ROTTEN TOMATOES: Bonding with Bond, Day 18: Licence to Kill

Bonding with Bond, Day 18: Licence to Kill

Community Manager Ryan Fujitani is watching all of the James Bond films in order.

by Ryan Fujitani | November 07, 2008

Today we come to the fourth actor to play 007, Timothy Dalton. I found his portrayal to be very different from those of his predecessors, and I liked him in the role.

Licence to Kill

While there are some nutty elements in the opening scenes of Licence to Kill, it's immediately clear that this would be a darker film. Timothy Dalton returns for his second and final turn as James Bond, surveying every situation through cold, narrow eyes, and the central villain, Franz Sanchez (played by Robert Davi aka the guy who tried to kill the Goonies) makes a menacing debut, executing his girlfriend's lover-on-the-side and brutally whipping her for her transgression. So when the scene ends with Bond and Leiter parachuting down to Leiter's wedding ceremony, the shift in tone threw me off.

But once that's over and Maurice Binder's trademark opening credits roll through, we dive right into the story, and more violence ensues. Sanchez, captured for drug trafficking, manages to escape by paying off a DEA agent and subsequently raids Leiter's home, murders his wife, and feeds Leiter to sharks. When the latter took place, I found myself visibly disturbed, not because the special effects were particularly effective, but because I was shocked at the possibility that Leiter would be killed off. He survives, luckily (and yes, unrealistically), and when Bond is denied the opportunity to go after Sanchez, he storms off to embark on what amounts to a revenge story.

This is a striking departure from the plots of previous Bond films, which mainly focused on the ambitious world domination plans of sinister masterminds. Licence to Kill, despite the maturation of its plot into some international intrigue, is pretty much about Bond on a rampage to fulfill a personal vendetta - more evidence of the pure justice that Dalton's Bond seems to embody. And to be honest, I thought that was kinda cool.

Also, I liked the idea of Bond presenting himself as an ally to Sanchez in order to get closer to him. I thought that this storyline was played out realistically. When I wondered what would happen when Bond and Dario (a very young Benicio Del Toro), one of Sanchez's henchmen, ran into each other again, the results were also realistic. In fact, this movie had me in its clutches for most of its duration because I felt that the smattering of classic Bond camp was, for once, welcome relief from the gritty plot.

Robert Davi was excellent as Sanchez, I thought. He's another one of those guys who seems to play villains with a certain relish, like he enjoys being sadistic and manipulative. Though he doesn't have an imposing presence, physically, he's believable as the guy who might not punch you if you insult him to his face, but will smile and wait two weeks until you're attending your daughter's college graduation and send three thugs to gun down your entire extended family while you're celebrating. Talisa Soto was unfortunately terrible as Sanchez's woman, Lupe, and Carey Lowell as Pam Bouvier, while only slightly more convincing as an actress, made the bravado of her character fun to watch alongside Bond. And it's nice to see Q, lovable old fart that he is, scuttling around and taking more of an active part in the story.

Unfortunately, for me, the film loses steam when Wayne Newton appears as a cult leader, and we are introduced to his pyramid HQ set piece. In a film that seemed relatively grounded in reality and violence, the final scenes felt very out of place to me, and what could have been a great movie ended up being just good. I just wish they could have closed it out much stronger and more consistent with the rest of the film. After an hour and a half of plotting, double-crossing, and manipulation, the last thing I wanted to see was an 18-wheeler doing a wheelie and Wayne Newton fleeing from an exploding pyramid with a bag of money in his arms. It's not that I don't think Bond should be campy; I just don't think it worked so well here.

My favorite line: "Looks like he came to a dead end." -- Bond says this about the double-crossing DEA agent, who's been skewered by a forklift.

My favorite moment: Late in the movie, Lupe bursts into the hotel room where Q and Pam are preparing to leave the Bahamas, and when she confesses to Pam that Bond spent the night with her, Q rolls his eyes and breaks up the inevitable catfight. I just like that Q is sort of a (grand)father figure to Bond. I can picture him feeding pigeons and giving quarters to little kids.

