A View to a Kill

Rating:
Summary: Underrated Moore entry
Review: Having read all the disappointing reviews of this film, I sat down to watch it during TBS's 15 days of 007 marathon with low expectations. To my plesant surprise I found the film enjoyable in its own little way, and think it deserves much more credit than it has been given. The main criticism has always been that Roger Moore was 58 when he made this film, and it clearly shows. In some scenes he looks so ancient that his wrinkles have all melded together, making him actually look younger than in Octopussy! And of course, none of the film's actual stunts are done by Moore, and it's really appearant this time. However, since the Bond actors usually don't perform their own stunts, I didn't find this to be much of a problem, because the action sequences like the teaser ski chase, the Paris car chase, and the mine finale were amazing. And for all those goofy slapsick scenes like the firetruck chase, John Barry's exciting score (reminicent of OHMSS) does much to make them bearable and even entertaining. Tanya Roberts has been dubbed as the worst Bond girl, and I also think she deserves more credit. True she is not the bravest or toughest of the Bond girls, but James Bond can't always be running into these types. Occasionally he'll run into a true damsel in distress, and Tanya Roberts just happens to be it, and she plays the role very well. (I'd scream my head off too if I were trapped in a flaming elevator or off the golden gate bridge, as would most ordinary people). Her geologist story is plausible enough because the script doesn't give her too many technical dialogue lines like Denise Richards in TWINE. Grace Jones is also memorable as Mayday, who manages to help Bond thwart Zorin's plans. Where the film does fail however, is Christopher Walken as Max Zorin, the drug-enhanced psychotic who's out to flood Silicon Valley. Quite simply, Walken isn't given enough screen time to develop his insane persona. Instead of him revealing his plan to Bond (like most villains do), Bond and Stacey Sutton discover it for themselves. Nothing wrong with that, but Zorin would have been developed much better had his plan been delivered as an insane speech. Also, the bluescreen effects were really bad. By this time, Star Wars had already achieved much better effects, as had For Your Eyes Only, two Bond films before this one. So why couldn't the finale have been more believable? But complaints aside, AVTAK is an entertaining Bond film. It's worth 3.5 stars, but Amazon doesn't give half stars and the film is short of being worthy of 4. Throw in the biggest hit of a Bond theme sung by Duran Duran, and you've got yourself another grand adventure.

Rating:
Summary: The LAST Roger Moore James Bond Movie
Review: "A View To A Kill" is based on "Goldfinger" and John Gardner's "Role of Honor" this is one of Roger Moore's better James Bond movies. It is a big improvement over director Guy Hamilton's "Goldfinger" which tried to be humorous, but was not very successful in that department. Hamilton did finally succeed with his excellent "Man with the Golden Gun." It was a mixture of action and humor at its best.

"A View To A Kill" is the most luxurious looking Bond movie. Zorin's magnificent palace and stables are the type of boost that "Goldfinger" needed. Zorin, after Scaramanga, has got to be one of the best villains of the series. He's a real psycho. May Day, after Nick Nack, is the best henchman. She gives a real twisted 80's performance.

The opening pre-title sequence is one of the best. Bond is being chased down an ice-covered slope by Russian troops in Siberia to an exciting John Barry score highlighted by the Beach Boys' "California Girls" while he escapes on a ski mobile runner turned ski board. This is an excellent scene full of action and laughs. The Beach Boys' "California Girls" was a stroke of genius. John Barry really knows how to score a Bond movie! The getaway in a mini sub disguised as an iceberg was another stroke of genius. I was on the edge of my seat. Those were better ski scenes than those filmed in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "The World Is Not Enough." They were close, but not quite as good as those in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" or "The Living Daylights."

Duran Duran's opening main theme is the best of the series. It was even better than Lulu's "Man with the Golden Gun." Maurice Binder's main titles were his best since "Man with the Golden Gun."

This film is just so great. Roger Moore looks younger in this one. I never saw him move better. I think these are the most stunts that he ever did in any Bond movie. The fight scene in Zorin's warehouse was one of his best. I like the way he lays out the guard on the conveyor belt and gets automatically wrapped like a corrugated carton. That was very cool.

The steeplechase scene was also great and real suspenseful. I didn't know that Roger could ride a horse like that. When he breaks away into the woods that was really well filmed just like the similar scene in "Moonraker." Very cool, that's all I can say.

