The Living Daylights: 1st time viewing
TD: His performance is good (not great) as Bond. He is definitely hampered by the script and playing opposite d’Abo.
The Opening Credits and Score: It felt like a parody, maybe just too 80s for me.:thumbsdown
Story: In a word: weak. It was “almost” a good story, but it was too centered on a
genuine romance. From the moment Bond shoots the rifle instead of Kara I had trouble with the writing. The “kidnapping” of Koskov made MI6 look like idiots, and the whole Afghani freedom fighters thing seems naïve at best (even in 1987). Kamran Shah (with the english accent :facepalm) showing up at the end for Kara’s concert seemed like sloppy writing (as well as not serving the Bond story). I have to say the worst aspect was Kara, not only is she a cellist, horseback rider, and can handle an automatic rifle (easily disarming Kamran Shah), she can also drive a car onto a moving plane!:confused If she were an agent I could “go along” with her doing spy stuff, but not as a classical musician. JB falling in love with her (according to MI6 commentary he does) is also way outside “normal” Bond motives, having fun with her? Yes that’s Bond:cool, falling in love? I just don’t see it; I also saw no onscreen chemistry from the actors. (I blame d’Abo :lol)
Cast: I thought the main characters were well cast with the exception of Kara and Necros. Her character is poorly written and poorly acted, as well as being the least attractive Bond girl to date, IMO. His performance was pretty wooden, not awful but far from good. I enjoyed the rest of the cast quite a bit, even with everyone’s accent coming and going. JD Baker always plays a great smiling slimy bad guy, Jeroen Krabbe did a good job and I love JR in anything he does.
Gadgets: I have a love-hate relationship with the Q branch
. My childhood Bond was RM, so I have some (waning) nostalgia for the wacky gadgets of that era, and I have always enjoyed the comedic aspects of Q himself. As an adult “re-discovering” Bond, I enjoy the more realistic portrayal (too a point!
) of espionage. The car was great (love the AM) the HUD was modern and cool, classic rockets bullet-proof glass, police scanner:thumbsup. However, hubcap lasers (though well executed), outriggers, driving a boathouse, those felt a little too “Moore-ish” to me. The key remote was a cool idea, especially since they were new on the market when the film came out (thank god it didn’t shoot a laser!:lol)
Villain gadgets: Exploding milk bottles, YES
cool! Whitaker’s watch remote and shield gun,:thumbsup. Rigged sliding door,:wacko
Highlights: The opening “training” exercise with the jeep escape.
Smuggling Koskov out in the gas line, very :cool. The cello chase, it seemed silly (because it is:lol
) but it was well executed and I do like seeing Bond use whatever he has on hand.
Whitaker’s war room; hidden drawers, remote cannon and his snarky comment about hiding behind Wellington (before “meeting his Waterloo”), all were classic Bond villain traits. The plane fight was awesome, especially the exterior shots.
It may seem like I’m pretty harsh on this film, but I enjoyed it enough to watch it 3 times in 48 hours (once w/commentary), it
is Bond after all. I can see they were trying to get away from the silliness of the later Moore films, and they almost made it all the way to a serious Bond movie. It’s also very much a product of 80s action film style so I cut it some slack there. This
was the year of Lethal Weapon and Robo Cop! If I had stuck to the plan of watching the Bonds in order; I probably would have appreciated it more coming out of the RM films. I’m still very anxious to see LTK next week!
opcorn
On the Bond scale I give it 6.4 out of 10 (based only on other Bond films)
