Licence To Kill has some of the worst mandatory Bond film one-liners I've ever heard, most of them said in a seeming hurry so that the scene can just hurry up and move on, only to realize that the rest of the dialogue isn't much better. In fact, this is a very poorly written film in general. Also, the two Bond women, Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto, deliver two of the worst performances delivered in any of the twenty-one James Bond films to date. They are almost staggeringly bad, stale, scripted, stilted, like two reluctant students being made to read aloud in class. But, there is something unique about this particular installment in the 007 series that must be cherished and given notice. That is its renegade darkness, its fearless exploration of more intense scenes of violence, its use of black and deep red in the costumes, sets, and cinematography, the chance the series took to be like other action movies instead of being isolated a James Bond film. Albert R. Broccoli simply decided to completely suspend the series from Ian Fleming's original stories and give Bond a reason to upstage his usual professional courtesy in his killing and knocking unconscious with seriously vindictive and malicious intent. Every villain and henchman gets Bond's spiciest flavor of dispatch.
The locations may not be as exotic and brazen as usual and the unusually intense violence may be a little too sporadic, but the villains are as mean as they come. Robert Davi's drug lord Franz Sanchez is ruthless, sick, and completely aware of it, and we are informed of this from the get-go. Every one of his lackeys is no less depraved and sadistic. They don't just have you shot, they have some unheard-of ways of making an example out of you. The highlight of the antagonists is Benicio Del Toro. When I first saw this, Del Toro was not at all a star, and hardly anyone had ever heard of him. But he stood out to me. He doesn't have too much screen time, but what he does with what he has is nothing short of effective.
Yes, Licence To Kill may technically be a very lame script, a mostly deplorable cast, and not exactly an intelligent movie, but at heart, it just wants to run free and let Bond unwind that deeply violent heart of his. The musical score pounds, the climax is short but quite fun, and newly dark themes that suddenly rush through this final film before the franchise's six-year break are well worth it.
The locations may not be as exotic and brazen as usual and the unusually intense violence may be a little too sporadic, but the villains are as mean as they come. Robert Davi's drug lord Franz Sanchez is ruthless, sick, and completely aware of it, and we are informed of this from the get-go. Every one of his lackeys is no less depraved and sadistic. They don't just have you shot, they have some unheard-of ways of making an example out of you. The highlight of the antagonists is Benicio Del Toro. When I first saw this, Del Toro was not at all a star, and hardly anyone had ever heard of him. But he stood out to me. He doesn't have too much screen time, but what he does with what he has is nothing short of effective.
Yes, Licence To Kill may technically be a very lame script, a mostly deplorable cast, and not exactly an intelligent movie, but at heart, it just wants to run free and let Bond unwind that deeply violent heart of his. The musical score pounds, the climax is short but quite fun, and newly dark themes that suddenly rush through this final film before the franchise's six-year break are well worth it.