Review of The Living Daylights (1987) by Wez C — 01 Jul 2009
The Living Daylights holds up way better than I remember. After the constant bloat and lame gags of the Roger Moore Bonds, I thought Timothy Dalton was a great choice to bring the series back to reality.
The Living Daylights is a down to earth spy movie, that coincides with real world events (something the Bond films always glossed over, especially during the Cold War). There's some real suspense in this movie as Bond tries to carefully figure out how to play his hand and who he should align himself with.
It helps that the villains are a lot of fun. Jeroen Krabbe is great as the manipulative and charming Georgi. It's nice to have a villain with some lowered expectations. He's not after world domination, just a few cool weapons.
And again, as is typical with the John Glen Bonds, this movie has great action scenes. The highlight being the phenomenal stunt work by those guys on the cargo net hanging out of an airplane.
And Maryam d'Abo is pretty good too. I know a lot was made about Bond being a one woman man this time out, but I kind of like that. It gives d'Abo a chance to actually have a role, and it softens Dalton's rougher qualities.
My only complaint is that it goes on a bit too long, and the plot gets a bit too complicated for its own good (especially when it brings in the opium subplot).
This review of The Living Daylights (1987) was written by Wez C on 01 Jul 2009.
The Living Daylights has generally received positive reviews.
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