Rating:  -
The first of Dalton's double-bill as 007 is a merely above-average affair. The one thing that really stops TLD from being a better film is the fact that it's just too tame. This was the last Bond film to be given a PG rating as it was clear that they couldn't appeal to the family audience any longer. With a new Bond should have come a new approach. Yes, it does feel more modern and realistic but since the script was originally designed for Moore they missed a chance at taking advantage of Bond's dark side. Thankfully, they did exactly that in Licence to Kill.
Ian Fleming's story had Bond on a sniping mission, detailing every characteristic and moment of his assignment. Upon spotting the person he's been ordered to kill he discovers it's a beautiful woman and chooses to wound her instead of killing her. Wishing M to fire him for disobeying orders he comments that he must have 'scared the living daylights out of her'. The story ended on this note. The film expands this premise and has Bond escort a defecting Soviet agent from Russia only to disbelieve his story of a Russian General going berserk. Upon investigating further he discovers a plot involving the Mujhadeen and an American Arms dealer. Despite these complications and developments, there's just not enough killing! Without meaning to sound bloodthirsty, I just think that Bond should have laid waste to more bad guys. The script doesn't really give him a chance to. And, as a result, the film seems watered-down and too broad.
Director John Glen stages and frames the action very well, as always but it's John Barry's score (his last involvement with the series) that gives it that extra punch. The Bond theme, so incredibly worn-out and done-to-death, is given a new spin, a faster tempo and more modern feel. Despite being about nine when I first saw it, this is the first thing I realized. They ruined a lot of potential by not taking this renewing further and not giving us a tougher film.
Of Dalton's reign as 007, Licence to Kill is definitely the superior film, but don't rule-out Living Daylights. Average it may be, but still far from being anywhere near bad.
The new ultimate edition DVD features a gorgeous 2.35:1 anamorphic picture (this is SD DVD?) and a great Dolby/DTS 5.1 sound design. Extras are plentiful.
Rating: -
I've known the theme tune for ages now, and can even spot the intro now when the Aha video has been shown on TV, before "Living Daylights" comes up. Although the first time I heard it, I didn't think it was the lead singer from Aha, I thought it was David Bowie! Whoops.
My Dad always says the first Bond you see, is normally the one you like the best. So far, I've seen two Bond films both with Timothy Dalton. I do think I would like Sean Connery (he is Scottish, I have to say that!), but I have to say, out of the two films I've seen, I do like Timothy Dalton! He's the fourth actor to portray the suave Bond.
For a soppy romantic like myself, it's nice to see a little bit of romance in this, with Maryam d'Abo playing the cellist Kara. It's a very gradual relationship too, so that makes the difference too.
I took four years of history at school, but really it should have been renamed "Second World War Class", as I knew nothing about the Cold War, and has to be embarrassed into asking what it was, cos I feared I wouldn't understand the film.
The action scenes in this are absolutely top notch from the start to the end. There's a car chase, a chase down a mountain riding on a cello case, the rooftop chase in Morocco and the cargo net fight at the end of the film.
The only problem I have with Living Daylights is the bad guys. For me, they were instantly forgettable, and there was really no reason why they were doing what they were doing. Bad guys should light up the screen and be memorable. And Art Malik didn't have enough screen time in my opinion.
It's still only my second Bond film, and it looks like I have a lot of catching up to do with the amount of Bond films. But they do seem to have a very formulaic plot, which could end up being disappointing. But I do like Timothy Dalton though.
Rating:  -
The first thing that struck me about this film is that Timothy Dalton could act and he took the part very seriously. I found THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS to be one of the better James Bond films. I think it is the best since ON HER MAJESTY's SECRET SERVICE. I really liked Timothy Dalton as James Bond, the James Bond he gave us in this film (THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS). He was not the hard edged civil servant but more of a thinking man's blunt instrument as he demonstrated his reluctance to get the job done "their" way as opposed to "his" way.
John Barry delivered his last 007 score and it is one of his best. I also enjoyed a-ha's rich and lyrical theme song played over Maurice Binder's main titles, which are very reflective. This was also the last Bond film made during the actual cold war. We see a much more intelligent British agent discern that the KGB is not made up of a bunch of hoodlums but instead it is actually headed by an equally intelligent counterpart to "M" and the like. The dark yet richly colored photography and locations bring back much of the feel of the earlier Bond films.
Timothy Dalton deserved to be around much longer as James Bond based on his work in this film.
Rating: -
I just watched this movie for the first time in ten years, or more. I hadn't remembered a thing about it, and so it was like I'd never seen it before. I was rather disappointed in it. Living Daylights is the first Bond movie after Roger Moore. While it is better without Moore than it would have been with him, it was still a lame action spy film. I don't think Timothy Dalton hurt the film any, but he wasn't as impressive in Living Daylights as he was in his subsequent Bond flick, License To Kill. He seemed like almost a non-entity. As I mentioned, it was better than having Roger Moore for yet another ho-hum performance.
