Bovie Movie

The Living Daylights represents the first appearance by Timothy Dalton as “Bond…James Bond.” Based very, very loosely on an obscure Ian Fleming short story, the film finds Bond assigned to aid in the defection of KGB agent Jeroen Krabbe. 007 must prevent an unknown sniper from killing Krabbe before he can reach the West. The mysterious assailant turns out to be the luscious Maryam d’Abo, who like practically everyone in the film except Bond is Not All That She Seems. The plot wends its way through a scheme to trade several million dollars’ worth of diamonds for weapons, which will be shipped off to mercenaries worldwide. The climax takes place high above the clouds in a cargo plane loaded with opium. Dalton would play Bond one more time in License to Kill (1989) before handing the franchise over to Pierce Brosnan.

This nutty British comedy observes with jet black humor the myriad of outrageous calamities that befall an eccentric English clan with more than a few skeletons in its closets, when its patriarch dies an unexpected death. Soon, every complication imaginable - including the wrong corpse in the coffin, the accidental consumption of hallucinogenic drugs and the disclosure of the deceased’s closeted homosexuality - befall the grief-stricken mourners. The funeral commences at the family estate, with the arrival of younger son Daniel (Matthew MacFayden), a Manhattanite who has long felt uncomfortable around his cocky, licentious novelist brother Robert (Rupert Graves) - and thus dreads seeing him. Meanwhile, Daniel is also struggling to adhere to promises he’s made to his wife (Keely Hawes). Also arriving at the house are cousin Martha (Daisy Donovan) and her intended, Simon (Alan Tudyk), who embarrasses just about everybody, including himself, by accidentally consuming a strange drug that imparts him with wild delusions and gives him an uncontrollable penchant for exhibitionism. But the event that truly turns the family members onto their ears is the arrival of a dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who speaks openly of the patriarch’s secret passions, which included dressing up in a kinky gladiator outfit and watching young men skinny-dip. Frank Oz (In and Out, Bowfinger) helms; Dean Craig authored the script.