James Bond 007 - Im Angesicht des Todes

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

This is the fourteenth in the Bond series and the final appearance of Roger Moore as James Bond.

In this movie Bond has to deal with a villain Zorin, who is planning to blow up Silicon Valley. (I think he is fed up with the geeks n nerds).

Apart from Zorin none of the henchmen are noteworthy.

This one's a bit violent

The main villain Zorin, a sadistic psychopath (played smoothly by Christopher Walken) displays a near-total lack of loyalty to his own men n shoots hundreds of people with machine guns n that too with a smile.

A man gets minced in an underwater exhaust fan.

In this movie Bond does an amazing horse hurdle race.

It has a lovely pre credit scene of that of a breathtaking ski chase.

It has a spectacular chase up and down the Eiffel Tower which must have inspired the parkour chase sequence in Casino Royale.

The climactic fight scene on Golden Gate Bridge is very well done.

This movie is Dolph Lundgren's first on-screen role, playing General Gogol's KGB bodyguard Venz but without any dialogues.

He is present before the iconic dialogue, "No one ever leaves the KGB".

In this movie Bond gets to cool off with Mary Stavin, Fiona Fullerton, Tanya Roberts n Grace Jones (A true Amazonian female n better than the fake Gal Gadot. Grace Jones was the first sexually aggressive Bond girl, evidenced by her reversal of positions - she climbed on top).

Many fellas say that Muad Adams is present in the movie as an extra n uncredited of that of a passerby. I tried but didn't notice her.

Some info on Zorin: Max Zorin is a sharp businessman, operating on the microchip market. He is highly intelligent n acts very fast cos he is the product of a Nazi medical experimentation during World War II, in which pregnant women were injected with massive quantities of steroids in an attempt to create "super-children." Most of the pregnancies failed while the few surviving babies grew to become extraordinarily intelligent-but also psychopathic.

After the war, Hans Glaub aka Carl Mortner, the German scientist who conducted the experiments, raised a young Zorin. Zorin was later trained by KGB agents.

"A View To A Kill" usually gets a lot of flak, but criticizing a larger-than-life action flick (as James Bond usually is) is like criticizing a hamburger, or any other mass product. It's no Mona Lisa and it's not meant to be. And to be honest, even the Mona Lisa is not the masterpiece it's made to be. -)

OK, so there are serious considerations about the film. And it's not so much that Roger Moore looks old, but rather that he *acts* old. Gone is the exuberance and youthful spirit of previous Moore Bonds. Moore seems tired and unenthusiastic, as if going through the motions, as if he doesn't care anymore. He doesn't convince.

Pace-wise, there's a serious flat spot early on and it lasts for a long time. It simply is boring from the moment Bond enters the Zorin residence trying to find out about any wrongdoings and about until Tanya Roberts enters the frame. It's not helped by the plot either: ex KGB agent/ specimen turned microchip businessman trying to take over the market by blowing up Silicon Valley. It could be better, much better.

What literally saves the film is the two stunning action sequences in the second half. First we got Moore and Roberts' narrow escape, leading to one of the best Bond car-chases ever. In a fire-truck of all vehicles! With Moore hanging from the extending ladder!! And then the spectacular Golden Gate Bridge sequence, brilliantly directed - is it a first for John Glen?

So, among the best Bonds this is not, but a nice farewell from Mr. Moore all the same.

While Ian Fleming created a great character in 007, time is wilting away the logic to a lot of the plots to the early films in this series. While this one still has touches of the Cold War Theme, the plot actually holds up better over time than some of the other films. In fact, this film does very well with the location shots being scenic including the Eifel Tower & Golden Gate Bridge in the same film.

Even though Flemming's material is long gone by this time the plot in this film actually holds together quite well. Actually, in a way the plot borrows on the plot of Goldfinger replacing Gold with sand. This does hold the film together quite well. The biggest problem with this film is Tanya Roberts, on my list the second worst Bond girl. Trouble is there is nothing good to balance her here & since her poor performance dominates the film, we are stuck with her here.

(In case your wondering, the worst Bond Girl of the entire series is Lynn-Holly Johnson. In FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, Lynn proved she can't act, & couldn't even be a believable skater even though in real life she is one. Carol Bouquet balances her off because she is one of the best Bond women ever, because without her, Lynn would have killed the series off for Moore sooner.) Christopher Walken is good as the heavy in this. Grace Jones does a good turn as "Mayday" also.

