16 replies to this topic

[General Koskov]

It seems that more than any other Bond film,--even the 'titillating' The Man with the Golden Gun--A View to a Kill has gotten bad 'reviews', snubbed by fans of both the serious and light-hearted Bond films, and ranked lower than anything but the 1967 Casino Royale!

So I propose that all AVTAK fans (or even those who just 'like it a bit') post here and say what is so great about this film.

Okay here're my notes to start off:

-It's realistic; flooding Silicon Valley isn't quite as goofy as lasering Washington DC to death. And the whole 'pumping seawater' thing was a good a 'mystery' as any in a Bond film. rm2

-It's not a remake of Goldfinger. A lot of--either fans or haters of Goldfinger--people have made popular the notion that every time a villian consults others about his plan he's ripping off Auric Goldfinger's meeting. Well I'll admit the model of Silicon Valley is like the model of Fort Knox, but the similarities end there. Not to mention Zorin doesn't crush new cars just to please audiences and do numerous other superfulous things. ^_^

-Roger Moore may be going over the hill, but he can act like all of the other Bond's. No doubt Dalton would have been excellent in this film, but then the same people who wanted the 'serious influence' can't stomach Licence to Kill. Moore was fine, period. rm1

-Stacy Sutton was a good 'Bond girl'. Sure she wasn't Teresa or Domino, but not every woman is Bond's female rival for the duration of the movie. I'd compare her to Vivienne Michel in TSWLM for the reason that they are both rather 'helpless' Bond girls. It just goes to say not everyone is a hero all the time. In OHMSS, Bond gets tired at the end of his ski chase. People say this is realistic that he shows weakness (which is true and I also love it); yet when a woman who (we assume) has never been in a burning elevator shaft screams when James Bond seemingly leaves her, the same poeple say she is a dumb blonde who has no place in a Bond movie. Oh, and she's definitely not as bad as Christmas Jones.

-May Day is...interesting...okay she's the bad part of the film, but she ends up being like a less silly version of Jaws who does more than sit in a friggin' space station until a space shuttle will rescue her! She gives her life to stop Zorin's plan. Albeit a little bit of a quick turnaround, but can you see Roger Moore killing her? No, we'll leave that for Brosnan. ;D

Well, there you go, some of my thoughts on AVTAK. So post/argue away!

[Tanger]

ray t (06 Apr, 2002 05:57 a.m.):

1...The pretitles...pity that they put the beachboys in there...it takes away from what COULD have been an EXCELLENT pre-
titles

2...the score...i think its one of barry's best...certainly top 5 of the canon

3...Title song...Duran Duran were at their height and barry's bondian brass makes this a killer track in the Thunderball/LALD mould. top 5 songs of the series

6...the absolutely hilarious tape of bond (st john smythe) chastising tibbet

7...relatively original villian (Chris Walken didnt do a bad job at all actually) and relatively original HENCHWOMAN...cant blame them for coming up with something interesting and different in that respect.

9...Roger's acting. I think he did a fine job in AVTAK. i cant be critical of his acting here.

what i disliked:

1...The stunts in which you can CLEARLY SEE that the guy doing all that bondian stuff is a STUNTMAN. i.e. TERRIBLE EDITING

2...weak bond girl played by a relatively weak actress....what more can i say

3...some really unnecessarily excessive car chase sequences like the one in paris
and the really dumb one with that idiot cop and the fire engine bit in san fran. in fact, if they'd cut out the bit after bond brings stacey down the ladder, the movie would be better off for it.

1. The pretitles are definiely one ofmy favourites. The California Girls cue was added by John Glen for a "humourous kick". IMO - bad idea.

2. Definitely my third fav Barry score. Love it! Especially the action theme. I'd like it to be used again.

3. Yep. My fav title track.

6. I love all the Bond/Tibbett scenes. Moore and McNee are excellent together. So natural.

7. Zorin is definitely a great villain who could have been develope more, script wise. Walken is excellent and certainly has the skill to do it.

9. I've always thought of him as 'Grandad Bond' in this one. LOL! Great acting though. Shows a certain maturity.

1. ARRRGGGGHH! Every single scene you can see the stuntman. Terrible!
In fact, there was once a rumour that in the action scenes combined, Moore can only be seen for a total of ten minutes! I believe it.

2. Absolutely. Nuff said.

3. Are you kidding?! I loved these scenes. Very 80s action flick!

[Victor Zokas]

I quite like AVTAK and as such agree it is a bit underatted, but it does have a few low points. The Beach Boys bit in the pre-titles was an all time low in the whole series. Plus it wasn't even the Beach Boys version.

