This is the second of four outings by Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. It follows GoldenEye (1995) and is followed by The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002). He’s the fourth best Bond to my taste – not on the level of Connery, Moore or Dalton, but is still comfortable watchable in an otherwise well made action movie, unlike George Lazenby or Daniel Craig whose Bond movies I personally find insufferable.
A clever & captivating opening, leading into one of the best theme tunes in James Bond history, sees Tomorrow Never Dies get off to a pretty good start. The movie then continues along similar lines, with a script that’s focused more on an intriguing idea rather than action, but doesn’t lack action either. As a result, it does both to a fair standard, but doesn’t do either masterfully – the main weakness is the lack of strong characters in these early scenes.
The odd attempt at cheesy humour is pretty weak again, just like in GoldenEye. Sometimes even stooping to prolonged exchanges of toilet humour. The scene where Q introduces James to his new remote-controllable bulletproof shock-protected missile-clad BMW ends pretty nicely though, with a healthy mix of action and humour, even if it begins with terrible humour. As always, Desmond Llewelyn does a great job as Q.
The main baddies in this movie are Elliot Carver (brains) played quite well by Jonathan Pryce with vibes of Pope Francis, and Mr Stamper (brawn) played sufficiently but far from outstandingly by Götz Otto with vibes like a cross between Andreas Wisniewski, the KGB milkman from The Living Daylights, and Everett McGill from Under Siege 2 (Seagal’s main rival on the brawn side). Stamper could equally be described as a cross between Dolph Lundgren and Timothy Olyphant. Incidentally, McGill also played a minor role in Licence To Kill but looked quite different there.
Around the half hour mark we’re introduced to both of the Bond girls from this movie: Mrs Paris Carver (the main antagonist’s wife, and an ex lover of James Bond) played by Teri Hatcher (best known for playing Lois Lane in the epic 90s series The New Adventures Of Superman); and Miss Wai Lin (undercover Chinese agent) played by Michelle Yeoh (from Mechanic: Resurrection (2016) alongside Jason Statham and Jessica Alba). They both do a decent job here. Hatcher in her early 30s here, contributes beauty and familiarity, while Yeoh in her mid 30s here, is hardly a bombshell – she’s more of a girl next door type, but the chemistry is still somewhat believable between her and Brosnan. Yeoh is also a very familiar face to fans of Hong Kong action movies, having starred in movies throughout the 80s, 90s & 00s alongside Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, etc. More recently she was in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) by Marvel Studios.
Joe Don Baker returns as charismatic CIA logistics champ Jack Wade. He’s no Clifton James (Sheriff JW Pepper), but he’s a nice addition to the cast nonetheless. Fun fact: Joe Don Baker also played Brad Whittaker, one of the main antagonists in The Living Daylights opposite Timothy Dalton.
We know James Bond movies love a scuba scene, and this movie is no different, except this time Bond jumps out of a high altitude airplane wearing his wetsuit and oxygen tank, diving straight into the ocean to explore a wreckage.
You may also spot Simon Pegg for a second towards the end, in the smallest of vocal roles.
The ending gets a bit longwinded and one-dimensional, especially for those who have seen this movie many times before. Still, overall I rate it an OK movie, on a par with most Bond movies.
The closing credits say ‘In loving memory of Albert R “Cubby” Broccoli’. For those who don’t know, he’s been the owner of Eon Productions and the main man behind the whole saga since the start. His kids have been running the show ever since, and I guess that explains why it was able to go from something outstanding prior to Brosnan, to something respectable with Brosnan, to something embarrassingly unwatchable with Daniel Craig and has remained that way ever since Brosnan retired from the role. Cubby must be turning in his grave at the state of what the Bond franchise has become under his kids’ supervision. Having said that, the Daniel Craig era has been performing outstandingly at the box office, so I guess in killing the cool, calm & collected work of art that was James Bond, they created a commercial monster that appeals to a different but larger audience of soppy drama fans, so in purely financial terms it would be deemed a success (until it dies out, because it’s got nothing really cool about it any more). There may also be a deeper strategy at work, since the soppy new James Bond of the Daniel Craig era represents the kind of emasculated woke wetwipe that our world’s leaders seem to want to turn us all into.
Licence To Kill has an interesting creative opening involving James Bond and his CIA friend Felix Leiter. They’re both dressed up ready to attend Felix’s wedding, but they get called to a mission at the last minute, so they give chase a drug cartel boss, who escapes in a plane, so James & Felix get back into their large coast guard helicopter and pluck the plane out of its flight path, leaving it hanging mid-air by its tail. Then they parachute back to their wedding procession which is already underway. It’s a fairly creative opening but it’s no 00 vs SAS training exercise like we had at the start of the last Bond movie, The Living Daylights (1987) which I think was far more on-genre as well as more concise and generally more on-point too.
