Anthony Mutibwa

It was a sigh of relief seeing a fresh face take on the 007 mantle from the ageing RG (whom I happened to have a soft spot for despite his often goofy characterization of the superspy) who surely had outstayed his welcome. Enter TD - whose introduction to the audience in the pre-credit 'Gibraltar exercise' was deftly done - to pick up the debris following RGs under performance in "A View to A Kill" which in my opinion hit rock bottom in almost all aspects - except for the title track (by the English rock group Duran Duran). Quite frankly though, in spite of the the high expectations, "Living Daylights" fails to deliver on its early promise. After a solid start - the intriguing plot, action et al - in the first half of the film, the movie takes a nosedive in the final chapter - with the inclusion of the Mujahidin's as 007' unlikely allies. The plot then also crumbles from an intriguing conspiracy (involving re-activating a defunct KGB/Soviet assassination program) to a run-of-the-mill story of the fake defector Koskov (Jerome Krabbe's character) in cahoots with a shady disgraced general Whitaker (Joe Don Baker) in a smuggling operation. The villains of the piece are hardly threatening nor insight any fear or danger throughout the movie, with the possible exception of the Necros character. Rather disappointing especially for Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbe who could have really been ruthless in his duplicity (as he was a menacing Cajun in the previous "No Mercy"). Joe Don Baker's performance also comes off bland and then Art Malik appears outcast as the leader of the rebel outfit. Maryam D'Abo is good enough as Bond's romantic interest though she doesn't really have much to do. John Barry however, keeps the proceeds going with one of his best scores in the series. What I thought had potential to be be one of the more entertaining features in the cannon, the screen writers inexplicably let themselves - and TD - down failing to build up on their promising start and ending up with an average movie!! It would get worse in TDs next feature....