The Eiffel Tower scene where Bond is chasing May Day through Paris in a stolen taxi, is one of the greatest scenes in the series. It was so funny. When Bond's taxi gets cut in half I thought he was done for. However, he keeps up with her and manages to crash a wedding on a moving barge. Crazy stuff! This kind of thing is what made the 80s so great!

Q had some of his best scenes in this film. The microchip briefing in M's office was good and reminiscent of "Moonraker" and "Octopussy." I liked Q's surveillance machine. That was very innovative. It was also good to see Bond, Moneypenny and M all at the races. General Gogol had some good scenes too. I like when he puts the cassette in the player in his car and it starts playing the Japanese Spa music. That was really funny.

The underwater scenes in this film were excellently filmed. I was holding my breath when Bond taps the tire of the sunken Rolls for air. That was very innovative. Zorin's San Francisco pumping station was also done well. When Bond was underwater I thought for sure he was going to get sucked in by those propeller blades. That was filmed as good as any underwater scene from "Thunderball," "For Your Eyes Only." "Licence To Kill" or "Tomorrow Never Dies."

The sets in this movie were great. The interior of Zorin's airship was very reminiscent of "Goldfinger" and "Diamonds Are Forever." Zorin's mine was one of the best sets from the entire series. Caves are cool, just like in "Live and Let Die" and "Dr. No." Just like SPECTRE, Zorin eliminates undesirables just like they were terminated similarly in "From Russia With Love" and "You Only Live Twice."

I liked the way they got the Russians involved in the plot. You can't have a good Bond movie without them. Not to worry, they show up again in "The Living Daylights" and "GoldenEye."

Stacey was the best Bond girl since Mary Goodnight. You really feel for her. I almost thought Bond was going to leave her in the elevator shaft the way she was screaming. Bond saves her just in time. She was also great in the fire engine chase and the ultimate battle between Bond and Zorin on top of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This film has it all: action, suspense, humor, laughs, terror, set designs, great underwater scenes and car chases. The only thing it lacked was exotic locales. That is what gives "Man with the Golden Gun" and "Octopussy" one up on "A View To A Kill."

Rating:
Summary: You Amuse Me Mister Bond
Review: Note: This review is for the VHS tape, not the SOUNDTRACK album! When I first saw this film on its initial release I didn't know what to make of it. It seemed like it got its inspiration from "Goldfinger" and Ian Fleming's Bond novel "Moonraker." However, it was like a jumble of everything thrown up in the air and played out in the order in which they landed. Actions just seem to turn on a dime in this film. For example: Bond is being chased down an ice-covered slope by Soviet troops in Siberia all to an exciting John Barry score. This is an excellent scene. A gattling gun mounted on a Soviet helicopter blows the ski mobile right out from under Bond. He picks himself up, grabs the runner from the ski mobile and begins to ski board down the slope this time to the musical accompaniment of the Beach Boys' "California Girls." What happened to John Barry's score? The scene and all its dramatic tension are destroyed.

The film is sloppy. The stunt doubles are not even matched to Roger Moore very professionally. His hair colour seems to go from brown to straw to red. In one scene when Bond is chasing May Day through Paris in a borrowed taxi, there is one camera shot where you can see that it is definitely not Roger Moore. The fight scene where Bond and Sir Godfrey wrap up some of Zorin's guards in the warehouse has to rank at the bottom of the series. The editing couldn't even salvage it.

Your heart kind of went out for Roger in this one. He didn't have a good outing in this picture and it being his last Bond film, he deserved better. There were a few memorable scenes that I did like just the same.

After Bond is chased into the woods on horseback and is captured, Bond tells Zorin that there will be retaliation if they kill him. "You amuse me Mister Bond," says Zorin with indifference. "The feeling's not mutual," responds Bond. After that scene I was hoping that Bond would really put this fellow out of his misery. The one image that remains with me from this film is when Bond carries Stacey on his back climbing down the fire truck ladder rescuing her from the burning City Hall. As corny as that scene may have looked it hearkened back to a time in films when heroes really were heroes. Roger did a fine job during his tenure.

