Licence to Kill (soundtrack) version based on the James Bond Theme. The guitar riff heard in the original recording of the theme was played by Flick. The prospect, however, fell apart and Gladys Knight's song and performance was chosen, later becoming a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom. The song was composed by Narada Michael Walden, Jeffrey Cohen and Walter Afanasieff, based on the "horn line" from "Goldfinger", which required royalty payments to the original writers. At 5 minutes 13 seconds it is the longest Bond theme, though 45 single releases featured a shorter edit, running 4 minutes 11 seconds. The music video
Licence to Kill playful sparkle in his eyes, Timothy Dalton's Bond is ... serious here." Overall French called "Licence to Kill" "an entertaining, untaxing film". Ian Christie in the "Daily Express" excoriated the film, saying that the plot was "absurd but fundamentally dull", a further problem being that as "there isn't a coherent storyline to link [the stunts], they eventually become tiresome." Hilary Mantel in "The Spectator" dismissed the film. "It is a very noisy film. There is a weary and repetitive note to the frenzy. The sex is low key and off-screen but there is a smirking perverse undertow which makes the