Review - Licence to Kill (1989)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. And, it's certainly been a while since I've talked about one of the James Bond movies, hasn't it? So, just for fun, I'd like to take a look at the 1989 Bond film Licence to Kill, starring Timothy Dalton as James Bond, and also starring Robert Davi, Carey Lowell, Anthony Zerbe, Talisa Soto, Benicio del Toro, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Everett McGill, Grand L. Bush, David Hedison, Wayne Newton, with Desmond Llewellyn as Q, Caroline Bliss as Moneypenny, and Robert Brown as M. 

       So, the movie opens with the DEA getting ready to arrest Latin-American drug lord Franz Sanchez. The DEA is joined by ex-CIA agent, currently a DEA agent, Felix Leiter, who is getting married that very day, and MI6 agent James Bond, who is to be Leiter's best man. The arrest is successful, and Leiter's wedding goes off without a hitch. Unfortunately, another DEA agent named Ed Killifer manages to help Sanchez escape from custody, and Sanchez and his crew, which includes the very memorable Dario, capture both Leiter and his new wife Della, killing Della and dropping Leiter into a tank holding a great white shark. Bond, who begins working with DEA agents Sharkey and Hawkins to investigate Sanchez further, finds the marine research center owned by Sanchez's accomplice Milton Krest, and Bond kills Killifer in the shark tank. 

      Meeting with M in Key West, Bond refuses an assignment in Istanbul, and is suspended from service, and his license to kill is, ultimately, revoked. So, now that he's a rogue agent, Bond goes after Sanchez to avenge Leiter and Della. 

      What follows is Bond having to earn himself into the inner circle of Sanchez, while also building a sense of mistrust within Sanchez towards his loyal allies and followers. Bond also finds himself working with former Army pilot and DEA informant Pam Bouvier, and Q also helps out despite Bond's current status. And, if that weren't enough, Bond starts to grow close to Sanchez's girlfriend Lupe. And while Hawkins, who was involved with the case against Sanchez, is willing to work with Bond in bringing down Sanchez, he opposes Bond's quest for vengeance. 

      Sanchez, meanwhile, is pretty much putting his plans in motion, which is to smuggle tons of cocaine by mixing it with gasoline, and has a process for un-mixing the cocaine from the gasoline, allowing his clientele to have both. And, his clientele have come from China, and two of them turn out to be undercover Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau officers, who thwart Bond's attempt to kill Sanchez, but wind up dead themselves. Bond later frames one of Sanchez's top associates, Milton Krest, whom Sanchez kills with a decompressor. 

      So, we see Bond, with help from Pam, destroy Sanchez's base, which is a massive drug lab hidden within a religious site overseen by a noted televangelist named Joe Butcher, and Bond goes after Sanchez and his convoy of gasoline trucks, which are destroyed. Sanchez, who has traces of gasoline on him, is lit ablaze by Bond, who uses a lighter that was a gift from Leiter and Della on their wedding day. The movie ends with Bond calling Leiter, who informs him that M has offered to reinstate him to his post in MI6, and Bond jumps into a pool to be with Pam, while Lupe, who has been growing feelings for Bond throughout the movie. gets together with someone else. 

       Licence to Kill, which is after referred to as the darkest of all the Bond movies, is an absolutely entertaining 80's action film. The idea of James Bond going rogue to avenge his friend and ally, Felix Leiter, by bringing down a dangerous drug lord is certainly interesting, and Timothy Dalton takes the character to levels previously unseen, mainly due to Bond's status as a rogue agent in this movie. And, while not among the most popular of actors to have portrayed James Bond, Dalton really knocked it out of the park in what would, unfortunately, be his last outing as Bond. 

       This movie would also see the departures of Robert Brown as M, who had begun portraying M in Octopussy, and Caroline Bliss as Moneypenny, who left the role after learning that James Bond was being recast for the movie GoldenEye. And, I will say that for the small amount of screentime they got, both Robert Brown and Caroline Bliss were really good as M and Moneypenny. However, it's Desmond Llewellyn as Q who gets the lion's share of screentime, and he was just as good here as he was back in movies like Goldfinger and Thunderball. 

      But, what made watching Licence to Kill a fun watch for me, personally, was seeing the myriad of actors who I had enjoyed in other films that either came out before or after this movie. For instance, both Robert Davi and Grand L. Bush appeared as two FBI agents in Die Hard, and the latter would go on to be in a couple notes '90s action movies: Demolition Man and Street Fighter. Similarly, Talisa Soto, who portrays Lupe, and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who portrays Kwang of the Hong Kong Narcotics Bureau, would both go on to be featured in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat as Kitana and Shang Tsung, respectively. And, of course, I can't leave out Benicio del Toro, who portrays Dario in this movie. Jeez, just look at that guy's filmography, and you'll see what I'm talking about. And, by the way, I thought ALL of these actors were fantastic in this movie. Honestly, the only individual whose performance I wasn't buying was that of Wayne Newton as Joe Butcher. He's a fantastic entertainer to be sure, hence why he's referred to as "Mr. Las Vegas," but I think he was a bit out of his comfort zone here. 

        The action scenes were pretty cool, with one noteworthy example being when Bond hooks Sanchez's plane up to a DEA helicopter, which Christopher Nolan would take inspiration from to create a similar scene in The Dark Knight Rises. Also, the scene with the gasoline trucks was pretty damn thrilling. But, what makes this movie work, so to speak, is it's villain. Now, while it's kinda clear that Robert Davi's Sanchez was inspired by Al Pacino's Tony Montana from Scarface, Davi shows a more unhinged and violent nature to Sanchez that makes him way more deplorable than Tony Montana. 

        The music in this movie, which was composed by Michael Kamen, was very different from the more notable Bond movies scores by John Barry, but I will admit that the title song for this movie, performed by Gladys Knight, was really good. In what would be his last Bond film, the opening titles by Maurice Binder were really well designed. And, the Latin-American setting of the movie was pretty good. 

      However, I should note that audiences of the time were much less enthusiastic about this movie, seeing it as too dark and violent when compared to the more lighthearted and fun Bond films of the Roger Moore era. But, it's definitely getting a lot more love nowadays by Bond fans, and is one that I see as one of my favorite action movies of the '80s. It is, for that reason, that I definitely suggest giving Licence to Kill a chance if you haven't already. 

       Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you in the next review.