When anyone makes a list of the best James Bond movies, you can be guaranteed of two things: One, Die Another Day will not be on that list (that damn invisible car! the CGI wave surfing! Madonna!). And two, Goldfinger, Casino Royale, and From Russia with Lovewill all be somewhere on almost every list. But one of the best 007 flicks hardly ever gets mentioned, and it's celebrating its 25th anniversary today.
License to Kill isn't actively disliked by serious Bond fans or even casual fans. Most would say they like it more than Timothy Dalton's debut as the secret agent, The Living Daylights (an okay but ultimately minor Bond film). But to many people it's "that movie that isn't like a real Bond film" or "the last movie that guy Dalton made." But here's the deal: It's not only better than some of the Pierce Brosnan Bond flicks, it's better than some of the Sean Connerys.
I know, I know, saying such a thing could have you committed to some movie-related loony bin. Look, Connery remains my favorite Bond (and Goldfinger remains my favorite Bond movie), but License to Kill is one of the best Bonds and deserves a second look.
The movie is really well-structured, simple in plot but rather meaty in delivery. Bond and his friends capture a drug kingpin on the wedding day of Bond's good buddy Felix Leiter. The kingpin escapes and does something so horrifying to Leiter and his new bride that Dalton quits Her Majesty's Secret Service and vows revenge. While other Bond movies talk about this case being "personal," License to Kill really is. It's Bond pretty much on his own, tracking down the people who hurt his friends and either killing them one by one or disrupting their entire lives.
And that's where the strength of the movie lies. We as the audience are Bond's cohorts on this personal case. We're right there with him as he kills the people that hurt his friends. We're right there with him as he takes the drug kingpin's money and actually uses it against him. We're right there with him as he infiltrates the kingpin's lair and pretends to be his friend so he can screw him over in the end. While most of the Bond movies are pleasing, License to Kill is crowd-pleasing. We want Bond to succeed because we want him to avenge his friends, not just because it's a Bond movie and he's supposed to succeed.
It's also a terrific mix of the old and the new. The violence and action are a clear nod to modern times, but there's a nice throwback feel to the movie, too. There's talk of the time Bond was married years earlier (in On Her Majesty's Secret Service) and David Hedison makes a return as Felix Leiter, which makes for nice continuity with the earlier adventure Live and Let Die (even if the actor who plays Bond has changed). License to Kill has a good soundtrack (by Michael Kamen), exotic locations, two nice-looking leading ladies (Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto), an evil villain (Robert Davi) who either cuts out the hearts of his enemies or feeds them to sharks, quips that make you laugh and/or groan, explosions, and a short-haired Benicio del Toro (in only his second film role) as a crazy, slimy henchman. What else could you want in a Bond movie?
Oh, you want Wayne Newton as a scam artist television preacher? That's here, too!
While the film was a big hit in the UK, it was the least financially successful Bond film in the U.S. Many people cited the violence (some scenes were cut to get a PG rating), some people cited Dalton, some cited the competition in theaters that summer, which included Batman. I think these were all factors. Maybe some people didn't latch on to the film because, while the earlier Bonds were light, suave affairs with action, License to Kill is an action movie, with some light, suave moments. But it's actually the Bond movie that people are starting to reconsider now.
It would have been great to see Dalton continue as Bond in a third film, but legal problems between United Artists/MGM and Eon Productions (as well as a script problem) delayed things for so many years that Dalton eventually dropped out and a search for a new Bond began. A couple months later, Pierce Brosnan (who actually got the role of Bond before Dalton but was contractually bound to continue Remington Steele) got the role. Brosnan doesn't think he did a great job as 007, but his first film, 1995's GoldenEye, is quite good. It's stylish and rather low-key, a good balance between action and humor. It's almost a '60s throwback in its feel and look. Of course, the movies started to get more and more ridiculous and predictable after that (again, that damn invisible car!), and we were all happy to see Daniel Craig take over the franchise as a more serious, tougher, darker Bond.
It's funny, but that's exactly what they said when Dalton took over as Bond. He was more serious, darker. Some critics said this was a bad thing, but now Craig gets kudos for it (and well he should). It's too bad Dalton only made two Bond movies, but License to Kill was a damn good way to end his run.
