Oh, oh ah oh…The Living Daylights!
BQB here with a review of this old Bond film.
Timothy Dalton did two Bond flicks in the 1980s and in my opinion, after watching one and a half of them, they are criminally underrated. When it comes to Bond movies, at least in the past few incarnations, I’ve found that there is at least one Bond film per actor that is absolutely stellar (i.e. Goldeneye for Pierce Brosnan or Skyfall for Daniel Craig) and then the others are acceptable or subpar (i.e. Tomorrow Never Dies for Brosnan or Quantum of Solace for Craig – really, the villain is stealing water?)
Dalton only did two Bond flicks and while I haven’t finished the second as of this post, both seem pretty solid, so I think he should have gotten at least a third. Oh well. Can’t have it all. (Coming this Summer – James Bond in “You Can’t Have It All.”
“The Living Daylights” captures the Cold War paranoia of the 80s but doesn’t go all out in silly 80s pageantry. Aha does the cool theme song (I think a rare case where a man sings it instead of a woman but I could be wrong) but there aren’t any real “OMG this movie is so 80s” moments ala “You’ve got the touch! You’ve got the power!”
Moving on. Bond has been dispatched to help Soviet general Koskov defect to the West, bringing all his secrets with him. After a silly, unlikely yet sort of ingenious escape plan is hatched, Bond cozies up with cellist Kara (Maryam D’abo) looking for answers as to why a clueless, non-professional was trying to kill the general.
Twists, turns and double-crosses ensue, all culminating in a showdown at a Soviet era base in Afghanistan (wow various countries have been at war with Afghanistan for a long time now). There’s a very cool scene at the end where Bond and a henchman fight while clinging to a large sack of opium bags dangling out the back of a military plane. (The sack contains a bomb about to explode, upping the ante.) It’s worth watching for that scene alone.
I’ll be back when I’m done watching “License to Kill” but suffice to say, I think Dalton deserves more Bond cred.
Bookshelf Battle 
I always thought Dalton should have done another Bond. He was a breath of fresh air after the dreadful Roger Moore years. He was offered Goldeneye but declined. Pity as I think he would have been good in that one, although Bosnian was good too and Goldeneye is probably my favourite Bond film
Dalton and Brosnan have very similar looks. I watched License to Kill and it wasn’t as good as The Living Daylights but still acceptable. It feels like every Bond gets one fabulous film then several average or below average ones. I’m not sure if The Living Daylights is Dalton’s fabulous Bond film because so much time has passed, but fight scene at the end on the plane is pretty great.