A View to a Kill

Walken, right, you can sit back and watch A View to a Kill because of Walken. But let's be honest, he is the ONLY reason that you can sit back and finish this. The 70s, by 1985, were long over and Moore was clearly the 70s era 007. The mood, the atmosphere, the silliness, the feel of 007 needed to change and we still had 70s Bond in 85. And then, Moore himself looked kind of like Bond in his 70s. He was far too old for the role. Too old to be believable as a super spy. Too old fit the part, and needed to pass on the mantel a few films ago. By 85 the Silly Bond Era needed to end. They needed a new 007, and this, and Moore, just didn't work any more.

They tried hard to make this the worst movie ever. They at least made it the worst Bond movie ever by not only making it dull, without motivation, without strategy, without inspiration, without wit, but also by giving it the dumbest title ever (what is a "view to a kill"?) and the absolute worst theme song ever. A theme song that sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard, and that's the truth. It's the worst song Duran Duran ever did. It might be noted that no male artist should ever do a Bond song. The results are terrible. But it's mostly because the songs are written for a product instead of being inspired. Now, the story. Well, it begins with the issue of poorly bred horses being genetically maneuvered, which mirrored the actual events of the time, as it was during the later 80s when a very covert faction in Kentucky had closed meetings for an Equine club. To put it in a nutshell, some genetic engineering was obviously going on with the thoroughbreds. Six furlong sprinter Mr. Prospector was a big zero as a sire for the 10 furlong derby distance until the Equine club perfomed some covert acts. Either by genetic engineering or by early surgery to change the structutre of the Prospector foals. You see, Mr. Prospector was a Kentucky bred horse owned by the biggest farm in Kentucky. Well, that idea appears for a second in this movie, and is then never explained again, as if some big shots int he industry hushed it up. Meanwhile, Bond is paired with a plain Jane and the hot girls all get killed, to appease the female audience, and since about 1970, movie makers realized it was the women who decided what movies the family would watch in theaters. Christopher Walken is poorly used in this movie. He really doesn't do much. He's just an evil villain. There isn't any motivation to speak of for any of the characters. A lot of bang and boom that just gets dull and dumb. It's full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Roger Moore's last outing as 007 is his weakest. This story that Christopher Walker "Zorin" plans to dominate the world micro-chip industry by destroying California's silicon valley takes the franchise just a shade beyond credible. Whilst Grace Jones’ "May Day" is lithe and beautiful, she has no subtlety or panache and Walken hasn't the script or the charisma to do justice to his role as the megalomanic industrialist. Moore tries his best, and with early appearances by Patrick Macnee there is a semblance of some of the style of films gone before; but as it develops this is all - except, perhaps, the "butterfly act" about large scale photography and product placement. Duran Duran & John Barry got a Golden Globe for the title song, but that is probably the only highlight for me...