Licence To Kill is an interesting film. It's funny when people say, "Sean Connery was the best, because he was the first." In truth, Timothy Dalton was the first Bond.... that I had ever seen. And Licence To Kill was the first movie that introduced me to the world of James Bond.
Alot can be said of Timothy Dalton, I for one enjoyed his films as Bond very much. I've never been one to say, "I like Dalton because his portrayal of Bond was closest to Fleming's ideals." The Bond novels never enter my thoughts when it comes to the films. Even though he didn't have the charm of Moore or the casual swagger of Connery, it was nice to see a more emotional, human Bond.
I've always said that Dalton's performance was a precussor to how Brosnan would portray Bond. Pierce has admitted that had he taken over the role of Bond from Roger Moore, he would have played Bond much like he had played Remington Steele. However Dalton's portrayal somewhat steered Brosnan's take on the character.
Robert Davi as Sanchez is an amazing villain, for the simple fact that he doesn't care about ruling the world with some doomsday device nor does he care about Bond. Infact, he is unaware of Bond until the very end of the film, which is why Dalton's line of "don't you want to know why?" works so well. You'd have to think that Bond's actions are motivated by Traci's death as much as they are by Sanchez's actions on Della, Felix and Sharky...
I simply love this film, I enjoyed it very much.
