The Cast
Roger Moore (James Bond); Tanya Roberts (Stacy Sutton); Grace Jones (Mayday); Patrick Macnee (Tibbett) Christopher Walken (Max Zorin)Willoughby Gray (Dr. Mortner); Patrick Bachau (Scarpine); Robert Brown ("M"); Lois Maxwell (Moneypenny); Desmond Llewellyn ("Q"); Allison Doody (Jenny Flex); Daniel Benzali (Mr. Howe); Fiona Fullerton (Pola Ivanova); David Yip (Chuck Lee)
Review
This film is considered to be, by most Bond fans, the lowest point of the series. Moore was showing his age, and perhaps the series was as well. While it isn't the best Bond film, it does have everything most people have come to expect in a Bond film: lavish locations, breathtaking stunt work, outrageous villains, beautiful women and more. The highlights: The movie is essentially a remake of Goldfinger, with new villain Max Zorin wanting to corner the world market on microchips, even if it means murdering the competition. To this end, he's enlisted the aid of a wide variety of colorful villains. First is his trusted mentor Dr. Carl Mortner. It turns out Dr. Mortner used to perform bizarre steroid expirements on pregnant women in Germany during World War II. The CIA believes Max Zorin is the byproduct of a Nazi experiment gone wrong, which makes Max an even greater oddity when you consider his girlfriend/bodyguard/personal trainer, Mayday, is black. As Zorin, Walken brings his trademark psychotic bent to the role and with great effectiveness. Disco diva Grace Jones lets her looks do the talking. She's a menacing prescence, and a formidable foe for 007. The stunt work for A View To A Kill is simply amazing. From jumping off The Eiffel Tower to slamming an airship into The Golden Gate Bridge, 'View' offers it all. Or at least attempts to. The money is definitely up on the screen. And the titles, by Maurice Binder, rank among his best. Another great score is turned in by John Barry and Duran Duran, providing us with one of the most memorable scores and theme songs in the series. Despite all of the excellent points mentioned above, there are still some problems. Roger Moore was too old for the role at this point, and you need look no further than the scene where he climbs on top of the bomb/crane for proof of that. And then there's Tanya Roberts. She's just plain wretched. At the premiere of 'View' in San Francisco, Roberts was very cold, icy and aloof to the audience. It's no wonder. She knew what the rest of the world was soon about to learn...that she could'nt act and her career, in relation to any big studio productions in the future, was over. Never again would we see her in any major studio movie. The direction lags at times. There's an uneveness to the flow of the film, and that's probably got something to do Glen's direction. It's almost as if he was bored with the film, or just going through the motions. Putting a Beach Boys theme right in the middle of a tense action sequence is a real mood killer. And not using Pola Ivanova as THE Bond girl was a missed opportunity. She's much more interesting and effective in five minutes of screen time than Stacy Sutton was in 60, and one could reasonably argue that she was more integral to the plot than Stacy. Having said all that though, i've got to give A View To A Kill an 'A'. If for nothing else than for the effort.
