I have been having a blast going back and watching all the older James Bond movies. If you are keeping score, I loved The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker and honestly have a hard time picking between the two. I thought that For Your Eyes Only was a real step down and sadly, Roger Moore’s last outing as 007, 1985’s A View to a Kill is not much better and not a great way for his run as Bond to come to an end.
How to Download A View to a Kill
A View to a Kill was released on 24 May 1985. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
A View to a Kill – Roger Moore’s Final Bond Adventure
A View to a Kill would be the seventh time that Roger Moore would play James Bond and by this point, he was in his mid-50s and there was no denying that he looked a lot older here than he did in the last couple of Bond movies. There is just something off and missing about Bond here and even Roger Moore himself has said that he feels he was too old to play James Bond one last time here.
A View to a Kill vs. Other Bond Films
I loved the way that Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me were more sci-fi action movies than a typical spy thriller, but with For Your Eyes Only, they tried to take Bond back to his spy roots. I feel that A View to a Kill follows that For Your Eyes Only style a bit more as there is no outer space or Atlantis sci-fi style stuff going on here.
Hey, this is not a bad movie, but it is just missing something that other Bond movies have. To be honest with you, this feels more like a typical action movie than it does a James Bond movie. Still, with that being said, there are things that I like. Christopher Walken plays the role of Max Zorin and he is a super fun Bond villain.
Christopher Walken as the Villain – Max Zorin
Max Zorin was born in Nazi Germany and he is the product of Nazi experiments that saw him be super smart and strong, but also a total psycho! He is a tech mogul and he has a great idea to try and bring Silicon Vally down via a huge Earthquake, this way he will own the microchip market, hey it was the 80s, and home computers and computers in general were really starting to become a major part in everyone’s lives.
The Bond Girl – Tanya Roberts as Stacy Sutton
James Bond gets wind of this and of course, he has a Bond girl to help him out. The Bond girl here is Stacy Sutton, a geologist who is played by Tanya Roberts who I love as Midge in That 70s Show as well as a bunch of other stuff that she has been in over the years. She is a really fun Bond girl and I think that she does add a great deal to the movie.
Grace Jones as May Day – The Ultimate Femme Fatale
You know, A View to a Kill is a real “girl power” movie for me because as well as Stacy Sutton, we also have Grace Jones playing the villain, May Day. Grace Jones is such a badass and she is just fantastic in this role. This movie truly does have a great cast with some awesome characters.
Action-Packed but Lacking the Classic Bond Magic
As an action movie, A View to a Kill is a fun time it really is and I do think that it is way more fun than For Your Eyes Only. I just think that this was one too many for Roger Moore and this would have been a great time to introduce a new and younger James Bond. In watching this again for the first time in a long time, I did actually like it more than I remember.