In Living Daylights' opening action sequence, Bond is participating in a double 0 training exercise, when things go awry. Bond manages to bring death to the bad guy, and the action leads to the main part of the story. We are introduced to a new M, who is rather bland. We also get a new Miss Moneypenny, who has virtually no part at all, though she is a cutie. Bond's job is to help a Russian general escape to the West. He is also expected to kill a Russian sniper. Naturally, the sniper turns out to be a beautiful concert celloist, and Bond cannot bring himself to kill her, but not because of her beauty. He has a hunch that something is amiss. He gets the general out of the country, only to have the general "renabbed" by the Russians, and the hunt is on. Bond is then detailed with the double burden of finding the general and killing another Russian general, an act which Bond finds unnecessary.
The film starts out okay, and I thought I was on my way to a different experience, but it soon turns into another of the many disappointing Bond films made since Roger Moore took the helm. It's recycled junk. The same old tired scenes, the same flash, though less gimmicks. It was a bit more dramatic than it was comedy, as in the eight or so Moore films, but it just wasn't what it could have been. The only thing that saves this film is that Moore isn't in it.
Rating:  -
The mystery of how well the new Bond would replace Roger Moore in the fifteenth "official" Bond movie was over with "The Living Daylights." The style of the movie was set with the opening scenes, where three double-0 agents parachute onto Gibraltar as part of an infiltration exercise. Unfortunately, someone in the exercise is using real ammunition, not paint balls. Timothy Dalton shows that he is made of Bond material as he jumps onto an escaping jeep and fights with the bad guy as the jeep full of explosives catches fire, flies off a cliff, and explodes, with Bond having departed in a typically clever fashion but moments before the fireball erupts.
Timothy Dalton was a no-nonsense Bond in this movie. He eliminated the numerous one-liners that seemed to be a Roger Moore characteristic in favor of a leaner and meaner and much more spy-like Bond. In this first of two Bond movies Dalton had yet to achieve the presence and technique of either Sean Connery or Roger Moore, but he breathed new life into the series.
The plot bears some characteristics of "A View to a Kill" in that both films portray the Soviet Union as a friendlier nation beset with evil doers who would take advantage of the kinder, gentler, Soviet Union. This time the criminals are looking to do a novel sort of bait and switch, profiting by buying drugs from Afghanistan and selling them in the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, the money belongs to the Soviet Union.
Mixed into this plot is a Soviet defector, KGB General Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé). Bond's mission was to get Koskov out of East Germany and into Berlin. However, it appears that someone wants Koskov dead, as a beautiful assassin attempts to kill Koskov as he attempts to defect. Bond has a chance to kill Kara Milovy, well played by Maryam d'Abo, but he elects to shoot the gun from her hand instead.
The plot thickens during the debrief of Koskov. Koskov tells British agents that General Leonid Pushkin, played by always excellent actor John Rhys-Davies, is executing a program to eliminate Britain's secret agents. Unfortunately, KGB appears to retrieve Koskov from the English estate safe house and the British agents are unable to learn more. Bond turns to Kara Milovy. Bond leads Kara to believe he is going to get her out of the country to meet Koskov, her patron. However, Bond has yet to learn where Koskov is.
What follows is an action-packed movie that is nicely plotted and interesting to the end. There is an excellent battle scene in Afghanistan (filmed in Morocco), and an even better escape scene from Afghanistan. After all that action there remains one loose end to tie up, which Bond does nicely.
During the film we meet another excellent supporting actor, Art Malik as Kamran Shah, an Afghani chief. We also meet Joe Don Baker as self-centered Brad Whitaker. There is yet another version of Felix Leiter, this time a less than memorable version of Leiter. Caroline Bliss is a mediocre version of Miss Moneypenny.
The special effects were much more down-to-earth versus those in "A View to a Kill." The ubiquitous Aston-Martin returns with rockets, rocket boost, outriggers, and sundry other gadgets. There is a sliding glass door used as a weapon by an assassin. The same assassin also uses a headset as an assassination tool. This film also featured exploding milk bottles. The way Koskov escapes from East Germany is excellent for at least a couple of reasons, including the use of a Harrier vertical takeoff jet. In general the special effects were well done and believable.
There are a few moments where I noticed some scene glitches. It appeared that in the final scenes of the movie that there were places where the four-engine C-130 Bond was flying had two engines. In another scene in the plane Bond looks out the left window and we see fuel leaking from a tank. However, the bullet holes are on the opposite side of the tank from the window. Perhaps Bond also has x-ray eyes. In yet another scene Kara drives a jeep up the ramp of the C-130, which is impossible due to the configuration of the C-130's ramps. However, these minor errors can be forgiven as the quality of the rest of the movie is excellent.
This two-disk set includes a massive array of features, many of which are interesting, some of which are not. I tend to find these features valuable, but then again I have watched these movies many, many times.
Keeping with the trend of having current musical artists perform the title song, A-Ha sings "Living Daylights." A-Ha was popular in Europe at the time, and had a huge hit in the United States with "Take on Me."
Enjoy!
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