LICENCE TO KILL
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1989 Jeff Meyer
Pity me: I began going to see James Bond pictures right when Roger Moore took over the part. I didn't find out quite what I'd been missing until the Guild Theater in Portland began running the entire series twice a year (one of the few theaters with class enough to serve Vanilla Cokes), and I got a chance to see DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, and GOLDFINGER. I would admit that there were other non-Connery Bond films I enjoyed (ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE is a favorite, for Diana Rigg if nothing else, and FOR YOUR EYES ONLY seemed to *want* to go back to an espionage storyline), but in general, trips to a new Bond picture were saved until everything else of interest had been seen, accompanied by an air of resignation that was usually fully justified. When Timothy Dalton took over as the new Bond, I couldn't have been more pleased; while THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS dragged a bit at the end and had exceptionally weak villains, the first half was everything I could want from a Bond picture. When I heard that LICENCE TO KILL would have a script written for specifically for Dalton (THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS had been written with Moore in mind), I was even more hopeful that we were heading back towards the good ol' Bonds.
Well, we've still got a ways to go, but things continue to look up. LICENCE TO KILL has several strong points: some depth to Bond, some interesting companions, a strong villain, some *real* suspense (find some of *that* in a Moore Bonder!), and some opportunities for Dalton to stretch in the role. The problems with the film can generally be summed up by changing the instances of "some" in the last sentence to "more." There's still too much emphasis on stunts and not enough on characterization, suspense and movie espionage. (As opposed to "real espionage," e.g., LeCarre.) LICENCE TO KILL is a tantalizing film, because you can hear the motor revving up during its entire length -- it's just that the engine never seems to catch.
The film concentrates on Bond on a mission of revenge, and Dalton does a good job with this: his obsessive drive to avenge a murder occasionally clouds his normally cool judgment, and he has to depend on the help of several friends to survive (a very nice touch). Dalton continues to play Bond as the professional of DAYLIGHTS (this is a Bond who is an assassin, and he works like one -- the double-oh licence is not for show); unfortunately, the script centers on Bond's obsession so completely that he's still fairly one-note. I kept feeling that John Glen, Michael Wilson and Richard Maibaum needed to be violently jarred during this film and told to tone down the stunts and keep the plot beefed up. Things get too loose before the final stunt/battle sequence (which is admittedly a doozy).
Other actors: Robert Davi, who's played villains for years, seems to really be picking only the cream of the crop for Bad Guy roles these days: Sanchez in LICENCE, and the Jersey don in the current WISEGUY arc. He's not a Gert Frobe or a Klaus Maria Brandauer, but he does a nice job with it. (I really wished the script filled in his character a bit.) It's a bit much to swallow underground cities of SPECTRE agents and island retreats with private armies these days; a South American drug kingpin has the same general capabilities, and a touch of realism to boot. Carey Lowell is excellent as Bond's lover/accomplice; it's a little much to see her get teary when someone else kisses James after she's held her own in a bar fight, but that's why the phrase "artistic license" was invented (also "Bond Women"). Anthony Zerbe plays a variation of all those flunky roles he used to play in Quinn-Martin TV series. David Hedison makes Bond movie history as the only man to play Felix Leiter twice -- a real first. (He also played Leiter in LIVE AND LET DIE.) Too bad he didn't have the Flying Sub in the opening sequence.... The rest of the actors are no great shakes, with the exception of Q, who doesn't overplay the role too badly this time. (Ah, hell, all of us engineers love him anyway. We'd all like his job.) And while we're at it, whose idea was it to stick Wayne Newton in here? "Bless your heart," my ass....
Overall, I found LICENCE TO KILL to be a good deal like THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS: strong start, but weak towards the end. Fully entertaining enough, though, and better than any of the Moore Bonds. Keep Glen & company under tighter control next time out, and let's have some more meat to the plot; these guys show promise for producing a Classic Bond in the future that could stand up to the Big Three.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, hplsla, thebes, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews