The 007 Project: A View to a Kill

 

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

Bond is sent to France to investigate Max Zorin, a CEO specializing in microchips. Zorin plans to destroy Silicon Valley so that the value of his product increases. 

Memorable Quote:
Wow, what a view.  ~May Day

To a kill.  ~Zorin

Highlight:

The Eiffel Tower scene and subsequent car chase is brief but memorable. For one thing, how sweet would it be to eat in a restaurant like that in the middle of the Eiffel Tower. 

Lowlight:

The fire truck chase scene bothered me, like why couldn't Bond just explain things down at the station? Instead he leads these poor officers on a chase throughout San Francisco while doing untold amounts of property damage and risking the lives of the officers and bystanders. 

Most interesting piece of IMDB trivia:

The first of this movie's Eiffel Tower jumps was so successful that the second jump was cancelled, thereby eliminating any further risk, cost, and time. However, as mentioned in Inside A View to a Kill (2000), two of the crew, including Don "Tweet" Caltvedt, allegedly went and made an unauthorized jump, as they were apparently so disappointed that they didn't get to jump off the Eiffel Tower. The non-permitted stunt jump cost them their jobs, as it jeopardized the remaining filming of the shoot in the French capital.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• The opening is very good, though it was an inexplicable and startling choice to interrupt the exciting background theme by interjecting California Girls. 
• Alison Doody, of Elsa Schneider/Last Crusade fame, appears as Jenny Flex. She was 19 when this movie came out. Moore, by comparison, was 57. 
• There are a few other Indiana Jones connections:
• David Yip, who plays ally Chuck Lee, was Indy's ally Wu Han in the opening to Temple of Doom. 
• The San Francisco City Hall location is used at the end of Raiders when Indy is leaving his debrief meeting. 
• The renaissance-style party at the big palace is cool, but I wonder how Sir Godfrey was able to "arrange an invitation" for Bond under a fake name -- as if Zorin's people would just go along with some dude staying at their mansion who they've never heard of. 
• They say that Zorin was from East Germany and then moved to France, but he doesn't speak with any sort of German or French accent.  
• 1:14:34 - That shrieking cat scared the shit out of me. 
• Tanya Roberts as Stacey Sutton -- really bad actress, but perhaps the best looking Bond girl so far. 
• I haven't seen many Christopher Walken movies -- in fact, I can't think of a single other one that I've seen, but he's a cool dude. 
• May Day is a memorable character, and I like how she turns sides at the end. 
• As the drama above the Golden Gate bridge unfolds, the cars on the bridge appear to be driving as normal and aren't distracted by the giant zeppelin directly overhead.  
• Well, we've come to the end of the Roger Moore era. Moore is a likable guy but a little too casual for me, so I don't love him, but I rate him slightly better than Connery. 

Final Analysis:

I had only seen this movie once before, and my memory of it was that it was really bad and possibly the worst of the franchise. Upon viewing it now, I was pleasantly surprised to realize that it was not that bad, and in fact I kind of liked it. The first half was pretty good -- the second half not as much but not terrible.  Ranking it 9 out of 14.