November 7, 2012

Bond-ed for Life ~ Octopussy

by Joe Bond-ed For Life, Movie Review • Tags: 007, Ian Fleming, James Bond, John Glen, Kristina Wayborn, logo, Louis Jourdan, Maud Adams, MGM, Octopussy, Roger Moore, Studio, United Artists

The James Bond franchise is celebrating its 50^th birthday this year and with the release of Skyfall I wanted to take a look back at the 22 (23 if you count the rogue Never Say Never Again, 24 if you count the 1967 spoof of Casino Royale) films that have come before it. So sit back, grab your shaken-not-stirred martini and follow me on a trip down Bond memory lane.

The Facts:

Synopsis: A fake Fabergé egg and a fellow agent’s death leads James Bond to uncovering an international jewel smuggling operation, headed by the mysterious Octopussy, being used to disguise a nuclear attack on NATO forces.

Stars: Roger Moore, Maud Adams, Louis Jourdan, Kristina Wayborn

Director: John Glen

Rated: PG

Running Length: 131 minutes

TMMM Score: (6/10)

Review: After a decidedly mixed reaction to For Your Eyes Only, the next Bond film is where the machine started to break down. Though more realistic in tone than Moonraker, this reviewer still feels that For Your Eyes Only was a tad of a yawner. While Octopussy is mostly a fairly silly entry in the grand scheme of things, it’s enjoyable in a goofball sort of way. Now ‘goofball’ is all well and good if you’re making a spoof film but the producers of the Bond franchise were going for something different.

The film enters the dance floor with twisted ankle thanks to an opener that feels like its poking fun at previous entries rather than making its own mark. Rita Coolidge’s rendition of “All Time High” over the credits is a fine song but perhaps a bit too languid for its own good. It seems to suggest the film would have more to do with a romantic Bond angle that never comes to be. Even our beautiful title character doesn’t show her face until well into an hour into the film where by that time audiences won’t want to wait for love.

Following Bond as he goes after a band of jewel smugglers, director Glen gives the film a softer edge than was evident in previous Moore entries. So much of the movie is shot with warm tones and gauzy edges…and it plays nicely in contrast when Bond is put in peril in various international locales. By this point I’m not sure if even Moore knew what he was still doing in the role and he seems to just be going through the motions of a character he’s gotten everything out of.

That leaves it to the supporting players to keep the movie afloat and they mostly do. I’ve always found it an incredibly odd piece of casting having Adams play Octopussy. Adams had previously appeared in a major role in The Man with the Golden Gun…and didn’t survive. Had her character lived it would have been nice to tie her back into Bond’s life but as it stands here it just feels like everyone involved simply forgot she had already been a Bond girl. Still, Adams is one of the most gorgeous of Bond’s ladies and she’s a solid actress on top of it.

I can’t look at Jordan without thinking of him being Swamp Thing…made especially confusing with several sequences set in a swamp-like jungle. His Kamal Khan is one of the more enjoyable foes for Bond because he keeps his cards close to his vest. Though Bond and Kamal Khan come face to face maybe one too many times without incident, I did enjoy Jordan’s two-faced schemer.

This being a Bond film…it couldn’t be just about a jewel thief and it once again boils down to possession of nuclear weapons with an added twist of pitting one country against another by a totally different foreign power. The problem with Octopussy is that the stakes never feel so high that 007 wouldn’t be able to overcome them so therefore we aren’t ever held in that much suspense.

Featuring several clever action sequences, one very fake looking crocodile disguise, and Bond dressed like a clown in a circus; this 13^th Bond film is the beginning of the end for Moore. Though perfectly serviceable, the franchise was starting to drift away from the central character that Ian Fleming had so cleverly crafted.

