The Living Daylights

 


Living on the edge.

 

Darth Buzz

SCORE: 7

This is about as good as a James Bond flick gets... and that's not saying much.

One of the good parts in Daylights is Timothy Dalton instead of Sloger Moores, who was ready for the retirement home. Another highlight of Daylights was the on-location shooting. Lots of good cinematography and interesting locals. Also when the action wasn't leaning into the absurd it was fairly entertaining. Actually when it did become absurd it was entertaining too, but not in the way that was intended. It was funny as hell. One of the action scenes in particular was really cool. Bond and Bad Guy #3 (evil Arian type) were hanging on top of cargo (bags of opium in a cargo net) flapping around out of the back of a plane. The stunt work looked cool. No FX for the wide shots just good stunt work.

The main Bad Guy #1 was played by Jeroen Krabbé, who I looked up on IMDB because I couldn't place him in another movie but, I knew that I had seen him before. The film I had seen and remembered him from was The Punisher, but that is an altogether separate cheesy review. Another actor I looked up on IMBD was Joe Don Baker, who played Bad Guy #2, not because I didn't know some of his other films (he was great in Cape Fear), but because I wanted to see the depth of his cheesy ways. I found something interesting in the search. I had forgotten that he has a reoccurring role in the newer Bond flicks, Tomorrow Never Dies and GoldenEye. He must be addicted to James Bond appearances.

Talk about cheesy, the ending to this flick qualifies big time. This one is over the top cheese. Bond, delivering hand dropped bombs out of planes to blow up a bridge (a bridge that a tank was driving on... yeah right). And lets not forget the driving a jeep out the back of a crashing plane. Woot!

If you have seen one Bond flick you've seen them all to some degree. Some are more entertaining than others and this one ranks among the better. If you have never seen a Bond flick, this is as good a place as any to start.


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