The Living Daylights (1987)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Despite being near the least popular actor to play James Bond (the least honor goes to George Lazenby), Timothy Dalton turns in a very good role in "The Living Daylights." And, this 1987 edition of British Agent 007 (James Bond), has a number of pluses going for it. First, it has almost nonstop action and almost no carousing. Second, it has the most advanced special gimmicks for Bond's disposal, which adds to the excitement. And third, it has a complex plot with mystery, intrigue and many twists. All of that makes for a very entertaining film. And, Dalton as Bond has a wry cynicism combined with a smile that says he sees through his adversary of the moment. All of the cast are quite good in this Bond thriller, with the possible exception of Jeroen Krabbe. He plays General Georgi Koskov over the top, with such flamboyance at times that even the most naïve viewer would have trouble believing he could be in the Soviet KGB. This film had a nice touch of the Afghan revolt and the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989). It has a smashing chase scene with Bond and Kara Milovy (played by Maryann d'Arbo) in the special weapons car evading and disrupting what looks like half the Russian army. And it has a fantastic fight scene in the air between Bond and Necros (played by Andreas Wisniewski) holding on to just netting around a pile of opium bags suspended below the open ramp of the transport plane. Lots of action and intrigue, and even more globetrotting than usual make this a very entertaining and enjoyable film. It's definitely one of the best plots of the entire Bond series.

Movie Review: "007: The Living Daylights" (1987)Producers Albert R. Broccoli (1909-1996) and Michael G. Wilson bring in actor Timothy Dalton to succeed Roger Moore (1927-2017) in the legendary role of James Bond aka "007". Director John Glen stays true to even more realistic elegant visual image system as "For Your Eyes Only" (1981), which brings the "007" back to beauty and excellency embedded in highly risky stunt work from parachute base jumping, a car chase with all-famous Aston Martin model V8 vantage (manufactured between 1977-1989) sliding over frozen lakes, further features as an overly-done metal-splicing laser, missile rockets and an afterburner engine before enterting a highly weaponized showdown including an interior gunship fight to the death, keeping "The Living Daylights" as one of the most suspenseful picture in the "007" movie series.Most beautiful as stylish customes by reprising designer Emma Porteous as down-to-earth production design by Peter Lamont in his fourth assignment for a James Bond movie, establishing splendid charms with leading actor Timothy Dalton's bold to cool interpretation of "007" being the initial MI6 high-class spying assassin with the "Licence To Kill", sharing reminiscence to Sean Connery in "From Russia With Love" (1963). Actress Maryam d'Abo, at age 26, portraying the versatile character of Kara Milvoy, presents herself with a range from cello-playing to sniper-rifle-pointing along with entering the action with James Bond in a fulfilling desert storm finale furioso, where "007" hunts down an arm trader duo, leading from actor John Rhys-Davies as suit-wearing East-Block cold-war-benefiting entrepreneur Pushkin to Joe Don Baker as war-item-collecting, gun-slinging character of Whitaker toward a convincing interior shot-out with Bond.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Although I was initially skeptical with Timothy Dalton in the role of "James Bond", I must say that this movie was a definite improvement over the last couple of films starring Roger Moore. Now don't get me wrong, I still think that Roger Moore performed quite well and my criticism is not directed at him in any way. It's just that in some cases the overall direction seemed to drift too far away from the basic substance which made James Bond so unique in the first place. In any case, this movie essentially begins with "James Bond" (Timothy Dalton) successfully bringing a high-ranking KGB official by the name of "General Georgi Koskov" (Jeroen Crabbe) over to the West. Then upon interrogating General Koskov the British secret service is told that another high-ranking KGB official, "General Leonid Pushkin" (John Rhys-Davies) has apparently gone insane and has issued an order to assassinate numerous British and American spies in order to provoke a war between the Soviet Union and NATO. Unfortunately, prior to interrogating him more fully, General Koskov is suddenly kidnapped by Soviet agents and subsequently whisked back to Moscow. This turn of events makes it imperative for the British government to act quickly and Agent 007 is immediately tasked with assassinating General Pushkin before his plan can take effect. But before he does that James Bond wants to interrogate another person who might be able to give him some more information—a female sniper named "Kara Milovy" (Maryam d'Abo) who attempted to kill General Koskov before he could defect. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this is a more dark and serious effort which still manages to entertain fairly well. I especially liked the overall storyline and the performance of Timothy Dalton who quite capably managed to fill an extremely difficult vacancy. In short, this turned out to be a pretty good James Bond movie and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.

At last, at last....a new guy in town. A more novelty kind of Bond enters along with Timothy Dalton, whom I was a lot skeptical to as a 12 year old dude, who's Bond on screen first and foremost was Roger Moore. In Dalton we got a little more sophisticated actor. Though both had stage experiences, Dalton was a more versatile kind of guy, playing the strings for more tones and tunes in his acting.The story itself was kind of dated, though Russians still hanging in there, to the end.... Defectors who's dreaming of affluence and luxuriance of their own, double-cross each side of the (still) cold war. "Build your own castle before the iron curtain falls conclusively". (Some rear-view flashback there, uh?)Title song from then freshly star Norwegian pop-band A-ha is a good, catchy tune of its time. Way more complex and approachable than the terrible "View"-track from Duran Duran two years earlier. My personal opinion that is.Maryam d'Abo was the "try-out girl" (for acting against possible Bonds in test scenes) who hit big time, when impressing so much on the cast team that she got a ticket to ride along the full way. The best 007 woman since Carole Bouquet in ..Eyes Only; sophisticated but kind of secretive is a good mix for taking part in such a production as this.Villains Jeroen Krabbé and Joe Don Baker are as good as they can be. Doing their parts to the fullest, and remains quite memorable in the Bond Calendar. (So does Andreas Wisniewski as evil sidekick Necros.)Comeback for Aston Martin, in shape of their model Volante. (First A.M since "On Her Majesty's.." in 1969.) Equipped and loaded to the fullest! This 1987 debut movie of Timothy Dalton was the start of a four film contract. As soon as the hardcore Roger Moore-fans was soften up a bit, Dalton got plenty of good reviews for bringing back some tightness in the Bond personality.18 years after first time being even considered, he was now filling the shoes of the legendary movie character James Bond.There was more to come from Mr. Dalton.