A VIEW TO A KILL (1985)

Sequel to: All previous Roger Moore 007 outings 1973-1983, mostly THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
Why the Original(SPY) Rocked: Moore being played with his limitations and strengths, and with a strong female co-star.
Why the Sequel Sucks: Moore's old ass, the crappy rehashed plot, the 1980s, did I mention Moore already?

Let me get this out front: I hated the Roger Moore-era with the James Bond movies. I hated his half-serious campyness that the producers parlayed to with full support, and as an action figure like James Bond is supposed to be, he is the William Shatner of 007. In other words, completely unbelievable.

But there was one good movie from his administration: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. Why did it work, despite reusing the same basic villain scheme of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE? It worked because Bond had a love interest who WAS his equal, and the film plays into the fact that he *did* murder her lover. The fact he still bangs her despite this fact, now thats impressive Mr. Bond.

Anyway, it still worked as a movie, and when Moore goes into the sinking sea fortress to save her, you CARE. Most of the time, Bond girls are hacks with tits that you don't give a flip about.

Oh, and it had JAWS, such a great popular henchman baddie, he returned for the ill-advised MOONRAKER.

But that was in 1977, and by 1980, alot of people thought Roger Moore was too old and that he should just retire. His 007 movies kept making a profit, and EON Films had this silly idea that they're screwed WITHOUT Moore (yet they survived after Connery left. Go figure) and since Moore was willing to take the money, he stayed until A VIEW TO A KILL in 1985, when he finally quit 007.

At the age of 57!

And oh God, it SHOWS.

Allegedly, Moore claims that he quit 007 finally when he found out that not only was he younger than his female co-star Tanya Roberts...he was older than her MOTHER.

DAAAAAAAMN!

Anyway, Moore has this stupid looking pathetic attempt at make-up to make him seem younger, and to keep his hair from being too gray. Just sad, really sad. Plus, Moore going to bed with Grace Jones was just damn disgusting.

But its not Moore's fault. A VIEW TO A KILL proves that the Bond classic GOLDFINGER could have sucked. why?

Because AVTAK has the exact same basic scheme as GOLDFINGER. A billionaire corporate conglomerate, with aid from those damn Communists, plans to destroy all of an industry just so to make himself a tad richer.

Except AVTAK sucks. Whats tragic is, it sucks while wasting away Christopher Walken for that crappy part. Walken is cool, and when he's wasted, its always sad. In a way, its like he was Max Shrek in BATMAN RETURNS, except 7 years earlier, and in a bad movie.

But the cherry-popper was the music. I know some folks like Duran-Duran, but their song (which was a #1 hit back in the day) is garbage, appropriate of a dark druid era in pop rock. Oh the humanity...