dorsett@molokai.sw.mcc.com (Robert Dorsett) (07/17/89)
LICENSE TO KILL
A film review by Robert Dorsett
Copyright 1989 Robert Dorsett
Timothy Dalton's back as James Bond, in what appears to be a mixture of
many plot elements from the *book* LIVE AND LET DIE, the movie THUNDERBALL, and
various "Miami Vice" episodes.
The plot: Tragedy strikes Felix Leiter, the CIA agent who's helped out
Bond many a time (and who's undergone yet another facelift :-)). The culprit
is a drug czar. Bond goes on a revenge trip, accumulating an impressive body
count along the way (remember, Bond has the license to *kill*, and he uses it
liberally in this one). In the process of his vendetta, the Secret Service
disowns him, which makes for a renegade secret agent, and, for the first time
in the series' history, a plausible cover story.
Story: mostly sound, almost even believable.
Dialogue: I saw this at a college preview. The audience appreciated some
intentionally corny lines. I'm not sure how well the same lines would come
across in "real life." "I love James so much"--this from a girl who barely
knows him... :-) (That particular scene was a throw-away.) There are a lot
of very good wisecracks, as well as self-deprecating humor.
Special effects: some pretty good ones, some very complex. Unfortunately,
there are continuity problems on some of the more complex effects.
Stunts: likewise, some very complex ones....
Gore count: still cartoonland violence, but this flick has the highest
casualty count in years.
Characterization: Bond's drifting closer to the "book Bond" than even
Connery did. He gets really bashed up in this one (although, unlike many a
Bond book, he doesn't end up in the hospital). The villain's a suitable match
for him, this time around.
Product placement: didn't seem very conspicuous. Of course, a Coast Guard
Dauphin II had a big "Aerospatiale" logo on the side of it, which I didn't
notice when I examined one fairly closely six weeks ago.... :-)
Cars: mostly American shit.
Airplanes: mostly Cessna.
Gadgets: a few. I get the impression that the gadgets were only
introduced to bring Q on the screen, who's an audience favorite. It isn't
really a gadget movie, but they do use everyday household appliances (spear
guns, lighters, airplanes, Stingers) in interesting ways...
Overall review: one of the best adventure films this summer, and the best
Bond since THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. Easily on a par with INDY III, and much
better than the summer disappointments (GHOSTBUSTERS II, STAR TREK V, BATMAN).
3 stars (out of four), or a 7.5/10 on the genre-sensitive scale.butterworth@a1.mscf.upenn.edu (David N. Butterworth) (07/17/89)
LICENSE TO KILL
Reviewed by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 1989 David N. Butterworth/The Summer Pennsylvanian
See: A man eaten alive by a shark! See: A man impaled on the jaws of an
earthmover! See: A man's head decompressed beyond recognition!
No, this is not an ad for one of those so-called video nasties, but what
you can expect to see in LICENSE TO KILL, the latest James Bond film and second
to star Timothy Dalton as 007.
Bond is back all right -- bigger and bolder, perhaps, but (children under
thirteen take note) certainly bloodier than ever. Audiences have learned to
expect girls, gadgets and great stunts from these films, but gore? No thank
you, Mr. Bond.
LICENSE TO KILL is the sixteenth installment in the seemingly endless
series of James Bond films which began back in the 1962 with DR. NO. Back
then, Bond pictures could be considered more or less family entertainment.
Irrespective of the sex and violence inherent in the films, they were never
sordid or nasty. They were never unpleasant. Times, indeed, are a-changin'.
In the ensuing twenty-seven years, Bond has battled his way through
several guises, a good number of dry martinis, and more than his fair share of
women (an advocate for safe sex this guy is not!). But in all those years,
Bond -- the man as well as the series -- has kept killing above board and
respectable. In LICENSE TO KILL, however, the producers have prostituted good
clean fun for explicit violence. The bloodletting is jarring, and needlessly
so.
This time around, the globe-trotting Bond touches down in such exotic
locales as the Florida Keys, Bimini, and the fictional city of Isthmus. On
their way to the wedding of CIA friend Felix Leiter (David Hedison, in a
reprisal of his role in LIVE AND LET DIE), Bond and Leiter are alerted to the
fact that nefarious drug magnate Franz Sanchez (menacingly played by Robert
Davi) is within striking distance, and the proceedings are quickly curtailed.
However, Sanchez quickly escapes and does the dirty on Felix, turning him
into shark bait. This scene is about as uncomfortable to watch as the chainsaw
sequence in Brian DePalma's SCARFACE. As the bad guy, Davi is certainly one
of the most formidable villains Bond has come up against, at least in recent
years. He makes SCARFACE's Tony Montana look like Mr. Rogers.
Bond swears revenge but M (Robert Brown), fearing that Bond will turn
this into a personal vendetta, insists that he take on another assignment.
Bond cannot and resigns, thereby having his "license revoked," the film's
original title.
Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto play the Bond girls. In keeping with Bond's
new found monogamy and 1980s image, ex-CIA operative Pam Bouvier (Lowell) is
portrayed as a tough cookie, and not just another bit of fluff. However, it
isn't long before she hauls herself out of her military garb and parades around
in her underwear for a scene or two. Cute, Carey, but no Oscar nod this year,
okay? Soto plays Sanchez's girlfriend-on-the-make Lupe Lamora and gets to wear
a lot of red outfits, hussy that she is.
The usual wisecracks are very much in evidence -- a bloodied Felix shows up
with a sign around his neck which reads "He disagreed with something that ate
him." But this time the one-liners are in bad taste because they invariably
follow scenes of overt violence.
In THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, Dalton's first venture into the role of British
agent extraordinaire, there was on-screen nudity for the first time in a Bond
movie, albeit brief nudity. Now we have an occasional profanity stirred --
sorry, shaken -- into the proceedings. Some might call it keeping up with the
times, others a lowering of standards.
Gladys Knight performs the snappy GOLDFINGER-inspired title song and
it's the best musical motif in the film. In earlier films, John Barry's score
was as much a character as the villain or the Bond girls themselves, and it is
sorely missed in this picture. Michael Kamen, who appears to be scoring every
other movie release this summer, steps in for Barry on LICENSE TO KILL, but his
contribution is mostly flat and hopelessly derivative.
The Bond films have always tried to top each other in terms of spectacular
stunts, and LICENSE TO KILL is no exception. In fact, the film's memorable
conclusion is probably one of the most explosive action sequences ever put on
celluloid.
But the problem with the film is the tone, plain and simple. Over the
years the character of James Bond has slowly, imperceptively segued from secret
agent to super-hero. He has, in his own way, become an indestructible force in
the movies, a caricature of sorts. Nowadays, Bond is much like Freddie Krueger
or Jason Voorhees, whose wheelings and dealings this film often seems to
imitate.
Moviegoers will have to wait a little longer for the latest incarnations
of those familiar faces this summer, but if your appetite for that kind of
murder and mayhem needs to be whetted sooner than that, you might want to check
out LICENSE TO KILL first. You won't be disappointed.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Directed by: John Glen David N. Butterworth - UNIVERSITY OF PA |
| Rating (L. Maltin): **1/2 Internet: butterworth@a1.mscf.upenn.edu |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+leeper@mtgzx.att.com (Mark R. Leeper) (07/17/89)
LICENSE TO KILL
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: More action, less campy self-parody is
the by-word of the latest Bond film. There is almost too
little humor in this hard-edged adventure film involving
Bond's vendetta against a Panamanian drug lord. Rating: +2.
Operative 007 had been getting older and softer as the series
progressed. The series had lost its hard edge. In the early days, Bond was
a sort of all-purpose thug for the good guys fighting people who were
basically grandiose hoods toppling missiles or holding cities for ransom.
Later he lost the hard edge and became a sort of fop. His foes were people
wanting to start nuclear wars and/or kill everyone in the world. And the
stories became more campy and more silly, with more idiotic special
equipment and more and more obvious product placements. Around the time
they made MOONRAKER, the series hit bottom. After MOONRAKER, somebody must
have seen that the series needed rethinking. Since then the plots have been
better constructed, but there has been an uneasy blend of the tongue-in-
cheek with some tighter storylines. The choice of Timothy Dalton, with a
face like a Swiss Army knife and a sharp edge to match fueled speculation
that the series was going back to hard adventure. LICENSE TO KILL is the
least fanciful Bond film ever made. James Bond is no longer the lucky but
greying fop; he is young and vital and angry. But for a couple of stagey
stunts toward the end of the film, this is a surprisingly serious action
film.
There is a lot of story in this 133-minute film. Even the pre-credit
action sequence advances the main story. It is rare that it ever does and
this time it really is an integral part of the plot. Bond is helping old
friend Felix Leiter(played by David Hedison, who becomes the first actor to
play the role twice) catch Sanchez, a Central American drug lord. Things go
extremely wrong and Bond finds he has a serious vendetta against Sanchez
(played by Robert Davi, whose pockmarked face adds a touch of realism).
Bond must track the drug lord to Panama (thinly disguised under the name
Isthmus) where Sanchez ruthlessly holds his own empire through schemes
involving drug-running, evangelists, and Contras.
The credit sequence is once again stunning in spite of the instantly
forgettable credit song by Gladys Knight. Michael Kamen's score is not up
to the classic John Barry efforts, but it gets the job done. Some aerial
stunts are impressive though driving stunts tend to be a weak point in the
film. The characters lack some of the interest value of those in FROM
RUSSIA WITH LOVE, the only other Bond film with any credibility. LICENSE TO
KILL is a sign that the Bond series is improving. I give it a +2 on the -4
to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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