A View to a Kill (1985)

Genre

Action | Thriller

Director

John Glen

Country

UK

Cast

Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts, Grace Jones, Patrick Macnee, Patrick Bauchau, David Yop, Willoughby Gray, Fiona Fullerton, Manning Redwood, Alison Doody, Robert Brown, Desmond Llewelyn, Lois Maxwell, Geoffrey Keen, Walter Gotell, Papillon Soo Soo, Daniel Benzali, Bogdan Kominowski, Dolph Lundgren, Jean Rougerie

Storyline

When Bond (Roger Moore) is sent to investigate a security leak at the high-tech Zorin Industries, he discovers a hotbed of murder and deception: the company's mysterious owner, Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) has devised a plan to corner the world microchip market, even if he has to kill millions to do it. It's up to Bond to stop Zorin. 

Opinion

Roger Moore's last outing as James Bond before passing the baton to Timothy Dalton, "A View to a Kill" is another forgettable entry in the franchise saved by Christopher Walken and Grace Jones.

The film presents us once again the same trite made of chases, action, and expected seductions, and here more than ever it is affected by the lack of something new. In fact, from the very beginning the film proves to be short on new ideas - we have seen the chase on skis in several films already -, and does not proceed in the best of the ways, with a story following the classical pattern - M entrusting Bond with a tough mission, Bond meeting the bad guy, Bond beginning to investigative, seducing some beautiful women in the process, and saving the world at the end.

The wit that usually accompanies James Bond is lacking as well as is the action, which is anything but evenly distributed: it is present at the beginning of the film, only to return in the final, leaving in the middle a central part a little bit too slow and boring for a spy movie.

Roger Moore is showing his age, making the relations with the ladies very awkward, and the stunts impossible. Also he shows that he is no longer capable of playing the part, giving one of his worst performances. He deserved a better ending. Tanya Roberts might be gorgeous, but her Bond girl character is awful, and doesn't do much other than screaming and whining. 

Fortunately there are the villains! Christopher Walken does a wonderful job as Max Zorin, an evil and psychotic man, he brings realism and menace to the character and displays all the depth of the character, which is the best villain in the series since Christopher Lee's Scaramanga in "The Man with the Golden Gun". Equally impressive is Grace Jones as Mayday, Zorin's lover, assassin and bodyguard. She manages to be beautiful and frightening at the same time, and plays probably the most unusual and one of the most memorable Bond girls ever.