LICENCE TO KILL (1989)

James Bond is in America to attend a friend's wedding.  Naturally, he parachutes (from an airplane that is suspended from a helicopter) into the wedding.  After that he nearly burns the brides face with an overpowered lighter and a man's leg is bitten off by a shark.  At the same time, a crooked DEA agent helps an imprisoned drug lord escape.  Soon, Bond is on the case and before you can say "They should make an ultra macho version of POINT BREAK where Bodhi and Utah fuck.", Bond is popping wheelies in a semi, tossing people out of an airplane, feeding a guy to maggots, holding a knife to a woman's throat and getting kicked in the face by a ninja.  In other words, it's a typical day for James Bond.

LICENCE TO KILL is a step up from the previous Bond film.  Timothy Dalton also has more to work with here and does a fine job.  Quick pace, a VH1 t-shirt, lots of explosions, wacky gadgets, only a few seconds screen time for Moneypenny, okay but forgettable villain, a young Benicio del Toro as a sneering bad guy, disappointing female leads, a guys head exploding on screen, cool 80's fashions, mildly interesting locations.

Overall, LTK isn't anything to rip your dick off over, but it's still a fun watch.

Three thunderballs out of five.

Part 1 - Dr. No (1962)
Part 2 - From Russia With Love (1963)
Part 3 - Goldfinger (1964)
Part 4 - Thunderball (1965)
Part 5 - You Only Live Twice (1967)
Part 6 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Part 7 - Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Part 8 - Live and Let Die (1973)
Part 9 - The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Part 10 - The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Part 11 - Moonraker (1979)
Part 12 - For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Part 13 - Octopussy (1983)
Part 14 - A View to a Kill (1985)
Part 15 - The Living Daylights (1987)
Part 17 - GoldenEye (1995)
Part 18 - Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Part 19 - The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Part 20 - Die Another Day (2002)
Part 21 - Casino Royale (2006)
Part 22 - Quantum of Solace (2008)
Part 23 - Skyfall (2012)
Part 24 - Spectre (2015)
Part 25 - No Time to Die (2021)

Non-Eon James Bond films:
Casino Royale (1967)
Never Say Never (1983)

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987)

Ehh.  THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS might have a new, younger Bond, but this film seemed like a step backwards to me.  The opening action scene (set in beautiful Gibraltar) probably sounded exciting on paper, but it came off looking cheap and goofy on screen. From there we go to Czechoslovakia where a KGB general is defecting, then we got somebody trying to murder British secret agents, plus Joe Don Baker as an arms dealer, a fake political assassination, a massive opium deal in Afghanistan and Bond getting the hots for a female sniper.  There's just so much going on and none of it was exciting.  Also, the tone of the film was uneven.  One moment you got Bond lifelessly delivering dead on arrival one-liners and skiing down a mountain on a cello case and then later beating some dude in front of his mistress and ripping her clothes off.  Also, Joe Don Baker has to have the least amount of screentime (versus film runtime) of any villain in the entire Bond series!  I'd love to read a detailed breakdown of that.  I swear to god, he only had like four scenes and they were all in his house!

I don't know.  I'm sure there are people who love this movie, but I didn't care for it.  The film was well-intentioned, naturally...but still disappointing.  Forgettable villains, good locations that weren't photographed to capture their natural beauty, abrupt ending, meh theme song, boring Bond girl, "explosive teddy bears", Bond and the villain using the same cordless phone, a new Miss Moneypenny who was instantly forgettable.

I was actually excited to check out this new James Bond, I think Timothy Dalton is a fine actor, but he just didn't grab my attention here.  Honestly, I think the problem was more with the script than the actors.

Two thunderballs out of five.

Part 1 - Dr. No (1962)
Part 2 - From Russia With Love (1963)
Part 3 - Goldfinger (1964)
Part 4 - Thunderball (1965)
Part 5 - You Only Live Twice (1967)
Part 6 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Part 7 - Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Part 8 - Live and Let Die (1973)
Part 9 - The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Part 10 - The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Part 11 - Moonraker (1979)
Part 12 - For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Part 13 - Octopussy (1983)
Part 14 - A View to a Kill (1985)
Part 16 - Licence to Kill (1989)
Part 17 - GoldenEye (1995)
Part 18 - Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Part 19 - The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Part 20 - Die Another Day (2002)
Part 21 - Casino Royale (2006)
Part 22 - Quantum of Solace (2008)
Part 23 - Skyfall (2012)
Part 24 - Spectre (2015)
Part 25 - No Time to Die (2021)

Non-Eon James Bond films:
Casino Royale (1967)
Never Say Never (1983)