Movies
Licence to Kill
Unprecedentedly sordid (and gory) James Bond caper, hardly a Bond caper at all, really more a Mike Hammer-ish private vendetta, and certainly not Her Majesty's official business: overthrowing a drug king in mythical Isthmus City. Shedding the espionage apparatus simply tends to expose our hero's parentage of the one-man-army genre. But of course he has long since given up a leadership role and has become just one of the pack: the Norris-Stallone-Schwarzenegger pack. His new status as "rogue agent" seems not to weigh too heavily on anyone, least of all on stuffy old Q, who comes into the field to assist his most recalcitrant student. A minimum of gadgets, but no more credibility in the result; a respectably tough Bond girl (Carey Lowell); and an unworthily TV-ish villain (Robert Davi). Starring Timothy Dalton; directed by John Glen. 1989.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: PG-13
