Every single franchise out there in the film industry always has ups and downs and the James Bond franchise is no different. With the film that i'm about to review for you all today being a prime example of that as both this film and The Living Daylights were released when the franchise was at it's lowest point and would take a full six years to really fully recover from and so then join me as I review the film that sees alot of key creative people both behind and infront of the camera leave the franchise for good for alot of really various reasons with the film in question being called simply just "Licence To Kill" enjoy.
The plot of this film is after his friend Felix Leiter is left for dead James Bond goes rouge and has to take down evil drug lord Franz Sanchez from supplying more drugs. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us un this very film was in all honesty not that bad with the very idea of James Bond going rouge is a really good idea and it's one that shockingly the James Bond franchise hasn't really done before now which really is a shame as the idea really is strong enough to hold an entire movie with this films plot being really entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Of course starring in this film is Timothy Dalton as James Bond , Desmond Llewelyn as Q and Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny. Also starring in this film is Robert Brown as M now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually acting that's actually featured / presented to us n this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with all of the MI6 regulars turning in some really good performances with all of them just doing all of the stuff that there known for and with this film being last film for the overall majority of them it was great to see them all together one last time to see what kind of good performance that all of these actors can and do give when there given the chance to do so.
Also starring in this film is Carey Lowell as Pam Bouvier , Robert Davi as Franz Sanchez and Talisa Soto as Lupe Lamora. Also starring in this film is Anthony Zerbe as Milton Krest , Everett McGill as Ed Killifer , Frank McRae as Sharkey , Anthony Starke as Truman-Lodge , Grand L. Bush as Hawkins , Benicio Del Toro as Dario , Alejandro Bracho as Perez , Guy De Saint Cyr as Braun , Diana Lee-Hsu as Loti , Rafer Johnson as Mullens , Don Stroud as Colonel Heller , Priscilla Barnes as Della Churchill and David Hedison as Felix Leiter. Now the interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with the films cast giving us a decent performance as while this film is made up of a bunch of really good actors the films script doesn't really give their characters alot to work with interms of what there respective personalities are even meant to be which means that the films cast can't turn the kind of performance that we all know that they can turn in as the films script just really won't allow for them to it.
We do technically have two Bond Girls in this film with our first Bond Girl also being our main Bond Girl and that is Pam Bouvier who is of course played the seriously stunning Cary Lowell. With this character being the better of the two Bond Girls as she does get to spend alot of time with Bond and Pam herself has all of the potential to be a rather interesting character the issue is tho is that she and Bond have no chemistry with each other and Pam herself just isn't that interesting with her being an ex-Army pilot and DEA informant and as such she's no real danger with her only really being in danger whenever she's around Bond and while yes she could have been killed very early on in the film we know that due to her fighting skills that she would have very easily have survived that situation but credit were it's due she can more then hold her own when it comes to being in a fight and that's not really something that we would see in alot of Bond Girls at the time that this film was being made and released.
Our other Bond Girl is Lupe Lamora who is played by the seriously stunning and drop dead gorgeous Talisa Sato. With this character being the more interesting of the two as she is actually dating the films main villains and as such she is danger whenever she leaves the house this is something that makes her alot more interesting of a character as we have to see think of creative ways just to go and see Bond at his hotel let alone when he's out in public or when he's staying at the main villains house as she could die at any minuet but on the flip side of that is the fact that like with Pam Bouvier she doesn't really have that much chemistry with Bond with the two of them instead coming of as childhood friends who have just met each other after years of not seeing each other this is something that really should have been fixed when the character was being cast and yet for some reason it wasn't and as a result of that it's hard to buy into the fact that she's falling for James Bond as the two of them really don't have that much chemistry with each other whatsoever.
Out of the two characters the better of the two Bond Girls is quite easily Pam Bouvier as while she and Bond don't have that much chemistry with each other. They have more chemistry then both Lupe and Bond do and while Lupe might be the much more interesting of the two characters Pam is the more fun character with her being kind of unpredictable which means that she could turn up anywhere doing anything and it would be totally believable for her character as she is a character who used to fly in the worst places on Earth and as such she would have no problems walking into a meeting with a drug lord even tho she might die as she really doesn't really have really that much fear while Lupe on the other hand due to her abusive relationship with Lupe is really more timid and is not that really fun of a character to see on screen.
This film does make the first time that an actor who played the role of Felix Leiter in a previous James Bond venture would reprise the role. Which in this case doesn't really make as they just had another much more younger playing the role in the previous film and now then he's now suddenly several years older then Bond but on the flip of side it does also provide the series with some nice continuity something which is very rare for the James Bond franchise to do and the Felix in this film is alot more action heavy with him openly running into a fight with a drug lord at the start of the film but the issue is tho is that the character s sidelined for the vast majority of the film which makes it pointless in getting a returning actor to play the role again when you could have gotten another new actor to play the role and nothing would have been changed about the film at all.
As mentioned at the start of the review this film is by far the most goriest James Bond film ever made thus far. With a prime example of this being the death of the villain Milton Krest who then has head inflated and blown up and yes you see it all happen which is perhaps the goriest moment that we see happen in this film as while there are other gory moments in the film like the death of Benicio Del Toro's character for example there we don't really get to see all that much as Bond himself is blocking most of it but with the death of Milton Krest we see it all happen and while the Bond books have always been for adults the Bond films have always skirted the line between being for adults and for kids with this film skirting a bit to much for adults which is kind of off putting and it goes against the tone of all the previous films as well which had a healthy dose of humor to balance out the more adult moments something which this film is very much lacking.
