The Living Daylights

I like Bond - Dalton even better in the five-star Licence to Kill, but that doesn't change the fact that The Living Daylights is pretty good! Dalton in particular does a lot personally - the guy is simply likable. The jokes were not great (there are a couple of them, but more or less just for a smile), but the suspense and quite vivid action is there from beginning to end, and the music that John Barry composed for this film is one of my favorites. I would like to commend the filmmakers for the care with which they transformed Vienna into Bratislava. There are Slovak signs everywhere you look, people speak Slovak, which can be heard on the radio and television... Nice. But my favorite is the final Afghan part. Could Rambo 3, made a year later, be copying this? (02/20/2010)

The brand-new hero was the right choice for the action-packed 80s, and Timothy Dalton finally gave Bond a solid face of a tough and ruthless action hero of the modern era after a few obvious misses. The Living Daylights is a significant departure from the previous Bond films. Certainly, with its story concept (change of locations), it is very exotic and creative, with scenes from Afghanistan and Slovakia. Unfortunately, it is quite flat in terms of plot, starting with the boring villains and ending with the uneven pacing. The action is solid, Dalton as a tough guy is excellent, but the plot is uninteresting. Nevertheless, this Bond film is quite pioneering and definitely deserves recognition. (07/17/2007)

Timothy Dalton is definitely not a bad James Bond, and after the first few minutes I had a feeling that there would be less humor here and that there would be a bit of a darker tone at times. That certainly proved to be true, although it is often just an act and in the end you will still find out how everything really was, and it is somewhat lightened. Nevertheless, there is a certain shift here, especially compared to subsequent Bond films with Brosnan. Dalton created an interesting character, which certainly didn't have to appeal to everyone, but it definitely has charm and the fact that he doesn't try to deliver catchphrases all the time also suited me quite well. Still, his story is too schematic and doesn't really stand out significantly among the others. (03/17/2014)

A good old spy movie with the excellent Timothy Dalton in the role of James Bond. Believe it or not, I saw it today for the first time. The movie visits Communist Czechoslovakia, we get a car chase with Public Security (Commie police), takes a look at Tangiers in Morocco and ends up in Afghanistan too, which was a really popular country back in the 1980s too. And who would have said that Jack Sheppard’s father from Lost, John Terry, would play Felix Leiter of the CIA? (08/19/2007)

A series of twenty films with one protagonist is unique, among other things, because this protagonist has several forms. And how's the fourth face of 007? Excellent! The production team's effort was quite clear: to come up with something completely different from the Moore films, with a completely "new" Bond. And the choice of Dalton was a happy one. Unlike the charming Moore, the fourth Bond comes with an image of a dangerous killer and a typical action hero. But it also does not lack the traditionally dry and shaken (unmixed) sense of humor and the art of letting out a sarcastic catchphrase at the right time, much like a deadly bullet. The protagonist so brilliantly combines the murderous cold of blue eyes and a childishly disarming smile. The story (again) tries to return to the model of From Russia with Love (understand: to a traditional spy without unnecessary phantasmagorias), but it has a great weakness in the form of Bond's opposition... In short, the trio of the fat American smuggler, the Soviet renegade, and the Aryan thug (note the reference to the second Connery film here, too) are not particularly great. Also weak is "Slovak" Kara (Maryam d'Abo), whose constant "oooooh James!!!" lifted the bile in my throat. What is most sympathetic about The Living Daylights is the new bond form (oddly not very seductive, but all the more concentrated on his work), the very good action sequence with some of Mr. Q's "gadgets," the rightly deranged realities, and John Glen, who had great form and was able to create a solid spectacle from the average plot that won't embarrass Agent 007... BTW: The Living Daylights is the last Bond film with an original Fleming story... the last? (11/28/2004)