A frustrating grab bag of a Bond film - not great, with some truly terrible moments, but good ones as well. It starts like gangbusters, with a lively ski chase sequence (a little soon after For Your Eyes Only perhaps, but very well done, with a then-fresh snowboarding angle... why don't they do ski chases any more?), and an outstanding Duran Duran theme song.
Then it gets more mixed. There's the unmemorable Robert Brown as M and Lois Maxwell in her last appearance as Mrs Moneypenny looking really old (her acting seems to have gotten worse), but some pleasing location footage at Ascot and French stables. It is fun to have Patrick Macnee act opposite Roger Moore although his part really should have been played by Desmond Llewellyn as Q (because the characters had more history - that banter would have been more fun).
Apparently Chris Walken's part was originally offered to David Bowie, who would have been fantastic but Walken is fine - he's not remotely French but at eat he tries something different for a Bond villain (a sort of method-y portrayal). The character, Zorin, seems inspired by Hugo Drax from the book Moonraker with a dash of Goldfinger thrown in.
Zorin's plan is very Goldfinger - trying to create a monopoly in an important product (in this case, microchips) by wiping out the leading American producer in said product (here, wiping out Silicon Valley by causing an earthquake), raising funds by contacting a crime syndicate for money and killing people who don't want to be involved in the plan (by dropping them out of an airship instead of killing them in a car), and connections with the Russians.
Also like Goldfinger, Zorin has a sexy assistant who sleeps with Bond and later changes sides - although May Day (Grace Jones) is far more ruthless than Pussy Galore ever was, meaning she has to die even after she turns good. It's a shame in a way because Grace Jones is one of the all time great Bond villain henchman - she's spectacular, scary and utterly convincing; the scene where she gets on top of Roger Moore is hilarious. And also because the girl Bond winds up with at the end, Tanya Roberts, is incredibly bland. She's pretty, but too whiny, constantly asking for Bond to help her, and she's not even needed in the story.
(Far better value is Fiona Fullerton as a sexy Russian spy who becomes briefly involved in the case; I wish they'd gone with her as the girl but maybe the filmmakers were worried about being too close to The Spy Who Loved Me... as if that would have mattered).
It's a very up and down movie; pros include a decent Eiffel Tower action sequence, a genuinely clever bit where Bond escapes by breathing air in a tire, some funny lines, Zorin's engaging collection of fellow villains (a couple of girls in addition to May Day such as Alison Doody's Jenny Flex and Patrick Bauchau as a sauve henchman decent stunts and spectacle at the Golden Gate Bridge, and an early appearance by Dolph Lundgren.
Cons include an extremely dull and pointless car chase through San Francisco, Zorin shooting his men at the end (I think the idea was to make him seem a real psycho but it falls flat), an overlong running time, the fact Zorin's plan was already seen in Superman, a complete lack of chemistry between Moore and Roberts, and the fact that Moore was becoming far too old for the part. He definitely stayed one too long.
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