A View to a Kill (1985)

Preceded by: Octopussy (1983) / Never Say Never Again (1983)
Succeeded by: The Living Daylights (1987)

See our full list of James Bond films.

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
James Bond	Roger Moore	½
Stacey Sutton	Tanya Roberts
May Day	Grace Jones
Sir Godfrey Tibbett	Patrick Macnee	½
Max Zorin	Christopher Walken	½
Scarpine	Patrick Bauchau	-
Chuck Lee	David Yip	-
Q	Desmon Llewelyn	-
M	Robert Brown	-
General Gogol	Walter Gotell	-
Miss Moneypenny	Lois Maxwell	-
Dr. Carl Mortner	Willoughby Gray	-

Review

Welcome to 007, the geriatric version. A 57-year-old Roger Moore is joined by an ever ageing MI6, 63-year-old Patrick Macnee as Bond's ally, and an almost moth-eaten Willoughby Gray as a crazy old Nazi scientist. Still, despite the necessary age-adjustments and heavy use of stunt doubles (which was always the case in the Roger Moore era anyway), it's not really the star's mileage which is the problem with A View to a Kill. He is more aware of his detriments than ever, and although he looks his age, his more elderly appearance also punctuates his aristocratic presence, somehow making his lack of physicality and his obvious snobbishness more apt. Besides, Moore always had a way of getting away with the most tacky sexual innuendos, such as when he tells Jenny Flex (Alison Doody) that he's "an early riser himself".

A View to a Kill opens brilliantly with one of the film's several great action set-pieces, pitting 007 in a ski chase against a handful of baddies (much like in The Spy Who Loved Me). But after a fascinating introduction to the main villains, Christopher Walken and Grace Jones, the former doing well with a largely ridiculous role, the latter clearly demonstrating her lack of acting talent in a part that could have been really good, the film becomes less and less watchable as the script's inanity takes centre stage. The lack of action-options with Moore at this point seems to have led the producers to include segments that are most definitely worse than watching old Roger in a fist-fight: There's a horribly uninspired and badly directed 'American style' car chase through San Francisco, and then there's the whole segment in and around the mine towards the end which is too puerile. And please don't make me mention the scene where Moore goes on a Herbie-style car chase with a Renault 11. Yes, it was time for a change after this, even if that meant losing Roger Moore's delightful tongue-in-cheek line delivery. The film's best asset: Duran Duran's theme song, still possibly the best in the series.