James Bond - A View to Kill

23 February 2015

A View to a Kill 1985

• Director:  John Glen
• Based on the novels  by Ian Fleming
• Cast: Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts, Grace Jones, Patrick Macnee, Robert Brown, Lois Maxwell
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Roger Moore  – The Saint
• Christopher Walken – Romance and Cigarettes, Catch Me If You Can, Sleepy Hollow, Suicide Kings, Blast from the Past, Nick of Time, The Addiction, Pulp Fiction, True Romance, Sarah Plain and Tall, Deer Hunter
• Grace Jones  – amazingly, only this
• Patrick Macnee – This Is Spinal Tap, The Avengers
• Why? Curious. Hal and I saw several Bond films in a Bond festival in the early 70’s and enjoyed them. Sean Connery is the only Bond we have ever seen.  Friends have said later actors have been good too. And with Judi Dench they can’t be all bad.  So we bought the box...
• Seen:  February 13, 2015  

A View to a Kill?  Never heard of it! What kind of title is that? Is this really James Bond? And what’s this I see? A very young Christopher Walken!

This could be interesting.

They certainly like skiing in these films.  And could it be – the first snowboarder? Duran Duran? Grace Jones! How very ‘80’s.

A most handsome intro. What will the rest of the film offer?

Computer industrial theft and espionage. Suspicious carryings-on at Ascot but what a magnificent couple Walken and Jones make. Computerised microchipped steroids. How very modern.

Ah. Evil oil mogul Walken with ultra-strong Jones are going to destroy Silicon Valley and take over its world domination of the global market. And he’s a KGB agent as well. He’s bad!

After an exciting hour it bogs down. Maybe because James Bond is getting a bit long in the tooth for all this chasing around.

Then Christopher Walken re-enters the stage and it becomes exciting again.

It’s not that different from the others but it has a modern feel to it. Like the others it goes on too long and is awfully silly. But Grace Jones is good, the heroine’s cat is pretty and psychopathic Christopher Walken really gives it a lift. For him it’s 5 *. For the film

2 1/3* of 5