A View to a Kill (1985) User Reviews

Moore was a likable hero who softened the menace saving the world seven times with charm, intelligence, and great dialog

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 7/10 · 7 August 2005]

"A View to a Kill" is a true remake of "Goldfinger." Let's start with the villain and his scheme… The villain, Max Zorin (Christopher Walken), is a true and exact copy of Auric Goldfinger… He owns a stud farm, and wins horse races by cheating... He is the European outsider who plans to wipe out a massive American resource, thus increasing the value of his own stockpiled wealth…His lust for power are greater than his loyalty to a lover…

Disco diva Grace Jones took the role of May Day, Zorin's natural born killer… May Day's leap off the top of the Eiffel Tower is a fine moment in best Bond tradition…This statuesque Jamaican woman—with sharp-cut hair to enhance her profile—is cast as a horse-taming, Kickboxing American who, according to Q, 'must take a lot of vitamins.' Nevertheless, at the film's climax, she retained a few shreds of humanity…

The film opens on an icy Siberian shore, where Bond recovers a microchip from the body of 003, driving back a party of Russian militiamen in his flight back to a British submarine disguised as an ice floe and controlled by blonde compatriot Kimberley Jones (Mary Stavin). The location chosen is both arresting and well-photographed enough to distinguish itself…

Bond is alerted to Zorin's intentions while investigating how the Russians have managed to duplicate a secret microchip resistant to damage caused by the magnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion… The technology has been leaked to the KGB following Zorin's purchase of the research company that developed the chip…

Tanya Roberts—who had joined the cast of television detective series Charlie's Ange1s in 1980—is cast for the role of Stacey Sutton, the beautiful blond geologist and heiress who results a vital assistance to 007 in unraveling the details of Zorin's scheme to detonate a bomb in one of his mines and create a cataclysmic earthquake…

"A View to a Kill" represents the farewell of Lois Maxwell who appeared as Miss Moneypenny for over 20 years of loyal secretarial service, and a unique claim to have featured in every Bond film… The motion picture also concludes Roger Moore's activities for over a decade in Bond adventures…In all his Bond's movies, Moore was a likable hero who softened the menace saving the world seven times with charm, intelligence, and great dialog… However action sequences lost their deadly flavor and took on a madcap flavor… In battles with characters such as J. W. Pepper, Nick Nack, Jaws, and May Day, it was hard to keep too straight a face—and Bond didn't

Has all the elements of a decent Bond

[CrazyArty · 7/10 · 17 July 2022]

James Bond sets out to stop a psychopathic business man and a successful horse breeder. Stars Roger Moore and Christopher Walken.

Moore was clearly too old for this role but the film has all the elements of a great Bond film. An excellent villain in Walken, a dastardly plot, beautiful girls and amazing locations.

A lot of fun. Grace Jones is a great henchman.

Walken saves an otherwise forgettable Bond tale

[Reef-Shark · 6/10 · 30 April 2009]

I can say I am a Bond fan, seeing as I own twenty of the twenty-two movies currently on DVD (as of writing this review). So far the only film I haven't enjoyed in the series has been Roger Moore's Moonraker, just because of the over the top silliness and the obvious sell-out to appeal to moviegoers who had just seen Star Wars.

Upon seeing 'A View to a Kill' I instantly was prepared for the worst, and let me tell you this certainly is a bad Bond film. Moore is showing his obvious age, making the relations with his leading ladies undeniably awkward, to say the least. The plot is as simple as they come, and none of the actors are really given any chance with the dialogue they have been given. Moore has very few witty comments in this movie, and most of the other characters are cardboard cut outs.

One thing however manages to make this film better than Moonraker. This is the under-appreciated role of Max Zorin, played by the always wonderful Christopher Walken. I can say without a doubt in my mind that Walken is the single saving grace in this film, exhibiting everything any good Bond villain needs.

Exotic locations: Check! Unique henchmen/henchwoman: Check! Surrounded by beautiful girls: Check Cold and ruthless attitude: Double check! Heartless and chilling disregard for henchmen life: CHECK Walken, with a horrid script (every character in this movie is poorly written) is able to create one of the best Bond villains I've ever seen! The way he talks, the way he acts, everything he does showcases his undeniable talent. So for a movie like 'A View to a Kill' Walken's performance is like shifting through sewage and finding a large diamond ring.

It is because of Walken that I recommend this movie and give it a relatively good rating. Everything else about this film is really forgettable. You'd think a super-strong female henchwoman would make for a memorable moment in the franchise, but this is so poorly handled that she winds up as one of the most forgettable characters in the series, as opposed to one of the best.

Roger Moore, unfortunately, ends his career on Bond in perhaps his own worst performance, which is undeniably sad. It seems that all Bond actors seem to end their careers on the lowest of their films (Connery with 'Diamonds are Forever', Brosnan with 'Die Another Day', and though Dalton was a great Bond, I have to say 'License to Kill' was a weak film) but with those films it has always been more the scripts fault, as opposed to the actor's talent (all three tried their best with the material). Moore is just plain stiff in his last entry! The man seems to have totally lost interest in playing the character by this point.

I consider 1979's 'Moonraker' Moore's worst, but like 'Diamonds are Forever', and 'Die Another Day', Moonraker was more the fault of the script writers; not the Bond actor. In 'A View to a Kill' Moore really shows that he is no longer capable of playing the part, and that is the saddest part of the film (especially seeing Moore seducing girls much younger than himself, with his developing turkey neck becoming quite obvious). Walken makes the movie an enjoyable, B-grade action movie, but as for Bond, this is where it becomes an undeniable fact that Moore has overstayed his welcome as Agent 007.

