With Skyfall dropping in theaters in just a couple months, along with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series, a close friend and fellow film nerd, Brandon Peters, has generously offered to do a comprehensive review of the entire 007 film franchise. Today is the fourteenth entry, with a full review of my wife's favorite 007 picture, A View To A Kill (no, that's sadly not a joke). I hope you enjoy what is a pretty massive feature leading up the November 9th release of Skyfall. I'll do my best to leave my two-cents out of it, give or take a few items I have up my sleeve (including a possible guest review from my wife as she sings the praises of her favorite 007 film, you won't believe what it is). But just because I'm stepping aside doesn't mean you should. Without further ado...A View To A Kill
“What a view…”
“…to a kill!”
~MayDay, with Max Zorn finishing the sentence
STATS
A View To A Killis the concluding chapter in the twelve- year era of Roger Moore as James Bond007 and a Mendelson family classic. Alsobowing out in this adventure is Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, ending a 23year/14 film run in the role. The filmproves to be a step up from Octopussy,but doesn’t quite bring about a completely satisfying result. The film does deserve some credit for reallywanting to go all in and find some originality, but can’t quite execute tobring the potential to fruition.
When 007 finds a microchip on the body of 003 in Siberia, itleads him to the head of Zorin Industries. Max Zorin, a KGB trained psychopath, is planning to set off a series ofearthquakes in Silicon Valley. After thewreckage is cleared he plans on gaining a monopoly on the market. James Bond is able to find an in to Zorinthrough Stacey Sutton, granddaughter of an oil tycoon, whom Zorin is trying topay off. In an earlier article I gave credit to Roger Moore forhaving aged so well. At the time offilming A View to a Kill, he was 57. Somewhere between Octopussyand View, his age began to show. This one definitely feels like grandpa Bondsaving the world. The film refuses toacknowledge his age. At least Never Say Never Again conceded to thisand made for an interesting angle on the story. That might have added here. Also,casting somebody a bit older than Tanya Roberts might have been a bit morecomfortable to watch. Apparently, Moorefelt very uncomfortable when he discovered he was almost old enough to be TanyaRobert’s mother’s father. And, you neverknow, this film might have served as a better launching point for a new JamesBond rather than Moore’s final opus.
Moore’s age also affects a lot of the action beats in thisfilm as well. It’s clearly obvious he’snot involved in any of it. The rearprojection technology in this film looks like it has regressed in thisfilm. The effect is really bad, and it’sshocking, because it was somewhat passable in the last few films. It doesn’t help that the opening gives usskiing (four!) again, and the lamest one at that. Aside from that, the action scenes definitelydo try to bring something different. TheGolden Gate Bridge finale is very epic on paper and in thought. However, the execution is poor. Rear projection and the whole thing obviouslylooking like it was done on a sound stage severely takes away any thrills andsuspense this was meant to evoke. All in all, A View to a Kill looks and plays very much like a big budget ABC Sunday night made-for-tv movie that were a common place in the 1980s.
Not all the action is ambitious but lacking. The jump off the Eiffel Tower is quite good,as well as the car chase that follows. Ireally like the escape from the fire on City Hall and the fire truck chase(later done better in Terminator 3: Riseof the Machines). The horse chase inChantilly does bring sense of dread and inescapable circumstances with it. The music in this film is definitely good and the mainhighlight of the film. They bring backthe On Her Majesty’s Secret Servicetheme (one of the series’ best) finally and its more than welcome. The title song is awesome too, if you weren’talready aware. Duran Duran helps closethe Moore era the way it began, with a rock band full creating a song for thefilm. This song is bigger in its legacythan this film is. I still here it tothis day in stores, restaurants, radio, bars, you name it. Its funny we get this intense crazy song tosupport an old aged Bond hobbling to the finish line.
Christopher Walken as a bad guy? How is this movie not insanely awesome? I don’t know. Its almost forgotten that he was a Bond villain. He’s not bad. He’s actually very good. It’s thefirst time we actually get a Bond villain who is a complete psychopath. Walken plays it great. I can’t imagine the original choices forZorin, David Bowie and Sting, being able to pull this off. A lot of critics at the time did notappreciate the scene where Zorin mows down a bunch of miners with a machinegun, but I did. It just adds to theinsanity of his character. To add to Zorin’s insanity, his girlfriend May Daycompliments it in appearance. This womanlooks like a man. She always creeped meout when I was younger. She was justdisturbing in appearance. And Bondsleeps with her! However, in hisdefense, he was saving his own hide by doing it. May Day tries to evoke some of the henchmanmenace that Jaws brought to some of the earlier films. Also, she turns to Bond’s aid in the end justlike Jaws. I’ll go ahead and say, MayDay is kind of underrated as a henchman. She’s not the best, but clearly far from the bottom. Grace Jones also brought her boyfriend at thetime, Dolph Lundgren on for a short little extra-like role. See if you can find him.
Tanya Roberts has garnered a lot of flack for her characterof Stacey Sutton in this film. I gottasay it’s well deserved. She’s quite adingbat. She also gives a sense of beingunnecessary in so many scenes. And I’vealways thought this, but I’ll share. Tanya Roberts has got to be an actress that the porn industry is kickingthemselves for having not gotten to first. I feel like she would have been a massive success as a porn star. She’s got the look and that raspy voice thatis so fitting of the adult entertainment industry of that era. Shame. A View To A Killwants to be that epic finish to Roger Moore’s James Bond career, but justdoesn’t fill it out. Its certainly notas embarrassing as Octopussy and itsnever terribly boring. It feels a lotdifferent than a lot of Bond movies. It’sgot some original action beats, but none of it is show stopping ormemorable. One thing I’ve alwaysremembered this film for is the scene where Bond keeps alive underwater bybreathing air out of a tire.
Roger Moore was a fine James Bond for his first five efforts. He should have hung it up afterMoonraker or For Your Eyes Only. Theselast two films have tainted his run. There’s a lot of poor memories associated with his Bond films, and much of them derive from Octopussy and A View to a Kill. Some of his early work is no different thanany Connery adventure. He hung on a bittoo long. Moore even admits he shouldhave let go sooner. I went into thisfearing his run as Bond, but it was only feeling tiresome or painful duringthese last two films.
Brandon Peters will return in The LivingDaylights*
Follow me on Twitter – www.twitter.com/@btpeters
*the film only ends on “James Bond Will Return” it does notgive the title of the next film.
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