A View to a Kill (1985)

Directed by John Glen. Starring Roger Moore, Christopher Walken, Tanya Roberts, Grace Jones, Patrick Macnee, Patrick Bauchau, Fiona Fullerton, David Yip, Desmond Llewelyn, Willoughby Gray, Walter Gotell, Lois Maxwell, Robert Brown, Manning Redwood, Daniel Benzali, Alison Doody. [PG]

Seventh and final outing for Moore as 007 makes for a real whimper of a swan song, as the pushing-sixty secret agent tangles with supervillain Max Zorin (Walken), a psychopathic microchip manufacturer who’s the product of Nazi medical experimentation and wants to wipe out the competition by destroying Silicon Valley. The story is constructed piecemeal, the adventure aspects are plodding far more often than exciting, Walken underwhelms as the heavy, and Roberts makes for one of the feeblest “main” Bond girls the series ever produced. As for Zorin’s henchwoman, May Day, model/singer Jones cuts an imposing figure when trying to be menacing, but her turnabout in the final act is absurd, and the sight of her and Moore in bed together borders on the unsettling for multiple reasons. The patter between James Bond and ex-“Avenger” Macnee, a decent Golden Gate Bridge finale, and Duran Duran’s hit title tune (co-written by John Barry) are among the few things to recommend in this otherwise drab, formulaic exercise. Continues the Moore-era tradition of undercutting its stunt/FX sequences with dopey humor (in this case, showing the hero “snowboard” down a glacier on a detached snowmobile ski while “California Girls” chirps away on the soundtrack). Maxwell’s final appearance as Moneypenny. Look fast for Dolph Lundgren in his first film role as a KGB agent.

42/100