Stacey was a bit hopeless. A Zorin blimp sneaks up on her, masked behind her hair. Yep that could happen. She was quite attractive but not convincing.

But I like most of the rest of it. Especially Zorin and Tibbett.

[Dr. Tynan]

Jim (06 Apr, 2002 12:35 p.m.):

General Koskov (06 Apr, 2002 04:26 a.m.):

-It's not a remake of Goldfinger. A lot of--either fans or haters of Goldfinger--people have made popular the notion that every time a villian consults others about his plan he's ripping off Auric Goldfinger's meeting. Well I'll admit the model of Silicon Valley is like the model of Fort Knox, but the similarities end there.

They haven't even begun

1. Wealthy industrialist villain, who has earned respect in the higher echelons of the British establishment.
2. Villain intends to damage US economic interest, a by-product of which is the augmentation of his own wealth, which is derived from the same thing he intends to damage.
3. Villain, as pointed out above, disposes of one of his gang of cronies by novel means when said crony fails to embrace the master plan.
4. Two word codeword for master plan
5. Villain assisted by someone with penchant for martial arts and bodybuilding
6. Villain is associated with government of communist power
7. Villain cheats at his hobbies, which are ostensibly "gentleman's sports".
8. Villain has a German background
9. Villain employs bevy of beauties to do his dirty work
10. Villain is fabulously wealthy
11. Villain has interest in breeding horses and general all-round equestrianism
12. Bond turns the villain's principal female cohort to his cause, thus thwarting the villain's plan completely
13. Story based largely in USA
14. Villain has array of aircraft
15. Villain's scheme involves improbably large bomb and the callous disposal of those who have assisted him
16. Bond is assisted by CIA agent
17. Bond is assisted by girl who is initially hostile to him, who knows her way around a shotgun and whose family has been wronged by the villain in the past.

Goldfinger, Goldfinger. So good, they made it twice.

Very astute Jim.

[Dr. Tynan]

PS I wasn't having a go at you General K

[ray t]

well of the 19, for me AVTAK is anywhere from 14th "best" to 17th "best"

there are a lot of things i like about this movie:

1...The pretitles...pity that they put the beachboys in there...it takes away from what COULD have been an EXCELLENT pre-
titles

2...the score...i think its one of barry's best...certainly top 5 of the canon

3...Title song...Duran Duran were at their height and barry's bondian brass makes this a killer track in the Thunderball/LALD mould. top 5 songs of the series

4...the revolutionary microchip impervious to EMP premise...later shows up in Goldeneye funnily enough. They should have expanded on this element but, unfortunately, didnt.

5...the majestic french locations...very fitting for a bond movie

6...the absolutely hilarious tape of bond (st john smythe) chastising tibbet

7...relatively original villian (Chris Walken didnt do a bad job at all actually) and relatively original HENCHWOMAN...cant blame them for coming up with something interesting and different in that respect.

8...the fact that bond didnt have to rely on a talking parrot for him to save the world (FYEO fans...this is a dig at you!!!)

9...Roger's acting. I think he did a fine job in AVTAK. i cant be critical of his acting here.

I, however, can be critical of him being ALLOWED to PLAY bond at an age which
takes away from the credability of some of the things bond does in AVTAK. therefore i have to be critical of some of the things that are WRITTEN in this movie for an actor aged 57.

what i disliked:

1...The stunts in which you can CLEARLY SEE that the guy doing all that bondian stuff is a STUNTMAN. i.e. TERRIBLE EDITING

2...weak bond girl played by a relatively weak actress....what more can i say

3...some really unnecessarily excessive car chase sequences like the one in paris
and the really dumb one with that idiot cop and the fire engine bit in san fran. in fact, if they'd cut out the bit after bond brings stacey down the ladder, the movie would be better off for it.

there are other things both good and bad but on the whole it IS a BOND movie which certainly puts it ahead of 75 percect of all the movies out there.

[RossMan]

I absoluely love A View to a Kill. I thought it was just fantastic. Though, I have a bit of a soft spot for it as it was my first Bond movie with rm2

Couldn't stand Tanya Roberts though.

[Tanger]

Well, I was feeling in the right mood today so I decided to watch A/TAK again.
Wow, who could have guessed that watching that film would be so fun. I've got to say....I love it! It's even moved up my list from second-to-bottom to about eighth!
It's really entertaining. I'm so glad I decided to watch it.

[Carver]

I'd just like to agree with most of you lot. I think AVTAK is a great film:
1. The title theme(my favourite)
2.Locations, Paris and the Golden gate bridge were very good settings for a Bond film
3.The Villian, not the best but Christopher Walken did a great job of bringing out the psycho in Zorin.
4.The showdown atop the Golden Gate, very gripping.
5.Moore and Macnees on screen chemistry, brilliant. Its a shame Tibbett dies as I would like to have seen more of him in future Bond films.

