The opening teaser finds Bond for the first time not on a mission for MI6, but instead getting involved in events alongside his old friend which will end up drawing him into the plot of the film. The film's action sequences are among the best in the series. When the shark maims him, we're shocked at it and even more shocked when Bond finds his bloody and barely alive body at his house. Despite being much older than the last time we saw him, Felix is still in good shape, and doesn't come across as old when firing a M-16 rifle at the bad guys in the teaser. David Hedison makes a fantastic return as Felix Lieter. Talisa Soto does well in the part of Lupe, though it's hard to feel for her character due to her limited time on screen, but she shines nevertheless. Robert Davi does incredibly well in the part and is very believable, one of the more memorable villains to come out of the franchise.Īs for the supporting cast, they are top notch to say the least. It's a great twist of irony in the end that Sanchez is killed by the very man who caught him in the teaser and whom he trusted. With those actions, Sanchez sets himself up for the trap that leads to the destruction of not only his empire, but also the end of his life. Sanchez's loyalty issue leads to the self-destructive paranoia and doing Bond's bidding by killing off most of his own inner-circle. Look at the scene where Lieter is fed to the shark, Sanchez looks menacing enough to kill Lieter, but he is evil enough just to maim him and leave him for dead. Sanchez has a lot of menace to him that had been missing from many Bond villains before him. First there is the silent menace and quiet tension in Sanchez's office, and later a friendship between the two men that the audience and Bond know to be false. Much like Scaramanga in The Man With The Golden Gun, the relationship between the villain and Bond is complicated and there are some fireworks in their scenes together. Sanchez is not only a drug lord from South America but in many ways a mirror, albeit evil, image of 007. The villain, Franz Sanchez, is among the best, and the more realistic, of the series. That isn't forgetting the action sequences where Dalton excels as well to the point that, like in The Living Daylights, it can be hard to tell when it’s him and when it’s a stuntman. Dalton also thrives when with others, especially with Sanchez, which are among the best Bond-Villain scenes since From Russia With Love and the early Bond films. His resigning from MI6, and other scenes in the film prove that he has studied the character of Bond enough to get inside the characters' head and become him. Dalton thrives on the script, from the scene where he finds Della dead, to his reactions to finding Killifer in the warehouse.

This isn't the tuxedo wearing super hero of the Roger Moore era: this is a Bond who can be cold-blooded, almost humor-less, and also a human being. Timothy Dalton had proved in The Living Daylights that he had the acting chops to play 007 and here, he surpasses not only himself, but also every other actor who has played Bond. In doing so, they created one of the best James Bond films.įirst off, we get the best performance to date by a Bond actor.

Having proven that Dalton's more serious Fleming-like 007 could work, the team at EON did something unheard of for its time: they took Bond out of Her Majesty's Secret Service, took away his 00 number, and put him outside his normal operating parameters. If you fall into the latter category than you're about to be disappointed. Since its release in 1989, Licence To Kill has been the most marmite of the Bond films: you either love it or hate it. There are few Bond films as divisive amongst fans and critics than Timothy Dalton's second outing as 007.

Cast of licence to kill