Other Articles:

Day 1: Dr. No (1962)
Day 2: From Russia With Love (1963)
Day 3: Goldfinger (1964)
Day 4: Thunderball (1965)
Day 5: Casino Royale (1967)
Day 6: You Only Live Twice (1967)
Day 7: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Day 8: Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Day 9: Live and Let Die (1973)
Day 10: The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Day 11: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Day 12: Moonraker (1979)
Day 13: For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Day 14: Octopussy (1983)
Day 15: Never Say Never Again (1983)
Day 16: A View to a Kill (1985)
Day 17: The Living Daylights (1987)
Day 18: Licence to Kill (1989)
Day 19: GoldenEye (1995)
Day 20: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Day 21: The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Day 22: Die Another Day (2002)
Day 23: Casino Royale (2006)
Day 24: Quantum of Solace (2008)

(1-20 of 33 posts) | Reply

KingSigy writes:
on Nov 07 2008 04:19 PM

I remember that Wheelie and it is one of the reason I cannot respect this film. I do remember the revenge plot (QoS is similar to this film), but the last 30 minutes just kind of ruins the film as a whole. I should revisit this, since I do not remember the beginning being so engaging, but I'll never gain enough respect to call this movie good. Excellent write up, though. Get ready for tomorrow, with one of the best Bond movies!

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Joe T. writes:
on Nov 07 2008 04:21 PM

Ryan, I've enjoyed reading your journey through the Bond films. It's something I do every few years myself -- not one a night, though! I've waited to comment until you got through the Dalton films. It's been nice to read a surprising amount of praise for Timothy Dalton in the Comments section. He was my favourite James Bond from as soon as I saw "The Living Daylights" and nothing's changed since. And the reason, as pointed out before, is that he is truly "Ian Fleming's James Bond". I think with Bond, a lot of people's opinions of what a Bond movie should be like are informed by how they were first exposed to Bond. For me, it was the novels and it was refreshing to have that character make it to the big screen through Timothy Dalton's performance. "License To Kill" certainly sticks out from the rest of the series for the reasons you have noted. That may not be the case anymore, though, because from what I've heard about "Quantum Of Solace", there may be a few similarities. As for what lies ahead? I found "Goldeneye" disappointing because some of the Roger Moore elements which Dalton had so effectively eliminated return with Pierce Brosnan. I find him to be a cross between Connery and Moore overall and, while I like him, too, he's now forever sandwiched between two badass James Bonds. But despite what a lot of folks seem to think about "Die Another Day", I enjoyed it and from where I'm sitting, there hasn't been a bad Bond movie since "A View To A Kill" so enjoy the rest!...

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Vinod P. writes:
on Nov 07 2008 04:49 PM

Ryan- I am not sure whether you are catching the movie on the DVD. If you are and you have access to the special features that talks about the mysterious, spooky things related to the filming of the tanker chase scenes.

During the film%u2019s finale, Bond and Sanchez battle it out in tanker trucks over a stretch of highway known as the Rumarosa Pass in Mexicali. While filming a scene where a tanker exploded, a special effects crew member was taking photos from behind the scenes. When he looked at his photos later, he saw what could only be described as a flaming hand reaching down from inside the explosion.

You can check this at http://www.universalexports.net/Movies/license-hand.shtml

Even more eerie, director John Glen went through every single inch of footage filmed that day, frame by frame, and couldn%u2019t find the hand anywhere else.
Now, it can be said that this was just a trick of light from the angle the photograph was taken. However, the exact spot where it happened has a long and checkered history; years earlier a minibus full of nuns fell over the cliff and burst into flames. Since then the road had been closed due to its %u201Cdangerous curves.%u201D

In addition to the flaming hand, the crew of Licence to Kill had all sorts of other mishaps over the course of filming. While filming a scene where Sanchez shoots off a Stinger missile, the prop stinger went haywire and hit a utility worker on a telephone pole more than two miles away. Other examples include the truck that mysteriously burst into flames in the middle of the night for no reason, the truck that started its engine and drove a few feet with no one behind the wheel and the apparitions that the security guards reported seeing that disappeared when challenged.

Were these all just random and freak occurrences or was there actually a higher power at work during the filming of Licence to Kill? Director John Glen thinks there might be, as evidenced by a quote from his book, For My Eyes Only. %u201CThere was definitely a strange atmosphere on that stretch of road. The special effects boys where convinced there was something spooky about the place. If there was any doubt left in my mind, it was dispelled by a bizarre photograph%u2026%u201D While we will never know for certain, it sure is fun to speculate.

