Review of The Living Daylights (1987) by Allan C — 21 Sep 2013

James Bond fights shoulder-to-shoulder alongside the Taliban against dirty Russian commies! It's Timothy Dalton's first outing as James Bond and I don't think he was all that bad. He did seem to lack the suave charm of Connery or Moore, but he did bring an edge to the character that I think was better brought to light with better scripts in "Casino Royal" and "Skyfall.

" He would have ben remembered as a much better Bond if he'd had either of those scripts to work with. Instead, he's saddled with a pretty hackneyed script with Bond sledding down ski slopes in a cello.

However, as weak as this Bond scrip is, it's a lot stronger than the last few Roger Moore films, which were outright bad. This story involved Bond taking down a KGB defector and arms dealer. Maryam d'Abo is a rather bubble-headed Bond girl, and Jeroen Krabbé (the KGB agent) and Joe Don Baker (the arms dealer) are pretty weak Bond villains.

I LOVE Joe Donin just about anything, but he's Buford Pusser, not Auric Goldfinger. He was much better cast in the subsequent Pierce Brosnan Bond films as CIA agent Jack Wade. This film also features one of the most boring Bond henchmen ever (he looked like a Julian Sands impersonator).

Regular Bond director John Glen, who did one of the best Bond films "For Your Eyes Only" and one of the worst "A View to a Kill" definitely knows how to craft an action sequence, but he is really only as good as the scripts he's handed.

As Bond films go, this one is strictly average. Not Octopussy-bad but certainly a far cry from "From Russia, With Love." I think Dalton was a pretty good Bond, but wasn't really give a good vehicle to show what he could do with the character.

I also actually like the A-Ha theme song and always like the John Barry scores for Bond films, which this was sadly the last one he did.