Sparing no expense at the subtlety, A View to a Kill starts with James Bond atop an icy mountain retrieving a necklace from a frozen corpse. While the Russian bad guys descend on him he does a ton of impossible stunts to dodge their gunfire, even boogie boarding to the Beach Boys tune of California Girls (clipped in rather poorly at that). Once off the mountain he descends into a submarine disguised as an ice floe to meet his female companion who whisks him away to safety. Of course they make out and the beginning credits roll. Same old Roger Moore, no attempt at courtship with the women, they just give him the panties automatically.
If there is a positive light to A View to a Kill it’s the fact that the bad guy Zorin is played by Christopher Walken. Zorin’s right-hand woman is Mayday (Grace Jones) who gives Bond a run for his money and serves as a continuous thorn in his side. Centered primarily around race horses, Bond uncovers an underground lab of steroids manufactured by Zorin to fix horse races. What he later finds out is that the steroids are injected into the horses at will through the use of minute microchips. This is what Zorin’s true plan is, the manufacturing of microchips, the destruction of Silicon Valley and the emergence of a cartel, led by him, with a Monopoly over the computer market.
Besides sleeping with multiple women (4-5 I think) including the bloodthirsty Mayday, we also get to see Bond weave a bit of his English wit and charm at the snobby parties of Zorin. His spying attempts are actually very well done as he goes undercover as James St. John Smythe, an English gentleman and potential horse buyer. Once his cover is blown, Bond is invited on a dangerous horse ride by none other than Zorin himself who tries in vain to kill him via drowning. This lends Bond an opportunity to play possum and take his investigation to the United States where he can commune with fellow spies and various other contacts.
The Bond girl Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts) is an American blonde beauty who gets involved with Zorin financially. Appearing quite mysterious at first, she turns out to be quite harmless and manages not to sleep with James upon first meeting (quite a feat for any woman). When James saves her from Zorin’s assassins, she joins his side thinking at first that he is a reporter named James Stock (how original). Screaming, whimpering and whining, Stacey is very much the damsel in distress type of Bond girl. There is even a scene where she is slung over his shoulder as he escapes a burning building. Although it borders on the lengthy side, I found A View to a Kill to be a well written story given the complexity of Zorin’s plan. Roger Moore is his standard, charming self and Stacy Sutton was pretty sexy. My only gripe was the lack of the typical Bond mainstays like a nice car and some exotic gadgetry. The pacing had all the elements of a good spy movie but it wasn’t the most exciting Bond that I have watched and I was ready for it to be over a long time before my wish was granted.
Bond-o-meter Score (ranges from 1-10)
James Bond/Story (8): Very fictional but interesting to see it played out.
Bond Girl: Stacey Sutton (6): She isn’t too annoying and has very beautiful eyes.
Bond Toys (2): Toys? What toys? You mean the robot Q uses? What a joke.
The Villain (6): I love Christopher Walken but Zarin was not an interesting villain.
Negative Bonus (1): This movie was not a good way for Moore to go out, too long, too boring.
Written by Greg Dragon – who has written 365 reviews on Spicy Movie Dogs.
Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.
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