[5]

Licence to Kill is the anti-Bond. Timothy Dalton is out for revenge in this one (his second and final outing in the role), and the performance is desperately missing the character’s trademark nonchalance. Without it, it just isn’t Bond. It’s one of a number of generic 80s action flicks fueled by revenge, centered around the drug trade, full of explosions, and scored by Michael Kamen (Die Hard, Lethal Weapon). The Maurice Binder title sequence is there, and so is Desmond Llewelyn as Q, but that’s all that remains recongizable to the franchise.

There are a few things to like about the movie, though. Robert Davi always makes a nice villain (the man probably scared his mama coming out of the womb), and did I mention the explosions? Holy shit! There are more explosions in the last reel of this movie than I’ve ever seen before. It’s almost impressive. Unfortunately, the script tries to infuse a little Roger Moore era humor into the proceedings. Under the film’s decidedly serious tone, the jokes fall completely flat every time.

Licence to Kill was done on the cheap (for a Bond film, anyway), so we’re also deficient in the area of exotic locales — hope you like Key West, cause that’s where you’re going for the first half of the movie. Then we get Mexico, where all the explosions take place. Bond girl Carey Lowell has crooked eyes. I know I shouldn’t care about such superficial things, but how on Earth did they cast a Bond girl with crooked eyes? And what’s up with Wayne Newton playing a religious con man? Licence to Kill is a mess for me. But did I mention the explosions?

Look for Benicio Del Toro (The Usual Suspects) and Everett McGill (Twin Peaks, Dune) in small roles.