Monday, May 25, 2015

Binge-watching Bond part 16: 'License to Kill'

Timothy Dalton in License to Kill
The one rule you can't break with a James Bond film is that they have to be fun.

That doesn't mean it can't be dark at times and it doesn't mean it needs to be riotously funny. But the few that outright miss for me lack a certain sense of style and wit that set the character and series apart from the typical action spectacle.

Although License to Kill has many ardent fans, I actually think it's one of the worst Bond pictures. While it's impossible for me to hate it -- and I actually admire its intention to shake up the 007 routine -- I dislike its tone, which is humorless and its plot, which feels totally inappropriate for a James Bond movie.

This time Timothy Dalton's performance doesn't work as well for me. He looks too disheveled and haggard this time around. He doesn't have much chemistry with his female leads and stalks through the movie in a way that works fine in some action scenes, but is off-putting in others.

The score and pacing seems like something out of a Lethal Weapon movie. The action is more gory, merciless and mean-spirited -- and I'm not sure that's such a good thing. It doesn't help that the villain, played with over-the-top gusto by Robert Davi, is more scummy and scary, as is the movie's drug plot which feels more dated than Bond films from decades earlier.

The Bond girls are beautiful but poorly written and the lack of irony in the script only underlines how absurd so much of the movie is. That said, I do quite like the concept of Bond quitting her majesty's secret service to pursue revenge against bad guys who target his longtime CIA ally Felix Leiter.


This is an idea that would be explored later and more effectively in future Bond films, but in many ways this film marked a real break with a more classic take on 007 and a transition to  a more modern, hyper-active version.

This film also marks the end -- mostly -- of Bond's unabashed philandering. Sadly, Dalton may go down in history as the most chaste 007 of all time.

There are some terrific sequences in the film -- the opening in particular is exciting. But it's not enough to save the License to Kill, which was the first true flop in the history of series and left it in limbo for what felt like a decade -- although it was really only six years.


Liz's take: It was cool to see James Bond go rogue a little bit -- but it all feels so forced. The Felix Leiter character here is now cast as his best friend, and they really lay it on thick. And it's strange to have so much of the narrative stakes hanging on that relationship.

I feel like this one promised more than it actually delivered in the sense that it presented the opportunity for an interesting story -- 007 quitting to pursue a personal vendetta -- but it seems like the broader plot got far too muddled towards the end, especially with a sort of faux guru storyline featuring Wayne Newton.

I don't love the Bond films (with the exception of Live and Let Die) that are set primarily in the U.S., they don't feel as exotic and epic as the other films which feature beautiful scenery in far flung locales. 

The young Benicio Del Toro popped up in this one, he was handsome but psychotic. I didn't love the whole pitting the Bond girls against each other vibe. Carey Lowell was fun and feisty but ultimately pretty vanilla to me. Timothy Dalton deserved a better movie. He's the coldest Bond I've seen but also strangely the softest and most emotional. It would have been nice to see that put into effect in a better project.

Liz's rankings:

1) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2) For Your Eyes Only
3) Goldfinger
4) Dr. No
5) Live and Let Die
6) The Man with the Golden Gun
7) The Spy Who Loved Me
8) The Living Daylights
9) Octopussy
10) Moonraker
11) A View to a Kill
12) License to Kill
13) You Only Live Twice
14) From Russia With Love
15) Diamonds Are Forever
16) Thunderball
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