Moore deserved a better ending, and the fact is that he just shouldn't have come back for this film. Octopussy may have actually been a decent departure, but Moore decided to try one last time and it really is the straw that breaks the Moore Bond's back. Enough was enough, and Moore failed to recognize when he should have cried "when!" I give this film a decent rating for the performance of Christopher Walken, but everything else is very low, and forgettable. Go and see it for Walken, but it is sad to see Moore's finally desperate breaths as he tries to keep the character going one last time.

Roger Moore's last outing as Bond

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 21 June 2012]

This instalment in the Bond franchise opens with 007 in Siberia retrieving a silicon chip from the frozen body of 003; of course he then has to escape across the ice on skis, a snowmobile, a makeshift snowboard and finally a boat disguised to look like a small iceberg! We soon learn that the chip recovered from Siberia matched those made by a government contractor recently taken over by Zorin Industries. Bond is given to job of investigating Zorin; a task that takes him to France where Zorin is holding a horse sale. Bond learns that Zorin is stockpiling silicon chips but at this point he has no idea why. The only real lead he finds there is a cheque written to a Stacey Sutton, Californian woman for five million dollars. It is at this point that the viewer learns his plans... he is intending to destroy Silicon Valley to give him and his associates a monopoly in silicon chip supply. Bond heads to California where he learns that Zorin is pumping sea water into a series of oil wells. He is initially told that this is routine to test the pipes but when he finds Stacey she tells him that Zorin has been trying to force her to sell her family's oil well and that pumping water into the wells is dangerous as they are on a fault. It turns out he plans to flood both the Heywood and San Andreas Faults while simultaneously blowing up the location that prevents both of them having earthquakes at the same time... Bond and Stacey only have a limited time to prevent to flooding of Silicon Valley and the drowning of hundreds of thousands of people.

As with the other Roger Moore era Bond Films this one contains many elements that are fairly silly; whether that makes them more entertaining or just annoying will depend on the viewer... a case in point is the use of the song 'California Girls' as Bond 'surfs' on a makeshift snowboard in the opening scenes; personally I thought that was rather fun but I know others disagree. Christopher Walken who played the psychotic Zorin made an entertaining if somewhat OTT villain and Grace Jones was good as his Amazonian assistant May Day; although better when doing action scenes than when talking! Roger Moore once again put in a fun performance as Bond although by now he was getting a little old for the role. It wouldn't be a Bond film without exciting stunts in impressive locations; these included having Bond chase May Day in a stolen taxi as she parachuted from the Eiffel Tower; Bond fleeing from the police in a huge stolen fire engine and finally a fight on the top of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. It could be argued that the plot has been taken straight from 'Goldfinger'; right down to killing the 'investor' who decides not to proceed when he learns just what the villain is planning, while this is a fair argument I don't think it spoilt the film, even if it is not in the same league as the earlier film. Overall this was a decent final Bond film for Roger Moore although it is far from his best; still it is a fun way to pass a couple of hours on a rainy afternoon!

A View to a Kill

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 7 July 2012]

A View to a Kill is considered bad Bond and propelled Moore out of the role he had occupied for over a decade. With a great title song from Duran Duran, the film has a unique if rather unspectacular plot (Christopher Walkin, with blond-dyed hair and sociopathic, cold-blooded method of conducting business, plans to use an earthquake to submerge Silicon Valley under water so he can take full control of the microchip industry). Walkin's Max Zorin is assisted by titanic model May Day (Grace Jones) who can lift people in the air, throwing them around like rag dolls, and is not afraid to kill for her man when needed. Tanya Roberts is a geologist (!!!) whose father once owned an oil plant Zorin stole from her, fighting him in the courts which has taken practically everything but her mansion. Patrick Macnee has a nice part as a field operative, Sir Godfrey Tibbett, who goes undercover as Bond's chauffeur, both trying to figure out what Zorin plans to do. With locations in Paris and San Francisco primarily, Bond will wind up trying to halt a bomb set in a cave near the San Andreas Fault, hang from a rope dangling from Zorin's blimp, and battle Zorin on the Golden Gate Bridge. Patrick Bauchau's Scarpine is Zorin's right-hand man, as psychopathic as his boss is. When Zorin floods the cave where the workers had been setting the explosives, he and Scarpine machine gun them all who attempt to escape from out of harm's way! Hell, Walken's Zorin laughs while shooting them as pleas of help spray out across the entire cave! Jones makes a sacrifice when Zorin betrays her, Bond gets plenty of action (not just from Walken's cronies, but with the girls, Roberts, Fiona Fullerton (as the foxy Russian agent Pola Ivanova), and even Jones!), and the climax is quite the bonafide stunner (the Golden Gate Bridge, quite a place for the hero and villain to duel, don't you think?). There's plenty of plot centered around the horse track (Zorin's is an aficionado of horses, and his mentor and "creator", a Nazi who was performing experiments on women to see if they could perfect a genius race, is using steroids on thoroughbreds) and stuntmen are put to good use as Moore's no spring chicken by this point. I didn't have the least bit of problem with Moore, here, as Never Say Never Again will attest to, an actor can remain in a part a little too long and strain credibility as a chick magnet, particularly when you see him in scenes next to the much younger Roberts. Roberts is eye candy, but her part is similar in acceptability as Denise Richards' role was in a later Pierce Brosnan Bond vehicle. Moore's chase of Jones through Paris in a car that takes a licking and keeps ticking with just two tires left and half a torso gone once he reaches her to a boat, unable to reach her is quite a stunt sequence.

This Film is often Under-Rated, Better Than others over Time

[DKosty123 · 6/10 · 26 August 2005]

While Ian Fleming created a great character in 007, time is wilting away the logic to a lot of the plots to the early films in this series. While this one still has touches of the Cold War Theme, the plot actually holds up better over time than some of the other films. In fact, this film does very well with the location shots being scenic including the Eifel Tower & Golden Gate Bridge in the same film.