James Bond is played very well by Timothy Dalton here, in his second of only two ever Bond movies that he starred in. His career as Bond was cut short due to the producers being busy with a lawsuit over distribution prices that lasted 5 years (1989-1994), by which time Dalton had lost interest in being James Bond. Dalton was already signed up to do another Bond movie in 1991 but the delays due to the lawsuit essentially ended his contract in 1990 and Dalton had completely lost interest in being Bond by the time the producers were ready to begin his next movie, so they got Pierce Brosnan instead, and so began the Brosnan era.
Felix Leiter is played adequately by David Hedison here, who played the same role in one other Bond movie, 16 years prior – that being Live And Let Die (1973), which was Roger Moore’s first outing as James Bond.
The theme tune to Licence To Kill is quite funky, and quite R&B compared to usual. Sung by Gladys Knight, it’s not a bad tune, but it still doesn’t quite have the same kick as the best theme tunes like the theme tune for A View To A Kill which feels much more Bondy and impactful, while the Licence To Kill theme tune, as good as it is, is relatively demure.
Not 20 minutes in and we’re already very well acquainted with the main antagonist in this movie, Franz Sanchez, played very convincingly by Robert Davi, having seen him evade capture then get caught in the opening scenes, then we see him get sprung free by a cop who took a two million dollar bribe. The crooked cop, called Ed Killifer, is played quite well by a young Everett McGill (quite memorable as the main antagonist, on the brawn side, in Under Siege 2, some 6 years after Licence To Kill, by which time he’d developed a grey-haired Clint Eastwood vibe, but in Licence To Kill he has dark curly hair, possibly dyed to cover some greys).
With the murder of Felix and his newly wedded wife, after the escape of Sanchez, then with James finding their bodies and there being an atmosphere of mixed sorrow and anger, this movie appears to be attempting to set up narratives and pull at heartstrings, perhaps to make up for a colder-hearted vibe in The Living Daylights, but in doing so, Licence To Kill is missing out on the concise action that people like me came for. It’s a step in the wrong direction, for my taste, even though it appears they’re trying to make an improvement, and undoubtedly drama lovers will like the new style, but I much prefer the previous style personally. The subsequent infiltration of the shark place is also terribly slow and suspenseful. The odd attempt at humour is also a bit awkward here.
Early in the second quarter, as Bond sneaks aboard a ship owned Sanchez’s business partner, Milton Krest (played quite well by Anthony Zerbe), we become better acquainted with one of the main Bond girls in this movie – Sanchez’s girlfriend, Lupe Lamora, played quite well by the beautiful ethnically Puerto Rican actress Talisa Soto, who we initially met in the opening scenes. Soto is Japanese for outside or outsider, so she may have some distant Japanese heritage, but it’s also Spanish for grove, thicket or small wooded area, which is an equally viable surname (think of George Groves). Either way, I’d say she’s one of the best Bond girls of all time – a nice continuation from the beautiful Maryam d’Abo in the last movie, The Living Daylights. Timothy Dalton is truly blessed with the best standard of Bond girl in his movies, while Connery and Moore suffered a terribly unpredictable variety of co-star calibres.
The diving scene around 45 mins in is pretty concise and continuously creative. Quite impressive there.
Around 50 minutes in, we meet the other main woman in this movie: Carey Lowell playing Ms Pam Bouvier – a former US Army pilot working with the CIA. She’s no stunner but she’s quite tidy (in her late 20s here) and is a pretty good actor too. She makes a fun character in this movie, but James clearly made the wrong decision rejecting Lupe to choose Pam in the end.
It’s good to see Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa – the legendary actor from Mortal Kombat (1995) with Christopher Lambert – taking on a minor role here as Mr Kwang. He’s always an entertaining character in an action movie – his simple deadly gaze alone is enough to garner intrigue. Speaking of ‘garner’, he was also in Elektra (2005) with Jennifer Garner.
Great to see Q visiting Bond, with a bag full of gadgets, while Bond’s gone AWOL on a mission to kill Sanchez. Played very well by Desmond Llewelyn – his role is quite extended here for a change, as he does more than just deliver gadgets.
There’s an interesting series of plot twists around 1 hour and 20 minutes in, as Bond gets jumped by some Japanese ninjas led by Kwang who turns out to be a deep cover agent from the Hong Kong Police narcotics squad (a cringeworthy example of cultural misappropriation). Then when Sanchez takes him out and finds Bond tied up as a prisoner (due to be sent back to the UK, but Bond tells Sanchez things were about to get nasty), Sanchez suddenly trusts & values Bond very dearly. This turns into another clever plot development as James makes Sanchez think Krest is a traitor without actually naming him (based on info James was told discretely by Lupe just seconds earlier), then Sanchez finds the stolen money planted by James on Krest’s boat. Sanchez’s right hand man, Dario, who points out James as an informant, is played quite well by Benicio Del Toro – he delivers a convincing performance, as a younger brother or son figure to Sanchez.
