Timothy Dalton is better in Licence to Kill than in his first James Bond endeavor (The Living Daylights), but he still seems uncomfortable on the right side of the law. This time around, Bond is working on his own rather than on behalf of the British Secret Service. His American friend Felix Leiter (David Hedison), an agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration, has been seriously injured by drug dealer Robert Davi, and 007 is out for blood. There is precious little time for the usual Bondian
quippery and directorial campiness, resulting in a marked increase in bloodletting (including the "implosion" of secondary villain Anthony Zerbe). A climactic highway chase involving an oil tanker and a helicopter is stretched slightly beyond its value, but is still one of the best action setpieces in any Bond film. Licence to Kill was a refreshingly serious change of pace for the series, albeit one that tended to lessen Bond's box-office value. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The Bond women are pallid mannequins, and so is the misused Dalton -- a moving target in a Savile Row suit. For every plausible reason, he looks as bored in his second Bond film as Sean Connery did in his sixth.
Despite some shaky narrative continuity and muddled motivations, this manages to move pretty briskly, and the action sequences are generally well handled, especially at the climax.
Mr. Dalton is perfectly at home as an angry Bond, and as a romantic lead and as an action hero, but he never seems to blend any two of those qualities at once.
It's a strained, sexless, and overcooked film...Dalton's game, but the film is inert, perhaps unprepared to work with the new Irish Kiss direction of the series.
Fast, efficient and unusually gruesome Bond. The tone is sombre, the action is ingenious and in Dalton the series finds the only actor to take 007 seriously.
Hardcore Bond fans may be dismayed by some of the changes, but no one can deny that the action scenes staged by director John Glen are some of the most spectacular of the entire series and well worth the price of admission.
For my part, I haven't been a huge fan of the James Bond series. My interest was peaked with Casino Royale (the Daniel Craig version). So I've been seeking out the series as much as I can, and Licence to Kill is my latest endeavor. However, this is far and away the worst film in the series that I've seen thus far. It
almost seems like a parody of the series but you know very well that they're quite serious with it. It also seems more like an Indiana Jones film than a James Bond film. It has some of the worst acting and story mechanics of the series, but yet on the other hand, it does have some of the 80's and early 90's action film all stars in it. Despite that, it's still a poor film, and more importantly, a poor James Bond film.
November 26, 2011
Tim Salmons
Super Reviewer
Bloated, bland suspense, among great action sequences in Bond's first PG-13.
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