108 replies to this topic

[Double-O Eleven]

My problems with the film are numerous: Stacy Sutton. The Beach Boys. Keystone Kops fire engine chase. Dull horse auction sequences. Uninteresting San Francisco locale. Overlong mine-shooting scene. Roger Moore looking just too old for the part. General lackadasical feel to the production (just another Bond film).

However...despite all these complaints I don't really dislike A View to a Kill. It has a certain average enjoyment factor for me, and among Moore's movies I prefer it to both The Man with the Golden Gun and Live and Let Die.

[streetjive]

be thankful that a proportionally large number of scenes ended up on the cutting room floor (they're on the UE DVD, and, well, didn't really do anything for me).

What sort of scenes were they? I've only ever seen the French police station one I thought that was quite good.

Off the top of my head:

1. Fisherman (with Bond & Chuck Lee in their midst) protesting in their boats outside Zorin's oil refinery/pumping station. Zorin and May Day are watching, and send Scarpine out on a boat to order the protesters away. Read those elegantly decorated placards ("Don't Harm Our Crabs!") and you'll soon notice one of the reasons the scene was chopped. But it does include some great shots of the refinery itself, including the oil pipline disappearing into the hills above the bay.

2. Stacey getting fired by Mr Howe. It feels rather staged and even John Glen acknowledged this - they only filmed the scene once with reservations about putting it into the movie. It's great to watch only for Roger's improv at the end (and the whole cast and crew cracking up).

3. Zorin, May Day, Jenny Flex, Scarpine et al arriving at City Hall (before they walk in on Bond & Stacey raiding the filing cabinets). You see the group open the boot of the car, each pulling out a bright red container of petrol and then leisurely strolling across the road and up the City Hall steps. It's pretty funny just for the absurdity of it all, not to mention it leaves you wondering how they even broke into City Hall in the first place.

4. And the Paris police station scene, which has previously been released.

There's also a ton of expanded angles and different cuts of:
- the Eiffel Tower jump and the ensuing car chase
- Bond rescuing Stacey at City Hall
- the firetruck chase through San Fran.

...as well as what is curiously termed "Butterfly Test Footage". Go figure.

There may be more deleted scenes but that's all I can remember at the mo (and I only watched them last night, which proves how great my memory is).

Edited by streetjive, 04 October 2006 - 06:09 AM.

[DaveBond21]

The ridiculously-named Monsieur Aubergine!!!

[Mr Teddy Bear]

"I have felt that Roger looked better and younger in The Quest, a movie he did 11 years after AVTAK."

I actually thought the same thing myself. When I was flicking channels and caught The Quest on TV one night I thought the movie was really old, based on the way Moore looked. I was really suprised to find how recent it was.

"1. The horrible use of the Beach Boys song ('California Girls' I think) during the intro snowboarding scene. Perfect place for the JB theme, but no. Had to go "humorous". Thanks, Rog."

I'm sick of poor old Rog getting the blame for John Glen's horrendous decisions. It was Glen's idea and frankly he did the film as dis-service. I have no idea how this guy got behind the wheel of one of the most successful franchises of all time.

Now, I have a question about one of Moore's lines on the eiffel tower. As Bond chases Mayday she knocks over a French policeman and as Bond follows he knocks down the same guy and says something. Does anyone know what the line is? I turned on the sub titles but clearly they couldn't figure it out either as it was not subtitled.

[4 Ur Eyez Only]

It is the ONLY roger moore 007 movie that doesnt have a perfect flow.

[Blonde Bond]

Moore's thick brow, Tanya Roberts and her character screaming all the friggin time.

Other than that, the film was bondastic!

-though the stuntmen were too obvious this time around, since Moore was "old" and the stuntmen were "young"

Ok, maybe it also was missing exotic locations and felt kinda tiresome.

But Walken as Max Zorin was um... Christopher Walkentastic!

[tonymascia1]

This was by far the most poorly edited and shot Bond movie.

Obvious stunt doubles, poor back lighting (making for bad special effects)...AVTAK had the look of a sitcom or rushed-out-for-sweeps-month TV movie.

The rest, I can forgive...

[JimmyBond]

Just a nit here, to save money they had to use a cover of "California girls." It's not actually the Beach Boys.

[Vanish]

I'm sick of poor old Rog getting the blame for John Glen's horrendous decisions. It was Glen's idea and frankly he did the film as dis-service. I have no idea how this guy got behind the wheel of one of the most successful franchises of all time.

Indeed. Sometimes he was really on the ball (Octopussy and License to Kill), but I can't fathom how he was able to score 5 consecutive directing gigs - Most of his directorial work on the '80s Bonds was vanilla at best (not knocking the films themselves, just Glen's direction and presentation).

[DaveBond21]

Indeed. Sometimes he was really on the ball (Octopussy and License to Kill),

I actually like Glen's work on FYEO and TLD best.

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Its just some of his odd "sense of humour" that got in the way. I bet he thought that tarzan yell was a hoot.

[RazorBlade]

The theme song put me off. I didn't even see it in the theatre.

