Bond: Living Daylights (1987)

Timothy Dalton made his 007 debut in the lean, mean mode of Sean Connery, doing away with the pun-filled camp of Roger Moore's final outings. He establishes his persona right from the gritty pre-credits sequence, in which he hangs from a speeding truck as it barrels down narrow cobblestone streets, battles an assassin mano a mano, and lands in the arms of a bikinied babe. This James Bond is ruthless, tough, and romantic. The Living Daylights, set during the thaw of the cold war, begins with the defection of Russian KGB General Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé) and his revelation of a Soviet plot to eliminate Britain's secret agent force. Assigned to eliminate Koskov's Soviet boss (John Rhys-Davies, cutting a memorable figure in his brief appearance), Bond uncovers a conspiracy involving Koskov and an American arms dealer (Joe Don Baker). Maryam d'Abo makes a fine Bond girl as Koskov's beautiful cellist girlfriend, a classy innocent who soon loses her naive blush and shows her pluck. The villains are lackluster--Krabbé is a clown and Baker a blowhard--and Dalton hadn't yet mastered the delivery of the trademark quips, but it's a sleek script with a no-nonsense attitude. Veteran series director John Glen's action scenes have never been better--especially the show-stopping mid-air battle on the net of a speeding cargo plane--and he returns the series to the smart, rough, high-energy adventures that made the Bond reputation. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Great Fun

Fun movie to watch a lot of action silly at times, but I really enjoyed it, if you not a Bond fan, you will still like this movie, much better than the other Bond move that Dalton was in. June 16, 2008

Third Best Bond

Dalton is the third best Bond IMO (Connery & Craig coming first). This one movie is better than the entire Roger Moore run. It's much closer to the books & Ian Fleming's original vision. The downside - it is slow moving & unnecessarily sprawling. The movie runs 2 hours 11 minutes - it could have been a tight 1 hour 45 minutes, IMO.

Small quibble. Good script, great cast, excellent score, fun action. With a more mature tone than the Moore series. Recommended, especially if you loved Casino Royale. June 5, 2008

A bad start for Dalton

"The Living Daylights" is a disappointment for several reasons. The biggest reason is the surprisingly unengaging plot. The second reason is that Timothy Dalton doesn't seem comfortable playing James Bond. He's not a bad actor but instead of making his own interpretation of the character (like he did in the next movie, "Licence To Kill") he seems to be imitating Roger Moore. The reason is most likely that the script was written with Moore in mind. Lois Maxwell was replaced by Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny and she didn't seem right for the part at all.

"The Living Daylights" was not a good start for Dalton. Luckily the series did improve. February 16, 2008

One Of The Greatest Bonds of All Time!

Dalton is fantastic! I can't say enough how much I wish Dalton had been given more films to play Bond in. He is hands down my favorite pre-Brosnan Bond, bringing a humanity and an intelligence to the role that was unparralled up to that point.
If you enjoy your Bond with brains, tons of action and great emotional depth, you need to see this film, (and License to Kill, Dalton's other Bond film.) December 14, 2007

[4.5] A refreshing experience to the franchise

Two years after the final Roger Moore Bond film "A View To A Kill", "The Living Daylights" has changed the tone of the Bond franchise. Timothy Dalton being the biggest reason, but everything about this movie is more edgy and punctual, with agressive action and a soundtrack that keeps things moving.

Timothy Dalton is one of my favorite Bond's, and if he had the opportunity to be in more than just two films, he may have even become my favorite Bond. In a way he can be compared to the most recent Bond - Daniel Craig. Though not nearly as tough as Craig, Dalton brings a very stately tune, with little time for goofing around (unlike Roger Moore) and gets straight to the point. His physical appearance is absorbed by the camera, and even his voice is quite strong and fitting for the role. One could say he is even a more mature Bond, limiting himself to one girl in this movie, and even being a little romantic.

The story in The Living Daylights is rather involved and perhaps somewhat confusing - at least for awhile. It definelty requires your attention and keeps you guessing. This is the last of the films during the Cold War era, and again we have Russia as a major part of the plot in the film, including another KGB henchman to give Bond some good fights as always. Pacing was about typical for a Bond movie, as some moments were slow and others were action packed - and when the action gets going it just doesn't stop.

Music is very important to any movie, and the soundtracks to the Bond films has always been a big factor. In The Living Daylights, the score has more of a modern feel with a beat that compliments the action quite well. In prior Bond films, most of the time the music throughout the movie was an orchestral rehash of the opening song (which is fine) but here it expands on that quite a bit. Speaking of the opening song, I rather enjoyed the title song "Living Daylights" by Ah-ha. Its very 80's sounding, but upbeat and gets me in the mood for the film every time.

The action is actually more realistic this time around, but harder. We don't have any huge unrealistic action scenes from movies such as Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, or View To A Kill, but more down to Earth simple chases and fights that keeps things real, yet strong and engaging. If there is a huge and intense action scene in this film, it would easily have to be the fight between Bond and the KBG man, hanging off a net off the back of a cargo plane in mid-air. The scene was shot well, choreographed decently, and put to fitting music.

Locations are not as exotic as they could have been, but Bond does travel to a variety of countries including Czechoslovakia, Austria and Afghanistan. Climate changes from snowy mountains to hot desert thoughout the film too. My favorite scene location-wise, has to be the pre-credits scene at the island of Gibraltar. The shots of the double O's parachuting from the plane to the island are quite nice, as is the following scenes of intense action to set-up the rest of the film.

Not only is Timothy Dalton a refreshing and welcoming sight to the franchise, The Living Daylights has the feel of something new and refreshing too, but still keeping all things Bond intact at the very heart of it all.

Acting - 4
Action - 4.5
Characters - 4
Story - 4
Overall - 4.5
November 29, 2007

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