July`s MI6 Bondathon is `Licence To Kill`

To celebrate the spate of upcoming Bond film anniversaries and the pave the way to Bond 23, we thought it was high-time the forum (Keeping The British End Up) pulled together for an official review of the whole series.

A film will be presented each month for viewing, discussion and review; running in conjunction with the main site, overall ratings and a selection of the best reviews will be published at the end of the month on mi6-hq.com.

Celebrating its 20th Annniversary, the second film up in the Bondathon is the hard-hitting Licence To Kill (1989)...

Introduction
This time, it’s personal and he’s out for revenge!

After the mutilation of his friend Felix Leiter and the horrifying rape and murder of Leiter’s new bride, James Bond is on the trail of the man responsible – the powerful drugs baron Franz Sanchez. This is an angry Bond, stripped of his Licence to Kill – as you’ve never seen him before – his unswerving devotion to Her Majesty’s Secret Service suddenly sundered by his love for the only man in the world he has ever called a friend.

Bond producers Cubby Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson had long harboured the notion of a renegade 007, so here in the sixteenth movie of the series, they crafted their first originally titled James Bond movie involving drugs, murder and revenge – the first to be filmed exclusively outside the UK, and the last to be produced by Broccoli. This movie also marks the swansong of such long-term stalwarts as titles designer Maurice Binder, screenwriter Richard Maibaum and director John Glen. The only Bond movie in the canon to earn a PG 15 certificate (PG 13 US), Licence To Kill sees Bond trawling through the narcotics industry’s underworld in a story loosely drawn from the Fleming novel Live And Let Die and “The Hildebrand Rarity” short story.

Licence To Kill takes us from the hot lusciousness of the Florida Keys, to the torrid and ultimately corrupt cities of Central America, where Bond ruthlessly pursues his prey, but discovers that there is far more at stake than his one-man vendetta against the insidiously evil Sanchez. With the lives of beautiful CIA agent Pam Bouvier and Sanchez’s Mistress Lupe Lamora hanging in the balance, Bond finds himself embroiled in a love triangle as deadly as any game he has ever played. With the stakes worth billions of dollars and the threat of betrayal and death at every turn, he must fight to destroy the man behind a conspiracy that could shake the world.

He’s bold! He’s brash! He’s Bond! And he’s back! …at a DVD player near you… now!

- Introduction by Sisillius

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