Review of The Living Daylights (1987) by Sebastian I — 24 Aug 2010

Timothy Dalton's first outing as Bond is a lot better than the fan consensus, but this is still a middling Bond film that intersperses a lot of action into a plot that just goes on and on. Dalton makes a pretty good Bond, as he fits the darker edge of the character as written by Flemming.

However, he does seem to lack some of the energy or charisma that the best Bonds (Connery, Craig) use to draw us into the world of what is a pretty unpleasant character. Still, Dalton is one of the better elements of this film, especially opposed to some pretty lackluster villains.

I appreciated the fact that the film's production design nicely meshes 80s action tropes with the classic Bond elements.