A View to a Kill

Rating:
Summary: Not as horrable as people make you think it is.....
Review: I KNOW, I KNOW, there are alot of problems with this film... Roger was way to old, the films plot was borrowed from Goldfinger, the main hench women, and the bond girl. But aside from all of that, this is a pretty good film. Christopher Walken plays one of the best villiens of the bond saga. I like the CLASS thats in this movie also. There are some action stunts that are out of place, "Namely the firetruck scene", but there are great moments as well. The pre title is one of the best. The music score is one of the best. The music title is one of the best. There are some bad moments in the film, but there again, there are some bad things about all bond films, so give this bond flick a try. This is by far not the best bond film ever, but its not the worst either.

Rating:
Summary: Bond film that fans will always be divided over
Review: A View to a Kill is one of those that people either love or hate. After a terrific, bullet-riddled opening sequence and an above average theme song, this Bond movie comes to a screeching halt. Bond walks around for the first hour at the villain, Max Zorin's estate under the alias of "James St. John Smythe," which is a bit aristocratic, but I guess it works. Zorin and May Day (Walken and Jones, respectively) are suspicious of him right from the second he arrives (and Jones doesn't recognize him from Paris??), but they don't bother to check on who he actually is until long after what is normally acceptable for a Bond movie. And when Zorin does decide to check on who he actually is, his method is so slick, fast, and efficient that you have to wonder why we're an hour into the movie and Bond is still "James St. John Smythe" walking around with a wine bottle in hand, stiffly flirting with the ladies and awkwardly trying to cover for a spy he's brought, who is unconvincingly disguised as a chauffeur. But, if you are patient and make it through the first half, the second half picks up the pace slightly, offers a few chase sequences, a little bit of gunplay, and a terrific conclusion on the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. In short, a great beginning, a great ending, but you might yawn a time or two in between. And this is one of the longer running Bond movies at 132 mins.

So what's good about this one besides the beginning and end? Not the Bond girls either: Jenny Flex, May Day, and Miss Sutton aren't memorable in a good way. But, Christopher Walken's performance as pycho Max Zorin is very well done. It's pretty obvious that he's crackers from the first time you see him and Walken plays the part with a subtle quirkyness that works pretty well for him. One nice touch is that while Walken is delivering some of his lines he will stop mid sentence with a sinister chuckle and not finish or he'll just let his voice fade out and he'll stare blankly. It's typical Walken stuff, but some critics thought the sequence near the end where he guns down mine workers with a machine gun as they come out of a flooding tunnel in droves was going overboard (and did not befit a PG rating), but it just depicts what the character will resort to after having been thwarted by Bond for what seems like the umpteenth time. After all, there is a subplot here too involving an old Nazi doctor to whom Zorin is connected.

While I found the tone and mood of A View to a Kill to be dark, violent, and humorless (unless you find some of the absurd chase stunts humorous) this is actually a sentimental favorite of mine. This is Moore's last outing, Moore is and was my favorite Bond, and I had to salute him for still being at it by 1985. In reality, For Your Eyes Only (best theme song, best Bond girl, and probably best Bond movie IMO) should have been Roger's last. Moore should have gone out while he was on top (literally) and left Octopussy and this one to Dalton. In the end, A View to a Kill, even if you don't like Moore or think he's too old here, isn't nearly as bad as Die Another Day.

Rating:
Summary: My least favorite villians
Review: Rank 20 of 23. I give this 3.5 stars as a movie, but I rank it 20th of 23 bond movies. It was one thing when they killed Diana Rigg in OHMSS, but then they had to go and kill Steed! This is a very clever script and an entertaining story. The Bridge fight scene had me white knuckled. But in the end, there are 19 bond movies I liked better. note for those with kids, you may want to fastforward the scene where the dogs run down the girl.

Rating:
Summary: Sir Godfrey, on a mission, I'm expected to sacrifice myself
Review: Moore's seventh and final outing as Secret Agent 007 James Bond, A View to a Kill has the unenvious distinction as quite possibly the worst film in the James Bond series, with Tomorrow Never Dies jockeying for that position. Like previous Bond flicks which turned out to be flops, for the most part (i.e. You Only Live Twice, The Man With The Golden Gun, Moonraker), A View to a Kill is rather entertaining as a movie, never meant wholeheartedly to please discriminating critics. However, A View to a Kill, aside from the fact it attempts to be cute in its humor, has its share of scenes that are so steady-paced, that they are slow and lack of depth in the characters.

In this fourteenth edition of Bond, the story starts off with 007 on the frozen tundra of Siberia, retrieving a microchip from the corpse of a fellow MI6 agent. With henchmen on his track, Bond embarks on a ski chase, which at point, has The Beach Boys' hit "California Girls" playing in the background, when Bond seems to be snowboarding. On a side note, that Beach Boys' segment is rather ridiculous and somewhat humorous. At any rate, MI6 examines the retrieved microchip and find out that this particular chip is similar to a British prototype, which could withstand intense electromagnetic radiation from a nuclear blast and that someone is leaking out the design details to the rival Soviets. That someone is the psychotic French industrialist and microchip maker, Max Zorin (Christopher Walken), founder of Zorin Industries. Bond is off to a Paris racetrack to keep an eye on the eccentric Zorin. Deducing that Zorin is hiding something from him and attempting to eliminate him in the process, Bond is led to Zorin's palatial estate in France and finally to San Francisco, where Zorin a la Goldfinger attempts to monopolize the microchip market by effacing Silicon Valley, which of course, builds the majority of the world's supply of microchips.

