LICENSE TO KILL
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: More action, less campy self-parody is the by-word of the latest Bond film. There is almost too little humor in this hard-edged adventure film involving Bond's vendetta against a Panamanian drug lord. Rating: +2.
Operative 007 had been getting older and softer as the series progressed. The series had lost its hard edge. In the early days, Bond was a sort of all-purpose thug for the good guys fighting people who were basically grandiose hoods toppling missiles or holding cities for ransom. Later he lost the hard edge and became a sort of fop. His foes were people wanting to start nuclear wars and/or kill everyone in the world. And the stories became more campy and more silly, with more idiotic special equipment and more and more obvious product placements. Around the time they made MOONRAKER, the series hit bottom. After MOONRAKER, somebody must have seen that the series needed rethinking. Since then the plots have been better constructed, but there has been an uneasy blend of the tongue-in- cheek with some tighter storylines. The choice of Timothy Dalton, with a face like a Swiss Army knife and a sharp edge to match fueled speculation that the series was going back to hard adventure. LICENSE TO KILL is the least fanciful Bond film ever made. James Bond is no longer the lucky but greying fop; he is young and vital and angry. But for a couple of stagey stunts toward the end of the film, this is a surprisingly serious action film.
There is a lot of story in this 133-minute film. Even the pre-credit action sequence advances the main story. It is rare that it ever does and this time it really is an integral part of the plot. Bond is helping old friend Felix Leiter(played by David Hedison, who becomes the first actor to play the role twice) catch Sanchez, a Central American drug lord. Things go extremely wrong and Bond finds he has a serious vendetta against Sanchez (played by Robert Davi, whose pockmarked face adds a touch of realism). Bond must track the drug lord to Panama (thinly disguised under the name Isthmus) where Sanchez ruthlessly holds his own empire through schemes involving drug-running, evangelists, and Contras.
The credit sequence is once again stunning in spite of the instantly forgettable credit song by Gladys Knight. Michael Kamen's score is not up to the classic John Barry efforts, but it gets the job done. Some aerial stunts are impressive though driving stunts tend to be a weak point in the film. The characters lack some of the interest value of those in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, the only other Bond film with any credibility. LICENSE TO KILL is a sign that the Bond series is improving. I give it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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