Review of The Living Daylights (1987) by Richard R — 08 Apr 2017
Timothy Dalton wasn't treated nicely by fans or critics when he portrayed the Great British spy during a short stint in the Eighties. The real problem was the direction in which the franchise's key role had been taken by the previous occupant: Roger Moore.
Towards the end of his tenure, Roger Moore's Bond movies were wildly improbable and wholly predictable, with too many convenient escapes and megalomaniacal bad guys (such as Christopher Walken in A View To A Kill: 1985) who were, not a shade but, completely over-the-top.
Timothy Dalton historically chose to take James Bond back to the books, just in the way that Daniel Craig's current MI5 agent has set out to do. It seems that not everyone was ready for that back in 1987, probably due to the comedy which Roger Moore had brought.
That kind of tomfoolery had rightly dissipated. In The Living Daylights, Bond succeeds in securing Russian officer Koskov safe passage to the West during the bloody Cold War. Soon though Koskov has gone missing again and it is up to Bond to find out what is really going on.
Plenty of action, intrigue and music in an underrated entry into the James Bond family which merits a reassessment and a second viewing.
This review of The Living Daylights (1987) was written by Richard R on 08 Apr 2017.
The Living Daylights has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
