Reviews by Citizen Caine

A much more realistic war film than it's predecessor, David Lean's classic, The Bridge On The River Kwai, but does contain moments that echo that film made over thirty years before it. For one, Chris Penn's American pilot hesitates killing a Japanese guard, much in the same way a young commando did in Bridge. Racism, beheading and plenty of swearing, all adds to the realism. Edward Fox and Nick Tate are good as British and Australian senior officers, respectively, but Denholm Elliott and particularly George Takei are superb, the latter being a real cold b******. The first half is damn good, but from then on the film deteriorates and the unexciting climax aboard a ship was done so much better in the director's own, The Sea Wolves. I saw this film about three years ago and enjoyed it then but not so much this time round.

3/5

Of all the Bond films, Licence To Kill is probably the most controversial of all. It is probably best described as the marmite of the Bond films. You either love it or pretty much hate it. For some, it brought the series back to the true James Bond of the books. For others, the dark intensity of the film made it seem not in the spirit of cinematic Bond like the films of Roger Moore.
Personally I love Licence To Kill. The story is a clever mix of Live And Let Die and some of Fleming’s short stories. Timothy Dalton proved he was the best Bond actor. He had the style, anger, humour, deadliness, coldness and in some ways loneliness of Ian Fleming’s character. No matter what kind of person you are, you can always relate to James Bond in this film. But for me, the real stand out performance is by Benicio Del Toro as Dario. Has there ever been another Bond villain that is genuinely creepy? Robert Davi is not quite as good ,playing drug lord Franz Sanchez, as Del Toro but he is a worthy enemy of Bond. Anthony Zerbe plays Milton Krest with a cowardly and slimy nature particularly when facing Franz Sanchez. The regulars, Robert Brown, Caroline Bliss and Desmond Llewelyn are all back as their respective MI6’ers and its great that Q gets a much larger role in this film, with his gadgets being very believable.
Rounding out the cast is Frank McRae playing a sort of replacement of Quarrel, Talisa Soto as Lupe, much like the character of Domino in Thunderball and Carey Lowell as CIA agent Pam Bouvier, Bond’s love interest in the film. McRae brings warmth and humour to his character, Sharkey and whilst Talisa Soto is sometimes annoying she makes up for it just by looking stunning. Carey Lowell is just right for her part, and whilst David Hedison’s Felix Leiter is not my favourite he is believable as Bond’s Best friend. It’s nice to have a nod back to Bond’s past in the scene where Felix explains to his wife Della (Priscilla Barnes) that Bond was married once. It’s also nice touch to see the son of Pedro Armendariz as the corrupt president.
As ever in a Bond film the action is superb. The stand out scene being the climatic tanker chase. But my personal favourite involves Bond infiltrating Krest’s headquarters and fighting the guard knocking them around (and in) the fish tanks. The action is noticeably more violent, particularly the scene where a character is placed inside a high pressure tank – we see his head explode in a bloody mess.
Overall, Licence to Kill is one of my favourites. A terrific action thriller and one of the closest films to Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

5/5