Bond: View to a Kill [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of Bond: View to a Kill [VHS]
Movie Review: dull
Summary: 3 Stars
No, this is definitely not as good as I remembered from way back when. It's just dull. Okay, some good scenes, but overall it's not a good Bond flick. Get "For your eyes only", "Octopussy", or "Live and let die" instead. They are much better.Movie Review: Very Good
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the best Bond movies ever made
and Roger Moore does a great job as 007. It is
non stop action.
Movie Review: The End Of The Roger Moore Era
Summary: 2 Stars
Roger Moore's era of 'Bond' movies can be split into two nearly equal parts. The first 3 movies - 'Live And Let Die,' 'The Man With The Golden Gun,' and 'The Spy Who Loved Me' - contain two of the five best 'Bond' movies of all-time (the first and last) and a very watchable, enjoyable film in between.
Then came the second half, where the movie writers seem to have had a lobotomy from the writers of the 'Batman' TV series in the 1960s. These were his last four Bond's: Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and this one. And after viewing it again last night, all I can say is, "Goodnight sweetheart, well, it's time to go," because this may have been Moore's worst Bond.
It wasn't for lack of trying, but they spent too much time on filler. The opening of the film is actually decent if not the death-defying, attention-grabbing opening moments of other movies like 'Die Another Day' or even 'The Spy Who Loved Me,' which is quite similar to this opening. But they blow it by suddenly cranking up 'California Girls' as Bond is avoiding a killing at the hands of some Russians purportedly in Siberia (but really in Iceland and Switzerland, where the movie was filmed). This detracts from a rather decent opening scene.
Then we get to the strongest part of the 'Bond' films throughout the Moore years, the theme songs. Virtually all seven theme songs to Moore's movies were in the excellent to very good category, and two of them even charted in the top five.
But it's all downhill from there. Bond gets invited to a rigged horse race near Paris to find the evil antagonist of "A View To A Kill," a genetically engineered mistake by the name of Zorin (played most excellently by Christopher Walken). Zorin is rich, and he has plans to take over the entire Silicon Valley by replacing the implants normally served there with Folgers crystals. No, just seeing if you were paying attention. In reality, he plans to flood the Silicon Valley by inciting and earthquake and then corner the market on micro (Buffalo) chips.
Zorin also has a goon girlfriend - at least, I think she was a girl since Bond slept with her - named May Day, played by Grace Jones. Jones is - without a doubt - the absolute ugliest girl to ever play a 'Bond girl.' She looks like a steroid freak, perhaps the mother of Barry Bonds. Anyway, she and Bond wind up on the same side (as the girlfriend of the bad guy usually does), and she clears the explosive out of the mine shaft. May Day is blown to bits although you weren't really sure that was the case until Bond couldn't even find a piece of her when chasing the explosion.
And then we wind up on the Golden Gate Bridge, sightseeing the most beautiful city in the world. Zorin flies his self-named blimp over the bridge and Bond (along with 80s Cinemax late night star Tanya Roberts) hitch a ride and tie it to the bridge. Walken comes out and he and Bond go back and forth until Walken plummets about 600 feet from the bridge to the murky water below, where his fall is softened when he lands on Laci Peterson. His shoes don't fly off (as normally happens with Golden Gate planned suicides) but nevertheless, Walken gets a leading role in the documentary, 'The Bridge.'
Angry at being hoodwinked, Zorin's still living flunky shows why he was never able to get another job by lighting a big stick of dynamite that Bond proceeds to flip the blimp and toss him back inside. We get a modern-day version of 'The Hindenburg' although San Francisco reporter Danny Tanner is not around to scream, "OH, THE HUMANITY." The movie ends and Bond somehow gets off the Golden Gate Bridge without dying (I assume he simply waited for the cable car to pick him up). He then takes a shower with Tanya Roberts and gets a penicillin shot shortly thereafter.
This movie really indicated that the Roger Moore era was over. Even while this was being released, we knew that a new Bond - rumored at the time to be Pierce Brosnan - was in the offing. Brosnan, however, could not get out of his contract with 'Remington Steele,' so we got Timothy Dalton.
A not-so-great end of the road for Sir Roger Moore. But worth one viewing. I'd call it a low third-tier Bond.
Movie Review: Walken saves an otherwise forgettable Bond film
Summary: 3 Stars
I can say I am a Bond fan, seeing as I own twenty of the twenty-two movies currently on DVD (as of writing this review). So far the only film I haven't enjoyed in the series has been Roger Moore's Moonraker, just because of the over the top silliness and the obvious sell-out to appeal to moviegoers who had just seen Star Wars.
Upon seeing `A View to a Kill' I instantly was prepared for the worst, and let me tell you this certainly is a bad Bond film. Moore is showing his obvious age, making the relations with his leading ladies undeniably awkward, to say the least. The plot is as simple as they come, and none of the actors are really given any chance with the dialogue they have been given. Moore has very few witty comments in this movie, and most of the other characters are cardboard cut outs.
One thing however manages to make this film better than Moonraker. This is the under-appreciated role of Max Zorin, played by the always wonderful Christopher Walken. I can say without a doubt in my mind that Walken is the single saving grace in this film, exhibiting everything any good Bond villain needs.
Exotic locations: Check!
Unique henchmen/henchwoman: Check!
Surrounded by beautiful girls: Check
Cold and ruthless attitude: Double check!
Heartless and chilling disregard for henchmen life: CHECK
Walken, with a horrid script (every character in this movie is poorly written) is able to create one of the best Bond villains I've ever seen! The way he talks, the way he acts, everything he does showcases his undeniable talent. So for a movie like `A View to a Kill' Walken's performance is like shifting through sewage and finding a large diamond ring.
It is because of Walken that I recommend this movie and give it a relatively good rating. Everything else about this film is really forgettable. You'd think a super-strong female henchwoman would make for a memorable moment in the franchise, but this is so poorly handled that she winds up as one of the most forgettable characters in the series, as opposed to one of the best.
Roger Moore, unfortunately, ends his career on Bond in perhaps his own worst performance, which is undeniably sad. It seems that all Bond actors seem to end their careers on the lowest of their films (Connery with `Diamonds are Forever', Brosnan with `Die Another Day', and though Dalton was a great Bond, I have to say `License to Kill' was a weak film) but with those films it has always been more the scripts fault, as opposed to the actor's talent (all three tried their best with the material). Moore is just plain stiff in his last entry! The man seems to have totally lost interest in playing the character by this point.
I consider 1979's `Moonraker' Moore's worst, but like `Diamonds are Forever', and `Die Another Day', Moonraker was more the fault of the script writers; not the Bond actor. In `A View to a Kill' Moore really shows that he is no longer capable of playing the part, and that is the saddest part of the film (especially seeing Moore seducing girls much younger than himself, with his developing turkey neck becoming quite obvious). Walken makes the movie an enjoyable, B-grade action movie, but as for Bond, this is where it becomes an undeniable fact that Moore has overstayed his welcome as Agent 007.
Moore deserved a better ending, and the fact is that he just shouldn't have come back for this film. Octopussy may have actually been a decent departure, but Moore decided to try one last time and it really is the straw that breaks the Moore Bond's back. Enough was enough, and Moore failed to recognize when he should have cried "when!"
I give this film a decent rating for the performance of Christopher Walken, but everything else is very low, and forgettable. Go and see it for Walken, but it is sad to see Moore's finally desperate breaths as he tries to keep the character going one last time.
Movie Review: 2.5 stars out of 4
Summary: 3 Stars
The Bottom Line:
Long-in-the-tooth Roger Moore stars in an uninspired Bond entry that lifts large portions of its plot directly from its (better) predecessors; A View to a Kill has little to offer aside from a catchy theme and an interesting Bond girl in Grace Jones' Mayday