Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
After capturing the notorious drug lord Franz Sanchez, Bond's close friend and former CIA agent Felix Leiter is left for dead and his wife is murdered. Bond goes rogue and seeks vengeance on those responsible, as he infiltrates Sanchez's organization from the inside.
Licence to Kill is a notably darker, revenge-driven Bond entry that distinguishes itself from the franchise's usual formula with a grittier, more personal stakes narrative. The plot holds together reasonably well as Bond goes rogue — a fresh angle for the series — though the drug-lord villain setup is fairly conventional for late-80s action cinema. Acting is competent; Timothy Dalton brings understated intensity but the supporting cast is mixed, with Robert Davi a solid villain. Cinematography is serviceable but unremarkable for the era. The film's novelty within the Bond canon is real but not groundbreaking in a wider cinematic context. The climax — a tanker truck chase — is action-packed but overlong and somewhat clumsy in its resolution, undermining the emotional payoff the personal revenge storyline had built.