Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Maryam D'Abo, Jeroen Krebbe, John Rhys-Davies
The story: A Russian general defects, specifically asking Bond to smuggle him into the west. He reveals General Pushkin's plan to escalate the Cold War by targeting western agents. But there is more to General Koskov than meets the eye, and it leads Bond into the middle of the arms trade, the drug trade, and Afghanistan.
It's not clear how the script was altered to accomodate Dalton's cold and focused approach towards the James Bond charater, but it works. Timothy Dalton is how Ian Fleming imagined James Bond: suave and professional with a bit of ruthlessness. At times, Dalton evokes memories of Sean Connery, particularly in his straight faced delivery of a sardonic puncline on the death of a villain.
If Dalton brings back memories of Sean Connery and Ian Fleming, so does the story. The movie begins like a cold war spy thriller, with Bond assisting General Koskov out of Russia. This is highly evocative of From Russia With Love. Most of the movie takes place in Cold War battlegrounds like Vienna, Checkoslovakia, and Afghanistan.
Maryam D'Abo plays Kara Milovy, the singular "Bond Girl" in The Living Daylights. She represents an interesting twist on the Bond Girl formula. Instead of being a mindless damsel in distress for Bond to rescue, and not really being the strong, independent "Bond Girl" of later years, D'Abo's Kara Milovy is more like Dominio in Thunderball: she is weak and servile while she is the villain's lover, but Bond's presence empowers her to become a hero by the cimactic battle sequence.
Roger More's imprint is on this film in what I consider to be its biggest flaw: the prop comedy. Too often, this movie relies on gadgets for no purpose other than getting a mild laugh. A cello case is used as a sled. The henchman Necros uses a garotte disguised as a pair of headphones.
The actig is generally solid, with one major exception: General Koskov, played by Jeroen Krebbe. Like other movie Russians, he's portrayed as a sophisticated Englishmen. But as far as Bond villains go, Koskv is, by far, the worst. There is nothing menacing about his character. Instead, he comes off as being sniveling and obsequeious.
The movie's ending comes off as being a bit weak. There is no fundamental change to the "battle armies" conclusion that's an established part of the Bond formula. Instead, James makes the morally ambiguous choice of enlisting the help of opium dealers and Mujaheddin in his attempt to fight the rogue Soviets. Some decent aerial stunts seem drawn out at times.
Overall, The Living Daylights is a solid Bond movie with a great debut by Timothy Dalton. Its taught, Cold War plot can only be appreciated with a second viewing of the movie. Dalton proves that there is room for a serious Bond movie after Roger Moore's sillyness; the only problem is that writer Richard Maibaum wouldn't make the decision to totally move away from Moore's direction.