Doing the production design for this film is Peter Lamont and well as with alot of his sets that he made for the previous James Bond films. His work here just didn't work for me personally as his sets just don't look like that they belong in a James Bond film with them half the time looking like that they belong in a drama film and the other half they look like that they belong in a science fiction film neither of which work well for a James Bond as for a James Bond film you want big and lavish sets and yet here all we get are small sets that just don't fit the world of James Bond whatsoever which is a shame as when Peter Lamont does create some good looking James Bind sets like in Octopussy or in Die Another Day they are quite usually the best thing about either f those two films and yet here it just felt like that he couldn't be bothered to give us the kind of sets that we want to see in a James Bond film and instead gave us something that we never want to see in a James Bond film.
Also as was mentioned at the start of this review this film was the last film for alot of the key creative team. With alot of the MI6 regulars being replaced for the next film long time James Bond screenwriter Richard Maibaum , long time producer Albert R. Broccoli and long time opening title designer Maurice Binder all passing away in the years between this film and Goldeneye with the only three creative people sticking around being actor Desmond Llewelyn , producer Michael G. Wilson and this films associate producer Barbera Broccoli being promoted to producer which given all of the people that do end up leaving after this film really does add a tinge of sadness to this film as alot of them have been with the franchise since Dr. No and yet to see them all leave together really does make it feel like it's the end of an era in some respects.
This film does the one thing that alot of James Bond films have only said that they were going to do and that's actually turn James Bond into a rouge agent. With it actually making sense as his best friend was just attacked mere moments after James Bond himself had seen both him and his wife alive and well and as such it does make sense that Bond would rouge as he and Felix have gone through alot together as we've seen in the previous films with both of them having saved each others lives multiple times in multiple films with both of them having earned each other's respect and friendship in the process which means that when Felix and his new wife do get attacked and Felix is left for dead Bond does take it personal as it was the one time that he couldn't be there to help Felix out when he really needed him to and this mission is Bonds way of making it up to him even tho he knows that deep down it might very well get him killed.
The only real issue with James Bond going rogue is that the film does next to nothing with that very idea. As while we do get to see Bond quite MI6 and a few agents shoot at him we don't get to see how Bond's life is altered as he still carries on the very next day as it's just business as usual when that really shouldn't have the case as Bond would now have not only all of the villains henchmen looking out for him but he would also have the American police looking for him and British secret service agents trying to kill him and yet we only get to see the villains henchmen going after him which isn't that much of a threat as we know for thew fact that Bond can and this case does take them all down quite easily which does make the idea of James Bond going rouge seem like it's a rather undercooked idea as there's so much that could have been done with that very idea and all they needed was a much better script in order to really do this one great idea justice.
Doing the opening titles for this film is of course Maurice Binder who has worked all but two of the classic James Bond films. With his work on this film not being his best as the opening titles for this film just felt rather generic as there was nothing that really stood out about them at all with the opening titles not really incorporating anything that's in the film at all which really shouldn't be the case whatsoever as we know for a fact that when push comes shove Maurice Binder can create some truly beautiful looking opening titles and yet for this film it just felt like that he wasn't putting in that much effort and sadly the films opening titles do suffer because of that as there's nothing that makes these opening titles stand out from all of the other James Bond films which means that instead of going with the best opening titles he instead went out on whimper.
This films opening title dong is also called "Licence To Kill" and was performed by the "Empress of Soul" Gladys Knight. The song itself isn't that bad with songwriters Narada Michael Walden, Jeffrey Cohen, and Walter Afanasieff giving us a song that whilst not really that memorable is at the very least well written with the song itself also being very well sung but at the same time it's not really a song that fits this version of James Bond as this version of James Bond is more of a rockstar and requires more rock songs as that would fit the films alot better not heavy rock like anything from Gun 'N' Roses for example but more softer rock for sure as that's something that would match with these films alot more then this jazzy type of song would do even if it was something that's really well put together with the song not even matching the visuals all that well either.
The films villain isn't really that good of a villain despite him being one of the more deadly of James Bonds foes. As this films villains comes across as being like The Joker from The Dark Knight only without anything that makes that character memorable and while this character does ooze charm and charisma which does make it believable that he would be able to convince as many people as he does in order to work for him he would also be a lot more smarter then what he is as just takes Bonds word that someone from his organization is working against him despite Bond not really giving him any kind of proof to back up his claims which does make him look dumb and thus less of a threat as it now means that Bind can beat him just by talking to him and not by using his wits to outsmart him which does make this films villain seem like even less of a threat then he already is in this film as he's not really that threatening either.
Now then I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this films grand total running time even was I do know that for a fact that this film has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly two hours ad seven minuets. Which is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for any James Bond film and to this films credit it really does make the most of that running time altho this film would have been better of they took the time to show us how life is now different for Bond now that he's gone rouge instead if having him act like it's just a normal day and the film would have been helped if they took the time to also fully develop both Bond Girls ans both of them are crucial to the films plot and yet both of them don't have much in the way of personality but I will admit that this film really does gave some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action film that means that I ave to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With this film action being alot better then what it really had any right to be as alot of the action in the James Bond films at this point weren't that good and were just carootnish and very the top and campy at best and yet the action in this film was raw and was all really filled to the brim with really cool moments all of which combine to make the action scenes in this film really stand out from alot if not all of the action in alot if not really all of the later James Bond films in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this film is a bad film for alot of the key people behind the James Bond films to go out on but at the same time this film is quite easily better then A View To A Kill was in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the god and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such this really earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boy and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official James Bond fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personal favorite website to use to get the images that I used in this very review being the official James Bond fandom wiki page just simply due to the fact that pretty much all of the images that are featured / presented to us and are currently up and also on the official James Bond fandom wiki page are all fairly high quality and as well as being fairly high definition and well then boys and girls just freaking like James Bond I will return.
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