Review Detail
9.2 6 10
Overall rating
9.4
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
9.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
9.0
Enjoyment
9.0
The Living Daylights is an entry I've always had mixed feelings about. The good part is that Timothy Dalton is a really excellent Bond, for me second only to Connery, and the movie itself is interesting and entertaining enough during its first two thirds. The not so good part is that it contains too many Moore leftover traits, both villains are terribly weak (whose idea was it to play Koskov, a KGB general, as an used car salesman?), and the whole Mujahideen thing in the third act is a bit too Rambo III for my tastes. Oh well... guess they wanted to use what was making the headlines those days. A bit of a curate's egg, but one I still like to revisit from time to time because of Dalton.
And my next revisions are likely to be of this cut. It can only be tweaked to a point, of course, and still needs stronger villains, but I was happy to see most of the Moore-isms gone. I would have gone a bit further and removed Rosika's "distraction tactics" as well, but that's just personal preference. The rest of the changes were more than welcome, and I for once did not miss Felix at all. The fact that it was the worst Felix ever by far definitely helps the cause, of course.
There is, though, one bit that I didn't think worked too well (I almost feel bad pointing one perceived flaw in each and every Lapis' Bond edit - nothing personal, I swear!) and that'd be the ending. Finishing the movie with just Kara playing with no Bond in sight felt strange, almost surreal in fact, as in we are suddenly somewhere indeterminate with no real reference about what's going to become of her. Didn't feel like a Bond ending to me. In my opinion it needed to keep the dressing room scene. It may not be the best classic Bond ending, but it's still a classic Bond ending, and ending on Kara's concert is not. For my tastes, of course.
Editing itself is very well done, though there's a slightly iffy audio transition: at 1:09:58, when we cut from the rooftop chase to Pushkin's "corpse", the music change feels a bit unnatural. Probably not much of a way around it, though, and I don't certainly miss the harem bit. Otherwise the technical aspects are superb.
All in all, another very solid entry in the Lapis Molari Bond series, and another one I'll sooner rewatch than the original. Well done!
And my next revisions are likely to be of this cut. It can only be tweaked to a point, of course, and still needs stronger villains, but I was happy to see most of the Moore-isms gone. I would have gone a bit further and removed Rosika's "distraction tactics" as well, but that's just personal preference. The rest of the changes were more than welcome, and I for once did not miss Felix at all. The fact that it was the worst Felix ever by far definitely helps the cause, of course.
There is, though, one bit that I didn't think worked too well (I almost feel bad pointing one perceived flaw in each and every Lapis' Bond edit - nothing personal, I swear!) and that'd be the ending. Finishing the movie with just Kara playing with no Bond in sight felt strange, almost surreal in fact, as in we are suddenly somewhere indeterminate with no real reference about what's going to become of her. Didn't feel like a Bond ending to me. In my opinion it needed to keep the dressing room scene. It may not be the best classic Bond ending, but it's still a classic Bond ending, and ending on Kara's concert is not. For my tastes, of course.
Editing itself is very well done, though there's a slightly iffy audio transition: at 1:09:58, when we cut from the rooftop chase to Pushkin's "corpse", the music change feels a bit unnatural. Probably not much of a way around it, though, and I don't certainly miss the harem bit. Otherwise the technical aspects are superb.
All in all, another very solid entry in the Lapis Molari Bond series, and another one I'll sooner rewatch than the original. Well done!
D