Even though Flemming's material is long gone by this time the plot in this film actually holds together quite well. Actually, in a way the plot borrows on the plot of Goldfinger replacing Gold with sand. This does hold the film together quite well. The biggest problem with this film is Tanya Roberts, on my list the second worst Bond girl. Trouble is there is nothing good to balance her here & since her poor performance dominates the film, we are stuck with her here.

(In case your wondering, the worst Bond Girl of the entire series is Lynn-Holly Johnson. In FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, Lynn proved she can't act, & couldn't even be a believable skater even though in real life she is one. Carol Bouquet balances her off because she is one of the best Bond women ever, because without her, Lynn would have killed the series off for Moore sooner.) Christopher Walken is good as the heavy in this. Grace Jones does a good turn as "Mayday" also.

Roberts is the reason this ended Roger Moore's reign as 007. Maybe this is a good thing, but I wish they could re-shoot it with another better actress (not Johnson) because this film is good. The scenery is good, and the rest of the cast brings this off well. The stunts in this one are top notch too. This film grows on you when you watch it. There are times when Moore's advanced age shows up plainly though.

Seventh and last Bond-Moore entry with suspense, intrigue and unstopped action

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 20 June 2007]

James Bond -Roger Moore- in his last appearance, the first was ¨Live and let Die¨ . This new mission takes him to France and USA ,where he must fight the stylish villainous Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). After an impressive adventure in the Arctic , extravagant agent OO7 is assigned by MI6 : M (Bernard Lee), Minister of Defence (Geoffrey Keen) , Q (Desmond LLewelyn) , to a dangerous mission , concerning microchips : It's a silicon integrate circuit essential to all modern computers , and until recently , all microchips were susceptible to damage from the intense magnetic pulse of a nuclear explosion . One burst in outer space over UK and everything with a microchip in it , from the modern toaster to sophisticated computers and the defence systems would be rendered absolutely useless . UK would be paralysed at the Russians mercy , that's why one of the private defence contractor , came up with this : a chip totally impervious to magnetic pulse damage . Placed on the micro-comparator and compared with the chip Bond recovered from the body of 003 in Siberia , bringing the two images together resulted are identical , six months ago a company was acquired by an Anglo-French combine , Zorin industries . Max Zorin is a perfect baddie, here is his biography (the film warns neither the name nor any other character is meant to portray a real company or actual person) : Born in Dresden , fled from East Germany in the sixties , ex-KGB agent , nowadays is immensely rich , he actually is a product of a genetic Nazi experiment , French passport , he's a leading French industrialist , a staunch anti-communist with influential friends in the government,speak at least five-languages , no accent , now he deals the Bourse and the City, made his first fortune in oil and gas and second in electric and hi-tech . Zorin celebrates a reunion with magnates , he explains them ¨the project main strike¨aboard a private blimp, they pay 100 million dollars , except one , who will be rewarded with unfortunate finale .Other characters are as follows : Stacey Sutton (a beauty Tanya Roberts) , a geologist in charge of supervision oil refineries , she discovers the Zorin plan : a bomb explosion and originate an earthquake destroying California's Silicon Valley . May Day (Grace Jones) , she's an art martial expert , similar Zorin , her origin is a genetic programme . Scarpine (Patrick Bauchau) is the Zorin's chief security , he's as baddie as him . Sir Godfrey Tibbett (Patrick Mcnee : Avengers) , MI6 agent accompanies to Bond , he's disguised as a chauffeur to enter the Zorin's properties .

Besides , there shows up habitual in Bond series : Louis Maxwell (MonneyPenny) , Geoffrey Keen , Desmond Llewellyn , Walter Gotell (General Gogol) and , adding , the gorgeous Bond girls : Fiona Fullerton , Alison Doody (Indiana Jones and the last Crusade) , among others . The highlights of the film are the following ones : the breathtaking May Day scape in parachute with pursuit by Bond , the horse races with continuous set ups against OO7 ; the Town Hall's burning with risked rescue of Stacey Sutton by James Bond , and, of course , the confrontation-denouement over San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge and fighting on a dirigible . The film contains action-packed , apocalyptic and overwhelming scenarios along with the typically glossy ingredients of the series , but Roger Moore looks a little boring , in fact it results to be his Bond's last film . It packs colorful , spectacular cinematography by Alan Hume and appropriate -as usual- musical score by John Barry . Main title song is catching and performed by Duran Duran . The motion picture was professionally directed by John Glen .

Most underrated of the series

[dieseldemon85 · 10/10 · 20 August 2019]

Not sure why this one gets so much hate. Rating a Bond movie is subjective. Everyone has their personal favorite and this one is mine. Everyone discusses Roger's age and say he was too old for Bond. I disagree, I think as he got older his Bond movies were better. I don't want to give too much away, aside for having the best Bond, you have Christopher Walken playing psycho to the max. Also Grace Jones,and Tanya Roberts who was the girl next door of the Bond girls. Sure she was a bit screamy at times but not her fault alot of females parts were written that way in the 80's. Duran Duran had the best song until Skyfall ,and John Barry produced the best musical score since On her Majesty's secret service (1969). Look for the City Hall scene where Bond climbs down the ladder, with the instrumental version playing in background, has always stood out in mind. This film is different from the other Moore films, he plays it serious and it works well just like in For your eyes only. It really is a good film to kick back with some popcorn on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon. If your one of the haters, go back a re-watch,and look for the other positives I described.

Roger and Out

[kenjha · 6/10 · 4 September 2009]

The 14th entry in the series marks the last appearance of Moore, who definitely looks like he is ready to be put out to pasture. However, the old man doesn't get any help from the script, which is uninteresting and overlong. This has the typical plot of a villain with a grand scheme - this time to take control of Silicon Valley. Walken is kind of fun to watch as the villain, evil laugh and all. Although pretty, Roberts has no discernible acting talent or charm. Jones is simply weird. It's nice to see Macnee still at it so many years after "The Avengers." Besides Moore's farewell, this film also marks the last appearance of Maxwell as Moneypenny.

