Review 145: A View to a Kill
Bond (Roger Moore) returns from his travels in the USSR with a computer chip. This chip is capable of withstanding a nuclear electromagnetic pulse that would otherwise destroy a normal chip. The chip was created by Zorin Industries, and Bond heads off to investigate its owner, Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). Zorin may only seem like a innocent guilty man, but is really planning to set off an earthquake in San Andreas which will wipe out all of Silicon Valley. As well as Zorin, Bond must also tackle May Day (Grace Jones) and equally menacing companion of Zorin, whilst dragging Stacy Sutton (Tanya Roberts) along for the ride..
The film has an intriguing & timely premise, but it's told in such a lacklustre, tired, borderline uninspired way that never engages us as an audience or gets excited about whats about to happen and at no point is it executed well.
And for a Bond film with such a topical and timely subject matter, it teaches us nothing about microchips, whether they valuable or not, why they are valuable and what they are important all theses questions are never really answered because this film doesn't really try or give time to give appropriate answers and the end result is that the films timely premise is squandered, wasted and poorly executed.
It just felt like they were trying to keep the Roger Moore era alive when they know, they should have put it to rest.
Director John Glen doesn't seem to be into the direction the series had been taking for the past twelve years and turns in his second most poorly directed Bond film (behind Licence to Kill.) Plus Roger Moore looks way, way, way too old for playing 007, he was 57 years old at the time of the the films release and s a result he winces during stunts (there are a lot of double in this movie) and it's just creepy to see him bedding his ladies (the weirdest being were he beds Grace Jones).
the gadgets aren't memorable, the action scenes range from o.k. to lame and mostly devoid of any tension of excitement mostly due to the over-relience on of the jokes miss more than they hit (there's a scene during the opening teaser were Bond starts to snowboard and then a cover version of California Girls comes on), Roger Moore jokes are getting tiresome and are wearing thin on me and the ending just makes you sigh in disgust.
This is a well made, good looking movie, though it does fall into the unfunny teratory, the locations ranging from Paris, France to San Fransisco are lovely, the cinematography is gorgeous, the production design is terrific, the costume design is impressive, the score by John Barry is catchy, the title song by Duran Duran is mindblowing and one of my favourite Bond songs, there's some impressive stunt work (mostly doubling for Roger Moore), the effects are decent and
The acting is weak, Roger Moore looks board with film (even more than he did in The Man with the Golden Gun).
Tanya Roberts is really quite hopless playing Stacy Sutton. Despite her character being a top geologist, she just comes off as helpless and hapless ditz. Not helping matters was her pronounced lack of chemistry between her and Roger Moore.
When Bond begins investigating Zorin, he's initially accompanied by fellow M.I.6 agent and horse trainer, Sir Godfrey Tibbett (Patrick Macnee). Macnee and Moore have a destinct raport and
You honestly can't go wrong with Christopher Walken as your villain and he delivers playing Max Zorin
Grace Jones doesn't lag far behind playing May Day, Zorin's lover and henchwoman.
Patrick Bauchau, Willoughby Gray, Alison Doody and Papillon Soo Soo round out the cast playing Zorin's henchman
All I can say to Roger Moore after 7 years and 12 films is "good riddance," 1.5/5
The Anonymous Critic.
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