Wayne Newton makes a convincing and occasionally funny character too, as a televangelist personality called Professor Joe Butcher who’s merely covering for Sanchez’s large cocaine transactions.
The ending is one that’s memorable and longwinded enough to mean that I don’t look forward to it when it comes to rewatching this movie. Having said that, when actually watching the ending, it’s fairly well made – there’s no particularly dull patches and the action stays quite creative and well made, although the overall plot doesn’t change much from the time when Bond gets rumbled in the factory until the end of the truck chase – it’s all quite memorable plotwise during this time, which makes the ending a bit of a downer for rewatchers, although this is a common theme in action movies, but there are some exceptions where the ending is as buzzing & creative as the start.
Overall, I have to rate this movie about equal to the average Bond movie from the Connery or Moore era. That’s one level down from the best movies of those eras (such as Goldfinger, Live And Let Die, and The Spy Who Loved Me), and it’s a couple levels down from the previous Timothy Dalton movie, The Living Daylights, which I personally rate as the best Bond movie of all time, not because Dalton is any more convincing than an early Connery from Dr No for example, but because The Living Daylights had a much higher budget and is much more action packed – it’s a true modern action movie. Licence To Kill, by contrast, is a bit more one-dimensional and lacks a great chemistry like Timothy Dalton had with Maryam d’Abo both on and off screen. Taliso Soto is no less beautiful but their chemistry never really caught fire – I guess she’s more of a model than an actress, and she even intended to act like she couldn’t care less about switching from Sanchez to Bond and then again from Bond to President Hector Lopez (played lifelessly but I guess adequately by Pedro Armendáriz Jr) at the very end when Bond decided to reject her in favour of Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) for some unrealistic reason. This odd choice of woman is reminiscent of the cringe factor when Connery and Moore were overly romantic with an aging Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) before that actress was finally replaced at the start of the Dalton era. It seems much of the smart decisionmaking that came with The Living Daylights was already absent by the time Licence To Kill came about, even though they were both officially directed by John Glen, who also did Moore’s last three Bond movies (neither of his two best ones) so the injection of good thinking in The Living Daylights may have come from someone less under the spotlight. The budget for Licence To Kill ($36M) was also slightly lower than The Living Daylights ($40M). Maybe they were distracted by looming lawsuits in 1989. They came back with massively higher and constantly increasing budgets in the Pierce Brosnan era, which kicked off with GoldenEye in 1995 on a budget of $60M then went on to Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997 with a budget of $110M and the budgets kept going up throughout the Brosnan and Craig eras (with just the odd hiccup), although I don’t personally include the emotional Daniel Craig in my list of classic Bond movies – I think he’s absolutely ruined the Bond saga for the last 20 years – I can’t personally watch a single Bond movie he’s made. He’s worse than George Lazenby who did On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). But I’m a massive fan of Connery, Moore and Dalton as Bond, and I think Brosnan makes a bland but still quite watchable Bond. Those four eras form the complete list of Bond classics, as far as I’m concerned.
Thunderball is the 4th movie in the James Bond saga and the fourth time Sean Connery plays the leading role – he does a good job as usual.
This movie gets off to an interesting start, with a cross-dressing agent trying to trick James Bond, who kills him and takes time to throw some flower over his body before running away and escaping from the rooftop via jetpack to his bag-of-tricks car. We then begin to hear the Thunderball theme tune by Tom Jones, all within the first 5 minutes.
It’s good to see Desmond Llewelyn back as Q, around the 1 hour mark.
This movie is a bit slower, more monotonous and more one-dimensional and yet still messier than Goldfinger, but not devastatingly so.
The main antagonist in this movie is Emilio Largo (Spectre’s “Number 2” agent) played fairly well by Adolfo Celi although he’s probably a bit podgy and effeminate for such an active top agent in such a physically demanding role.
There are several women in this movie but none get significant enough screen time or deliver a significant enough performance to be particularly worth mentioning here, although it’s good to see the return of Martine Beswick after the strong impression she made in her minor role (in the gypsy girls’ cat-fight) in From Russia With Love – two Bond movies ago.
After Dr No, and From Russia With Love, Goldfinger is the third movie in the James Bond saga. It stars Sean Connery, as did the two movies prior – he performs outstandingly as usual. And according to mainstream review sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, Goldfinger is the best Bond movie of all time, although I wouldn’t read too much into that as they both also rate a couple of Daniel Craig’s movies as being superior to anything by Roger Moore or Timothy Dalton which of course is absolute nonsense.
