Variety by Staff (Not Credited)

The James Bond production team has found its second wind with Licence to Kill, a cocktail of high-octane action, spectacle and drama...The thrills-and-spills chases are superbly orchestrated as pic spins at breakneck speed through its South Florida and Central American locations.

Chicago Tribune by Dave Kehr

If Licence to Kill has one of Bond`s best heavies, it also has one of his best heroines in Carey Lowell, a strapping brunet who plays an ex-Army pilot reluctantly enrolled on Bond`s side. Lowell`s line readings may be only adequate, but she moves with the grace and vigor an action movie needs.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

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.

Los Angeles Times by Michael Wilmington

The series has been with us since 1962 and, like many another old timer, tends to repeat itself. Yet, every once in a while, it pulls in its stomach, pops the gun from its cummerbund, arches its eyebrow and gets off another bull's-eye. The newest, Licence to Kill, is probably one of the five or six best of Bond.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

Not since Dr. No has 007 been so cool and ruthless, and never has a plot been this close to realistic plausibility.

Philadelphia Daily News by Gary Thompson

One of the best of the 16 Bond films, thanks to Dalton's athletic, tough and deadly new 007.

IGN

If Licence to Kill added more than just scenes with Q to lighten the load, if it provided a love interest as compelling as Vesper and more engaging than Lowell's whiny Pam Bouvier, this Bond could have been one of the instant greats, instead of one that is better appreciated with age. The movie is not perfect, but a lot of what works now in the series got its start in Dalton's last mission as James Bond.

Newsweek by Jack Kroll

A pure, rousingly entertaining action movie which makes it clear that "binary oppositions" are good guys vs. bad guys and "ideological meanings" are us vs. them[17 July 1989, p.52]

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

Despite some shaky narrative continuity and muddled motivations, this manages to move pretty briskly, and the action sequences are generally well handled, especially at the climax.

IGN by Phil Perrello

If Licence to Kill added more than just scenes with Q to lighten the load, if it provided a love interest as compelling as Vesper and more engaging than Lowell's whiny Pam Bouvier, this Bond could have been one of the instant greats, instead of one that is better appreciated with age. The movie is not perfect, but a lot of what works now in the series got its start in Dalton's last mission as James Bond.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Desmond Ryan

Licence to Kill continues the salvage operation begun in The Living Daylights and rescues a series that was in danger of shooting itself in the foot.

Washington Post by Desson Thomson

But this cruise is also a gruesome one. You may find yourself shaken -- not stirred -- by the screenwriting cruelty and cynicism behind the 16th "Bond."

TV Guide Magazine

Hardcore Bond fans may be dismayed by some of the changes, but no one can deny that the action scenes staged by director John Glen are some of the most spectacular of the entire series and well worth the price of admission.

Time Out London

Not as witty as The Living Daylights, but it doesn't let the audience down in the arena of effects, gadgetry, and locations.

The New York Times by Caryn James

For all its clever updatings, stylish action and witty escapism, Licence to Kill is still a little too much by the book. Mr. Dalton is perfectly at home as an angry Bond, and as a romantic lead and as an action hero, but he never seems to blend any two of those qualities at once.

Empire

He may look the part, but Timothy Dalton fails the boots, the scuba gear, or the automobiles left him by Moore and Connery.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Drab in the extreme. Timothy Dalton's second and wheezing, final turn as 007 was barely recognizable as a Bond film.