Too dark for it's own good, but entertaining. Dalton's Bonds played like good action films more than good James Bond films.

B

Yeah, this played more like a crime drama if anything, but a very good crime drama. Those stunts with the 18 wheelers still impress me. It's also funny to see a young Benicio Del Toro as a goon for Sanchez.

A-

This is more of a Arnold/Stallone type action movie with its revenge theme. Still entertaining.

B

Not much Bond here. Always struck me as the outsider. I don't mind it at all, and I guess it was sort of refreshing. Perhaps a bit dated today.

B-.

[font=century gothic]Here's the only thing that didn't work for me. The ultra-violence. I'm not a PG-13/R rated prude or anything, but if the Bond name isn't attached, this is easily an R film. Impaling, shredding, head exploding, ripping heart out of chest, engulfed in flames and it goes on. It's a little too over the top.

That saying, the more I think about it, the more I enjoy the film. It tries too hard to be a Lethal Weapon or a Die Hard, in other words an Amercanized thriller, but it kind of works. To drive that point home a little bit more, they hired Michael Kamen (Die Hard) to compose the score. I also like how they tried to make the film a little more real. Sanchez is just an evil drug dealer who likes to cut out guy's hearts who happen to sleep with his mistress. Nice. Ruthless is good.

And Dalton's performance - he's very good here. I never understood the bad rap. Yes, his take on Bond is a little too serious, but it works for the film's he's in. I would've liked to have seen at least one more film out of him.

A-[/font]

Timothy Dalton is the only actor to play James Bond and have two films back to back that are extremely good. Licence to Kill is criminally underrated as a Bond film. Yes, its heavily influenced by Die Hard and Lethal Weapon (maybe it's just Michael Kamen's great score?), but we've never seen James Bond pissed off. He's angry. That's what makes this one so good. Bond is personally impacted by the villains actions and he really only relies on himself throughout the entire film. This is the type of Bond we should've got following On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Instead we got Sean Connery giving his limpest performance in a Bond film.

Like it's predecessor everything is once again grounded in reality except even more so this time around. Sanchez doesn't want to take over the world or destroy it, he just wants to run the drug world. What really works about Sanchez though is Robert Davi. He gives the best performance of any Bond villain since Telly Savalas. He is a mean motherfucker in this movie. He whips his girlfriend, he takes out the heart of one of her lovers, he feeds Felix Leiter to a shark and kills his new wife, he causes a henchman's head to explode, he impales one of his guys on a forklift, and he machine guns his sales guy. He's not insane, he's just fucking ruthless.

What I've noticed rewatching these films is that the best and most memorable Bond villains always develop some sort of relationship with Bond. They always have some sort of battle of the wits and sometimes even keep Bond close to them. Sanchez does the very same thing here. He even begins to trust James (of course without realizing who he truly is). That's a dynamic rarely seen in a Bond film and it works very well here.

Also, we get one of, if not the first Bond girl to actually be able to hold her own in Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell). She's not just your typical damsel in distress. And I'm usually not a fan of short hair, but she is one sexy Bond girl and not one of the ones you regularly hear get mentioned.

As we know, Dalton only had a chance to make two Bonds. This film proves that if he had went on to do at least one more, he could've been right up there with Connery. Instead he was cut short because MGM/UA was too stubborn and put this right in the midst of the summer movie season that just happened to include Batman, Lethal Weapon 2, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It's a shame because just like The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill is one of the better Bonds.

****½ (A)

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) - ***** (A+)
2. Goldfinger (1964) - ***** (A+)
3. The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) - ***** (A+)
4. From Russia with Love (1963) - ****½ (A)
5. Licence to Kill (1989) - ****½ (A)
6. The Living Daylights (1987) - **** (A-)
7. Live and Let Die (1973) - ***½ (B+)
8. You Only Live Twice (1967) - *** (B)
9. For Your Eyes Only (1981) - *** (B)
10. Thunderball (1965) - *** (B)
11. Dr. No (1962) - *** (B)
12. A View to a Kill (1985) - **½ (B-)
13. The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) - **½ (C+)
14. Diamonds are Forever (1971) - **½ (C+)
15. Octopussy (1983) - ** (C)
16. Moonraker (1979) - ** (C)

Bond goes nuts in this film, I like it

One of the best Bond movies.

B+

I probably should have watched The Living Daylights first, to ease me into the Dalton era, but that wasn't on hulu to this was. I really didn't like him as Bond in this though. I've only ever seen him play a villain (or villain adjace) , and he came across that way here. Just a total dickhead. I would have revoked his license to kill as well. Ended up being my second least favorite in the franchise (so far), topping only the very silly Live and Let Die (the only Moore one I've seen).

But now I'm thinking, what if I watched Quantum of Solace before Casino Royale. Would Craig seem like an appropriate Bond or just some asshole trying to be Jason Bourne? Thus, I will hold my judgement of Licence To Kill, give it no grade and emphathize with those who liked it more than I did.