November 7, 2012

Bond-ed for Life ~ For Your Eyes Only

by Joe Bond-ed For Life, Movie Review • Tags: 007, Carole Bouquet, For Your Eyes Only, Ian Fleming, James Bond, John Glen, Julian Glover, logo, Lynn-Holly Johnson, MGM, Roger Moore, Studio, Topol, United Artists

The Facts:

Synopsis: Agent 007 is assigned to hunt for a lost British encryption device and prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

Stars: Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Julian Glover

Director: John Glen

Rated: PG

Running Length: 127 minutes

TMMM Score: (4/10)

Review: Originally intended as the follow-up to The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only ended up being moved in favor of Moonraker in order for the producers to keep Bond in the mainstream and going along with the times. Well, well all know how that turned out. Though Moonraker became the most successful Bond film at the box office until GoldenEye was released, it was a critical dud and considered a low point for the franchise by most Bond fans.

I’d like to offer up For Your Eyes Only as the true low point of the series and absolutely the worst of Moore’s outings as Bond. Yes, even A View to a Kill is better than this boring 12^th Bond film in my book. It’s a film filled with bad performances and one of the most boring plots ever to be deemed worthy of a Bond adventure.

Longtime editor Glen moved into the directing chair for this film and would remain with the franchise for the next five films. His first film is lackluster to say the least with nearly nothing directorially to write home about. Even an impressive underwater sequence can’t be credited to him as the opening credits show us the names of the numerous second unit and underwater directors that contributed to the picture.

Moore is really on autopilot here, hardly invested in anything that’s happening from the eye rolling opening that features the final dispatch of a longtime Bond nemesis to the couplings he shares with vacant Bouquet and listless Cassandra Harris (who would end up married to future Bond Pierce Brosnan). Moore looks weary and too old for the role…so when you watch the film knowing he has two more Bond adventures to come you kinda can’t believe it.

In a plot that would put a rabbit on speed to sleep, Bond partners with an exotic beauty (Bouquet) to track down a machine that can control nuclear submarines. He’s in it to save the world, she’s in it to avenge the death of her parents. For a time, the movie wants us to think the main villain is the man who would be Tevye, Topol, until it switches course and tries to backtrack on itself.

There’s also a bimbo figure skater (Johnson who I’m guessing was cast simply based on her skating in Ice Castles) who is there to provide Bond with a reason to ski down a big hill for one of the more impressive action sequences that the film has to offer. That sequence, paired with the aforementioned underwater chase are scenes to look forward to in an otherwise stone cold entry in the series.

Sheena Easton sings the agreeable title tune and actually shows up in the credit sequence…something that gives the film more of a music video feel than the classic Bond opening credits I have come to eagerly anticipate.

A paint-by-the-numbers affair that runs of our material before it’s half over, For Your Eyes Only is recommended only to see how low 007 could go before starting the next wave of bumpy highs and lows.

November 7, 2012

Bond-ed for Life ~ Moonraker

by Joe Bond-ed For Life, Movie Review • Tags: 007, Corinne Cléry, Ian Fleming, James Bond, Lewis Gilbert, logo, Lois Chiles, MGM, Michael Lonsdale, Moonraker, Richard Kiel, Roger Moore, Studio, United Artists

The Facts:

Synopsis: James Bond investigates the mid-air theft of a space shuttle and discovers a plot to commit global genocide

Stars: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel, Corinne Cléry

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Rated: PG

Running Length: 126 minutes

TMMM Score: (5/10)

Review:

After coming back strong with The Spy Who Loved Me, the James Bond franchise had nowhere to go but up…and I guess someone took that literally when the previously announced next Bond film (For Your Eyes Only) was scuttled in favor of Moonraker. With the success of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, outer space was hot again and the producers probably wisely made the decision to cash in on that craze. This was fashioned as the Bond to beat all Bonds, with the largest budget of them all and the biggest sets.

The resulting film is big all right…a big mess. Now, it’s not as bad as most people remember it to be but and it does sport a few good ideas that are muddied by a bad pace and a curious lack of thrills for a Bond film. The Spy Who Loved Me was a welcome return to form and it seems like Moonraker was rushed into production simply to capitalize on audiences renewed interest in space and the positive reviews the previous film received.

Moore is back to coasting along on the 007 highway, going through the motions rather than imbuing his fourth turn in the role with anything new or fresh. Even worse is Chiles as one of the most lackluster Bond girls of the franchise. Speaking her lines in the same monotone meter one would use to order take-out, she’s charmless and joyless as Holly Goodhead and just a dud in general. It’s hard to believe the producers were after her for some time to land her for one of the Bond films. A secondary Bond girl (Gallic beauty Cléry) would have been better suited for the role…but she’s dispatched, per tradition, in a strikingly sad fashion.

