Entertainment
The Netflix Film That Nearly Killed A Decades-Old Franchise Is Secretly Brilliant
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
After a controversial purchase by Amazon for a cool billion dollars, it’s fair to say the James Bond franchise is as healthy as it has ever been. But nearly four decades ago, the failure of a single film nearly did what villains like Blofeld and Goldfinger had always failed to do: kill 007, once and for all. That movie was Licence to Kill (1989), and after it became the least profitable film in Bond history, producers put the popular film series on hold until they could develop a movie that would leave general audiences both shaken and stirred.
However, Licence to Kill is an excellent Bond film, and this Timothy Dalton classic only seemed overly serious compared to the goofiness of the Roger Moore movies; these days, Dalton’s more serious Bond fits right in with the more grounded and violent world of the Daniel Craig 007 movies. The truth is that Licence to Kill has been in need of a critical reevaluation for almost 40 years, and that reevaluation starts right now. All you have to do is grab your remote (just don’t grab the exploding one!) and stream this misunderstood spy classic on Netflix.
Some Serious Bond-age
The premise of Licence to Kill is that after James Bond’s friend Felix Leiter (a CIA agent and longtime girlfriend) is tortured and his new wife is killed, 007 becomes obsessed with getting revenge on the attackers. This interferes with his job as a secret agent, and when his boss objects, Bond resigns from MI6 to become a rogue agent. Now, without his titular licence to kill or the resources of his government, Bond must engage in a globe-trotting mission of vengeance, one where a single mistake could easily cost him his life.
The cast of Licence to Kill has some familiar Bond faces in it, including Desmond Llewelyn as Q, 007’s faithful tech guru. Similarly, Robert Brown reprises his familiar role as M, and Caroline Bliss returns to once again play Moneypenny alongside Dalton’s Bond. Most surprisingly, David Hedison returns to play Felix Leiter for the first time in 16 years; he previously played the plucky CIA agent in Live and Let Die.
A Cast Full Of Surprises
There are some other pleasant surprises in the cast (including Benicio del Toro in a minor role), but the real highlight here is Timothy Dalton, who gives his James Bond more of the brooding intensity found in the original books by Ian Fleming. He spends more time cracking heads than cracking jokes, and he takes very clear pleasure in doling out pain to some of the worst people in the planet. In this way, Dalton is a very interesting precursor to Daniel Craig, whose era as Bond was famous for its more grim and gritty portrayal of 007.
License to Kill ended up earning $156.1 million against a budget of $32 million, which may seem like a solid profit on paper. However, after accounting for inflation, this was actually the least successful Bond movie ever made, one that featured strong competition from various box office bangers like Batman, Ghostbusters II, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the latter featuring original 007 actor Sean Connery. Because of this, producers took a break from making new Bond films for a few years before reinvigorating the franchise with GoldenEye (which starred Pierce Brosnan as a more affable secret agent) in 1995.
Shaken, Stirred, And Bleeding
When Licence to Kill came out, reviewers found it as enjoyable as a ride in an Aston Martin. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 79 percent rating, with critics praising Timothy Dalton’s Bond as more intense than any incarnation of the character we had seen before. While noting that his intensity and the film’s much darker tone may not be everyone’s cup of tea (or martini), the critics also praised this Bond film for a variety of chase and fight scenes that reliably keep you on the edge of your seat.
As the critics hinted at, how much you enjoy Licence to Kill will largely depend on what you want out of a James Bond film. Sean Connery originally transformed Bond’s more dour literary character into a lighthearted secret agent who was more interested in cracking dry jokes and bedding beauties than dispensing violence. By contrast, Dalton’s Bond is on a mission of righteous rage, and this permeates the mostly grim tone of an action film as unforgiving as it is unrelenting.
I’m also a big fan of the Ian Fleming Bond novels, and until Casino Royale came along, Licence to Kill was the only film in the franchise to capture the spirit of those books. In Fleming’s novels, 007 is not a flamboyant secret agent; rather, he is a cold and calculating government killer who can get surprisingly emotional when something bad happens to someone he cares about. In this sense, Dalton’s Bond is very book accurate, as he’s willing to forsake his entire career and risk multiple international incidents in order to avenge his friend.
The Darker Side Of 007
Personally, I’ve always found the darker tone of License to Kill part of its charm: it’s unlike any of the 007 films before Daniel Craig began playing Bond, and it’s actually better than most films in the Craig era. Plus, I found Roger Moore far too goofy as Bond, so I appreciated the seriousness of Dalton as a kind of course correction for the franchise. He wasn’t what ‘80s audiences wanted to see on the big screen, but now that Craig made the idea of a very serious Bond popular again, more and more fans of the franchise have rediscovered the joys of Dalton’s stone-cold killer version of 007 in Licence to Kill.
Licence to Kill nearly destroyed one of the most beloved movie franchises of all time, but beneath its bad reputation hides one of the best James Bond movies ever made. To discover what happens when Bond ditches the license but never stops killing, all you have to do is stream this blockbuster spy thriller on Netflix. You might not be all that shaken or stirred, but trust me: you’ll be seriously entertained from beginning to end!
Entertainment
AI stocks are cooling — this ChatGPT trading tool keeps delivering
TL;DR: A ChatGPT-powered investing platform that helps you find and manage stocks with clearer signals—lifetime access for a one-time $54.97.
Credit: Sterling Stock Picker
The AI trade has seemingly had its moment — big runs, big headlines, big expectations. The AI fun is not over by any means. But now that things are settling, the real question is what comes next?
