After the less than stellar box office performance and near-universal panning of A View to a Kill, it was clearly time for Bond to take a new direction. There are fewer puns, no fire engines, and no Roger Moore, who despite being a good actor was seriously getting too old for this stuff. Some would question whether hiring Timothy Dalton was the right direction, but overall I'd say it worked out pretty well. (More on that later.) Daylights involves one of the series' most convoluted schemes, involving a false defection, a campaign of assassinations, millions of dollars worth of state of the art weapons, and a massive shipment of high grade opium. There's no way I can fully describe it here, but it's actually kind of brilliant in an overcomplicated way. And it introduces two of Bond's most loathable villains, the treacherous and smarmy Gen Koskov, and the megalomaniac arms dealer Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker). Yes he did get annoying, but that made his death all the more enjoyable for the audience.
Plus, we also get Necros (Andreas Wisniewski), who may be the most underrated of all Bond villains. Besides being the best looking guy on in the movie, he is totally badass. During his first appearance on camera actually kills a man with a Walkman, beats another man to death using whatever objects he could find in a kitchen, then blasts his way out of an MI6 safehouse. The kitchen scene was the most brutal in the series up to that point, and in my opinion was one of the film's best scenes, despite Bond's absence. Nor is airborne fight against Bond any less awesome.
Other high points include the massive airfield battle between the Soviets and a band of Mujahedeen, a rousing pre-title sequence on the Rock of Gibraltar, and the requisite car chase, in which Bond evades Soviet border guards and light armor in a souped-up Aston Martin. I give the latter scene kudos for being one of the few times that an awe inspiring vehicular jump results in car being wrecked, as it surely would be in real life.
Unfortunately, Living Daylights has some serious flaws. For one thing, this entry's Bond girl, Kara Malovoy (Maryam d'Abo) is certainly easy on the eyes, but she also comes off as one of the dimmest, weakest beauties in the series, to the point that when she does show some guts, it's rather jarring. I also wished the final confrontation at Whitaker's villa could have been drawn out a bit longer, and for some reason, the music seemed to be missing from some of the action sequences.
As for Dalton's acting; it isn't nearly as bad as his detractors would have you believe. He comes across as serious, fairly sophisticated, and knowledgeable about the spy trade. I have no trouble believe him as Bond. But neither does he excel as Bond. He's not as witty as Moore, as stylish as Bronson, as earnest as Craig, or as all around awesome as Connery. Nor does he have the hard edge he possessed in License to Kill. He does well for his first outing, but hardly overwhelms. Of course Bond with Timothy Dalton is still far better than Bond with a 59 year old Roger Moore.
Overall, The Living Daylights is far from the best film in the series, but neither is it one of the worst. As far as Bond films go, it's somewhere in the middle, which to say that it's still better than most of its competitors. And this one is undoubtedly a major Improvement on View to a Kill.
Plus, we also get Necros (Andreas Wisniewski), who may be the most underrated of all Bond villains. Besides being the best looking guy on in the movie, he is totally badass. During his first appearance on camera actually kills a man with a Walkman, beats another man to death using whatever objects he could find in a kitchen, then blasts his way out of an MI6 safehouse. The kitchen scene was the most brutal in the series up to that point, and in my opinion was one of the film's best scenes, despite Bond's absence. Nor is airborne fight against Bond any less awesome.
Other high points include the massive airfield battle between the Soviets and a band of Mujahedeen, a rousing pre-title sequence on the Rock of Gibraltar, and the requisite car chase, in which Bond evades Soviet border guards and light armor in a souped-up Aston Martin. I give the latter scene kudos for being one of the few times that an awe inspiring vehicular jump results in car being wrecked, as it surely would be in real life.
Unfortunately, Living Daylights has some serious flaws. For one thing, this entry's Bond girl, Kara Malovoy (Maryam d'Abo) is certainly easy on the eyes, but she also comes off as one of the dimmest, weakest beauties in the series, to the point that when she does show some guts, it's rather jarring. I also wished the final confrontation at Whitaker's villa could have been drawn out a bit longer, and for some reason, the music seemed to be missing from some of the action sequences.
As for Dalton's acting; it isn't nearly as bad as his detractors would have you believe. He comes across as serious, fairly sophisticated, and knowledgeable about the spy trade. I have no trouble believe him as Bond. But neither does he excel as Bond. He's not as witty as Moore, as stylish as Bronson, as earnest as Craig, or as all around awesome as Connery. Nor does he have the hard edge he possessed in License to Kill. He does well for his first outing, but hardly overwhelms. Of course Bond with Timothy Dalton is still far better than Bond with a 59 year old Roger Moore.
Overall, The Living Daylights is far from the best film in the series, but neither is it one of the worst. As far as Bond films go, it's somewhere in the middle, which to say that it's still better than most of its competitors. And this one is undoubtedly a major Improvement on View to a Kill.