Review of The Living Daylights (1987) by Luc P — 17 Nov 2015

Roger Moore had long overstayed his welcome as Bond with his last couple of Bond films, being way too old to play the character and his comedic shtick had just gone stale and had become a parody of itself.

We needed something new, and The Living Daylights was exactly that something. Timothy Dalton was introduced as the new Bond, going back to the basics and drawing inspiration from the Ian Fleming source material, portraying a darker, grittier, more serious, and more realistic Bond; something no actor really did before or after Dalton until Daniel Craig came along, almost 20 years later.

It also seems that Craig borrowed quite a bit from Dalton's portrayal, and I like to think that Dalton paved the way for Craig's version of Bond. Unfortunately however, despite Dalton's portrayal being one of the best in the series, it's still rather overlooked and underrated even today.

The action in the film is well-done, fun, and fast-paced like most other Bond films, making one of the last effective uses of practical effects and miniatures within the series. The only thing that's really lacking in this film is the villains.

The main villain, General Koskov, is rather plain; he serves his purpose to a point, but he's not compelling, memorable, or even remotely sinister whatsoever (I think that's mainly due to him being miscast in the role).

The other main villain, Brad Whitaker, works but like Koskov, is rather forgettable; not to mention he's a cartoon-like and rather over-the-top villain and therefore, feels out of place in a film like this that's dark in tone and style (Stick him in a Roger Moore era Bond film and he'll fit in perfectly).

And then there's the henchmen Necros: he completely overshadows the main villains (something that should never happen in a Bond film) and he's easily the most memorable and sinister villain in the film through his lack of speech and utter creepiness, but he's really nothing more than just a glorified servant to these inferior villains, making him seem rather insignificant in retrospect.

The Bond girl, Kara Malovy (Maryam d'Abo), is sexy but she's naive, simplistic, and falls into the "damsel in distress" cliche we often see in these earlier Bond films but the chemistry she shares with Dalton's bond is unparalleled and some of the best I've seen between Bond and a Bond girl in the series.

Overall, it's one of my favorite Bond films, breathing in new life to a series that was becoming a bit tired; as well as the best of the unfortunately short-lived Dalton Bond era.