A View to a Kill

Highly entertaining Bond movie

Surprisingly serious Bond movie has Roger Moore step up to the plate for the last time as 007 - this time tackling none other than a psychotic Christopher Walken.

One of the better entries, this film has it all - action, humour, beautiful locales, sexy ladies, a scary villain, great stunt work, a classic theme song and of course, the legendary Roger Moore as James Bond.

It's a shame that Barbara Broccoli threw all of this classic Bond fun down the toilet in 2006. Bond has always been silly and, sadly, the 2006 reboot has thrown it all away and has no rewatchbility.

Not as good as the previous four, but still a solid Bond film with Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts and Grace Jones

A mission in wintery Siberia leads Agent 007 (Roger Moore) to globetrot from England to Paris to San Francisco and Silicon Valley investigating a horse-racing scam and the psychopathic entrepreneur, Max Zorin (Christopher Walken), who schemes to flood Silicon Valley for the purpose of creating a global microchip monopoly.

This was Moores last of 7 Bond films from 1973-1985 and its a solid Bond flick, just not up to the exceptionalness of the previous four films: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Octopussy (1983). Just as For Your Eyes Only toned down the excesses of Moonraker, ...

Walken, right, you can sit back and watch A View to a Kill because of Walken.

But let's be honest, he is the ONLY reason that you can sit back and finish this. The 70s, by 1985, were long over and Moore was clearly the 70s era 007. The mood, the atmosphere, the silliness, the feel of 007 needed to change and we still had 70s Bond in 85.

And then, Moore himself looked kind of like Bond in his 70s. He was far too old for the role. Too old to be believable as a super spy. Too old fit the part, and needed to pass on the mantel a few films ago.

By 85 the Silly Bond Era needed to end. They needed a new 007, and this, and Moore, just didn't work any more.

They tried hard to make this the worst movie ever. They at least made it the worst Bond movie ever by not only making it dull, without motivation, without strategy, without inspiration, without wit, but also by giving it the dumbest title ever (what is a "view to a kill"?) and the absolute worst theme song ever. A theme song that sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard, and that's the truth. It's the worst song Duran Duran ever did. It might be noted that no male artist should ever do a Bond song. The results are terrible. But it's mostly because the songs are written for a product instead of being inspired. Now, the story. Well, it begins with the issue of poorly bred horses being genetically maneuvered, which mirrored the actual event...

Roger Moore's last outing as 007 is his weakest. This story that Christopher Walker "Zorin" plans to dominate the world micro-chip industry by destroying California's silicon valley takes the franchise just a shade beyond credible. Whilst Grace Jones "May Day" is lithe and beautiful, she has no subtlety or panache and Walken hasn't the script or the charisma to do justice to his role as the megalomanic industrialist. Moore tries his best, and with early appearances by Patrick Macnee there is a semblance of some of the style of films gone before; but as it develops this is all - except, perhaps, the "butterfly act" about large scale photography and product placement. Duran Duran & John Barry got a Golden Globe for the title song, but that is probably the only highlight for me...