For Fresh Eyes Only: A View to a Kill (1985)

Here I am, at the end of Roger Moore’s run as James Bond. I’ve only seen 4 different portrayals of Bond so far, but I can easily say he’s my favorite. The quality of Connery’s films varied way too much, Lazenby’s run was way too short, and I never even bothered committing whoever was in Casino Royale to memory. Moore’s hit a sweet spot. They continually tried gimmicky new things that I thought worked more often than not, and they often featured fantastic spectacle. They also happened to be made at the advent of newer technologies, so they felt more modern and fresh than Connery’s run. And I haven’t even mentioned his performance yet. He was great in the role. Calm but not too calm, cool but not too cool, he struck a great balance in every facet of his performance. And he was malleable, able to pull off both the dramatic and comedic without much of a switch in what he’s actually doing. For a man who had such a great run, it’s a real shame that his last film is so... mid.

I tried to get on this film’s wavelength. I really did. But the first hour of this thing is a total bore. So much time is spent investigating some red herring about fixed horse racing before the actual plot kicks in, and dear me I did not care about any of it one bit. I pray that I get into a single one of these movies’ plots eventually but it has not come anywhere close to happening yet. The film opens with a very blunt message claiming that Zorin is not based on any person in particular, and I would very much like to know why that had to be there. What billionaire horse racing genetically modified former KGB agent were they trying to prevent from suing them?

Although I had issues, its virtues are many. We get a pretty good villain performance by Christopher Walken, so that rules. I wish he was even more unhinged, but he gets his moments, such as when he pulls out an uzi to mow down dozens of his own workers who were already caught in a raging riptide that certainly would have killed them plenty good on its own. Just the most hilariously over-the-top evil thing he could do. The opening was quite fun too. Bond’s skiing away from some bad guys and he loses his skis, so he grabs a nearby piece of debris and uses it as a snowboard just as some Beach Boys surf rock cues up perfectly. Oh, and Bond has a really cute suit when they go off to the horse races. These moments are all good, and there are a few more good things worth highlighting. 

Duran Duran’s theme song is fantastic. It’s completely different than any previous theme and is a certified bop. I’m watching these in a relatively short amount of time and I don’t ever look at the release years before watching. Listening to these opening songs is basically the only way I  find out the time that these movies were made, and this one is extremely 80s in a good way. I also need to talk about the movie’s two great female characters, Grace Jones’ May Day and Tanya Roberts’ Stacey Sutton. May Day may be one of my favorite characters in this series, a total badass who eventually joins the right side at the last second, the best kind of bad guy heavy. And Stacey the geologist is easily one of the best Bond girls yet. I really got into the story of her family and her financial struggles. Funny too.

Next week I will be covering both films where Timothy Dalton played James Bond. That’s a double dose of Dalton! Considering he only had two films, I’m not expecting much, but hey, maybe I’ll be surprised. I do know that I will miss Moore. Unlike Connery, I would have welcomed another one or two movies. But all good things must come to an end. All bad things too, I hope. Doesn’t always seem that way though, huh? Or really ever, in my case. These James Bond movies are pretty alright though.