Review of A View to a Kill (1985) by Thomas D — 19 Jun 2011

A View to a Kill (1985).

Bond Week Continues with 'A View to a Kill'. You know, that one where Roger Moore fights Christopher Walken and Grace Jones because they are trying to blow up Silicon Valley? Yeah, I will forgive you if you never heard of it, because it is really, really cheesy. Where do I begin? Was it May-Day's hideous stare? Was it Max Zorin's (Christopher Walken) cooky plan to destroy silicon valley? Was it Roger Moore's wrinkles? What ever it was it made 1985's a View to a Kill one of the lamer outing for 007. The whole thing was slow paced and unenthuisiastic. The script felt thrown together and director John Glen just provided an unrecognized pace and view compared to previous directors like Guy Hamilton or Lewis Gilbert (The Spy Who Loved Me). A View to a Kill also lacked in the Q-gadget department a tad. The only memorable gadget was the ring-camera. There weren't ANY awesome Bond car's to be found anywhere in this movie!! The only car worth remembering is the Taxi that gets ripped in half that Bond keeps driving. No BMW's or Mercedes, or underwater Lotus' anywhere! The opening theme + song performed by Duran Duran wasn't the worst of the opening songs, but it isn't very memorable either. The only real interesting quality about this movie is Christopher Walken's always creepy and haunting presence which played out pretty well as an ex-KGB, 007 hating villian. Roger Moore's sluggish last performance as Bond was decent, but it definitely does not surpass his greater run's as 007 such as 'The Spy Who Loved Me' or 'Live and Let Die'.

Overall: Roger Moore could have very well retired as Agent 007 by this point in his career. This last movie just displayed a very aged Bond which takes away from the appeal just a bit. This is all purely opinion of course, but I highly doubt anybody would really care if this one were just removed from the collection and forgotten about. However since it is Roger Moore's seventh and last run as Bond I have to give him due credit and respect for his epic run as James Bond: 007.