Let's start with Dalton. As the 007 Ian Fleming created in his novels, Dalton's approach is dead on. No one comes more close to what Fleming's Bond was really all about better than Timothy Dalton. But what about the screen legend of 007? Most people come to the theater with a certain expectation of what they want to see from their Bond. Dalton brought little to the role that people wanted to see.

The Bond girls. Or in the case of The Living Daylights, the Bond girl. Here, we only have one Bond girl, in the form of Maryam d'Abo. The relationship between Bond and Kara is the most honest, heartfelt and fleshed out romance since "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". But again, in order to attain a more realistic approach for the film, the producers jettisoned the concept of two or more exotic and dangerous Bond girls, instead settling upon one, almost virginal Cello player whom 007 romances. Maryam d'Abo is not only beautiful, but an extraordinarily talented actress. She gives a fine performance as an innocent waif, betrayed by her boyfriend and forced into desperate, international tensions.

The villians are one of the highlights of the film. Sadly, Joe Don Baker is only used in four scenes. One could'nt help but wish Whitaker got more screen time. Necros, the film's henchman, has a particularly interesting way of dispatching his victims: he strangles them with the headset to his Walkman.

If the film has one fatal flaw it would be the plot. There is no sense of urgency to Bond's work. Whether his mission is successful or a failure is of little importance. If he's successful, he'll temporarily slow down an ongoing war between Russian forces and the Afghanistan Mujahedin. If he fails, an 8 year old war will continue with business as usual. Without the threat of the whole world at risk, or at least millions of people to save, there's no real barometer to measure 007's success. When you have a character oriented story, such as this one,rather than an issue oriented storyline, then you've got to be able to make sure your audience identifies with and connects with the leading character. I'm not quite sure Timothy Dalton ever made the connection with the audience in quite that way.

The titles are a step backward for Maurice Binder. Hoping to cash in on the enormous youth/teenager market Duran Duran grabbed for their work in A View To A Kill, the producers brought in A-ha to do the title song. The song is not within the normal sound produced by A-ha and they later released a new version on their third album, which was more within their style. Either version of the song sounds good, but it's unlikely to catch your ear unless you already knew it was a Bond theme song.

John Barry's soundtrack is his least impressive work to date. His action edit's left me wanting. The score that covered the pretitle sequence, as well as the fight on the cargo net was flat and lifeless. Barry's best work on this film is his romantic themes.