Worst Moore film. One of the worst in the series.

[QoS007 · 2/10 · 9 July 2008]

Where to begin with this travesty of a Bond film...

I'll start by mentioning the one good point of the film. I rather enjoyed the opening theme by Duran Duran, even though I strongly disliked the visual aspect of it.

Easily one of the worst Bond films in history, AVTAK accomplished the same thing that Connery and Brosnan's last films did for them.

With Moore now into his late 50's, we see that he should have called it quits with Octopussy or even For Your Eyes Only. The films starts off with one of the absolute worst sequences with Bond 'snow surfing' to the song of California Girls. I would ask the producers what they were thinking when they decided to have an almost 60 year old looking Bond try to pull off stunts that most 30 year old can't pull off, but I'm sure they are thinking that already. Also, where is the classic Bond score during a scene like this??? What an abomination. I would discuss Bond's escape into a miniature submarine disguised as an iceberg, but I would rather not have you think about it.

I won't go into great detail concerning the plot, because I feel like it isn't even worth mentioning. With some Bond films I can easily say that the plot was a great idea, but poorly conceived. This is not one of those times. The plot is extremely choppy, campy, and drags in almost every scene. From beginning to end I kept thinking to myself: 1) Is it really getting this much worse? 2) How is it possible that they messed up a Bond movie like this after two great films back-to-back? The climax, or lack there of, was short and completely loony. Watching 57 year old Moore playing Bond in some of the most overblown stunts in the franchise's history was more than laughable. I was more than happy when the credits started to roll.

Even though Christopher Walken is a great actor, he played one of the worst Bond villains. He mannerisms and overall appearance were frustrating and ill-timed. Grace Jones, while quite gritty in AVTAK, ended up falling short as well. The one thing that prevents me from watching this movie entirely anymore, is Tanya Roberts as Stacey Hutton. Again, why would the producers allow the footage that they shot of her to even enter into a theater? Her constant shrieking and crying is worse than that of a 2 year old. She played no part in Bond's mission and was a complete hindrance.

2/10

Who car-jacks a snowmobile, taxi cab, fire truck, and blimp . . .

[pixrox1 · 8/10 · 31 July 2014]

. . . all in the same movie? Bond. James Bond, that's who. He also steals a horse, shoots down a helicopter, invents snow boarding, hijacks a truck full of dynamite, jams a drilling rig, replays the "inside job" massacre at San Francisco's City Hall, crashes a wedding, bests Evel Knievel's top vehicle jump, straddles the point of the TransAmerica Building, and saves Silicon Valley. (Almost sounds like Bauer. Jack Bauer.) Roger Moore is back for his seventh and final crack at Bond. Though Electro-Magnetic Pulse resistant (or EMP-proof) microchips are the initial "MacGuffin" of this yarn, that tech angle is soon dropped in favor of rehashing the same storyline of the previous Bond flick, OCTOPU$$Y. The renegade Russian is reduced in rank from "General" Orlov to "Agent" Zorin. Since Orlov never had his own blimp, Christopher Walken as "Zorin" probably doesn't feel too slighted here. Grace Jones essentially plays Wonder Woman, and blows up on the screen big-time. As Bond says to the "Stacy Sutton" character during their joint effort at water conservation, "That's not the soap!"

View to a kill..

[alexx668 · 6/10 · 6 December 2008]

"A View To A Kill" usually gets a lot of flak, but criticizing a larger-than-life action flick (as James Bond usually is) is like criticizing a hamburger, or any other mass product. It's no Mona Lisa and it's not meant to be. And to be honest, even the Mona Lisa is not the masterpiece it's made to be. -)

OK, so there are serious considerations about the film. And it's not so much that Roger Moore looks old, but rather that he *acts* old. Gone is the exuberance and youthful spirit of previous Moore Bonds. Moore seems tired and unenthusiastic, as if going through the motions, as if he doesn't care anymore. He doesn't convince.

Pace-wise, there's a serious flat spot early on and it lasts for a long time. It simply is boring from the moment Bond enters the Zorin residence trying to find out about any wrongdoings and about until Tanya Roberts enters the frame. It's not helped by the plot either: ex KGB agent/ specimen turned microchip businessman trying to take over the market by blowing up Silicon Valley. It could be better, much better.

What literally saves the film is the two stunning action sequences in the second half. First we got Moore and Roberts' narrow escape, leading to one of the best Bond car-chases ever. In a fire-truck of all vehicles! With Moore hanging from the extending ladder!! And then the spectacular Golden Gate Bridge sequence, brilliantly directed - is it a first for John Glen?

So, among the best Bonds this is not, but a nice farewell from Mr. Moore all the same.

The pits.

[evearden · 1/10 · 6 June 2011]

The absolute worst Bond.

Commits the worst possible crime for an 007 movie: it's BORING!

The worst script, the worst acting, the worst stunts, the worst sets, the worst title sequence, the worst action... Anyone who likes this film has no idea about what is necessary to make a decent film, let alone a good Bond.

Nothing to recommend it except an o.k.(not great) Duran Duran theme song which sounds much better later in the film arranged by John Barry for a (dreadful) love scene.

I don't blame the actors - their task was impossible.

I DO blame the scriptwriter and the director. I couldn't believe Richard Maibaum was involved as he had written a lot of good Bonds. I can only presume that the co-writers did the bulk of the work. John Glen is a journeyman director who had nowhere to hide with such pathetic material.

And Glen claimed the "credit" for using 'California Girls' in the opening scene. That adds one final "worst" achievement by being the worst-ever song placement in a film.

How did the series survive this turkey?

Under-rated Bond entry.

