10 Awesome Movies Audiences Weren't Ready For

8. Licence To Kill

Though Roger Moore had gotten unmistakably long in the tooth by the time he hung up the 007 mantle with 1985's A View to a Kill, audiences still seemed rather enthusiastic about the campy tone of his output, despite Bond producers wishing to try something new.

1987's The Living Daylights served as Timothy Dalton's first outing as Bond, melding more serious elements with the exuberant silliness the Moore films were known for in the hope of easing fans into the transition.

But for Dalton's second film, Licence to Kill, MGM boldly doubled down on the edginess, ditching much of the prior daft humour, upping the brutal violence (even earning a "15" rating in the UK), centring the plot around cocaine smuggling and making Bond more ferociously ruthless than ever before.

Though it turned out a strong box office success regardless, fans were decidedly mixed on this caustic new direction for the franchise and also Dalton's portrayal, resulting in Pierce Brosnan's belated 1995 follow-up Goldeneye returning to a tone closer to The Living Daylights.

And of course, as Brosnan's movies went on, they regressed further back to the silliness of the Moore era, until the franchise was finally rebooted with Daniel Craig in 2006.

And seeing the success of Craig's more serious-minded Bond films, it's easy to appreciate how Licence to Kill had the right idea, but fans just weren't quite ready to accept that tone yet.

After the shambolic absurdity of Die Another Day, Austin Powers making the Bond franchise a laughing stock and the seriousness of the Jason Bourne movies proving hugely popular with audiences, Bond producers finally agreed to change tack, lending some belated validity to what remains the darkest and most ambitious Bond movie ever.