So far this decade, Bond has had quite a time. From For Your Eyes Only to Octopussy to the disappointing A View to a Kill, it was time to let Roger Moore go as Bond. So Timothy Dalton took his place. His first Bond adventure was, well, let's review and find out.
Plot time:
After a pretty good opening where a British spy training mission goes awry after being compromissed by another spy, ending with Bond taking a jeep with explosives and a fire in it off the edge with the spy in the driver's seat and Bond jumping off with a parachute only to land on a boat that has an attractive bikini wearing lady on it that he becomes friends with, we start the movie.
Bond's first mission is to defend defecting Soviet General Georgi Koskov, though before he goes to work, he notices a cello player in the orchestra who is extremely beautiful. When the time comes to move Koskov, he sees a sniper in a building across the street. It is that cello player. He disobeys his orders from his superior, Saunders, who says to shoot her and keeps her alive.
Bond smuggles Koskov out of Russia through a huge pipeline. He is then de-briefed and informs them of Smert Spionam, an old policy of the KGB that means Death to Spies is now back in fashion, being supported by current leader General Leonid Pushkin. Right after this meeting concludes, the KGB attack and kill a few agents and abduct Koskov.
M assigns Bond to go follow Pushkin and see if Koskov can be believed. Bond looks into the information around Koskov and finds out that his girlfriend, Kara Milovy, is the cellist who attempted the assassination. Though he thinks the whole thing was staged. After he sees several agents following her he manages to convince her to take her to Vienna.
In the meantime, Pushking travels to Tangier and sees Brad Whitaker, an arms dealer, and says he is cancelling an order put in by Koskov. When Bond and Kara arrive at Vienna, Bond is informed by Saunders, who happens to be there, that Koskov and Whitaker have talked before with all these arms talks. However, Saunders is killed by assassin Necros, a KGB agent.
The two head off for Tangier where Bond interrogates Pushkin. He tells Bond that Koskov cannot return to the USSR or he will be arrested and that Smert Spionam is not active but rather taken under Koskov's rule and not carried out by the KGB. Pushkin also tells him that he is in the way of Whitaker and Koskov, and Bond stages an assassination on him so Koskov and Whitaker can continue.
While running from police, Bond runs into Felix Leighter, who is on the case from the American side. Kara meets Koskov again, who tells her that Bond is a KGB agent who is telling her stories about himself, Whitaker, and MI6. He convinces her to drug Bond so that he can be taken to Afghanistan.
While flying there, it is revealed by Koskov to Kara that he was lying and that he is a swindler of sorts and leaves her and Bond in a prison. They escape and also release Kamran Shah, a local rebellious leader. Koskov's diabolical plan is to send a shipment of opium from this group and smuggling it so that they can trade it for cash to buy weapons from Whitaker.
Kamran's group assists Bond and Kara in their attempt to stop Koskov and Necros, who happens to be along for the ride. Koskov spots Bond after he has planted a bomb on the plane with the opium and after a battle starts, Bond gets stuck on the plane as it takes off.
Kara, seeing that Bond is escaping on the jet, hijacks a jeep and gets on with the jeep. Koskov tries to get to the jet as well, but fails in doing so. After Bond gets up in the air a ways he puts on auto-pilot and makes sure that Kara is safe onboard while he goes to de-activate the bomb. Unfortunately Necros has sneaked aboard and he and Bond battle it out as the rampway opens on the jet while it's in air.
He manages to kill Necros, stops the bomb as it goes close to 0, and then assists the battle below by dropping the newly activated bomb on a bridge Koskov's forces are attacking the Afghans on. As the plane gets low on fuel after the tank was hit during the battle, Bond and Kara escape on the jeep as the plane explodes.
The adventure isn't over yet. Bond then goes to Tangier to get Koskov, who has gone there, and to arrest Whitaker for faulty dealing. Bond is aided by Leighter, who returns to assist, and gets in undetected. After playing a sort of game with Whitaker, he wins and Whitaker is killed. Pushkin appears, also on his way to get rid of Whitaker, as does Koskov posing that he was being held hostage. Pushkin makes sure that Koskov will go home to the USSR, literally in a diplomatic bag.
The film ends with Kara being a major player in an orchestral performance in Vienna. Several main players of the film show up, as does General Gogal, who has appeared in many Bond films and M, to watch. However, Bond is not there. After she goes to her hotel room she sees flowers, and Bond ready to formally congratualte her, Bond style.
So now for the grading scale:
Acting: 7 out of 10. Villains are a little weak, especially since Whitaker has little screen time, but Dalton as Bond does pretty well.
Entertainment: 8 out of 10. Thoroughly entertaining.
Screenplay: 7 out of 10. Pretty good.
Directing: 5 out of 10. Standard job as always by John Glen.
Technical Credits: 8 out of 10. Nice job on editing and visual effects.
Genre Fit: 9 out of 10. Almost always action.
MPAA Rating: 5 out of 10. There is some nudity in the film, brief of course, but still that and a little violent material here and there. Should have been a PG-13 rather than PG.
Stupid Scenes: 7 out of 10. Saunders is a little annoying and the scene where Whitaker plays games with Bond is not so great.
Deeper Message: 2 out of 10. Next to nothing.
Beginning: 25 out of 30. Pretty great start.
Middle: 22 out of 30. Ok.
Ending: 27 out of 30. Gets much better.
Final Rating: 132/180 or 73%. A B, which is standard for 80's Bond. I do like this one though.
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