[barnabyrudge · 2 October 2003]

A View To A Kill seems to get more than its fair share of criticism. Often it is labelled the weakest of the Bond entries, but I don't think this is particularly true. Personally, I don't even rate it as the poorest of Roger Moore's Bond outings, with Moonraker and The Man With the Golden Gun standing out in my memeory as less memorable escapades than this one.

It's Moore's final appearance as 007, and he is trying to prevent a psychotic business magnate, Max Zorin (Walken) from destroying Silicon Valley and cornering the world electronic market all for himself. To make matters worse, Zorin is not your average adversary, since he was born as the result of a Nazi doctor's scientific tamperings resulting in him being hyper-intelligent but also uncontrollably murderous. The mission takes Bond from Zorin's French chateau, to San Francisco, and ultimately to an abandoned mine close to Silicon Valley, where Zorin plans to detonate a bomb which will trigger a cataclysmic earthquake.

The set pieces are memorable, including a parachute pursuit from the Eiffel Tower, a fire engine chase around the hilly streets of San Francisco, and an airship crash on the Golden Gate bridge. Moore looks a bit old for the part, and his sexual humour bears a greater emphasis than usual of the "dirty old man" baggage. However, he still has an easy-going charisma and good comic timing. Walken makes for a good, supremely confident villain, and is well backed by the fearsome Grace Jones. However, Tanya Roberts Bond girl character is whining and screaming so much in this film that she eventually wears out her welcome. The theme song from Duran Duran is rather too '80s, but the instrumental music by John Barry is stirring and dramatic.

I'm not sure what all the disappointment is about. A View To A Kill is an above average Bond flick with plenty to keep you entertained.

Standard Bond film

[welhof1 · 7/10 · 21 August 2022]

This was much like it's predecessors, good and safe and was fun to watch. It was pretty violent too. This maybe had the most villainous villain yet! He was ruthless. I miss the gadgets and spy cars. We're these a new thing to the bond movies? Moore was good. I think I may like him more than Connery? This was his last film as Bond. We'll see how Dalton does.

In a high style Bond's adventure to say goodbye to charming Roger Moore!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 4 October 2020]

Ian Fleming's 007 amplified so much his adventures in large scale like that, in his farewell as Bond who already was too old for the role Roger Moore did a good job, the plot is inventive to 007's pattern, to play the villain they bring the upward actor Christopher Walken as Max Zorin a supposed hybrid man created by a Nazi mind Dr. Carl Mortner (Willoughby Grey), actually Zorin is a maniac who want overpower the cybernetic world flooding the Silicon valley at San Francisco, also the casting is utterly dazzling with the exotic black Panther May Day (Grace Jones) the angelical prettiness of Stacey (Tanya Roberts), the priceless humor gave by Tibbety (Patrick Macnee) just named a few, attached a hand-picked gorgeous spots to shooting, as the iconic iron Eiffel tower, as the flamboyant Chantilly Racecourse and San Francisco's trademark the Golden Gate Bridge to outcome of the picture, rocked by a great score music of Duran Duran, 007 never will lose its alluring adventures, those movies are pristine entertainment that grows agelessly, due has a magic portion that enchants everybody, don't expect veracity or art proposition, just fun, fully festooned by lovely Bond girls and their devilish enemies!!

Resume:

First watch: 1997 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Blu-Ray / Rating: 7.5

There is one obstacle - Sillicon Valley in San Francisco.

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 8 July 2012]

A View to a Kill is directed by John Glen and adapted to screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson from an Ian Fleming short story titles From a View to a Kill. It stars Roger Moore, Tanya Roberts, Christopher Walken, Patrick Macnee, Grace Jones and David Yip. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Alan Hume.

Bond 14 and 007 is assigned to investigate millionaire industrialist and race horse owner Max Zorin, who MI6 suspect is selling critical microchip information to the Soviets.

It was touch and go if Roger Moore would carry out his intention to quit the franchise, as it happened he slotted into the tux for one last time. A mistake, for although A View to a Kill is hardly the runt of the Bond litter, it's a very lazy Bond movie, one that desperately tries to hide its laziness with production values. On the plus side is that Bond here is mostly gadget free, meaning he has to use his wits and guile to either save himself and others or further his ends. But the overt humour is all over the tired script, a script that lifts from Goldfinger, thus making a mockery of the claims in some quarters that this is a fresh and imaginative Bond! it also includes one of the worst Bond girls of all time in Roberts' Stacey Sutton. Sexy without doubt, gorgeous too, but the character is nothing but a woman in peril excuse and Roberts' delivery of techno speak laughably lacks credibility.

Elsewhere there are some fine performances. I'm very much in the camp that loves Walken's take on Zorin, looking like he has just stepped out of the Aryan Brotherhood, he is maniacal and callous, but Walken knows when to underplay the role and gives the clearly psychotic loon a degree of charm that underpins Zorin's edginess. Grace Jones is one of the more original Bond girls, a villainess who is highly sexual, strong of mind and a physical threat, Jones does fine work with the role, even if a sex scene with Bond is more funny than sexy. Macnee is a welcome addition, his byplay with Moore a highlight and there's a certain thrill to observing John Steed and James Bond together, even if it as two old stagers. Lois Maxwell makes her final appearance as Moneypenny, and thankfully for a change the makers giver her something to do as she goes out in the field. Fiona Fullerton slips in as KGB agent Pola Ivanova, and leaves a very good mark by paying the role with seductive charm and no little skill, really it would have made sense to have had Fullerton in the Stacey Sutton role. Other performances, though, are either weak (Yip, Willoughby Gray) or superfluous (Patrick Bauchau).

