Movie Notes: A View To A Kill
= 3 stars
Starring Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Grace Jones
Directed by John Glen
Roger Moore (James Bond)
Tanya Roberts (Stacey Sutton)
Grace Jones (May Day)
I still found the decidedly eighties entry in the James Bond Franchise, A View To A Kill enjoyable, despite its cheesy, made for television vibe. I also must plead guilty to some personal bias — the setting is Silicon Valley, with some scenes occurring in San Francisco proper (Fisherman’s Wharf, the Civic Center, and a hatchet-battle atop the Golden Gate Bridge). I work right across the street from Pier 39, so seeing some parts of The City I’ve walked through, held my interest during some admittedly lame plot turns. The Duran Duran theme song is also cool.
Another bonus is Christopher Walken as a better-than-usual nemesis, entrepreneur Max Zorin, with an evil doomsday plot to create a gigantic Bay Area earthquake and destroy Silicon Valley’s microchip manufacturing, therefore boosting the worth of technology company, Zorin Industries. James Bond (Roger Moore) is dispatched to stop him.
Despite the neat locales and a decent adversary, many other stock Bond elements aren’t in such great form. Moore is so old (this was his final outing as Bond) that he may have been better off playing M, Q, or even Miss Moneypenny. The Bond girls aren’t so fine either, with the bizarre May Day (Grace Jones) dying in an almost laughable manner, and a rather unimpressive Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts) and her rock-salt packed shotgun. Meanwhile, Jenny Flex (Allison Doody) is sadly wasted.
The plot also plays out in a simple, linear fashion, essentially no different from an average action flick. It also contains an unusually high level of gratuitous violence. Two people are killed in the back of a car, a bunch of cop vehicles pile up trying to jump a drawbridge, someone is chopped up by an underwater fan, and Christopher Walken guns down his underlings at the bottom of a mine, chuckling like a mafioso — this film is certainly in the “kill and ask questions later” mode. It’s about as far from the espionage, secretive Sean Connery era James Bond yet (well, except for Moonraker).
So because I was entertained by aspects of A View To A Kill film that had nothing to do with Bond, I have to place this movie in that middle ground (once again) among Roger Moore Bond films — better than Moonraker but not as good as For Your Eyes Only. It’s on the same level as Octopussy.
IMDB: A View To A Kill
Wikipedia: A View To A Kill
Next Bond Movie: The Living Daylights
Previous Bond Movie: Octopussy
the duran duran song for this film is ace
i like that song too. How many times have Duran Duran broken up and gotten back together since then? Are they still around…?
Roger Moore was getting old when he did this one. I liked Christopher Walken as the villain. The plot was alright. The fight on the Golden Gate bridge was cool. The Bond song was good. Good Movie and Roger Moore to old.
A lot of commentators on The Best And Worst James Bond Films thought this movie should have been one of the worst. I’m inclined to agree…
I loved the music and Christopher Walken’s performance. It’s too bad the rest of the movie was weak because it could have been awesome. View To A Kill is the best Bond song IMHO.
True, and I noticed with many of the James Bond films, certain aspects were good but many others lacking.
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This movie should really have been directed by Chuck Jones, at least then it could have received the ‘cartoon’ treatment it deserved. In fact, this is so wilfully silly that for sheer ‘throw yer brain out the window and you’ll be entertained’ value it is one crucial rung above the more ‘serious’ Moonraker.
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A View To A Kill is probably one of my favourite James Bond films. Roger Moore for me is the best actor to portray the fictional character because he is clever and very sophisticated, just like what Ian Fleming tried to create. This makes it believeable when he out wits the villain Max Zorin and his companion May Day. May Day is a scary looking female but she is meant to represent the evil through her appearance. Max Zorin is meant to look like a nut case. The bond girl Stacey Sutton is only a geologist and so knows nothing about the use of fire arms. In parts of the film her acting is a little bad but you have to think that she is a person that isn’t use to the kind of situations that she gets brought into! Realising that her partner in business (Max Zorin) has turned mad and is now setting about mass murder, she then teams up with James Bond to stop the mad man from succeding with his fiendish plot! The film is packed with action and thrills! I really enjoy the film cause not only is it entertaining but it’s a classic!