Rating:
Summary: Well, lets see....
Review: It wasnt the best of plots, or even the best scenes. Some were great- others were a bit predictable. The only positive: Duran Duran on the soundtrack. Call me nuts! :)

Rating:
Summary: A VIEW TO A KILL VHS LTBX EDTION
Review: A MUST SEE IN LETTER BOX VHS OR DVD.BUY THIS VIDEO IT,S WORTH SEEING ROGER MOORE IN HIS FINAL BOND APEARENCE.ENTERTAINING.FUN

Rating:
Summary: A Very underrated Bond Movie !
Review: Roger Moore's last Bond adventure and one of his best. A view to A Kill's main story is a Rich German Playboy play by Christopher Walkin has dreams of controling the Worlds Micro chip market and has his sites on Silicon Valley in the United States. Bond in trying to stop Zorin comes across Stacy a mysterious woman with ties to Zorin and the key to what Zorin wants in Silicon Valley ! This is a very underrated Bond movie that stays with the Bond formula very well.

Rating:
Summary: I viewed it, may I kill it now please?
Review: Move over MOONRAKER, A VIEW TO A KILL is the worst film in the James Bond library. Not one of the worst or probably the worst, THE WORST. James Bond (Roger Moore, in his last hurrah as 007) is on an assignment to stop industrialist psychopath Max Zorin (Christopher Walken a fan favorite) before he is able to trigger a man-made earthquake on the San Andreas Fault, the result of which would destroy Silicon Valley, in effect halting major computer chip production and allow him to control the market himself with his own computer chips. What could have been a promising story-especially today, about cornering the computer chip market is shot down thanks to goofy as well as bad action scenes (similar to Moore's early Bond days ironically enough) and not much emphasis on computer chips in the story or the repercussions on the world economy and businesses if such a catastrophy were to happen. Watch this movie like you would watch the aforementioned Bond film-MOONRAKER, stick around for just the opening action scene and then bail out because very little redeems this movie and the love scene between Bond and Zorin's mega henchwoman MayDay (Grace Jones) isn't one of them.

Rating:
Summary: Could have been much better
Review: I was really disappointed how Moore's last outing turned out. It had a good-sized budget, a clever title, came after the great Octopussy, and should have ended The Moore years (which were fairly good) with a bang. This is far from it. View has several good aspects, one being an excellent villain in Christopher Walken, who plays Max Zorin, a German industrialist with a hidden past (which is he is the result of a Nazi experiment) whom embarks on a quest to destroy the microchip -producing Silicon Valley by creating a major earthquake to greatly increase the amount of his own horde. The plot is a basic retread of Goldfinger, yet the microchips are possibly more interesting as is the earthquake but yet more unrealistic. The other good aspects are the pre-title ski chase (yet it isn't as good as TSWLM's), the mine escape, Duran Duran's dynamic title song hit, the car chase through Paris, the Eiffel Tower jump, John Barry's score, the cinematography, and the battle atop the Golden Gate Bridge between Zorin and Bond. However, everything else is poor. Moore gives a wooden performance as OO7 and is very unconvincing as being such a woman magnet. Tanya Roberts is possibly the worst Bond girl as the incredibly annoying Stacey Sutton, a geologist who works at City Hall (PLEASE). Grace Jones does a good job of playing MayDay but is monotonous and has an odd screen presence. Most of the other action is crummy, including a ridiculous and boring car chase through the streets of San Francisco and an unrealistic horse-racing chase. There are about no gadgets, and you barely get to see Q and don't even get to see his workplace. Finally, View is slow-moving and doesn't have a good feel to it. Like You Only Live Twice, View has so much potential and could have been one of Moore's best yet unlike Twice, View squanders its potential almost entirely. Overall, my least favorite OO7 adventure, even slightly worse than The Man With The Golden Gun.

Rating:
Summary: Don't see this film
Review: This is a horrible OO7 film and don't see it.

Rating:
Summary: the worst Moore
Review: Here is why this is the worst Moore film. It doesn't have a great henchpersons or music like Live and Let Die (#5), it doesn't have a good supporting Bond girl or settings like The Man With the Golden Gun (#6), it doesn't have awesome settings or an excellent henchman like The Spy who Loved Me (#1), it doesn't have nice settings or good action like Moonraker (#4), it doesn't have tight suspense or a sophisticated plot like For Your Eyes Only (#2), and it doesn't have beautiful settings or great hand-to-hand fights like Octopussy (#3) (with the exception of the Golden Gate Bridge fight). Watch this movie only for Chris Walken and the Golden Gate bridge fight