Goldfinger is an interesting one though. It takes Q branch to another level, with the return of Desmond Llewelyn playing Q – we met him in the previous movie, From Russia With Love, and he reprises his role in almost every Bond movie until his death in 1999. He gets some good screen time this time round, in Goldfinger, as he introduces us to a well kitted-out Bond car, with dynamic weaponary, a bulletproof rear shield and a passenger ejector seat. The knightrider/batmobile style Bond car is a nice concept that returns regularly in subsequent movies.
Goldfinger also introduces us to one of the most iconic tough-guy villains in the whole saga, called Oddjob, played excellently by Harold Sakata (real name Toshiyuki Sakata, wrestling alias Tosh Togo). He could be the second most memorable baddie after Jaws.
To its credit, this movie is packed with iconic James Bond movie scenes, from the card game with help through an earpiece from a lady with a telescope in the distance, to the golf game with switching balls, to the car tailing scene where James spies on Goldfinger from a high vantage point, while a woman with a gun spies on and shoots at James from an even higher vantage point. That’s all within the first 40 minutes, so it’s off to a more efficient start than From Russia With Love which had a bit of a messy first hour before the really good scenes came back to back in the second hour.
Further concepts coined by this movie within the first hour include Bond dressing up in all black, to stealthily infiltrate and observe Goldfinger’s base – a concept well copied by Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon, 9 years later. As well as the very iconic scene of Bond being strapped to a table with a lazer beam pointing down, cutting through the metal table and slowly moving towards him – a classic concept that gets replicated by further Bond movies.
This movie also takes naughty female names to a new level, and introduces us to the concept of secret compartments within shoes – similar to the secret popout poison knife hidden with the shoe of the enemy in From Russia With Love, except this time it’s just a compartment for slotting things in to keep them hidden.
This movie also introduces us to electronically moving floors and tables, for elaborate displays.
This movie has a goods bit of humour too, such as the way Bond escapes from Goldfinger’s prison by tricking the guard into thinking he’s disappeared.
There’s also a couple of good examples of dropping tracking beacons, including in Goldfinger’s car, and in a random guy’s jacket pocket with a note.
We also get new music in this movie – instead of using the classic theme tune from Dr No, that was also remixed for use throughout From Russia With Love – this time we get a bunch of remixes of Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger theme tune and it works quite well.
The main antagonist in this movie, Goldfinger, is played quite well by Gert Fröbe.
The main female roles are taken by Shirley Eaton (as Jill Masterson, who gets killed off in the first hour) and Honor Blackman (as P**** Galore, one of Goldfinger’s main assistants alongside Oddjob). They both do a fair job in their respective roles, although promoting Honor Blackman as a very attractive woman is a bit of a stretch.
The fight scene at the end between Bond and Oddjob is a bit weak – Oddjob seems to be able to take all kinds of punishment but when it’s his turn he mostly just does useless WWE style throws to make Bond stumble for a few steps while staying completely unhurt. I guess this is due to his ‘professional wrestling’ background – prior to that he was an Olympic weightlifter.
All in all, I rate this movie as Upper-OK. It may be slightly better than Dr No and From Russia With Love, but not by a significant enough margin to rate it on a much higher level, in my opinion, considering the current rating system we’re using here. When I think of the very best Bond movies of all time, I have to say this is not on that level, in terms of entertainment value for my taste – it’s still a bit old fashioned even if it’s got plenty of new cool features compared to the last two movies.
Subsequent Bond Movies
Next in the series of Bond movies, after Goldfinger (1964), is Thunderball (1965) which was promoted in the closing credits of Goldfinger just like Goldfinger was promoted in the closing credits of From Russia With Love. Then after Thunderball, Connery did You Only Live Twice (1967) although a few months prior to the release of that movie, there was Casino Royale (1967) starring David Niven, produced by a company other than Eon Productions (only two Bond movies were ever made outside of Eon Productions, of which this was one, so don’t expect it to be up to the same standard). Then we had On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) starring George Lazenby, but he was far from able to fill Connery’s shoes – he’d never done any acting before – he was also disinterested in starring in another Bond movie, so they got Connery back for Diamonds Are Forever (1971) before the Roger Moore era began. Connery eventually did one further Bond movie, a decade later, outside of Eon Productions, called Never Say Never Again (1983), but Roger Moore was still going strong and Timothy Dalton was great after him, and that took us through to the 90s by which time Connery was now an old man, looking like a grandpa – something that was already starting to show in Diamonds Are Forever, 12 years earlier – not very fitting for a hotshot active agent doing a lot of physical work while trying to look cool – something Connery was able to pull off much easier in his earlier movies from the 60s. So Connery eventually packed it in and focused on other movies of which he made many classics like First Knight alongside Richard Gere and Entrapment alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones.