The Living Daylights

James McMahon -- Benefits from directly following the lightweight Moore films. Great to see Bond as a tough, moody SOB. Dalton shines in the pre-title sequence, returning the franchise to everything it had failed to be in the previous few films. Moore was unable to properly portray the things at which Dalton was so good. Dalton, on the other hand, was unable to handle the elements with which Moore had been so at ease. Robert Cotton -- Dalton's everything in this one. Subtext, with enough Fleming thrown in to make it an official run at the character. John Barry's last Bond score puts it over the top. Paul Baack -- Now HERE'S a James Bond movie -- one that a fan can really sink his teeth into. Its excellence is undeniable, but there's no denying it contains some flaws. It's axiomatic that the best James Bond stories have the best villains; the villain is really the engine that drives these machines. TLD has a couple of the weakest villains in the entire series: Joe Don Baker's Brad Whitaker is pretty much an ineffectual buffoon, and dangerous only in spite of himself. Jeroen Krabb 's General Koskov is greasily charming and played mostly for amusement; the filmmakers couldn't even bring themselves to have him killed at the story's conclusion. At any rate, despite these potentially fatal flaws, the movie still works, and for that we have Timothy Dalton to thank. Dalton brings a gravitas and seriousness to the role that we haven't seen since Sean Connery in FRWL, if even then. If Connery's 007 is the sui generis of the swingin', two-fisted, sophisticated '60s spy, then Dalton is James Bond as the Byronic Hero: brooding, melancholy, sensitive, capable of great kindness and also great cruelty. And, of course, handsome as the devil. After Roger Moore's affable globetrotting shirt salesman, Dalton's portrayal was a revelation. Depending on how much one read into Fleming's Bond, Dalton was that Bond. How cool is that? And, as a bonus, the production kept him on screen for the majority of the picture. We haven't seen that since the mid-1960s. And that was sufficient to provide cover for the film's weaknesses, which also include an unnecessarily complicated plot, a reasonably pretty but lightweight Bond girl, and a SERIOUS blind spot toward the politics of the Afghan resistance. Add to the presence of Dalton a completely fantastic John Barry score, and the welcome return of the Aston Martin marque to the world of 007, and you've got a quite satisfying James Bond movie experience. And some niggling flaws to chew on and pontificate over.

Bill Koenig -- Huge improvement over Eon's previous effort. Excellent pre-credits sequence. At times, new Bond Dalton even handles humor adequately (like the "You're the first," line while helping a KGB general to defect). The main drawback is the villains aren't quite up to Bond's level. Still, Dalton makes an impressive debut and brings energy to the role fans hadn't seen in some time. John Barry's farewell to the series is one of the composer's best Bond scores. Ed Werner -- ...and then came Dalton and Bond is back! After having to endure Roger Moore's twelve year run, Boy George would have been an improvement. Dalton looks great in the role, he can fight and looks thirty years younger than Moore did in AVTAK. Maryam d'Abo seems a little too much "white bread" for the Bond girl, however, that is the way the part was written so I can't fault her acting here. Besides, she looks good. The casting is where this movie runs into a little bit of a problem. Jeroen Krabbe as Koskov, looks good but is far too wimpy to be a major Bond villian. Joe Don Baker as Whitaker the arms dealer is totally miscast and through most of the movie almost seems like a cartoon character. (His later protrayal of CIA agent Jack Wade in GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies seems much closer to home.) Andreas Wisniewski as the henchman Necros, hardly puts the fear of God into anyone. Then there is the portrayal of Moneypenny by Caroline Bliss... blasphemy! John Terry's Felix Leiter looks like something out of "I was a Teenage Secret Agent", the screen writers have not done this character justice from day one. On the plus side however, John Rrhys-Davies does his usual over the top performance as Pushkin and Thomas Wheatley's performace as Sauders is one of the best ""sacrificial lambs" in the series. The plot is unnecessarily convoluted and a little difficult to follow, but all and all a fun ride. Michael Reed -- The best acted film in the series with a solid cast. The change of direction that saved the series from becoming a complete parody of itself. Dalton gives life to Fleming's character. A complicated plot but not out of this world. The first half hour is a short story Fleming redux that the master would've been proud of. The best soundtrack in the series is by John Barry. Tom Zielinski -- Roger Moore retires and the relatively unknown and more serious Timothy Dalton takes on the role. Much is made of his Shakespearian training and that he has read the Fleming novels, and Dalton does a fine job in an otherwise remarkably mediocre Bond film. A couple scenes are very good – the pre-credit sequence, the sniper/assassination scene taken directly from Fleming, and the kidnapping at the safehouse. But the plot is confusing, even for a 007 movie. Afghan rebels, arms trading, smuggled diamonds, assassination plots, faked assassinations, double-crosses…it´s all a bit much. The film is the best of the 1980´s though that bar is not all that high. John Barry´s score is masterful, but the a-ha theme song is 1980´s pap. John Glen does his best job as director, and the film does contain some tension -unfortunately too much is diffused by the buffoonish villains, a couple Moore-like stunts, and an unexciting climax at Whitaker' s battle museum. I think The Living Daylights receives high marks from some based primarily on the presence of Dalton, and perhaps no small amount of relief (joy?) that it is a first step out of the dark ages of the Bond series. My thought is that the film is only slightly above average.