[Jericho_One]

Just a nit here, to save money they had to use a cover of "California girls." It's not actually the Beach Boys.

LOL. This is too much.
There are plenty of flaws in this movie, but to be brief I was only gonna refer to The Beach Boys. I love them, but they were as out of place in this movie as a camel would be in Antarctica.
Now I see it weren't even the beach Boys to begin with...

[col_007]

Its just some of his odd "sense of humour" that got in the way. I bet he thought that tarzan yell was a hoot.

on some of the docs he points out things from his films that cleary where not funny

[karri]

Did Roger really have plastic surgery done? Something definitely happened to his face between OP and AVTAK. He looks skinnier and I can't really find that classic smile of his. Sometimes it looks like he's bored being in the movie, and then again he is being more serious to make the character more serious. It's a bit of a change after the all smiles Octopussy.

[streetjive]

Did Roger really have plastic surgery done?

Well, that prominent mole on his face sure didn't disappear by itself... And, for some reason, ol' Roger's eyes seem unnaturally blue in many scenes (see the PTS and the Chataeu party scenes in particular). Or maybe that was just the UE DVD digital restorers being rather overzealous with their touch-up job...

[00Twelve]

The horse breeding exposition has good moments, but on the whole, it dragged the story down. And Moore's Bond was much more of a well-read genius than any other actor's Bond, and the quiche just took that over the line for me. And I just loved his gray Member's Only jacket. That made him look like some senior citizen who just retired from the hosiery mill.

[00Twelve]

The horse breeding exposition has good moments, but on the whole, it dragged the story down. And Moore's Bond was much more of a well-read genius than any other actor's Bond, and the quiche just took that over the line for me. And I just loved his gray Member's Only jacket. That made him look like some senior citizen who just retired from the hosiery mill.

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Moore is just not Moore in this film. Sure, he looks different, but does anyone else think he even sounds different? Kind of hard to explain.

[Daddy Bond]

Let's see:

1. Moore was too old.
2. I really don't like Zorin.
3. I don't like ANY of the women.
4. The movie drags at times.
5. The plot is silly IMO.

Regards

[The Richmond Spy]

1) Too much of the USA in this movie.
2) Weak Bond girls
3) This film lacks the "sophistication" (for lack of a better word) that the other films contain

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Just came across this hilarious response Sir Roger gave about stunts on his website:

"I'm a total coward, so any stunt scares me to be honest. Fortunately I had a willing band of stunt men to step in and look after me - except in the case of going to bed with Grace Jones. That I had to do myself, and boy, that was scary!"

Only slightly AVTAK related, but amusing none-the-less.

[crheath]

Everything...

[Red Barchetta]

Just came across this hilarious response Sir Roger gave about stunts on his website:

"I'm a total coward, so any stunt scares me to be honest. Fortunately I had a willing band of stunt men to step in and look after me - except in the case of going to bed with Grace Jones. That I had to do myself, and boy, that was scary!"

Only slightly AVTAK related, but amusing none-the-less.

roflmao!!!

[Thunderfinger]

God bless Roger Moore!

[Skudor]

Just came across this hilarious response Sir Roger gave about stunts on his website:

"I'm a total coward, so any stunt scares me to be honest. Fortunately I had a willing band of stunt men to step in and look after me - except in the case of going to bed with Grace Jones. That I had to do myself, and boy, that was scary!"

Only slightly AVTAK related, but amusing none-the-less.

Great quote!!!

[Thunderfinger]

The title .
Why skip from from from a view to a kill to a view to a kill?

[moorebond82]

I actually like AVTAK
though i do agree some slight changes would have been welcome
get rid of the beach boy song,and smarten up the Stacey part a bit and i think it would have been better,plus the whole zorin telling scarpine to go out and get him is a bit to much like the Kamal Khan telling gobinda to go get him scene in octopussy.
But the high points from this movie for me is the locations in the movie(the golden gate bridge,the eiffel tower),the villans(may day and zorin),the theme song,and the poster art for the movie.

Edited by moorebond82, 18 October 2006 - 08:05 PM.

[Double-0-7]

I liked that so much of the film took place in California and the Golden Gate Bridge is a great location for the grand finale!

But Rodger sure seemed old in it, some of the shots looked crappy, and the editing wasn't very high quality at all.

AVTAK is pretty low on my ranking of the films.

[subkulture]

I didn't hate the movie, for there is quite a bit that dosn't work

1 - Tanya Roberts.......Totally miscast as Stacy Sutton. I actually would have preferred Fiona Fullerton to play Stacy with Tanya playing Pola Ivanova. Fiona certainly had a bigger impact on fans than Tanya.

2 - M, Q, Bond, Moneypenny and Sir Godfrey at the races. The scene wasn't the problem, but we were presented with a bunch of people who looked liked they were on a day out from a retirement home and herein lies the problem..........Bond too old, Stacy too unconvincing, the San Fransico police too inept, Russian female agents being mere sex fodder, East Germans being steroid enhanced superhumans, etc etc......Characterisation went out the window all we had were unconvincing stereotypes.