A View to a Kill (1985)

I did not expect ever to bother with this James Bond flick. It's one of the least popular, even among the mere eight I hadn't seen at the time. But as extensive as the Red Cross DVD library is, most movies in it that I hadn't already seen didn't appeal to me, and I was not about to spend several hours in a chair just reading. (Yes, I donated platelets over the weekend. I'm explaining the circumstances, not bragging.)

Now that I've watched it, I'm not sure why other viewers don't like it better. It's all fun to me. My best guess is that people wanted a younger lead, more use of Q gadgetry, more exotic settings (it's mostly in the U.S.), fewer dopey antics, less predictable means of problem solving, better code names (James Stock, really?), and the approval of Roger Moore himself. For my part, I can hardly tell what positive elements Goldfinger has that AVtaK doesn't, besides iconicity.

AVtaK has a lot of the trappings, controversial or otherwise, that we've come to expect from pre-Daniel Craig Bond fare -- womanizing, an air of superiority, punny quips, a high body count, one particularly disturbing death, racial minorities dying regardless of alignment, unusual vehicle chases, an ambitious and cocky Cold War villain with no scruples -- but it does a good job with basically all of them. And it avoids many of the problems in some of the more popular flicks: boringly long action sequences, obviously stupid schemes, politically incorrect caricatures, poorly faked stunts, notoriously bad science, Bond being too much of a jerk to cheer on....

Highlights? One of the best theme songs in the series, the only one to reach #1 in the U.S., care of Duran Duran. Christopher Walken as the main villain (explicitly identified as a psychopath, of course). Bond seeming a little less self-assured than before. Well-chosen cinematography. An unusually learned Bond girl. Real snowboarding, which helped popularize it in RL. Real horseback riding. Grace Jones as a skilled minion who changes her mind. A rare heroic sacrifice that gets a rare emotional reaction from Bond.

OK, maybe I was a little too predisposed to enjoy it. As much as I like and admire Skyfall, I wanted to go back to the kind of Bond film I used to watch a lot in college. The last older entry I'd seen was On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which, tho more popular than AVtaK, doesn't reflect the series all that well.

If you're into Bond in general -- i.e., willing to tolerate a lot of minor action duds in the off chance of another personal hit -- give AVtaK a go.