ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

This one has my vote for the most boring James Bond movie of the entire franchise!

The movie has no charismatic villain, no real threat to America (much less the world), a sad lack of lovely ladies, no special effects (either good or bad), and absolutely no big base for Bond to blow up in the climax.

One of the most exciting scenes in the film is when Bond and a blond Russian cello player flee down a snowy slope from Russians on skis firing machine guns. . . and the the heroic couple sit in the cello case while they slide down the slope and steer themselves with the cello!

This is basically the dumbest damn thing any Bond movie has inflicted on its loyal fans in the history of the entire franchise! If it had been funny, clever, or the least bit believable, I could forgive it. But because it looks like a slapstick comedy routine that needs a lot more humor to make it worth watching, it's a painfully embarrassing moment in a Bond film.

Nothing else in this sad addition to the Bond movies redeems this or the other embarrassing moments in this pathetic excuse for a James Bond movie.

Here's the trailer — which only make the movie look interesting by cutting together the best moments from this cinematic mess so that we don't see how ridiculous the situations are when we see what's really going on!

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_______________ The Living Daylights - trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Andrew Kidd]

I do like the theme song by a-ha and I think Timothy Dalton is second only to Connery as the best actor in the part of Bond. Then again, I also like A View to a Kill.

[Bud Brewster]

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After watching this movie yesterday, I decided that Dalton was better as Bond than I'd previously thought. Certainly better than Roger Moore at any point in the franchise!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[The Spike]

Stuff my orders! I only kill professionals.

The Living Daylights is directed by John Glen and adapted to screenplay by Ricahrd Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson from an Ian Fleming story. It stars Timothy Dalton, Maryam d'Abo, Jeroen Krabbe, Brad Whitaker, John Rhys-Davies, Joe Don Baker and Art Malik. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Alec Mills.

Bond 15 and 007 is assigned to Bratislava to help in the defection of Soviet General Kosov from the Iron Curtain. But pretty soon Bond is mired in a plot involving arms, opium and assassinations.

With Moore retired the search for a new Bond invariably came down to two names who had been mentioned in Bond circles before, Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton. TV schedules and commitments would play a part and eventually Dalton got the role and eagerly he read up on Fleming's novels to ensure he had a grasp on the beloved Secret Agent. In spite of many misconceptions about Dalton's tenure in the tuxedo, his take was stripped back and closer to Fleming's literary source, his intense acting style ensuring Bond was getting back to the thriller realm.

The Living Daylights is a great Bond movie, mostly devoid of stupid sight gags and cheese laden quips, it sees Bond back to indulging in glorious fist fights, using brains and brawn to achieve his ends, and with Dalton putting the arrogant swagger back into the man, Bond is sexy and dangerous again. The plot is intelligent, operating on three fronts and spanning across the continents, production values are immense, Barry's final score is a knockout, one of his most atmospheric and the title song by Norwegian pop darlings, a-ha, is energy supreme and became a monster chart hit. Glen's action direction is practically peerless, including an excellent pre-credit sequence (where a training exercise turns bloody) and a mano mano fight between Bond and a baddie aboard an in flight cargo plane, the latter of which is a series highlight. Maryam d'Abo is a good Bond girl, making Kara Milovy brave but also sweetly innocent, the pairing of Dalton and d'Abo works very well.

Where the picture mainly falls down is with the villains, who are just too lightweight to amp up the peril within the plot. Krabbe and Baker are far from being bad or even average actors, but they rarely offer a threat to Bond and it's a stretch to imagine they could seriously trouble him. Elsewhere, Robert Brown continues to lack an edge in the role of M and Caroline Bliss steps into the Moneypenny shoes vacated by Lois Maxwell and struggles to make an impact because the script doesn't allow her too. Big crime, too, is having Felix Leiter finally return only for him to be underwritten and performed by a dull actor (John Terry). One misstep in the film 's plotting sees Bond and Milovy escape from danger by using a Cello case as a sledge, it looks daft and feels like it belongs in one of Roger Moore's cartoonish Bond movies. Much has been made of Dalton being uncomfortable saying the quips, and that's right, it does show, but that is a world away from the Bond he wanted to play. I do wonder if this screenplay was tailored towards Brosnan, who was inches away from getting the gig? Or even a holdover from a script written with Moore in mind?

No matter, Dalton ushered in a Bond of class and intensity and the worldwide box office chimed to the tune of over $190 million, nearly $50 million more than Moore's last film, A View to a Kill. Critics were mixed on the film and with Dalton's take on the Bond role, they failed to see it was a new era and that it was an actor refusing (rightly so) to mimic either of the Bond's that went before him. Fleming purists were much happier, and with that box office take proving, so were movie going Bond fans. 8.5/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.