A View to a Kill (1985)

Roger Moore, one last time as 007

"A View to a Kill" (1985), is considered one of the worst Bond films, and I don't believe time has necessarily ever rescued it from that distinction. The criticisms are much: Moore was too old, Tanya Roberts, hot but bland (with a boring character) Bond romantic interest, Walkin in blond coif annihilating mine workers with a machine gun, the stunt doubles too transparent, and just a general lack of exotic locales in favor of San Francisco. We do get a fun action sequence set in Siberia but shot actually in Iceland involving Russian agents pursuing Moore's stunt double while skiing down dangerous slopes, soon throwing a driver off a snowmobile so he could drive it until it too was blown up, taking a ski from the machine to use as a snowboard! Another chopper tries to kill 007 and, as expected, goes KABOOM! when Bond shoots a powdered capsule into the cockpit. There's fun action in Paris where the Eiffel tower is featured as Bond pursues the statuesque Grace Jones, as Zorin's (Walkin) body guard and henchwoman, May Day, who murders a French agent James was discussing Zorin's steroid-scheme horse rigging operation (the British horse-racing Mecca, Ascot Racecourse, is given some rub as a featured location). May Day parachutes from the tower, eventually landing on top of a boat while Bond hitches a ride on top of an elevator of the Eiffel before commandeering a taxi, haphazardly moving through Parisian streets, as the car is eventually severed by wrecks in traffic! Bond does eventually reach the boat but his leap from a bridge sends him through the roof into a bridal ceremony! May Day boats away with Zorin, having rid themselves of one problem.

Horses and horse-racing, admittedly, wasn't all that exciting to me, but it was fun to see Macnee as an agent aiding Bond, the two given some amusing material, as Moore's Bond alias as a haughty heir to a "dotty aunt" mockingly ordering Macnee's Tibbett around, like carrying his luggage upstairs and tending to his car. Tibbett, much like Bond's contact in San Francisco, are victims of what appear to be a killer in the backseat with a garrotte.

Zorin, aided by May Day, his Nazi scientist "father", Dr. Carl Mortner (Willoughby Gray), and lead male henchman, Scarpine (Patrick Bauchau; I actually know him as Chase's father on the television show, "House"), go to San Francisco after "disconnecting" from the KGB (General Gogol, addressing him at the horsetrack, with a young Dolph Lundgren as an agent in a bit part), planning to cause a double earthquake by setting off an explosive in a fault mine that would capsize Silicone Valley with a flood.

You get a City Hall in flames, Bond helping Roberts' Sutton out of burning elevator shaft, Bond commandeering a firetruck while evading San Francisco police, Bond narrowly avoiding capture when the Lefty O'Doul Bridge is lifted, Zorin shooting his entire mining team while laughing as a smaller explosive causes flooding, a Zorin blimp inflating in the sky awaiting Silicone Valley's doom (Zorin, Mortner, and Scarpine never figure May Day would turn on them, as she felt betrayed by his abandonment, helping Bond remove a big metal bomb from the mine, sacrificing herself in a strange twist), Sutton kidnapped by Zorin, Bond grabbing the mooring rope to the blimp, and the climactic fight on the Golden Gate bridge where Zorin, laughing, can't hold on as Mortner fails to shoot Bond.

Walkin as blond Zorin is unstable but cocky, assured and psychopathic, unblinking when killing someone. You don't agree with his power takeover, he'll dump you out of his blimp from the sky. If you are spying on him, he'll drop you into a turning propeller. If you are no longer needed, he'll just gun you down. If you are an industry he wants to rule, a bomb meant to flood an entire area is quite okay. Bond narrowly escapes his traps, like a drowned car, burning elevator, flooded mine shaft.

Roberts is a geologist whose family has an oil business, Zorin eyeing to own it from her, willing to do whatever it takes to seize it if possible. Bond helps her when Zorin thugs try to hassle her. A shotgun of rocksalt is probably the most unexpected weapon Bond has perhaps ever used. She has knowledge of fault lines and such.

I think the Duran Duran song and credits opening the film are right up my alley because of this being released when I was a kid. I have a distinct memory of the final scene with Moore and Roberts in the shower, Q's little robot spying on them, a towel thrown over its head. I remember riding a bike in my neighborhood, returning home to this scene on the television. Of course these movies were on television, and HBO, so I watched them a lot. So they certainly are a fabric in my youth.

Moore retiring and bidding adieu to Moneypenny. Maxwell and Moore departing felt like an end of Bond's first chapter. Two eras, as Connery just two years before, said goodbye to Bond and Moore doing so in 1985 felt fitting as the part needed to be passed on. I think two of my absolute favorite Bond films came in the 80s, featuring Moore, so a fizzle with View to... wasn't all that big a deal to me. It was a forgettable finale, for most Bond fans, an unfortunate curtain call if you compare it to many in the incredible 007 franchise. 2.5/5