Licence To Kill: James Bond

“You could have had everything.” I wonder if Mr. Davi had some kind of premonition about the shortcomings of future Bond movies. Eighteen years later, I’m still waiting for one that can give me the same sense of complete satisfaction Licence To Kill did. I always found that Bond had one thing lacking in his movies and that was the ability to be taken seriously. If he wasn’t over the top then the villains surely were and it never gelled. True when it came down to business he always got the job done, but there was never a time in any of the movies when I wouldn’t have minded it if he would’ve gotten picked off. This was definitely not the case with Licence To Kill. The story is about vengeance, and Bond is not taking orders. He has his mind set on what he needs to accomplish and this time Her Majesty’s Secret Service can come along for the ride. Robert Davi is as cool as they come and was the perfect choice to play the role of the cold villain Franz Sanchez, but the surprise for me in this movie was the appearance of a very young Benicio Del Toro. Right then and there you could see his quality and magnetism, and have no doubts that he would be major star one day. Timothy Dalton’s portrayal of Bond at his most rawest is fantastic and completely freshened up the franchise. Unfortunately, the audiences were expecting more of the Roger Moore era of Bond and so the studios returned to the old formula which guaranteed commercial success. However, die-hard fans will appreciate that the franchise was once brave enough to make a movie that took Bond back to his core character. You can clearly see Licence To Kill’s influence in the latest offering Casino Royale, but the studios compromising and playing safe again turned what could’ve been a great movie into another dull disappointment. Bottom line, Licence To Kill is the complete Bond film. It has a great story, great characters, and great action. The cherry on top is the super soundtrack which features the excellent theme by Gladys Knight, and a complete gem by Patti LaBelle to take us into the ending credits. Find it, enjoy it.