THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS —-gave JB a new face, with Timothy Dalton’s rather wolfish look replacing a tired Roger Moore. He also doesn’t have much of a sense of humor (at least in the films, maybe a swell guy in person) and the plot meanders with Bond continent-skipping to track down an arms dealer, ending up in Afghanistan, at that time fighting off the Soviets. The weapon peddler is played by Joe Don Baker; he doesn’t sell the role.  As the ‘Bond girl’, Maryam d’Abo is cute but bland.

Goes on too long at 131 minutes, directed by John Glen.  Locations include Morocco, Gibraltar and Austria.  Excellent action sequence at the end, with insane stuntwork battling in the open maw of a C-130 Hercules cargo plane, and dangling outside it.  Otherwise, forgettable.  $191,000,000 enriched the producers.

On hand for the bad jokes, ski chase, explosions and  general mayhem: John Rhys Davies, Jeroen Krabbe, Art Malik, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Keen, Walter Gotell.