5 Things You Like + Dislike About Licence to Kill
Since there's already been a thread regarding the other Timothy Dalton Bond movie, The Living Daylights:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093428/board/flat/123686491?p=1
Like
1. Timothy Dalton. Great Bond. Not a clown and not a maniac blasting machine gun salvos in the general direction of any bad guys. It's a sniper rifle, or a harpoon straight to the heart, or one flick of the lighter. He executes people for a reason, he doesn't wantonly kill. This man is ice cold, he is dangerous, he's on a mission, and you don't want to mess with him.
2. Great villains and Bond girls - all believable types. Robert Davi and Benicio del Toro give top notch performances, the ladies both look stunning and are a nice contrast to each other: the sultry beauty Lupe, actually quite a tragic character ("It was my own fault" in response to who whipped her and "It took me [...] years to get away from there" in response to Bond telling her to go home), and tomboy Pam who, underneath the tough shell, is quite vulnerable and desperately jealous of the stunning Latina beauty Lupe.
3. Q's involvement. It provides much needed comic relief in this dark and intense tale of revenge. The hotel room scene is one of the funniest in the entire franchise (Bond tackles Q, Q kisses the Bond girl, Bond and Q head to the bedroom together - it's priceless). And one has to love Desmond Llewelyn.
4. The stunts. Hanging the plane from the helicopter is one of the most enjoyable Bond antics to date, the escape by barefoot waterskiing behind a plane is wonderfully, fantastically Bond (made even more enjoyable by Sanchez' condescending smile and disbelief when Krest relates the episode to him at a later stage in the film - great bit of subtle humour that), and the amazing tanker chase, somehow all the more impressive for the absence of any outlandish vehicles.
5. Of all the Bond films it's probably the one that best stands the test of time - no political agenda that dates it, very few gadgets (the plug-in palm reader on the gun seems more plausible now than ever; the world's first USB connection to a personal recognition device?), a charismatic drug lord villain who plies his inluence in the world of high finance and politics. Bond and Sanchez are worthy adversaries, both fiercely loyal to their friends.
Dislike
1. Della. She did nothing for me. Was she cast as a personal favour?
2. Felix Leiter. The actor is all wrong after the Leiter we saw in TLD. Also the way he talks and acts after the tragedy.
3. Sharky's death.
4. The opening credits - especially the blatant product placement of the camera lense.
5. Sanchez whipping the girl (yes, I understand that the film needs the scene, otherwise half the audience would probably come down with Stockholm syndrome and side with the villain).
There seems to be a lot of criticism regarding Leiter's upbeat behavior at the end. Perhaps is just of those people who always keep a positive attitude no matter what. The drug dealers killed his wife and fed him to a shark resulting in him losing a leg, but he miraculously survived and perhaps feels blessed just to be a live and talking to his best friend.
Alternatively maybe he was perhaps utterly miserably, but talking to Bond made him happy. The other scenario is he was faking it. People fake happiness all the time.
I loved pretty much everything about this movie especially:
Bond and Q working in the field together
Looking at Beautiful Cary Lowell and Talisa Soto
Robert Davi as the villian and Benecio Del TOro as his right hand man
Wayne Newton's absolutely ridiculous (yet hysterical) performance as the phony televangelist
The ending scene where Bond jumps in the pool and the closing song...
The only thing I dislike was how quickly Sanchez embraced Bond and allowed him into his circle