Reviews Film / A View To A Kill

What Happens When You Don't Love It or Hate It?

So this is a weird one for me because going in, I was expecting to either love it or hate it. This would be either one of the worst Bond films or one of the most fun. The Bond fandom leaves no middle ground on this one.

Well call me a trailblazer then, because to my minor disappointment, I am in the middle. This film is far from the worst of Moore’s era but isn't nearly as fun as his good ones. Instead, it’s just okay.

Let’s start with the negatives and get those out of the way. The glaring one of course is that yes, Roger Moore is clearly too old for the role at this point. It’s made even more obvious by just how young Grace Jones and Christopher Walken look. Perhaps the movie could’ve been tweaked to pit Bond’s experience and know-how against the villain’s youthful energy, but instead, the movie ignores this contrast completely. Add in the fact that the main Bond Girl of the film has a mother the same age as Roger Moore’s daughter, and it’s clear that the producers either needed to acknowledge Moore’s age or just find a new actor. And as a Moore fan, that’s something that pains me to say.

Circling back to the main Bond Girl, Stacey Sutton (Tanya Roberts) is a major disappointment. She starts off mysterious, knowledgeable, and decently capable of protecting herself in a fight. She’s obviously untrained and no match for the kind of thugs Bond faces regularly, but she makes it clear she won’t go down quietly. Unfortunately, after her first fight scene, it’s all downhill. She slowly becomes a shrieking wreck who can’t even outrun a blimp. She’s not as bad as Mary Goodnight, but she’s not likely to be in anyone’s top Bond Girls.

One thing that really surprised me was my lukewarm reaction to the main villain, Max Zorin. Going in I’d heard that Walken’s performance was this very quirky menace, which had me excited. But when I finally saw it, not only was Walken barely in the movie, for the most part, he’s actually one of the more understated Bond villains. He gets some good moments, but they're so scattered throughout the movie that it feels like Walken never really gets the chance to show his stuff. It’s a real letdown. It doesn’t help that the plot around him is very scattershot and unfocused.

But now onto the good stuff. Even if Roger Moore is clearly too old for the action part of a Bond film, he’s still great in all the other aspects. He’s as funny and charming as ever, and it’s good to see that even at this age, he’s still got the spark. His movies were a rollercoaster of quality, but he was never bad in any of them.

And while Walken’s performance may have left me a little cold, Grace Jones is on fire. May Day is easily one of the best henchmen of the series. Jones commands your attention every time she’s on-screen, whether it’s taking down redshirts or simply walking next to Zorin. She easily steals the show, and it’s a real shame they killed her character off. But hey, at least May Day died as she lived: laughing madly and looking fantastic doing it.

So overall, this movie has a lot of flaws. As final outings go, this isn’t a great send-off for Moore. But it’s got just enough good elements to be worth watching at least once. It ain’t great, but it ain’t bad. It’s an okay movie, for all the good and bad that entails.