4. The Living Daylights
Now
this is a bond film! Like all the best ones, it has all the staples- gadgets, one-liners, a henchman in the mould of Red Grant, exotic locales, a gorgeous but very articulate Bond girl, exciting setpieces (the fight out of the plane between Bond and Necros is up there with the ski jump in The Spy Who Loved Me!), and an awesome theme tune. Oh, and the second-best Bond of them all on top form. In fact, he captures Flemings Bond more than Daniel Craig, at least in the looks department (i.e. Not Blond). Bond is again invented very effectively, whilst remaining distinctively Bondian. Its a sweeping, romantic adventure, a real classic, whilst shaking up the formula a bit. Its a lot more realistic and reflects what was happening in the real world (the soviet occupation of Afghanistan), and contains the key scene of Bond lashing out against the death of Saunders. He loses his cool and pulls his gun on an innocent child in a red mist. Dalton is truly phenomenal as 007, and disgustingly underrated. Whilst the attempts to reinvent the whole mythos with Robert Browns M and a new Moneypenny fail, this is a great example of a Bond film being bloody entertaining and sticking to a timeless formula, whilst being close to Flemings source text and the original spirit of the character. Anyone doing a new Bond film should consider this essential viewing.