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MI6 looks back at the Licence To Kill world premiere
in 1989, and what the press had to say about Dalton's
second and final installment..
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Licence To Kill - Premiere & Press
13th June 2004
15 years ago today, Timothy Dalton made
his final appearance as James Bond. MI6 looks back to 1989
premiere and to see what the press said at the time...
1989 saw the royal premiere of Licence To Kill at London’s
Odean, Leicester Square. In attendance were Prince and Princess
of Wales, cast members Robert Davi, Timothy Dalton, Carey
Lowell and more. Both Albert "Cubby" Broccoli
and Wife Dana Broccoli where in attendance, flanked by many
other celebrities including Anne Douglas and Kirk Douglas
and former Bond girls Jane Seymour and Britt Ekland.
With the smallest reported crowd in attendance for a Bond
premiere, this theme of low turn-out carried over the Atlantic
to the US, where License To Kill saw second fewest admissions
in Bond franchise history.
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Above: 2002 DVD Licence To Kill
Region 2 - Amazon £18.99 |
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Norway got to see Licence To Kill seven
days before going on general release in the US on July 14th
in 1,575 theatres and earning $8,774,776 in three days,
seeing the high point of the film’s release.
Week two saw the film drop by 41% and bring the total gross
to $18,134,933 in ten days. Week five saw only 850 theatres
carrying the film and a US weekend gross of $1,243,624.
Licence To Kill saw the lowest gross with a domestic box
office: $34.67m and worldwide $156.20m, ($223.09m Adjusted
2002).
Left: Licence To Kill - Soundtrack
MI6
Price: £7.99
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What The Critics Said...
The Good
"My favorite moments in all the Bond pictures involve The
Fallacy of the Talking Killer, in which the villain has Bond clearly
in his power, and then, instead of killing him instantly, makes
the mistake of talking just long enough for Bond to make a plan.
The fallacy saves Bond's life two or three times in this movie
- especially once when all that Davi has to do is slice his neck.
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On the basis of this second performance as Bond, Dalton
can have the role as long as he enjoys it. He makes an effective
Bond - lacking Sean Connery's grace and humor, and Roger
Moore's suave self-mockery, but with a lean tension and
a toughness that is possibly more contemporary. The major
difference between Dalton and the earlier Bonds is that
he seems to prefer action to sex. But then so do movie audiences,
these days. "Licence to Kill" is one of the best
of the recent Bonds." - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sunday
Times
"Over the years the character of James Bond has slowly,
imperceptively segued from secret agent to super-hero. He
has, in his own way, become an indestructible force in the
movies, a caricature of sorts. Nowadays, Bond is much like
Freddie Krueger or Jason Voorhees, whose wheelings and dealings
this film often seems to imitate.
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Above: Acrylic illustration by Ron
Sanders
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Moviegoers will have to wait a little longer for the latest incarnations
of those familiar faces this summer, but if your appetite for that
kind of murder and mayhem needs to be whetted sooner than that,
you might want to check out LICENSE TO KILL first. You won't be
disappointed." - David N. Butterworth, The Summer Pennsylvanian
Above: Talisa
Soto who played Lupe Lamora. |
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"With its license-to-crib mix of drug running, Uzi
blowouts and 18-wheeler jockeying, all taking place between
Key West and Isthmus City, "Licence" might appeal
to those of you currently bored with your "Rambo,"
"Miami Vice" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
videotapes. There's also a checkoff list for Bond fans --
some "Dr. No" underwater action, casino games,
aerial stunts (the most spectacular towing job you'll ever
see), the requisite martini-preparation instruction and
of course cameos from the alphabet people -- Robert Brown's
"M" and Desmond Llewelyn's "Q."
But don't be surprised if, at the end of this trip, you
feel just a little queasy." - Desson Howe, Washington
Post
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"The James Bond production team has found its second wind
with Licence to Kill, a cocktail of high-octane action, spectacle
and drama...Out go the self-parodying witticisms and over-elaborate
high-tech gizmos that slowed pre-Dalton pics to a walking pace.
Dalton plays 007 with a vigor and physicality that harks back
to the earliest Bond pics, letting full-bloodied actions speak
louder than words.
The thrills-and-spills chases are superbly orchestrated as pic
spins at breakneck speed through its South Florida and Central
American locations. Bond survives a series of underwater and mid-air
stunt sequences that are above par for the series. He's also pitted
against a crew of sinister baddies (led by Robert Davi and Frank
McRae) who give the British agent the chance to use all his wit
and wiles." - Variety
The Bad
"Grown up…is what Licence To Kill ties to be, but I
have to say it doesn't succeed very well since the formula soon
takes over again, and ultimately there are many more daft stunts
than good lines. No, to be more grown up, the Bond movies would
have to be written and directed better. And this one is average
in both departments…" - Derk Malcom, Midweek
"It's time to find a new Bond. This one is tuckered out,
spent, his signature tuxedo in sore need of pressing.
For "Licence to Kill," the 16th installment in the
Cubby Broccoli-produced series, the filmmakers and their star,
Timothy Dalton, have entered into a sort of grim collusion, building
the film to the actor's stern specifications. As a result, Dalton
plays a straight-faced, humorless, no-nonsense Bond -- all guns
and no play -- and it makes for a very dull time.
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The blame falls as much to the creators' conception of
their hero as to the actor playing him. It's not that Dalton,
who's making his second appearance in the role, isn't actor
enough for the job.
A kinder, gentler Bond film? No way.
Actually, what Broccoli and his team have created with
"Licence to Kill" is a clunkier, squarer, far
less stylish episode of "Miami Vice." As the product
plugs flash on the screen, the filmmakers spin your average
revenge scenario: Bond's best friends are messed with --
one critically, one fatally -- and Bond gets even. This
time it's personal -- so personal, in fact, that Bond goes
rogue and, refusing to follow orders, has his commission
suspended and his license to kill revoked.
Dalton actually gets the dangerous part, it's the essential
wit that's missing. (He seems to think the two are in opposition.)
If the previous Bonds were champagne, this Bond is beer
-- and flat beer at that. Gone are the sophisticated hedonism
and the sexy pedantry about wines and guns and caviar."
- Hal Hinson, Washington Post
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Above: Licence To Kill - US Poster
US
One Sheet Poster £39.99 |
"My view is that either 007 is a wisecracking, cuff-shooting
Casanova of the Secret Service or he is any old spy. In Licence
To Kill the dandyism has gone out of the series. Rather than raising
the movie’s temperature, the much-publicised violence, demotes
the film on the dominion of the ordinary. Thick-eared action yarns
we can get anywhere, thank you very much." - Nigel Andrews,
The Financial Times
The Ugly
"The health warning is the only clear sign of what makers
of the Bond series are constantly proclaiming - their desire to
make the films more realistic and modern. In fact these ambitions
are contradictory; the only way to boost plausibility is to abandon
updating, and set the fantasy in period… All in all, the
new James bond is more like a low-tar cigarette than anything
else - less stimulating than the throat-curdling gaspers of yesteryear,
but still naggingly implicated in unhealthiness, a feeble bad
habit without the kick of a vice." - Adam Mars-Jones,
The Independent
"Timothy Dalton was the worst Bond ever and this had me
crying for Roger Moore." - Fred Hong Joo Jung, Korean Times
Related Articles
 MI6
"Licence To Kill" Coverage
Images courtesy Amazon Associates, Movie Market.
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