A View to a Kill (Special Edition)

It worked like it should have worked.

Classic bond is best bond before Daniel Craig.

Roger Moore was 58 years old when A View To A Kill premiered. Based on his rather reserved performance and stone face expression in many scenes, time had caught up to the man of action. Just prior to the film's release, Moore announced that he was ending his Bond career because he realized that he was getting too 'long in the tooth' to effectively portray James Bond. His performance as James Bond made it clear that a new Bond would appear in the next film. There are times that Moore came across like a creepy old uncle, especially in the romance scenes when he would grin or laugh. Moore aside, the film is not the best because of the cast and the script which now depended on too many jokes and sight gags. The worst was during the pre-credit action scene where Bond retrieves a microchip from the frozen body of Agent 003 and escapes Soviet troops by snowboarding and and the water-boarding (surfing) (?) to the Beach Boys song, 'California Girls.' This and the rather creepy look Bond gives to his blonde partner ruined a good action scene.The film itself is like a hodge-podge of plots. The film begins with Q making a presentation about the recovered microchip which is impervious to a destructive magnetic pulse explosion. Itis assumed that the Soviets are getting these from max Zorin, a mysterious European industrialist and horse breeder. Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) is psychotic and flamboyant and a former Soviet operative who now is a loose cannon. After some investigation, Bond uncovers Zorin's plan to take control of the world's microchip market by creating an earthquake along the San Andreas and Hayward Fault Lines and taking out California's Silicon Valley, killing thousands along the way.Zorin's key aide is May Day (Grace Jones) - who cannot act, Scarpine (Patrick Bauchau), Bob Conley (Manning Redwood), Dr. Carl Mortner (Willoughby Gray), and two female henchwomen- Pan Ho (Papilon Soo Soo) & Kimbereley Jones (Mary Stavin). May Day (Jones) is not attractive and snarls through much of the movie before Bond turns her heart after Zorin betrays her. Scarpine (also Zorin's dirigible pilot) is sadistic and a prefect match to Zorin, Conley is the slightly naive mining expert Dr. Mortner is wonderful as the evil Svengali-like geneticist who has tinklered with horses to produce Zorin's stable of winning horses as well as having 'raised' and 'molded' Zorin. To counter this motley crew, Bond is assigned Sir Godfrey Tibbett (Patrick Macnee) - the agency's expert on horses and a former horse trainer. Macnee is best known for his role as Steed on the tv series, The Avengers which was shot on the adjoining stage to Moore's old show, The Saint. M (Robert Brown), Q (Desmond Llewelyn), Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), and the Minister of Defence (Geoffrey Keen) all return to support Bond. Walter Gotell makes a couple of appearances as (Soviet General Gogol)and Fiona Fullerton plays Pola Ivanova, a Soviet agent after the stolen microchip. She shares a jacuzzi bath encounter with Bond before running away. Tanya Roberts plays Stacey Sutton, a geologist and former heiress to the Sutton Oil Company which Zorin took over. Sutton has uncovered Zorin's plan and joins forces with Bond. The film is hi-lighted by a decent car chase scene in Paris (featuring famed French stunt driver, Jean-Claude Bonnichon) , a bizarre steeplechase scene between a cadre of thugs led by Scarpine, an inventive scene with some slapstick involving a fire truck many San Francisco police cars, the explosion and massacre in an abandoned silver mine and a frightening battle scene between Bond and Zorin on top of the Golden Gate Bridge tower. Director John Glen and his stunt crew pulled off a decent film but it is not a very good Bond film.Overall, the film is a decent Bond film but I was glad that this was the swan song for Roger Moore. He had seen better days and look tired.Notes: The original Pinewood Studios Bond Stage burned down and was replaced by the Albert Broccoli Sound Stage - which was where the mine set was built. The skiing scenes were again filmed by Willy Bogner. This was Bogner's latest Bond skiing scene, following those he filmed for On Her Majesty's Secret Service and the The Spy Who Loved Me. Mary Stavin, an Eon Productions promotion girl made her second Bond film appearance, following a pre-credit sequence appearance in Octopussy. Carola Ashby (another Eon productions employee) appeared as part of the 'papillon' butterfly act at the Eiffel Tower restaurant. The Fuji Film dirigible was used in far shots near the Golden Gate Bridge. The bumbling SF Police Captain (Joe Flood) is a bow to Sheriff Pepper's (Clifton James) character of earlier Bond films.

Arrived in great condition.

A View To A Kill was Roger Moore’s last outing as James Bond. After getting out of hand with some over the top plots like The Spy Who Loved Me and starting to become a mockery of itself such as Moonraker the producers tried to bring things down to Earth and this was an example. Bond was assigned to investigate high-tech millionaire Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) and found out he was involved in all kinds of illegal activities ranging from racehorses to microchips.The movie was full of good characters. Most impressive was Grace Jones as May Day Zorin’s bodyguard and lover who had superhuman strength. She was one of the most bad ass women characters in any Bond film. Christopher Walken played a great Bond villain. I always enjoy watching his acting. Finally, Patrick Macnee played Sir Godfrey Tidbbett who works with Bond. He began working in British TV on the Avengers show the same time Moore did with The Saint. By this time they were both getting up in the years, but it was nice to see them together.This all made A View To A Kill a fitting goodbye to Roger Moore as James Bond.C

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: CheckCold and ruthless attitude: Double check!Heartless and chilling disregard for henchmen life: CHECKWalken, 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.

Roger Moore decided to go after this stinker - and who can blame him? Greed - presumably on the part of the producers - was getting in the way of good sense, as in the pre-credits sequence. To my way of thinking, the rot really set in with 'Diamonds Are Forever', so Connery must take some of the blame, but the series became far worse with Moore. In this he looks far too old - although not too old to tear apart the campy villain upon first meeting (which is what he should have done, thus preventing Christopher Walken - then the audience - from developing a fit of the giggles). Tanya Roberts is easy on the eye but of little use otherwise.First time I was longing for a Bond film to end so that I could get off to bed.

roger is too old in this one.and the puns go into overdrive.christopher walken was a great villian its just a pity its this bond film he was in.he would have been good as the bond villian in for your eyes only instead of the forgettable villian in that film.grace jones makes a good villian not because of her acting skills but because you would be scared as hell of her.but the bond films at worst are still entertaining

A great flick, Roger Moore as 007 with usual suave charm foils a crazed Nazi plot to destroy Silicon Valley.Stunning car chase through San Francisco, in a fire engine! Also with a death defying stunt - a paraglide jump off the Eiffel Tower.Yep, it's got it all. Christopher Walken is in his element as the villain. Nobody did it better, Rog!

I would not say this 126 min REGION B/2 DVD was my least favorite but not far short. I like Roger Moore as an actor but felt he was glad it was his last 007 appearance. I enjoyed the stunts, special effects and music.

Perfect.