Acton wise there is plenty, though not all of it works. An exciting pre-credits sequence is ruined by the crass introduction of a ski-surf escape backed by the Beach Boys singing California Girls, a "half" car chase in Paris is just stupid beyond belief, while a fire engine chase/escape in Frisco serves no purpose and is blighted by crude back projection. However, film is saved by Bond's participation in a steeplechase sequence, a breath taking leap from the Eiffel Tower (B.J. Worth the stunt man), underground flood peril with a murderous Zorin going bonkers and a quite excellent finale atop of the Golden Gate Bridge, resplendent with stricken airship and hand to hand combat. Hume brings vibrancy of colour at the lovely locations and Barry provides a strong score and oversees a belter of a title song by pop sensations Duran Duran. Worldwide box office cashed in $152 million, a big success but considerably down on Octopussy's take. As with all Bond films, it does have fans, but View to a Kill was fairly well assessed by the critics and Bond purists, it is tired and Moore, as game as he was, only aids the lazy feel of the film.

Moore left the franchise, however, with head held well and truly high. He thought it an honour to play James Bond and during 7 films that garnered sustainable/huge box office takings, he brought his own unique entertaining brand to the much loved secret agent. It should not be forgotten that he had to take over from Connery, a task many predicted would be too much for him, and he often had to contend with silly scripts, but with The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only on his CV, Moore proved to be a very good Bond indeed. Now the producers once again found themselves at a crossroads with the franchise, a new actor was needed for Bond, and would they go in another direction for the new era? 6.5/10

A MicroChip off the Old Block

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 11 October 2009]

For his last outing as 007, Roger Moore gets to save Silicon Valley in California as mad French industrialist Christopher Walken seeks to corner the market on nuke proof microchips. It's funny how it's inevitably British Intelligence that seems always to be saving American bacon.

Truth be told my favorite James Bond was getting a little too old to be playing in these action adventure films. Moore was 58 and looking like someone in his Fifties doing all these action stunts.

Tanya Roberts joins the exclusive club of women who've been Bondified by some 007. She's the owner of some mining properties which Walken ruthlessly acquires for his nefarious schemes. Also in this cast is Grace Jones who functions oddly enough like Richard Kiel as Jaws in two earlier Bond films. She's certainly as deadly as Kiel and she also finds out as Kiel did just how expendable she ultimately is.

Walter Gotell as Russian spymaster General Gogol returns as well in this Bond film. Gotell always provides a note of levity in the Bond films, but never more so when he tells Robert Brown as M as to why he's happy that Walken gets foiled in his plot which we all know James Bond will do in the end.

So as Roger Moore rode off in his Astin-Martin car into the sunset we can thank 007 and the rest of the gang at British Intelligence that San Jose, California is not now an underwater city. A View To Kill gets a bit silly at times, but fans of the James Bond series should be happy enough with it.

Moore's last decent Bond very underrated and unappreciated good 007 flick

[ivo-cobra8 · 10/10 · 12 November 2017]

A View to a Kill (1985) is guilty pleasure of mine. I don't think it is a terrible movie like mostly people are saying. I love this film always did and it is one of my favorite Bond films. This is the last Roger Moore movie he did before he was passing on Timothy Dalton. It is very underrated and I know that Roger Moore him self has stated that A View to a Kill is his at least favorite James Bond film because Christopher Walken was machine gunning everyone. I have enjoyed the film it was fast paced, entertaining and it had action. I know it does have flaws and mistakes like every movie does. I have enjoyed action and Roger Moore was good in his performance. He did 100% off him and he is acting was decent it wasn't so much goofy or terrible in my opinion.

A View to a Kill is the 14th entry in the official James Bond series and the final film to star Roger Moore in the role of Agent 007. The 1985 installment follows Bond as he investigates a possible plot to destroy California's Silicon Valley. The film's cast includes Christopher Walken, Grace Jones, Tanya Roberts and Dolph Lundgren, who made his acting debut.

I will say I have simply enjoy this flick more then I did The Man With The Golden Gun, Octopussy, From Russia With Love, Skyfall, Spectre, Quantum of Solace, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and of course the worst Bond ever On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

The cast: Tanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton was in my opinion good Bond girl. I have read so many negative comments about her performance. Because she was screaming, she was way too young for Roger Moore she looked like his daughter etc. I disagree she was good and I have enjoyed her performance.

Grace Jones as May Day was another bad girl just like Famke Janssen in GoldenEye. Grace Jones was good as May Day Zorin's lover and chief henchwoman I thought she was really good at her performance.

Christopher Walken was good as Max Zorin: a psychopathic industrialist he was really a good bad guy and I have enjoyed his performance. He did his job good and convincing and it was good in his good effort.

This was really the only movie that was filmed in the USA in which they used Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The movie really had a lot of action scenes. The car chases in San Francisco with fire truck the cops are chasing Bond and he with Stacey is fleeing trough the bridge. I love the mining scene in which May Day (Grace Jones) slide down Bond and they bring the larger bomb that would destroy the lock. They put the bomb on a handcar and push it out of the mine along a railroad line. May Day stays on the car to hold the faulty brake lever, sacrificing her own life as the bomb explodes.

Great stunt on Eiffel Tower in which May Day jumps off the Eiffel Tower really great stunt scene. Great car scene in which Bond is chasing May Day with a stolen car. I know it was a stuntman and Roger Moore did not drive the car. In Stacey's house the fight with Bond and Zorin's henchman that wasn't Roger Moore fighting them that was his stuntman and it was funny, I thought the stuntman did a good job. But Tanya Roberts did her own stunts and she was good.

I liked the opening scene in which Bond use a flare gun and shots down the helicopter that was cool. I really enjoy the song A View to a Kill from Duran Duran. I have enjoy the horse riding that was really joy able to me in which Bond races with the horse on the race track with Zorin and Zorin's henchman has set booby traps for Bond and Zorin's men get caught instead. I like Bond with a shotgun Remington and he has a rock salt in it. Pretty cool the first time we see Bond with the shotgun and rock salt.