Instead of chasing whatever’s trending, Sterling Stock Picker leans into a more grounded approach: using a ChatGPT-powered assistant (Finley) to help you understand what’s actually happening inside a stock. You can ask questions about companies, sectors, or your own portfolio and get explanations that are tied to real data — not just surface-level summaries.
Mashable Deals
It also handles the heavy lifting most people avoid. The platform analyzes financials, growth metrics, and risk, then surfaces signals like whether a stock is worth buying, holding, or avoiding. There’s even a “North Star” system that simplifies that call into something actionable.
Mashable Trend Report
If you’re building from scratch, there’s a done-for-you portfolio builder that aligns with your risk tolerance. If you already have positions, it can suggest adjustments based on your portfolio’s performance.
One thing that stands out is how it balances guidance with transparency. You’re not just handed picks — you can see the reasoning behind them, which matters if you’re trying to build a repeatable process.
Have a lifetime way to pressure-test your judgment — especially in a market that’s moving past hype and into something more selective.
Get lifetime access to the ChatGPT-driven Sterling Stock Picker while it’s on sale for a one-time $54.97 payment (reg. $486) through May 10.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
Get 2TB encrypted cloud storage and collaboration tools for just $112.49
TL;DR: Lifetime access to 2TB of secure Drime cloud storage is on sale for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99) through May 10.
$112.49
$299
Save $186.51
Cloud storage is one of those things that quickly turns into a monthly bill you forget about. That’s what makes a lifetime option like Drime worth a closer look.
You can currently get 2TB of storage for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99), which means no ongoing fees just to keep your files accessible.
Mashable Deals
But this isn’t just a place to dump files and forget about them. Drime leans more toward being a full workspace. You can upload, sync, and access files across devices, but also edit documents, leave comments, and collaborate with others without switching tools. It’s useful if you’re juggling projects, clients, or even just shared folders with family.
Security is a big part of the pitch. Files stored in the encrypted Vault are protected by end-to-end encryption, and everything is hosted in Europe in compliance with GDPR standards. This means your data isn’t floating around unsecured, and you have more control over who sees what.
There are also a lot of small quality-of-life features that make a difference over time — like version history for restoring older files, advanced link sharing with passwords and expiration dates, and even built-in e-signature tools.
It’s a simple way to get more control over your files without adding another monthly expense.
Mashable Deals
Get lifetime access to 2TB of Drime Cloud Storage for a one-time $112.49 (reg. $299.99) through May 10.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
The Bear still doesnt know how to write romance
Whenever The Bear introduces a new female character, I pray she doesn’t become a love interest for one of the male leads. Not because I hate romance, but because I specifically hate the way The Bear does romance.
The clearest offender is Carmy’s (Jeremy Allen White) relationship with Claire (Molly Gordon). A childhood friend who re-enters Carmy’s life, Claire is less a real human character than she is a walking self-help book for Carmy. She spends almost every moment she’s on screen talking about him: her memories of him, his mental health struggles, his relationship with his family. In theory, she has a life apart from Carmy — her defining character trait outside of being his girlfriend is vaguely “nurse” — but in watching The Bear, you wouldn’t know it.
Usually a great performer (see: Shiva Baby, Oh, Hi!, and more), Gordon is reduced to two modes here: luminous love interest hanging onto Carmy’s every word, or calming therapist. She’s not the only Bear character to meet this fate. As The Bear builds Ever staffer Jessica (Sarah Ramos) into a possible match for Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), it replaces her level-headed expertise with empty platitudes designed to ground him. (Season 4 line “honesty is sanity” made me want to drive my head through a wall.) Elsewhere, Richie’s ex-wife, Tiffany (Gillian Jacobs), acts as a similar pillar of support.
Their heads constantly askew, their eyes lit up in adoration, their mouths always ready to offer up an eager laugh or some cornball advice, these characters morph into The Bear‘s single idea of a Woman In Love. Now, The Bear‘s standalone episode “Gary” offers a new addition to this pantheon: Sherri (Marin Ireland) from Gary, Indiana.
Mashable Top Stories
Sherri is a woman whom Richie and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) meet at a bar while on a work trip to Gary. She immediately strikes up a rapport with Mikey, playing a private game of “Fact or Fiction” with him, listening to his complicated woes while nestled together in a bathroom stall, and stealing his beanie and wearing it like a middle schooler trying to get a rise out of a crush. It’s a level of blindly supportive compassion we haven’t seen since Claire Bear, and Ireland, typically a huge asset to any project, soon becomes trapped in The Bear‘s love interest archetype. (Someone please ban affectionate head tilts from the set of The Bear, effective immediately.)
While Sherri feels like she was meant to be a moment of bright connection in Mikey’s life, maybe even “the one that got away,” she really just comes across as an empty vessel for him to pour his trauma into. “What are you looking for, Michael?” she wonders. Later, when he asks permission to do a bump of cocaine, she simply responds, “I want you to be you.” It’s a series of faux-deep exchanges that even two great performers can’t sell. (It doesn’t help that Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach wrote the episode.)
That faux-deepness is what sinks The Bear‘s other romances, too. The show tries to force these deep, cosmic connections, but it forgets that these relationships should be a two-way street. Perhaps that’s why many viewers are drawn to shipping Carmy and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri). While the showrunners have affirmed that their relationship is platonic — and I personally agree with that choice — what sets this hypothetical pairing apart is that they each have such rich lives, both in their work together and their time apart. That’s because The Bear is invested in both of them as characters, rather than just using one as a device to unlock the other. You simply can’t say the same of The Bear‘s other romantic pairings, and the release of “Gary” further proves that romance is the recipe The Bear has yet to master.
“Gary” is now streaming on Hulu. The Bear Season 5 premieres this June on Hulu.
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