Review Detail

Timothy Dalton is my favourite Bond (in my opinion definitely the best actor to play the character) and The Living Daylights is among the few films in the series that I consider to be objectively great. Perhaps it is no surprise then that I feel that this edit cuts away just a little too much and I find myself missing certain parts, including bits of Q’s lab (Moore-ish as they are); Necros’ original introduction; the conclusion of the snow chase and the full ending scene. I must commend the cutting around the notoriously sub-par appearance of Felix Leiter, something that has always bothered me especially considering his significance in the following film (with a different actor no less), but this leaves me wondering if somebody not familiar with the theatrical version might be confused as to how Bond deduces the scheme without this bit of exposition.

Still, I cannot think of another way around this and maybe it doesn’t matter, the film is still enjoyable and the actual cuts themselves are seamless whether it is the excision of a cringeworthy moment or the removal of an entire scene. It would not take the place of the original for personal viewing, but may work better for introducing somebody new to the story.