Roberts is the reason this ended Roger Moore's reign as 007. Maybe this is a good thing, but I wish they could re-shoot it with another better actress (not Johnson) because this film is good. The scenery is good, and the rest of the cast brings this off well. The stunts in this one are top notch too. This film grows on you when you watch it. There are times when Moore's advanced age shows up plainly though.

For a lot of people, Roger Moore is usually dismissed from the 'who was the best Bond' argument. For me, he was my favorite, possibly still is. Part of the reasons for this is a pure nostalgia factor in that he was the Bond when I was growing up. His films were the ones that were on television and when there was a new film he was Bond. Another reason he may be my favorite is the movies themselves. His Bond films were an eclectic collection of movies that were usually fast paced and fun. Most of his films featured multiple exotic locations , lots of cool action sequences and an awesome villain. Roger Moore's Bond got to duel with Christopher Lee and in this one Christopher Walken two of the best actors to portray Bond villains. Sure, Octopussy was almost the Austin Power's of its day in that it was almost a parody, but this one reigned in the campiness a bit and while not his best work, still ended his tenure as Bond in nice fashion. Not perfect, mind you, as Timothy Dalton's 'The Living Daylights' would be better, this one is still is a good Bond film that probably did represent the 80's more so than did any other Bond film from its opening featuring a Duran Duran song and lots of neon to the inclusion of Grace Jones as villainous sidekick Mayday.

The story has Bond recovering a microchip from a Russian facility that mirrors one at a plant run by Max Zorin. Meaning that somehow the Russians have gotten a hold of one of these chips. James sets out to investigate Zorin at his horse staples as Zorin seems to also have an unnatural edge in the racing of horses as well. It is not too long before Zorin tries to off Bond and show himself as the bad guy and soon Bond must go to San Francisco where he must try to figure out what Zorin's plans are as Zorin seems to be plotting something large. Bond will be assisted by a lady that Zorin has been trying to pay off and intimidate and together they will find themselves in a cave that is laden with Zorin's men as they plan to do something insane to turn the world of computers and microchips decidedly in Zorin's favor.

Roger Moore was quite old by this time and it was time for him to relinquish the role of 007. That being said, he still did a great job as the one thing you can say about him is that unlike Sean Connery near the end of his run as Bond, Moore still seemed to have fun doing it. In fact, I would say had Moore started as Bond instead of Connery, he would likely have kept the role up to View To a Kill. Here his age is apparent, as he is older than Connery, so one knows that you're mainly getting stunt doubles, but they made it work. Christopher Walken is the main villain of the piece and he is crazy good. Probably one of the more psychotic Bond villains he relishes killing those who work for him and laughs as he faces death. Grace Jones is also in this film and like most of the villains henchmen, she is a formidable opponent. Patrick Mcnee also does a good job as the agent initially investigating Zorin's horses. Now for the main problem with the film, Tanya Roberts. She has the looks, but she just does not seem like a Bond girl to me. She is perhaps, my least favorite Bond girl besides Denise Richards in The World is Not Enough.

So, I think this film was a nice farewell for Roger Moore as Bond. I actually thought Octopussy was good too, but this one was just a better send off as it had less comedic elements than did that film. Like I stated above, that one was nearly a parody in areas. Roger Moore's age does show, but he still carries the film well as he faces off a very nice opponent in Zorin played by Walken. I did not enjoy this one as much when I was younger, but it has grown on me, it is just nice to see so many very well down practical special effects rather than mainly CGI ones that accompany nearly every film released these days. It is also interesting that this is the film that sort of brought snowboarding into the open and made it quite big, so Roger Moore's final Bond film did start something rather big and that is rather cool. So is this film…not even Moore's best Bond movie, but a nice cool entry into the series and a nice farewell to probably the actor who enjoyed being Bond the most.

James Bond sets out to stop a psychopathic business man and a successful horse breeder. Stars Roger Moore and Christopher Walken.

Moore was clearly too old for this role but the film has all the elements of a great Bond film. An excellent villain in Walken, a dastardly plot, beautiful girls and amazing locations.

A lot of fun. Grace Jones is a great henchman.