{"id":3837,"date":"2025-08-01T01:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=3837"},"modified":"2025-08-28T20:59:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T00:59:39","slug":"a-view-to-a-kill-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=3837","title":{"rendered":"A View to a Kill-1985"},"content":{"rendered":"

A View to a Kill-1985<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director John Glen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Grace Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #151<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #484<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"60002473\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed September 21, 2016<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not exactly deemed a masterpiece, or even a treasured favorite, among the masses of James Bond lovers, A View to a Kill (1985) holds a soft spot for me.<\/p>\n

It is one of the first Bond films that I was fortunate enough to see in the movie theater and it has continued to enamor me all these decades later.<\/p>\n

Yes, it has flaws (to be mentioned later), but it is a classic, fun, exciting, mid-1980s Bond offering. It contains Roger Moore- in his final Bond appearance, the exotic Grace Jones, a great villain, and on-location treats such as Paris and Iceland- who could ask for anything more?<\/p>\n

We are re-introduced to MI-6 agent James Bond on the snowy slopes of Siberia as he discovers the body of 003, along with a Soviet microchip believed to belong to the wealthy Max Zorin (Christopher Walken).<\/p>\n

Bond attends a horse sale hosted by Zorin and discovers he is drugging the horses to make them perform better.<\/p>\n

It is also revealed that he intends to destroy Silicon Valley to rule the microchip industry. In Zorin’s camp is a mysterious woman named May Day and an odd Nazi scientist named Dr. Carl Mortner.<\/p>\n

Events conclude in San Francisco as the action-packed finale takes place in a mine and overlooking (via blimp) the historic Golden Gate Bridge.<\/p>\n

I completely get the criticisms\u00a0hurled at\u00a0this film- both Roger Moore and, as a secondary character, Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny, had gotten quite long in the tooth by this point in the franchise (1985), which is a shame because both are favorites of mine.<\/p>\n

Most glaring in the “bad” department is Tanya Roberts as the main Bond girl, Stacy Sutten- almost rivaling Halle Berry (Die Another Day) as screamingly awful.<\/p>\n

Not appearing as a major character until quite late in the film, Stacey is a wealthy heir, to who Zorin is attempting to pay five million dollars to relinquish her shares in Silicon Valley (she refuses).<\/p>\n

Robert’s acting is quite poor- she has no chemistry with Moore, and comes across as a dimwit, despite being written as a doctor or scientist of some sort. Regardless, she does not work as a Bond girl.<\/p>\n

Yes, the cartoon-like chase around San Francisco with the brooding police chief is unintentionally funny- another negative to the film.<\/p>\n

But here are some strengths- Fantastic is Walken\u00a0as the main villain role of Zorin. Psychotic, loony tunes, and such a pleasure to watch. With his bleached blonde hair and grimacing sneer, a particularly controversial, and favorite scene of mine is when Zorin, machine gun in hand, sprays bullets from left to right, undoubtedly killing dozens, as he gleefully laughs.<\/p>\n

This was unprecedented in Bond films up to this point as most villains contained a safer personality- Zorin is positively monstrous and to be feared.<\/p>\n

Also worth mentioning is Jones as May Day, simply mesmerizing in the role- although sadly her character is weakened toward the end did she believe Zorin was capable of love??<\/p>\n

Countering the anemic chemistry between Bond and Roberts, the chemistry between Jones and Moore sizzles.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Bond has explored an interracial (white and black) romance- far from it. Live and Let Die- circa 1973 takes this honor. I would have enjoyed much more exploration on an emotional level between Bond and May Day instead of the animalistic physical attraction.<\/p>\n

One may wonder with all the recognizable flaws with the film, why the A-rating? Because simply put this film is fun and contains all the elements a Bond film ought to. The action is plentiful- who can forget the nail-biting Eifel Tower chase or the Paris car chase- sans car roof?<\/p>\n

Not high art, but a grand favorite of mine, A View to a Kill (1985) is entertainment personified. The pop title-theme song, performed by Duran Duran, which became a #1 hit in the summer of 1985, is a wonderful aspect of the film and immediately takes me back to a different time.<\/p>\n

I suppose the film does as well and that is a great part of my fondness for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A View to a Kill-1985 Director John Glen Starring Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Grace Jones Top 250 Films #151 Scott’s Review #484 Reviewed September 21, 2016 Grade: A Not exactly deemed a masterpiece, or even a treasured favorite, among the masses of James Bond lovers, A View to a Kill (1985) holds a soft spot … Continue reading A View to a Kill-1985<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7838,128,151,1374,1394,1377,1375,26,1382,1389,1376,7464],"tags":[7839,131,152,1378,1395,1381,1379,138,1383,1393,1001,1380,7460],"class_list":["post-3837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-151-favorite-film","category-1985-films","category-actionfilms","category-christopher-walken","category-desmond-llewelyn","category-dolph-lundgren","category-grace-jones","category-bondfilms","category-john-glen","category-lois-maxwell","category-tanya-roberts","category-top-250-films","tag-151-favorite-film","tag-1985-movie-reviews","tag-action-films","tag-christopher-walken","tag-desmond-llewelyn","tag-dolph-lundgren","tag-grace-jones","tag-james-bond-films","tag-john-glen","tag-lois-maxwell","tag-roger-moore","tag-tanya-roberts","tag-top-250-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3837"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21888,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837\/revisions\/21888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}