[Tedley King]

For those who don't kNow, Moore and Macnee had worked together previously on 'Sherlock Holmes In New York' I think it was, a few years prior to AVTAK, about 1979 I think.

[Tanger]

Ethan Hunt (07 Apr, 2002 09:26 p.m.):
For those who don't kNow, Moore and Macnee had worked together previously on 'Sherlock Holmes In New York' I think it was, a few years prior to AVTAK, about 1979 I think.

Yeah that was on UK TV on Friday. Sadly I missed it. I really wanted to see it too. I think they also worked together in a few episodes of 'The Saint' although I could be wrong.

[RossMan]

Mr Janus (07 Apr, 2002 09:21 p.m.):
The showdown atop the Golden Gate, very gripping.

That is one my favorite Bond film climaxes, second only to Bond fight with Necros in The Living Daylights.

[General Koskov]

Ah good, some people do like AVTAK!
But Jim has reminded me of the 'Main Strike'/'Grand Slam' similarity, and the scene with Bond listening to the villian plot his scheme whilest Bond scribbles madly on a piece of paper.

[General Koskov]

Ah good, some people do like AVTAK!
But Jim has reminded me of the 'Main Strike'/'Grand Slam' similarity, and the scene with Bond listening to the villian plot his scheme whilest Bond scribbles madly on a piece of paper.

So they are similar. Hmm, too bad.

[Xenobia]

OK...here's what I like about the movie:

The pretitles: the first time we snowboarding...which I think is somewhat historic; the use of the Beach Boys song, which I thought was perfect for many reasons. (I mean, *come on* isn't "California Girls," James Bond's theme song?).

The Song: Duran Duran at their best, with the perfect song for an Eighties Bond movie -- fast paced, cutting lyrics, very easy to market.

Chrisopher Walken: Chrisopher / Is the Man / If he can't do it / No on can! He made the ultimate quietly evil villan. He brought in just the right touch of self parody to make it all come together.

The Eifiel Tower Stunt: Forget the Halo jump! Pulling that off took serious skill!

Q: He got to have some truly wonderful lines in this movie.

Bond: He acted like a gentleman, got his lines off, and in the end, pulled off some amazing stunts in the burning elevator and on the Golden Gate bridge.

Zorin's European Estate: That house was amazing...and I think that was the best "Mansion" set of the series.

Patrick MacNee: Yet another member of the Avengers training school for Bond movies, he really made the most out of what could have been a silly role.

My dislikes:

Bond: Making Quiche. Bad. Very Bad.

The R2D2 ripoff: That thing needed to be shot.

Actually I think that's all I dislike.

Thank you for your support of Roger. It makes my job easier.

-- Xenobia

[Jim]

General Koskov (06 Apr, 2002 04:26 a.m.):

-It's not a remake of Goldfinger. A lot of--either fans or haters of Goldfinger--people have made popular the notion that every time a villian consults others about his plan he's ripping off Auric Goldfinger's meeting. Well I'll admit the model of Silicon Valley is like the model of Fort Knox, but the similarities end there.

They haven't even begun

1. Wealthy industrialist villain, who has earned respect in the higher echelons of the British establishment.
2. Villain intends to damage US economic interest, a by-product of which is the augmentation of his own wealth, which is derived from the same thing he intends to damage.
3. Villain, as pointed out above, disposes of one of his gang of cronies by novel means when said crony fails to embrace the master plan.
4. Two word codeword for master plan
5. Villain assisted by someone with penchant for martial arts and bodybuilding
6. Villain is associated with government of communist power
7. Villain cheats at his hobbies, which are ostensibly "gentleman's sports".
8. Villain has a German background
9. Villain employs bevy of beauties to do his dirty work
10. Villain is fabulously wealthy
11. Villain has interest in breeding horses and general all-round equestrianism
12. Bond turns the villain's principal female cohort to his cause, thus thwarting the villain's plan completely
13. Story based largely in USA
14. Villain has array of aircraft
15. Villain's scheme involves improbably large bomb and the callous disposal of those who have assisted him
16. Bond is assisted by CIA agent
17. Bond is assisted by girl who is initially hostile to him, who knows her way around a shotgun and whose family has been wronged by the villain in the past.

Goldfinger, Goldfinger. So good, they made it twice.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by Jim

8. Villain has a German background

Well the actor Gert Frobe is German but the character of "Goldfinger" is British.