A View To A Kill: The LS Cut

Many people before me have said that this edit does make A View To A Kill good and they're right. I didn't think that the original version was bad, but it was still the worst of the Moore's Bond movies. I really enjoyed LastSurvivor's edit of the film, but the pace does still feel a little sluggish and it probably is better on a more drastically cut edit of the movie. But this edit is still great, so well done, LastSurvivor. You made A View To A Kill surprisingly greater than the source material could ever do.

I like the Edit movie it was entertaining. I like you took off the Beach Boys music off, The silly fights, the dumb S.F. cops. Sexual innuendoes, the bad lines & diving board off the Eiffel Tower. Keep up the good work. Also I want to add the commentary was good. I like the way you explain about the Roger Moore acting history, the movie & editing.
Thanks & Cheers from Mike.

After watching this edit, I came back to review the change list and was surprised. The *impact* of the edit far outweighs the *changes* of it. It's actually a decent movie now. I recall wanting to like the movie, and never really could because of the cartoonish silliness. Now that is mostly gone and it's now a fun romp.

The biggest things I noted was the lack of constant, silly sexual innuendo, and that Mayday (Grace Jones) didn't come off as a completely over-the-top lunatic. That by itself hugely helps the movie. The chase scene cuts helped, and allowed the story to move along.

This is a very successful edit, and will be my go-to for watching in the future.

This is what I think you'd call a light cut. Pretty much everything you remember about the original is still there but with most of the extra silliness taken out of it. So the infamous fire engine chase is still there, yet somehow it doesn't seem quite so silly anymore. Of course, I know what was taken out because I've read the changes / edits. But watching it, it didn't feel like I was missing anything.
I viewed this as a Bond fan, and as a viewer, not an editor so I'm not going to comment on the quality of the edits other than to say, I didn't really notice anything jumping out at me as not being quite right. Quite the opposite. It all just felt right. I remember seeing this as a teenager when seeing a Bond film was the one film each year you went to the cinema to see. It was an experience, even if, in the end, Bond wasn't what he used to be.
So what did I miss? Or rather, what did I notice wasn't there? The Beach Boys. That's all. But I also remember thinking, even back then, how silly that scene was, and thank goodness, it's been removed. Apart from that, I didn't really notice that anything in particular was missing. Of course, I noticed that some sequences somehow didn't seem quite as long as I remembered, but it actually made for a better film, because, as the editor said, the intention was just to remove the silliness, and that he's achieved admirably. A superb edit. Thoroughly recommended.

Another excellent LS entry in the 007 franchise. A modest edit which trims / replaces the most egregious bits. It was an interesting experience to watch this while I'm finishing my own (more aggressive) edit of AVTAK, making me very familiar with the material and alert to any changes.

The Eiffel Tower diving board is perfectly removed. Thank you. The Beach Boys are gone. Thank you. The Blues Brothers style cop chase is reduced. Plenty of improvements to make this edit preferable over the theatrical release.

My critical notes for this edit are minimal. On directorial decisions, one change that jumped out for me was to cut the entire Paris chase. The transition is done seamlessly, including slowing down the shot before the cut to better match the parachute's speed in the next shot. But it is a memorable Bond chase (when the film came out in '85, the car jump onto and over the bus made a big impression), and it has a good Zorin / Mayday moment on the speedboat (yes, they ARE both insane).

On video editing, one transition felt sudden: the end of the firetruck chase to driving up to the mine. It feels like the cop is cut off from doing or saying something. Adding one close-up shot of the cop as transition might solve that (he has 2 in the cut part at that bridge).

For audio editing the only one thing that was noticeable, was the Beach Boys replacement. I listened to the inserted Barry score on headphones, PC, and main stereo. The lining up of the inserted score is perfect: the beat continues perfectly at the end. But the acoustics are different. The inserted score has less bass and sounds less immersive. It's only an issue at the transitions so I realize this may seem a bit nitpicking, but it's a very prominent change and therefore gets everyone's attention.

Oh, and LS includes another insightful audio commentary. One of the enjoyable parts concerns the question whether or not to cut a shot, a storyline, or nothing at all.

LS makes this a better Bond film. Not the best Bond film ever, but that's due to the source material.