With all the James Bond films ranked by Rotten Tomatoes in an exhaustive round-up, Licence to Kill came in at number 11 in the 27-film franchise.
Accruing a 79 per cent critics approval rating, License to Kill received a mixed bag of reviews (bordering on the generally favourable), with one critic writing: “Many may have forgotten [Timothy] Dalton’s time as the iconic agent, but whether you remember him or not, it’s worth sinking your teeth into.”
The 1989 spy thriller is the sixteenth film in the James Bond catalogue and was the second and final film star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent. It was also the fifth and final John Glen directorial, and the very last to feature Caroline Bliss as Miss Moneypenny and Robert Brown as M.
While one critic called it “very underrated”, another felt it was “passably entertaining”.
Licence to Kill happened to be the first Bond movie which didn’t use the title of an Ian Fleming story, and although the film’s plot is considered to mostly original, there are sections of its sabotage premise influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s film Yojimbo, as well as elements of Fleming’s book Live and Let Die and his short story The Hildebrand Rarity.
Licence to Kill sees Bond resign from MI6 to pursue a personal vendetta against Franz Sanchez, a drug lord who orchestrated a brutal assault on Bond’s friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter, and was responsible for the murder of Felix’s wife shortly after their wedding.
Licence to Kill was succeeded by GoldenEye (1995) and officially saw the handover of the coveted Bond role from Timothy Dalton to Irish actor Pierce Brosnan.
At the box office, Licence to Kill grossed $156.2 million ($373.3 million in 2022 dollars) against a production budget of $32 million.
An audience review praising the film said: “One of my favourite Bond films. Loved the darker tone and do love this take on Bond. I enjoyed the story and the action.”
While on the other hand, a viewer wrote: “Licence to Kill is a very bland Bond movie. Even after just finishing it, I’m having a hard time remembering the specifics about the movie.”
Sandwiched between GoldenEye at number 10 and 007: You Only Live Twice at number 12 on the ranked list of Bond films, the Critics Consensus of the film on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “Licence to Kill is darker than many of the other Bond entries, with Timothy Dalton playing the character with intensity, but it still has some solid chases and fight scenes.”
Another critic said about the film: “You may find yourself shaken – not stirred – by the screenwriting cruelty and cynicism behind the 16th Bond.”
While one fan appreciated Dalton’s portrayal: “I enjoyed Moore’s stint as Bond, it had excitement and humour but became increasingly silly and needed a reset. Dalton’s much darker and more realistically human approach was a perfect bit of casting and made for a great Bond. This is one of my favourites of the franchise and for my tastes better than the following rather ‘plastic’ feeling Brosnan era.”
On his decision to take on the role, as quoted in the 21st issue of ‘OO7’ Magazine, Dalton said: “I knew the danger of taking on something like Bond was immense; you know that if it hadn’t worked, it would have been a very serious, serious problem for me personally. And I think, in many ways, that perverse thing in all of us wants to take on a challenge and risk oneself, and I wanted to see if I could overcome that challenge and get these movies back into being in a world that I consider to be James Bond’s world.”
Licence to Kill is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.