View to a Kill (1985)
A VIEW TO A KILL
Number 21 of 22 James Bond Films
Christopher Walken steps into the shoes of a classic Bond mastermind bad-guy. Monologue-y and megalomaniacal! It’s a deadly combo.
PLOT
James Bond – in an operation that should really be reserved for espionage janitors – tracks down the last known location of 003 and uncovers an EMP-resistant microchip made by Zorin Industries.
Max Zorin, played by Christopher Walken, is a billionaire industrialist who was contracted by the government to make these chips, cheats like Lance Armstrong when it comes to horseracing, and turns out to have been installed by the KGB but has now gone rogue with plans to destroy the Silicon Valley and become the only makers of microchips in world.
The whole plan unravels as Grace Jones turncoats on Zorin and blows herself up, then Zorin escapes in a blimp, setting up some lovely shots of San Francisco, but it ends with an an axe fight and the dangers of playing with dynamite on the Golden Gate Bridge.
That last part sounds a lot cooler than it is…
Why is it #21 instead of #22?
I think the main reason I let this one edge out Die Another Day was Christopher Walken. He did a pretty good job of being an over the top, but classic James Bond villain. I found him to be a good matchup against Moore. I’ve never enjoyed Moore’s Bond because he can be so cheesy. In the same way it’s near impossible to enjoy old Batman because of the camp factor. This movie sort of has a good balance of that Moore cheese with the Walken… well… Walken.
May Day was also another reason, here was a pretty classic right hand henchman, spun in the direction of this amazonian warrior lady that had equal skillset to Bond. Die Another Day tries to do a similar thing on the side of good, but while Grace Jones delivers, Halle Berry just sort of fell flat in her role opposite Bond.
Die Another Day is completely missing an antagonist that feels threatening or really all that crazy. With Walken as Zorin, I at least feel the man is crazy enough to do what he says.
Plus, I’m pretty sure this movie is just The Social Network part two and Max Zorin is really just an older and crazy Mark Zuckerburg getting revenge on the haters of Facebook going public.
No, really. I can’t get over the fact that you’ve ranked the bottom two and neither of them is Moonraker. Have you seen Moonraker? It’s such a bad rip-off of The Spy Who Loved Me that they even brought Jaws back (in the lamest way possible).
It’s nice to know we don’t all have the same list