I did not thought that Roger Moore was that old or was that horrible, no he was really good at acting. I am sorry just my opinion. I like the burning elevator in the building in which Bond escapes and saves Stacey I love that sequence.

I miss those kind of movies: like Rambo, Superman and James Bond 007 Roger Moore I miss movie like this? Why can't we get movies like this one back. Again I did not thought Tanya Roberts was horrible or Roger Moore is too old and Tanya Roberts is his daughter. This movie to me is unappreciated and I wasn't bored with it!

9/10 better the Octopussy in my opinion it was good in my opinion. I have seen this movie so many times and I have always enjoyed it I always had fun with it.

Moore's farewell is a worthy addition to the Bond series

[ThomasHayden · 7/10 · 15 September 2005]

Heavily underrated, I think A View to a Kill is a highly enjoyable and very entertaining Bond film. It was Moore's last outing as 007, and, despite being 57 by the time the film was shot, he was able to give a charismatic and witty portrayal as Her Majesty's finest agent. He is as comfortable with the humorous parts of the story as he is with the serious segments. I had a smile on my face all of the time he was at Zorin's palace in France pretending to be an aristocrat interested in horses, with Patrick McNee ( most known for his role in the TV series The Avengers) as his reluctant( and hilarious) servant. Nobody but Roger could deliver lines such as " May I escort you to the chopper" ( when he is chattering with Miss Sutton) and make them sound good.

As for the serious parts, Bond really shows his aversion towards the villain, instead of smiling and making ingenious remarks. Zorin is to be taken seriously; the result of a genetic experiment by a Nazi doctor, he has grown up to be an extremely intelligent, but unbalanced computer tycoon. Driven by a lust for absolute power, he will stop at nothing to make his evil plans come true...even if they mean killing thousands of people. Christopher Walken delivers an outstanding performance. Zorin is cold-blooded and deathly calm for the most part, manipulating even his girlfriend Mayday, but his mental illness is hinted at in some scenes, such as the shoot-out inside the mine, when he laughs hysterically when killing the disarmed miners.

A View to a Kill is also a magnificent action spectacle. The ski chase that opens the film is stunning, but the rest of the movie features equally impressive, well edited action sequences. The real highpoint of the film is the scene where Bond confronts Zorin on the top of the Golden Gate. Though the pace is sometimes slow and the entire KGB subplot simply doesn't make sense, I think the positives clearly overcome the negatives.Bond movies are not meant to be thrillers, they are just escapist entertainment. And in that sense, most of them are excellent.

The main concern many people have with A View to a Kill is the fact that it bears a strong resemblance with Goldfinger. There is no denying that the two movies are in similar lines: both are concerned with a leading industrialist who has masterminded a plan which will grant him enormous profit, while at the same time damaging an strategic economic activity( gold has been replaced by microchips this time). In both movies Bond discovers the villain's plan by coincidence. There is a blonde female lead here , too. But it has to be said that every Bond movie borrows heavily from the rest, and the basic structure, style of dialogue and characters have remained (basically) the same for 40 years. There's nothing wrong with that, and it's what Bond fans like me expect from every new Bond outing.

Despite the sometimes slow pace, a dull Bond girl( why the heck was Tanya Roberts cast?) and the usual plot holes every Bond movie has, A View to a Kill is a recommended viewing for Bond fans.The perfect way to spend two hours in a Saturday afternoon

Worst Bond movie ever

[EdwardCarter · 1/10 · 14 August 2008]

This was always going to be an awful movie, but at least a younger actor like Timothy Dalton or Pierce Brosnan might have brought some believability to it. As it is, Roger Moore was ridiculously old at 57 to be playing Bond. At least in "Never Say Never Again" Sean Connery, at 52, was playing an ageing Bond on his final mission. Here Bond is still supposed to be in his late thirties. The previous reviewer is right about Moore not looking his age - even with his thickened and dyed hair and cosmetic surgery, he looks at least 60. Patrick Macnee was also far too old - and paunchy - as Bond's sidekick and the fight scenes are just embarrassing. Christopher Walken and Grace Jones were no threat at all and Tanya Roberts must be the worst Bond girl of all, especially with her horrid cigarette voice. Moore should have retired after "Moonaker", since he was already over fifty then. Finally in an interview last year he acknowledged, "I was only about four hundred years too old for the part." As if all this were not enough, the film has the least glamorous locations for any Bond movie. Setting much of it in San Francisco at the height of the AIDS epidemic was a colossal mistake.

0/10.

Incredibly Under-rated

[rutherfordh-81993 · 9/10 · 22 December 2020]

A View To A Kill commonly comes under as one of Roger Moore's weakest Bond films, however in my opinion, that is completely wrong. It is one of the most best of his films. The action is stronger than many previous films, the music is good and the locations such as France and San Francisco. Roger Moore is great as a Bond actor, especially down to the fact he is 57. Christopher Walken makes a fantastic and one of the very best villains. Overall, there are some bits which are a bit slow, but lots of it is exciting, strong and thrilling.

Bond at his best!

[daniellinssen46 · 7/10 · 17 March 2005]

Roger Moore for the last time as James Bond in one of the most underrated Bondfilms of all time! AVTAK is a terrific action-adventure movie which travels all around the world. Highlights galore: a sweeping, exciting snowboard-helicopter chase on the glaciers of Iceland in the pr-credits sequence, a hazardous chase through the streets of Paris in a Renault-taxi that is first cut in half, and then the roof is shaved off. A race with a fire-engine and police-cars over the hills of San Fransisco, a flooding silver-mine, and, finally, a fight between 007 and the villain atop the Golden Gate Bridge! Christopher Walken is villain Max Zorin, one of the best heavies in the history of Bond. But also Grace Jones as Zorins sidekick May Day is more than credible. Moore checked out as Bond at just the right time, still credible here.

