Director: John Glen
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rating: B
The Living Daylights returns us to the USSR and issues with the KGB. This time, Bond (Dalton) is searching for KGB General Georgi Koskov (Krabbé), who defected to the British only to be abducted and presumably taken back to Moscow. Being the gentleman that he is, Bond uses cellist Kara Milovy (d'Abo), Koskov's girlfriend, in an attempt to track down Koskov. He's also been directed to track down General Leonard Pushkin (Rhys-Davies), who has allegedly revived the KGB policy of Smert Spionam, or Death to Spies. Meanwhile, arms dealer Brad Whitaker (Baker) is in the process of procurring American arms for the Soviets to use in Afghanistan.
Dalton's Bond isn't as slick as his predecessors, both in appearance and technique. While he's sill got that charm and arrogance he appears to rely more on the gadgets and what not - and while I was willing to forgive the cliches of the earlier movies simply due to their age, I'm less willing to forgive the cliches of these later movies. Shooting lazer beams out of a car is just lame, regardless of the decade.
Despite the fact that Dalton isn't as slick as Roger Moore was, I think I actually might prefer him. Yes the movie's cliched, Bond is too dependent on his gadgets, but at least this movie wasn't completely ridiculous and over the top. You can kind of tell that the filmmakers are trying to shed some of the humour of the earlier Bond films, which given the way the humour's been going in the last few films I don't really see that as being a bad thing. The Living Daylights isn't nearly as tongue in cheek as it could have been, but it's not as ridiculous either. It definitely went on a bit long, but I overall enjoyed it.
The Living Daylights returns us to the USSR and issues with the KGB. This time, Bond (Dalton) is searching for KGB General Georgi Koskov (Krabbé), who defected to the British only to be abducted and presumably taken back to Moscow. Being the gentleman that he is, Bond uses cellist Kara Milovy (d'Abo), Koskov's girlfriend, in an attempt to track down Koskov. He's also been directed to track down General Leonard Pushkin (Rhys-Davies), who has allegedly revived the KGB policy of Smert Spionam, or Death to Spies. Meanwhile, arms dealer Brad Whitaker (Baker) is in the process of procurring American arms for the Soviets to use in Afghanistan.
Dalton's Bond isn't as slick as his predecessors, both in appearance and technique. While he's sill got that charm and arrogance he appears to rely more on the gadgets and what not - and while I was willing to forgive the cliches of the earlier movies simply due to their age, I'm less willing to forgive the cliches of these later movies. Shooting lazer beams out of a car is just lame, regardless of the decade.
Despite the fact that Dalton isn't as slick as Roger Moore was, I think I actually might prefer him. Yes the movie's cliched, Bond is too dependent on his gadgets, but at least this movie wasn't completely ridiculous and over the top. You can kind of tell that the filmmakers are trying to shed some of the humour of the earlier Bond films, which given the way the humour's been going in the last few films I don't really see that as being a bad thing. The Living Daylights isn't nearly as tongue in cheek as it could have been, but it's not as ridiculous either. It definitely went on a bit long, but I overall enjoyed it.
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