what’s happened to him. However, I did have to keep his dialogue because it clarifies that Bond has been invited back to the secret service.
- Cut Bond and Lupe joking about the iguana. Again, this feels too lighthearted. The entire ending (Bond choosing between Lupe and Pam) doesn’t really fit the movie, but I like when Bond is romantic, and I couldn’t just end with the death of Sanchez.
- Cut winking fish statue. I have no clue why this is here. Rearranged end credits to accommodate this.
- Removed half of Patti LaBelle's song "If You Asked Me To" over the end credits and replaced with Gladys Knight's title song. Ends the movie with a more classic James Bond sound.
- Added faneditor credit.
- Applied colour correction throughout to reduce tinting that was done on the Blu-ray release of the film.
- Other minor changes as needed.

Poster:

ltkrecut600darker.png


Special thanks: Thanks to my brother for assisting with the edit and the poster.

Note: I have chosen to start a new thread for this edit rather than reopen my Licence to Kill edit thread from 2011 because I have started the edit again from scratch, without continuing my previous attempt at editing the movie.
 

Zarius

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This site's going Bond mental!

Good luck
 

wilhelm scream

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I would personally trim the villain death because in the original, he prepares to kill Bond, pauses and Bond kills him. Just get rid of him pausing and it would be fine.
 

bionicbob

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Suggestion... MUSIC.

The entire tanker chase sequence in the last act needs some desperate energizing and some classic Bond tunes would certainly help.  And then the key moment, when Bond does the two wheels to avoid the stinger, THAT is where the signature Bond theme should appear.

Also, I would cut the Bond's rig doing the rear wheelie through the fire.

Crazy idea.... with the set up conversation between Felix and Della about Bond being married in the past (I love that moment),
what if, when Bond finds Della's lifeless body, when the camera focusses on Della, do a quick hard cut to Tracy's dead body from  OHMSS and back again.  In that moment, Bond sees not only Della but all his anger and grief about Tracy flares back up, giving the scene another layer of subtext?  As I said, it's a wacky and probably a bad idea.... ?
 

Problem Eliminator

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bionicbob said:
Suggestion... MUSIC.

The entire tanker chase sequence in the last act needs some desperate energizing and some classic Bond tunes would certainly help.  And then the key moment, when Bond does the two wheels to avoid the stinger, THAT is where the signature Bond theme should appear.

Also, I would cut the Bond's rig doing the rear wheelie through the fire.

I have never really found the tanker chase to be lacking in excitement due to the minimal music. However, I completely agree that the tilted tanker truck is far more impressive than the rear wheelie (which I don't like, but never bothered trying to cut). I'll try cutting the wheelie and putting some Bond theme over the tilted tanker and see how it plays.

Re: an image of Tracy when Bond finds Della's body. It's an interesting idea, and would make the parallel between Felix/Della and Bond/Tracy more obvious. But I think it would be too sophisticated for LTK, which is maybe the least sophisticated Bond movie, at least visually.
 

Problem Eliminator

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Here's a rough attempt at rescoring the tilted tanker truck with Bond theme, and then removing the tanker truck wheelie.

password: fanedit


I think the tilted tanker truck works really well with Bond theme added. But the rhythm of the sequence gets thrown off by having the Bond theme blare twice. I couldn't see a way to remove the Bond theme where the wheelie normally happens, because the track continues for quite some time after that stunt.

I tried to keep Bond driving through the fire, without doing a wheelie, in part because the whole tanker sequence is so exact about the geography of its various vehicles... Bond's truck can't get past the fire without us seeing that happen on screen. I am still open to cutting the wheelie if I can find a good way to do it.
 

bionicbob

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Firstly, WOW!  Love it with the added music!!!!

But yeah, that cut does not quite work.... you may have to keep it.


Or... what if you cut from Bond jumps in his Rig, the four bad guys firing behind him, but cut from the rear point of view, so you never see the white pick up truck coming around the corner.
Then show Sanchez and minion getting into their Rig but cut before the final massive explosion and go to Pam in the plane and continue on from there....?
 

Problem Eliminator

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Nearing completion on this. The cut list in the original post is close to final.

I'm doing some regrading to reduce tinting that was done on the Blu-ray. Generally, the Blu-ray leans too cold and too bright. I'm using the Special Edition DVD as a reference for a more natural look. However, the DVD isn't great either - it leans red/yellow and is desaturated. So I have to find a middle ground. Here are some comparisons.

MI6: http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/D7Y7PNNX
Casino: http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/J91F1NNU
Bond captured: http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/D7Y7GNNX
Sanchez: http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/J91FMNNU
 

TM2YC

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Thread moved to completed. This is now on ifdb.
 

Zarius

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Ash Ketchum winning a Pokemon league, or a Licence to Kill edit going up on IFDB...which should I be more shocked by? :cool:
 
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