More Fluff Than My Dryer Basket

[BumpyRide · 1/10 · 19 August 2005]

Typical overblown fluff as Roger Moore tries to grind this franchise into the ground once and for all. This movie is so bad, and so boring I can't even think of ten lines of comments for IMDb to post, but I'll try! Grace Jones is somewhat amusing, she just jumps off the Effel Tower and sneers a lot. Tonya Roberts is so coked up I wonder is she even knew where she was? She's the worst Bond girl (if you can call her a girl) ever. Bond girls in the past could walk and talk at the same time. The least said about Roger Moore's, James Bond the better. I saw this is the theater when it first came out, and the film projector kept on breaking down. The gods were telling me something. When one watches this movie and you think back to when Bond wasn't a cartoon character you realize how far off track the producers and us have come.

Another worthy addition to the Bond series!

[crawfrordboon · 24 April 2004]

In Roger Moore's final cinematic assignment as Agent 007, the super-spy must investigate the connection between a Soviet research centre's reproduction of British high-tech blast-proof microchips based and a multi-national industrialist who is hoarding them. With a supporting cast of Christopher Walken, Grace Jones, Patrick McNee, and Tanya Roberts, and locations such as Paris and San Francisco, what you have is another Bond movie with the size and scope to match any of its contemporaries.

To start with the good points, Roger Moore is once again reliable and believable in the role of Bond, and although critics of this movie maintain he was told old by now, this is disputable. The script doesn't allow him as much of his custom wit and repartee, with the writers dropping his usual amiability towards the villain in favour of a disgusted and repulsed tone, which is quite a turn. For those sick of the movies where Bond and his enemies swap endless pleasantries despite efforts to kill each other, check out the Bond/Zorin scenes towards the middle and end of this film. Although not Moore's most memorable turn, he is very solid as 007.

Christopher Walken as Max Zorin, the product of a Nazi genetic experiment who was artificially given both incredible intelligence and psycopathy as a side effect of his mother's treatment in the concentration camps before his birth, gives us an odd-ball but distinctive performance, and is very credible as a single-minded sociopath. Grace Jones plays MayDay, Zorin's bodyguard/girlfriend/personal trainer/hit-woman/seductress and whilst she won't go down as either one of the most beautiful Bond girls or one of his most feared villains, Jones still comes across well with some menace and formidable qualities that even Bond struggles to get to grips with (quite literally!). Both Walken and Jones were odd choices for roles in a Bond movie but both acquit themselves well and gain a respectable place in the pantheon of 007's enemies.

Continuing with the positives, the regulars M, Q, Moneypenny, Frederick Gray, and General Gogol (with Lois Maxwell in her last Bond role) are dependable as ever, and are joined by David Yip as a CIA agent. As in the two previous Bond movies, Moore is joined by a fellow agent on his mission, this time Patrick McNee as Sir Godfrey Tibbett, a horse racing expert affiliated to MI6. In some brilliantly funny scenes, with Bond posing as an owner and Tibbett as his valet, the pair go undercover at Zorin's stables during a horse sale with both hamming it up to distract the guards from suspecting them as impostors. Moore and McNee also appeared together in Sherlock Holmes in New York as Holmes and Watson respectively, as well as The Sea Wolves, and their chemistry is a highlight of the film. Too bad really that Tibbett is assassinated in unusual but chilling fashion by MayDay before the film can make more of his obvious debonair charm.

Also on the plus side, the action is handled very competently, with a Siberian (actually Iceland) ski-chase featuring some extreme-sport pursuits like snowboarding before they became more well-known, an adrenaline-fuelled horse race in which Bond comes under attack from Zorin's henchmen, and a scene in which a Russian agent is fed into a propeller after he is found spying on Zorin. There are also some great stunts, such a base-jump off the Eiffel Tower and in the aforementioned ski scene. For a Bond film the plot is actually fairly logical, although it seems to have borrowed some inspiration from its predecessors. Having said that, which Bond film didn't?

However it isn't all roses. Tanya Roberts is extremely annoying and not at all believable as California's state geologist and a businesswoman whose shares Zorin is trying to buy. Every time it comes to a fight or some action she cowers and whimpers, yelling `Help me James' at the top of her shrill voice, and spends most of the time as some sort of damsel in distress for Bond to save. Apart from Mayday, the henchmen are rather boring this time, with a bunch of caricatures instead of characters: a Texan oil boss, a mad scientist (plus monocle, tweed suit, wild hair, and German accent), and a tall silent type with a facial scar as his single defining feature. Lucky then that Walken is there to bail the movie out and prove, as the tagline suggests, to provide a match for James Bond.

Also, the technically well-done chase sequence in Paris is ruined due to a ludicrous moment in which Bond-s care is hit by another and breaks in half! It looked cool driving on two wheels, but it would have been better in a cartoon. In keeping with some of the less attractive Bond conventions, some of the other action scenes are ruined by an overly-jokey feel - the San Francisco fire truck chase, for example, is played totally for laughs, and, like the Golden Gate Bridge scenes, features so much poor back-projection it is hard not to laugh. Plus, the pre-credits ski-chase is wrecked by an 80's cover of 'California Girls' being played over the action, and Bond's companion and vehicle at the end of this sequence. For all the problems in this paragraph, director John Glen deserves the blame, although he was hardly alone in getting things wrong during 007's 40-year history.

Despite criticisms from some that this is a tired movie with a re-hashed plot and an uninspired screenplay, A View To A Kill holds up pretty well. Most diehard fans of the series don't rank this too highly amongst the others, but for the less demanding viewer there is enough of the Bond formula to appreciate, without a great deal of silliness. There are a few flaws in AVTAK but the positives outweigh the negatives, and while Roger Moore didn't make a great success of his post-Bond career, at least he had a very respectable sign-of from the series with this.

Verdict: 3.5/5: Well worth watching.