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law d. writes:
on Nov 07 2008 05:18 PM

The truck popping a wheelie may be slightly out of place, but on the whole I think the tanker chase at the end is one of the best action sequences in the entire series. When Bond turns it on one set of wheels, dodges the missle and then crushes their jeep... that's just friggin' awesome. And when Sanchez finally gets what's coming to him, it's so satisfying. Especially in the uncut version. It may only be a few seconds more, but it just feels so right.

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BatsInTheBelfry writes:
on Nov 07 2008 05:42 PM

Love this movie. Sanchez is one of my favorite villains in the whole series, and I personally think the villain is one of the most important things in these movies. Goldeneye has a great villain too, hope you enjoy it.

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blattman writes:
on Nov 07 2008 06:10 PM

This is a fun journey. I enjoy getting your perspective Ryan. It is refreshing to enjoy it with you.

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ledawg1138 writes:
on Nov 07 2008 06:25 PM

Ryan, I enjoy theese but you should stop over using the word campy. I'm glad you like Dalton because POOF he's gone, so is Bond for a chunk of years. Well, good job nevertheless, but Bond might have to be campy. But maybe not with dark with campy but whatev's.

"She talks in her sleep"

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ck100 writes:
on Nov 07 2008 06:34 PM

No matter what I think people should give credit to this movie where it's due. The writers and producers made a dark movie that is a bit atypical of Bond and I'm glad they took the risk. Whether or not it works is really personal opinion. However, I think it's cool that Bond got to be a little hardcore and less mainstream so to speak.

Some of the stuff that Ryan found nutty I didn't really find nutty at all. Maybe it's just me, but I thought there were zero elements of camp or humorous stuff in this movie. I mean it was a dark, tough adventure through and through. Dalton feels more at home with this material and I think this was his best performance between his two movies. I didn't mind the Bond girls although I'll admit Cary Lowell was easily the better of the two. I thought Robert Davi as Sanchez was a good villain since he's tough, ruthless, and has no quest for world domination. Even if some of the action was unrealistic, I didn't mind it because I thought the stunts were entertaining. Yeah, the movie does lose some steam in the latter half, but still, I think it works overall. Wayne Newton's stuff probably wasn't necessary, but I don't think it eats up too much of the proceedings.

I'm glad this movie was done and I think it was a prelude to what Daniel Craig has been doing with his take on Bond. This movie had some heavy competition in 1989 so it's a shame it didn't get as much success as it should have. But as I said before, I'm glad some risks were taken here with this movie. Too bad Dalton couldn't have done a Bond movie in 1991 and 1993. It would have been interesting to see how he would have developed as Bond as well as the development of the movies themselves.

Now we come to Pierce Brosnan's run as 007. I know a lot of peole are really hyping up Goldeneye, but let's not overhype it like we did with TSWLM. Goldeneye is a good movie, but it's no masterpiece. I do feel though it's Brosnan's best movie as Bond. The best way to look at Goldeneye is it's a Timothy Dalton Bond movie with Pierce Brosnan in Dalton's shoes.

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catinthebrain writes:
on Nov 07 2008 06:34 PM

Loved Licence to Kill. Too bad it was one of the lowest grossing Bond films. Q is a hoot. Davi is one of the top 5 villains. Great revenge plot.

I'd like to know what you think of GoldenEye's score. For me, it completely ruins the film.

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Sputnik99 writes:
on Nov 07 2008 06:53 PM

LTK is a strange movie that I don't really like, but no Bond movie is worthless. Enjoy.

Don't expect Goldeneye to be perfect. It's good, but I felt it was a little tame. The drama just wasn't strong enough. I will admit that Goldeneye is my second-favorite video game of all time, though, just behind Zelda: Oracle of Time. The Goldeneye game is ten-times more fun than the movie, and since I really do like the movie, that's saying a LOT.

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Boyo writes:
on Nov 07 2008 07:20 PM

Ahhh, I remember this movie so well! Me and my mates went to a small fleapit of a cinema in Holyhead (Anglesey, Wales) called The Empire on three consecutive weekends to watch: Batman, Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade and Licence To Kill! Live and Let Die was released on the Commodore 64 and there was a huge uproar because Bond got blooded and bruised in this movie quite unlike anything that had gone before - brilliant times!!

