1985 | Dir. John Glen | 131 Minutes
"Intuitive improvisation is the secret of genius."
Bond investigates government defense contractor Max Zorin after he recovers a Soviet microchip identical to those manufactured by Zorin's tech company. In a scheme to monopolize the computer industry, Zorin is in the process of causing a massive seismic event to destroy Silicon Valley.
Director John Glen's third James Bond film, and Roger Moore's seventh and last, A View to a Kill is a wacky low point for Eon Productions' long-running film franchise. The plot involving high-tech race horse doping and man-made natural disasters perpetrated by a psychotic rogue KGB operative endowed with super-intelligence through Nazi medical experiments is superfluously, hilariously convoluted. The set pieces are rote and uninspired, even the ones that prominently feature the Eiffel Tower and Golden Gate Bridge. Worst of all, the action sequences fall way below franchise standards, as the audience can clearly tell the difference between the nearly sixty-year-old Moore and his stunt double. Bond's race through a booby-trapped horse track, a forced cop car and fire engine chase through the streets of San Francisco, and the finale in a flooded mine rigged to explode are all remarkably regrettably dull. Connoisseurs of subpar cinema will assuredly find ample amusement in watching Bond stumble his way through the narrative, dutifully going through the motions of murdering his enemies to serve Queen and country and the plot, delivering his cheesy one-liners without missing a beat, and embarrassingly romancing ladies old enough to be his daughters.
At least Bond's adversaries in A View to a Kill are fun to watch. Maniacal industrialist Max Zorin played by a distractingly blonde Christopher Walken and his physically imposing bodyguard/lover May Day exhilaratingly brought to life by Grace Jones are a sight to behold. In a sense, they are an interracial power couple to root for until Zorin's disappointing inevitable betrayal. Walken's Zorin and Jones' May Day are vastly more captivating together than Moore's Bond and his fleeting woefully forgettable love interest, the dull as dishwater geologist Stacey Sutton played by Tanya Roberts. Sutton is completely lifeless in the role, and the lack of chemistry between her and Moore only makes matters worse. Visibly aloof, Moore still does what he can with the material but what fun he had playing Bond is clearly gone.
Patrick Macnee, Jean Rougerie, and David Yip respectively play MI6 agent and horse expert Sir Godfrey Tibbett, French private detective Achille Aubergine, and CIA Agent Chuck Lee - a parade of disposable Bond allies. Patrick Bauchau is just kind of bland as as Zorin's secondary henchman Scarpine, while Willoughby Gray simply looks out of place as cartoonish Nazi scientist Hans Glaub aka Dr. Carl Mortner. Fiona Fullerton is genuinely a lot of fun briefly appearing as KGB Agent Pola Ivanova. The film also features Alison Doody and Papillon Soo as May Day's underlings Jenny Flex and Pan Ho; Robert Brown, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Keen, and Walter Gotell reprising the roles of M, Q, British Minister of Defence Fredrick Gray, and KGB head General Gogol; and Lois Maxwell in her fourteenth and final appearance as Moneypenny.
A View to a Kill is an awkward and campy end to Roger Moore's run as 007. Featuring bizarre over-the-top villains with a logically questionable plot, it's one of the silliest, most absurd Bond films made even more ridiculous by its doddering leading man. For all of its wretchedness, this goofy romp is best enjoyed ironically.
THE COLD OPEN
Bond's mission in Siberia isn't bad, though the forced snowboarding moment set to a cover of the Beach Boys' "California Girls" is downright embarrassing. It doesn't help that you can immediately tell the difference between Roger Moore and his stuntman right at the top of the picture.
THE THEME SONG AND OPENING TITLES
Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill" is a fabulously 1980s rock tune, and objectively one of the best James Bond theme songs. Featuring an ice and fire motif that doesn't have much at all to do with the film, the opening titles is classic Maurice Binder with a literal coat of fluorescent paint applied on the dancing ladies in the darkness.
THE BOND GIRL
Stacey Sutton is among the worst love interests of the series. Her backstory is dull, and her geological knowledge is almost completely useless. Constantly shrieking from the danger, she does the minimum to assist Bond in taking down Zorin during their climatic Golden Gate Bridge battle but she wouldn't have been up there had she not been captured in the first place, somehow blindsided by Zorin's gigantic blimp.
THE BOND VILLAIN
Max Zorin's backstory involving Nazi eugenics is total nonsense as is his plot to flood Silicon Valley in order to control the microchip market against the wishes of his erstwhile KGB masters, but he is so much fun to watch. The way he indiscriminately murders friend and foe really sells his madness. Gotta love how he still cackles as he hangs off the ledge moments before he plummets to his death.
FEATURED HENCHMAN
May Day is totally rad. She inexplicably possesses superhuman strength, perhaps a product of the same experiments that produced Zorin, but it the long run it doesn't really matter. Her wardrobe seems completely impractical for a deadly assassin and all the physical work that comes with the job but she pulls it off and kicks major ass all the same. Best of all, she doesn't allow Zorin the upper hand when he betrays her, instead sacrificing herself to help Bond foil Zorin's explosive plot. Her final emphatic shout of "Get Zorin for me!" may be the best dramatic moment of the film.
FEATURED GADGET
Bond's electronic lockpicking Sharper Image credit card is a gloriously dated bit of product placement.
FLEMING FIDELITY
Though the plot of the film is completely original, the title is sourced from Ian Fleming's short story From a View to a Kill first published as James Bond and the Murder Before Breakfast in 1959. In the short story, Bond faces off against an assassin who murdered a motorcycle dispatch-rider transporting top-secret documents.
FRAGMENTS
- The film opens with the disclaimer: "Neither the name Zorin, nor any other name or character in this film, is meant to portray a real company or actual person" due to the producers discovering real fashion design company Zoran Ladicorbic Ltd.
- Dolph Lundgren, who was dating Grace Jones at the time, makes his cinematic debut as one of Gogol's KGB agents
- Appearing in her third Bond film following The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy, Maud Adams makes an uncredited cameo appearance as an extra in one of the Fisherman's Wharf scenes
- Bond's jab at Sutton about finding a uniform that fits when they infiltrate the mine is an ad-libbed reference to Tanya Roberts' allegedly insufferable attitude on set
- At the bottom of the end credits, the film advertises that "James Bond Will Return" without naming the next film for the first time since Thunderball
SUPPLEMENTAL STUFF
- Podcast: How Did This Get Made? Episode #99: A View To a Kill: LIVE
