Initially, I thought that the first film with Timothy Dalton as James Bond was perhaps even more ridiculous than the others in the series. There are exploding milk bottles, a man who looks like David Bowie who murders people with his Walkman and a chase down a snow-covered mountain in a cello case. But then I realised that they are all this ridiculous.
Dalton – an unpopular Bond – is actually fairly strong in the part, even if his throwaway comments after killing people continue to reinforce the notion that 007 must be a psychopath. There’s only one Bond girl, as this was the era of AIDS consciousness, and Maryam d'Abo is weak in the role. Jeroen Krabbé is OK-ish as a troublesome Soviet general, although the same actor was more convincing when he played the villain in The Fugitive. Joe Don Baker is too "pantomime" as American military enthusiast Brad Whitaker.
Overall there’s a slightly low-budget feel about it, but that actually gives it a more appealing back-to-basics quality (it’s not all exotic locations and super-yachts). But the plot – regarding the KGB, arms dealers, drug dealers and the Mujahideen – is too convoluted and I’m still not sure it entirely made sense.
