James Bond in review - Licence To Kill (John Glen, 1989)

"I want you to know this is nothing personal. It's purely... business"

Sanchez's chilling words to an ill-fated Leiter couldn't be further from how you would describe the 16th Bond adventure. Daring, provocative and the highest certified film by the BBFC in the series, Licence To Kill harkens back to the roots of the 007 character created 37 years previously by Fleming as Dalton injects a brilliant sense of humanity and a no-nonsense attitude to the British secret agent we've come to love.

Timothy Dalton is the new James Bond

Licence To Kill works on many levels not least of all as an intriguing, intricately detailed and engrossing thriller, but almost as a stand alone film - a rogue agent on a personal revenge mission against the man who murdered and mutilated his friends. In his second and unfortunately final appearance as 007, Dalton shines. He will never be like his predecessors just as Moore never consciously tried to emulate Connery but it is fair to say that our current noughties Bond, Daniel Craig, owes a great deal to Timothy Dalton. Both give very human portrayals of Fleming's character; characters who show emotion, pain, anger, frustration and loss through their detailed, meticulously crafted personifications of James Bond. You can imagine Dalton having to ruthlessly kill if the situation demanded it, which you would never believe of Roger Moore's Bond.

Carey Lowell is beautiful and determined as Pam Bouvier

Not only is this film a chance for Dalton to shine but Desmond Llewellyn's Q gets his longest screen appearance in the series, injecting some well timed and not too blatant comic interludes into the serious proceedings. The stand out character of the film is clearly Robert Davi's sadistic villain Sanchez, a man who rewards loyalty- at a price. Just don't double cross him or you'll end up like Krest. Much like Moonraker I have never given much time to Dalton's second Bond outing perhaps largely because of its critical responses and insistence from ardent Bond aficionados that the film strays too far from the established Bond formula and is too real in its depictions of violence. On closer inspection, this is ironically the finest move made by the Bond producers since they decided to bring Bond back down to Earth in For Your Eyes Only. This and Eyes Only present John Glen at his directing best and whilst The Living Daylights introduces Dalton's Bond to the screen with style, it is not until Licence To Kill that he really does prove his worth.

Robert Davi is one of the series' best villains since Robert Shaw

Had the box office not been populated by Batman, Lethal Weapon and Indiana Jones - incidentally all focussing on heroic protagonists - Bond 16 would have achieved bigger business on general release in the summer of 1989. Regardless of this, the film is one of the best of the later Bond films and arguably the best Bond of the 1980s. It holds up brilliantly after more than 20 years. "How many times can one man leave you breathless?" Well, in answer to the demanding teaser trailer voiceover, lots! Relive one of the grittiest and all out entertaining Bonds of the lot - "bless your hearts!"