A View to a Kill has a fairly solid storyline, but its execution is nothing but dismal. The screenplay does not flow consistently. The slow or developing scenes are rather stagnant in that the tone can keep the viewer uninterested because of inconsistent dialogue. The stunts are not very credible either and the action scenes are pretty corny (i.e. 007 carrying Stacy down the fire truck ladder amidst a cheering San Francisco crowd). But the biggest flaw of the film is character development. Of course, Moore was pretty solid in his last outing, but the supporting cast is quite poor. May Day, played by Grace Jones, although portrayed as a stoic, athletic Amazon who exhibits raw energy is stiff throughout. Max Zorin is an intriguing villain, stoic yet psychotic, intelligent yet mentally unstable, gregarious one moment and stone-dead serious the next. However, all Walken ever does with his character is laugh like a goon, make some hilarious gestures and point out relatively flat remarks. Besides, I've personally thought Walken was a genetically altered brainchild to begin with anyway. Zorin is not exactly the worst villain, but one of the worst utilized, seeing how he had great potential to stand out as a great villain, instead of comic relief fodder. Dr. Carl Mortner, played by Willoughby Gray, seems to become more insane than Zorin later on in the film, in the sense he seems to have come down with Down's Syndrome. Last but not least, Bond's lady geologist sidekick, Stacy Sutton, ineptly played by Tanya Roberts of Charlie's Angels and That 70's Show fame, is an incompetent, helpless and moronic Barbie look-a-like, who annoyingly yells or utters, "James" almost every fourth word out of her mouth. Don't get me wrong, she's a hot number, but for crying out loud, who in the right mind loads a rifle full of rock salt, instead of regular ammunition!? Other than its obvious flaws, A View to a Kill is enjoyable when you don't feel the need to be critical, much like any other Bond film.

Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE FUNNIEST BOND FILMS EVER
Review: This film is a lot like goldfinger. A maniac, the WWII steroid baby Max Zorin, wants to control the microchip industry. With the aid of May Day, Zorin plans to sink Silicon Valley. This movie was the lamest one of all but that is why it is hilarious. Okay so Roger Moore was a senior citizen by then and Stacy Sutton was the weak helpless innoying bond girl and the script is lame but other than that it is just a good time. Zorin is one of the best villians of the series (just behind Scaramanga, oddjob, jaws and nick nack)

Rating:
Summary: Unique, but bizarre
Review: In a series where the hero has gone into space, battled metal-toothed giants and fought in a hollowed-out volcano, this movie has to take the cake for being the weirdest adventure 007 has had yet. What if I told you I had a movie that featured: a 58 year-old leading man pairing up with a 30 year-old woman; a bleached-blond Christopher Walken as the villain; Grace Jones - GRACE JONES - as a villain's henchman; and a love scene between the aforementioned 58 year-old and the aforementioned Jones? Well, its all here. This was Moore's last go round as 007, and he looks at least 30 years older than he did in Octopussy. In fact, his stuntman is used a lot here, and it's pretty obvious that it's not Moore when you can see the guy's face. In fact, I even think the stuntman did Moore's walking for him. The plot is somewhat of a Goldfinger rehash, a tale about a madman computer chip maker(Walken) seeking to destroy silicon valley for the purposes of cornering the market.

There's some stuff here to like - all of the Bond elements are here, as well as a great fight on the top of the Golden Gate bridge; Walken is always a convincing madman, the sight of gender-free Jones and Moore together is a hoot - ol' Rog looks TERRIFIED to be sleeping with her; and Duran Duran's title song is one of the series' best.

Not to like - Bond girl Tanya Roberts is nice to look at, but plays the least convincing scientist in the whole series up until Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) in The World is Not Enough; the teaser sequence, in which "California Girls" is played while Bond snowboards (don't ask); and the fact that the movie is a little too creaky to hold up to a 131 minute running time.

Any Bond is better than no Bond, but the series needed a shot in the arm at this point.

Rating:
Summary: The truth about this Bond
Review: Okay first the good things about this film. Christopher Walken portrayal as Max Zorin is great. If anyone can play a psycho its him. Roger Moore plays the role with class and style, not his fault the storyline was weak and the producers couldn't get Brosnan or Dalton to fill in, Moore plays Bond great one last time. Now the Bad. First the plot was a really bad spinoff of Goldfinger, both Zorin and Goldfinger portrayed villains obsessed with dominating the global market with their respective loves (computer chips for Zorin and gold for Goldfinger). The destruction of silicone valley and Fort Knox. Skilled Henchpersons, you get the idea. The other really bad element of the movie was the Bond girl (Stacey Sutton, played by Tanya Roberts), even Goodnight in TMWTGG was more capable. Good thing Dalton or Brosnan did not do this film, neither could have saved it. A Bad way for Moore to go out.

Rating:
Summary: Among the least of the Bonds.
Review: Needed much less of the preternaturally frightening, oft-G-string-clad Grace Jones, and way more of the gorgeous Tanya Roberts.

Rating:
Summary: The best of the original movies!
Review: You have to see this one if you haven't already! It is the most farfetched of them all but has the most action such as standing on top of the Golden Gate Bridge and escaping a blazing fire! The farfetched seens give it more fulfilling action than the original movies based on the novels! The villain Zorin and the actor makes the perfect type of spy thriller enemy. I liked when they played the Beach Boys when Bond skied down the mountain with enemies behind him (Note that they always show something like that in the later movies.) This one you have to view or you'll kill!

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: A View to a Kill is my all time favorite Bond movie. I think Roger Moore gives a great performance in his last Bond film. ...The pre-title ski scene is magnificent, probably my favorite out of all.
The best thing out of this whole movie is Max Zorin's main method of transportation is by blimp, a very interesting aircraft. Very interesting when involved in the finale action scene. Also I must say i was very fond of Zorin's head of security, Scarpine, played by Patrick Baucheau.... One last thing about this movie is that I think it has the best music out of all the Bond films especially what they play during action scenes.