The movie was originally called "Licenced Revoked" but was changed because they thought the Americans wouldn't understand the title. Doesn't make sense to me, as it fits the tone of the movie quite well, as you mention Ryan.

Joe T points out how Dalton was a huge fan of the books, and I think if you read the books you'd realise that Dalton IS the closest Bond to what Fleming wanted.

Ryan, Goldeneye is a good, fun movie, but it is being over hyped, so be careful!!

5 more before the big one - I can't wait! I'm loving watching these movies then coming onto the computer to see what you've said, keep it going Ryan!

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Makeshift Python writes:
on Nov 07 2008 07:53 PM

Glad you enjoyed the Dalton duo Ryan. I agree that there are bits that prevent them from being perfect, especially on Licence to Kill's case, but yes I thought it was a nice break to have the formula given a break and in a way Dalton's Bond was leading the plot as opposed to the plot leading Bond. Such a shame Dalton didn't return for a third outing. ck100 is on the mark calling GoldenEye as a Timothy Dalton film starring Pierce Brosnan, since the film was actually written before Dalton called the quits.

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aconline writes:
on Nov 07 2008 08:50 PM

Completely pointless, but a fun fact is that this theme song is the longest. When I first saw this film, I did not like it. But, upon multiple future viewings, this has found its way to the top 5 in my mind. The non-typical plot made for an enjoyable film. As Boyo mentioned, Dalton is the closest to way Fleming wrote the character. It is too bad there were legal issues with the series and that it was halted for 6 years. Enjoy GoldenEye as it is the best of Brosnan's. He gets better in the role, but the stories get progressively worse and more far-fetched every time.

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Makeshift Python writes:
on Nov 07 2008 09:51 PM

What's so far-fetched about invisible cars and being attacked by helicopters with giant chainsaws?

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Kevan B. writes:
on Nov 07 2008 10:10 PM

Well the Bond Films started to get better with Dalton, and the tradition continues with Goldeneye (my personal favorite). You will notice that Goldeneye is directed by Martin Campbell the same guy that directed Casino Royale (2006). Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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asilentmovie writes:
on Nov 07 2008 10:26 PM

The bond girl in License to Kill is easily my favorite. Not just because she's smokin', but she's an actual character and not just another idiot bimbo they throw alongside Bond. She's tough. I love the scene when Bond shows up to "protect" her at the tavern and she shows him the shotgun she has with her. Tough chick.

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J S. writes:
on Nov 07 2008 11:09 PM

Here comes Pierce, my favorite Bond next to Connery.
It's just a shame he didn't get a run of movies worthy of his presence. Goldeneye is brilliant and so to is The World is Not Enough (if mainly for the first 20 minutes, but the other two range from mediocre (Tomorrow Never Dies) to Moonraker ridiculous (Die Another Day). If I could rewrite history would have had the franchise rebooted when he started his run

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kaitune writes:
on Nov 08 2008 12:53 AM

Definitely among my fav Bond films! I like the villain and his less cliche character (yet at the same time, he can be so brutally charismatic) I also like the Bond girl a lot. She is surely tough and can handle all the **** herself.

I am quite sad that this is a less popular Bond film.

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ploodie writes:
on Nov 08 2008 05:24 AM

From what I'm hearing, QUANTAM is the same kind of gritty and violent Bond out for revenge, so LICENSE may prove to be a good foretaste.

LICENSE has a fond place for me as the first Bond film I ever saw in the theater. So of course I thought it was awesome, especially the trucker sequence. As a 15 year old, I thought it was uber cool! Now when I watch it, I can't hate it if only for nostalgic reasons. I can see how some are caught off-guard by the unBond like nature of it (it really could have been any miscellanous government agent movie). And I can see how, after a mostly grounded opening hour and a half, the final 30 minutes when it returns to over-the-top action can seem a bit uneven.

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ploodie writes:
on Nov 08 2008 05:32 AM

Wanted to also add - LICENSE TO KILL may have one of the worst theme songs in the franchise (thought GOLDENEYE isn't much better).

Ryan - are you watching these on a good widescreen with surround sound - just curious? Your coming up on a spate of Bond movies where that is about the only saving grace!

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