Bond Secret File #15 - The Living Daylights

Introduction: 7/10

The introduction isn't anything particularly great but it does set up the arrival of the new James Bond quite well. A group of 00 agents are out on a training mission armed with paint ball guns, unaware of the fact an assassin is impersonating one of the training objectives whom they believe all to be armed with paint ball guns as well. After two unsuspecting agents meet an untimely doom, Bond is left to see that the assassin meets his own fitting end. The jeep fight and Bond parachuting onto the yacht was pretty nice, but overall it was still an average opening.

Title Song: 9/10

I really liked the music in this song, the lyrics were kind of strange the first time around but it's grown on me, but the music is quite awesome! The credit sequence was also a whole lot better compared to the last film. This one brought back the more classic feel with nothing especially flashy or outlandish. The title song was performed by A-HA.

Hey driver where we going? I swear, my nerves are showing. Set my hopes up way too high, The living's in the way we die.

Comes the morning and the headlights fade away. Hundred thousand people, I'm the one they blame. I've been waiting long for one of us to say, to save the darkness and let it never fade away.

In the living daylights. In the living daylights (the living daylights).

Alright hold on tighter now it's down, down to the wire. Set your hopes up way too high the living's in the way we die.

Comes the morning and the headlights fade away. Hundred thousand changes, everything's the same. I've been waiting long for one of us to say, save the darkness and let it never fade away.

The living daylights. The living daylights (the living daylights). The living daylights (the living daylights)

Comes the morning and the headlights fade away. Hundred thousand people, I'm the one they blame.

The living daylights. The living daylights (the living daylights). (the living daylights) Set your hopes up way too high. (the living daylights) Living's in the way we die. (the living daylights) Set your hopes up way too high. (the living daylights) Living's in the way we die. (the living daylights) Set your hopes up way too high.

Bond: 8/10

Timothy Dalton's first of two appearances as James Bond. Dalton is definitely different, he's much more serious, not as suave and hardly the ladies man compared to his predecessors. He was originally offered the role of Bond in 1969 for the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which definitely would have been a step up from George Lazenby, but he turned it down because he thought he was too young to play the role. He was approached again in 1984 for A View To A Kill, when Moore was contemplating leaving, but Dalton had no openings in his schedule. Usually three times is a charm but even the first time he was offered the role of The Living Daylights his schedule was again tied up, so the role was then offered to Pierce Brosnan (who would soon pick up the reigns) but as luck had it he was unable to take the role at that time as well and by that time Dalton was finally able to accept. Overall, I think Dalton was better than all of Roger Moore's performances averaged together, but while Dalton is a really good actor he seems more suited in the role of a villain than he does the role of Bond, and in the end I think he's a rather forgettable Bond.

Bond Girl:

Kara Milovy: 4/10
The lone Bond girl in this film, Kara Milovy turns out to be a cookie cutter image of the majority of the mediocre female leads in the Bond series. Totally naive, helpless, immature and on top of it all a little bland looking. It's sometimes better in these occasions to have no Bond girl at all. Kara is a brilliant cellist but is being used as a pawn by General Georgi Koskov who poses as her boyfriend. Koskov couldn't care less about Kara and in fact sets her up as the sniper to shoot him (with blanks) as an attempt to make his fake defection look real and in hopes that she would be killed in the process. Unfortunately Bond goes against orders and doesn't shoot her so we are forced to put up with her and her stupid cello through the remainder of the film. 

The Villains:

Brad Whitaker: 3/10
Another flaming example of just how bad some of the Bond villains have been, and Brad Whitaker is definitely no exception. Whitaker is a large arms dealer, but suddenly is in hot water when General Leonid Pushkin, a client of his, backs out of a deal and wants his money back. But Whitaker needs those funds to advance his opium-smuggling operation, and therefore plans to eliminate Pushkin by sending the British Secret Service on a false trail by making the deaths of the two 00 agents appear to be at Pushkin's command. Whitaker is somewhere around Dr. No caliber, hardly ever given any screen time, and when he is he's too corny to be taken seriously.

General Georgi Koskov: 4/10

Koskov suckers the British Secret Service into believing that he is defecting from Russia in an attempt to lure them into a plot to assassinate General Pushkin. While the British government is off following a false lead, Koskov and his boss Whitaker are off making themselves rich with arms dealing and opium-smuggling. Koskov is another character that is completely useless as a villain, ultimately he's a wuss and it doesn't take much to figure out why.

Total Rating : 5.8/10

Overall (Including Film Rating) : 5.9/10
6/10