While The Living Daylights was a more traditional Bond entry, similar to several Connery and Moore outings with its European globe-trotting and Russians as adversaries plot, Dalton's second and final film as 007 is a revenge thriller, originally titled "Licence Revoked" (which would have been a better title IMO). This 1989 Bond outing was a turning point for the franchise.
First off, it was the last Bond movie released in the summer. All Bond films released from 1995 to the most recent entry in 2021 have been released in the fall or around Christmas. The rationale for that is rather unbelievable: MGM/UA felt the failure of the movie was due to "extreme competition" from other summer blockbusters in 1989. What summer blockbusters? Dead Poet's Society? Do the Right Thing? Hardly blockbusters. The only big movies that summer were Batman, which had already been in theaters for weeks before 007 hit the screen, and Lethal Weapon 2. For comparison, look at the movies released the summers of For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), or even the Living Daylights (1987). Certainly more blockbusters than the two in 1989 that MGM kept harping about.
The main reason Licence to Kill failed at the box office was more likely due to the violence. It was the first PG-13 Bond movie (and all Bonds since have received that rating). The story was grittier and contained a few scenes of torture; warm ups to the Daniel Craig Bond movies. The plot is not Cold War espionage. It's a straight-up revenge flick. The torture of Felix Leiter and killing of his wife near the beginning of the film sets the movie on overdrive. 007 defies his superiors and is suspended from activity (temporarily, of course...) while he chases down the bad guys.
This is one of the rare Bond movies with more than one bad guy. Four villains are featured, the leading one being "Sanchez," played by American actor Robert Davi (and astute film fans will note how Davi shares the screen briefly with the actor who played his FBI partner in Die Hard, Grand L. Bush). Sanchez is an Escobar-like drug kingpin using several fronts in Florida to smuggle in his goods. One such front is run by the second villain Krest, played by gravelly voiced Anthony Zerbe. The other two villains are the head of Sanchez's personal Army and a nasty thug played by then-21 year old Benicio Del Toro.
Two Bond ladies join 007 on his mission; an exotic, more traditional Bond girl who is the mistress of both Sanchez and Krest, and an American agent working undercover in Sanchez's operation. Talisa Soto plays the former and Carey Lowell plays the latter; a study in contrasts (one a vulnerable mistress and the other a tough as nails tomboy-like agent) in the world of Bond ladies. Who will Bond choose at the end of the film?
The movie is satisfying on a very visceral level. Dalton plays it dead serious - not many one liners in this outing. The fates of the villains are appropriately gruesome. Certainly one of the better Bond entries overall, and a sure sign of things to come.
First off, it was the last Bond movie released in the summer. All Bond films released from 1995 to the most recent entry in 2021 have been released in the fall or around Christmas. The rationale for that is rather unbelievable: MGM/UA felt the failure of the movie was due to "extreme competition" from other summer blockbusters in 1989. What summer blockbusters? Dead Poet's Society? Do the Right Thing? Hardly blockbusters. The only big movies that summer were Batman, which had already been in theaters for weeks before 007 hit the screen, and Lethal Weapon 2. For comparison, look at the movies released the summers of For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), or even the Living Daylights (1987). Certainly more blockbusters than the two in 1989 that MGM kept harping about.
The main reason Licence to Kill failed at the box office was more likely due to the violence. It was the first PG-13 Bond movie (and all Bonds since have received that rating). The story was grittier and contained a few scenes of torture; warm ups to the Daniel Craig Bond movies. The plot is not Cold War espionage. It's a straight-up revenge flick. The torture of Felix Leiter and killing of his wife near the beginning of the film sets the movie on overdrive. 007 defies his superiors and is suspended from activity (temporarily, of course...) while he chases down the bad guys.
This is one of the rare Bond movies with more than one bad guy. Four villains are featured, the leading one being "Sanchez," played by American actor Robert Davi (and astute film fans will note how Davi shares the screen briefly with the actor who played his FBI partner in Die Hard, Grand L. Bush). Sanchez is an Escobar-like drug kingpin using several fronts in Florida to smuggle in his goods. One such front is run by the second villain Krest, played by gravelly voiced Anthony Zerbe. The other two villains are the head of Sanchez's personal Army and a nasty thug played by then-21 year old Benicio Del Toro.
Two Bond ladies join 007 on his mission; an exotic, more traditional Bond girl who is the mistress of both Sanchez and Krest, and an American agent working undercover in Sanchez's operation. Talisa Soto plays the former and Carey Lowell plays the latter; a study in contrasts (one a vulnerable mistress and the other a tough as nails tomboy-like agent) in the world of Bond ladies. Who will Bond choose at the end of the film?
The movie is satisfying on a very visceral level. Dalton plays it dead serious - not many one liners in this outing. The fates of the villains are appropriately gruesome. Certainly one of the better Bond entries overall, and a sure sign of things to come.