Bond Films: A View To A Kill

I never thought I would miss the eighties, but goddamn, A View To A Kill - the opening titles alone take me back to my childhood. It's like watching what MAC cosmetics wanted to grow up to be. The hair, the drapey clothes, the blacklight makeup. And yet, Roger Moore creaks into his late seventies, catching up with Moneypenny, making their relationship more of an old collegial one, instead of the creepy cougar vibe of Moore's earlier takes.

The basic plot of A View To A Kill is: after recovering a Russian copy of a Western computer chip that is shielded against electromagnetic pulses, Bond is dispatched to investigate Max Zorin, the owner of the firm that makes the chip. He learns that Zorin uses an embedded drug delivery system that can be initiated by the jockey to boost performance during the race, and also that Zorin's bodyguard, Mayday, will go to great lengths to stop the investigation - even base jumping off the Eiffel Tower. Bond's leads take him to San Francisco, where he meets a geologist (the girl) who is also the last major shareholder standing against Zorin's attempt to take over the company that manufactures the chip. Bond saves her from Zorin's assassins, and together they infiltrate his mining operation, where they learn he plans to detonate enough explosives over the San Andreas fault to flood Silicon Valley and take out the chip-fabricating competition. After dispatching Mayday to track down Bond, Zorin ruthlessly guns down all the miners before escaping in a blimp and kidnapping the girl. Bond gives chase, holding on for dear life to a mooring line on the blimp, with a final showdown atop the Golden Gate Bridge.

A View To A Kill runs cold to lukewarm among most reviewers. In a recent review of bond villain plots, Zorin's was rated impractical, but due mostly to the globalization of manufacturing that bloomed a decade later. Christopher Walken as the villain is actually pretty great, and he echoes the ruthlessness of Goldfinger, or Largo, from the Connery years. Roger Moore is more than a bit dated here, though remarkably fresh considering his age (57). Also, Grace Jones is unique in the annals of Bond henching - the sex appeal of Pussy Galore with the martial arts of Bambi and Thumper, and the exoticism of OddJob combined with the ruthlessness of Jaws.

I started A View To A Kill thinking it would be a terrible slog, but it's not bad. It's not great, but it's a cut above the silliness of Octopussy and the camp of Live and Let Die. It's not must-see, and not must-avoid, but it's a decent Bond flick.