In the villain category, Drax (Lonsdale, The Name of the Rose) is a mostly interesting nemesis for Bond that dreams of creating a super race population in space while poisoning everyone here on earth. Thanks to his popularity in The Spy Who Loved Me, steel toothed Jaws (Kiel) was also brought back. While it’s nice to see a favored Bond foe return, it’s never really clear why he’s there or how he made it from the end of The Spy Who Loved Me into this mix. Adding insult to injury, the film decides to go soft on Jaws and gives him a Nordic love interest for no real reason than a few sight gags.

Kiel, Moore, and Chiles feature prominently in the best sequence of the movie set in, around, and on top of a cable car as it descends from the mountains of Rio. Its well shot and edited, creating the kind of tension and suspense that you wish more of the film had. Again, it’s odd that so much of this fight and others have next to no underscore which provides a void where some nail-biting moments could be built.

Though its advertised as taking place in space, Moonraker only takes to the stars in the final forty minutes for a few impressive visuals and zero gravity fights. The space station sets are nicely rendered and worked with by the gargantuan cast. Try not to laugh, though, when Drax’s army stages a space battle with US marines complete with lasers that would make Han Solo retch.

It’s a pretty silly film overall and a major step backward when you consider how top notch the previous film was. Even with director Gilbert returning, he can’t catch lightening in a bottle again with this one…and Shirley Bassey’s theme song doesn’t hit the highs it could have. With 11 films to his name, James Bond had jumped the proverbial shark and Moore’s run as Bond would never really recover.

November 7, 2012

Bond-ed for Life ~ The Spy Who Loved Me

by Joe Bond-ed For Life, Movie Review • Tags: 007, Barbara Bach, Curd Jürgens, Ian Fleming, James Bond, Lewis Gilbert, logo, MGM, Richard Kiel, Roger Moore, Studio, The Spy Who Loved Me, United Artists

The Facts:

Synopsis: James Bond investigates the hijacking of British and Russian submarines carrying nuclear warheads with the help of a KGB agent whose lover he killed.

Stars: Roger Moore, Barbara Bach, Curd Jürgens, Richard Kiel

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Rated: PG

Running Length: 125 minutes

TMMM Score: (9/10)

Review: You know that old adage that “The third time’s the charm”? Well, it couldn’t be more true for Moore’s third outing as Britain’s most famous super spy. The Spy Who Loved Me is a crown jewel in the Bond franchise and it’s not hard to see why. Aside from the traditional pieces that make up a James Bond puzzle, there’s a strong attention to detail in characterization and production design that was exactly what the film needed to move forward.

Time is what was really on the side of The Spy Who Loved Me and played a part in it success. Previous Bond films had been churned out every 1-2 years, keeping the money coming in but allowing the series to take on a bit too much water and become lopsided. When The Man with the Golden Gun was released in December of 1974, it would mark Bond’s final appearance for nearly three years. During this time a strong script was developed, massive sets created, and our star had some time to flex himself in other films, allowing him to come back revitalized.

Moore is indeed looking fresh in this film and it showcases his best performance in the role to date (and, as we’ll see later…ever) as Bond teams up with the Russians to prevent nuclear war breaking out. It’s a nice mixture of Queen’s Army meets KGB in the midst of a Cold War and writers Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum milk it for all its worth.

Most welcome in this 10^th film is one of the best Bond Girls in the history of the series. Bach is a total stunner as KGB Agent XXX and more than holds her own physically and mentally with 007 as they team up to take down steel mouthed henchman Jaws (Kiel) and big bad baddie Karl Stromberg (Jurgens…also one of the better villains). In the pre-credit sequence, Bond kills Bach’s lover in self defense and that only adds fuel to their fire when she discovers this. Bach and Moore create some genuine chemistry – showcasing a clear mutual respect for each other that plays like a dream on screen. She gets Moore to up his game in every scene and for that reason alone she’s a top player in my book.

After helming You Only Live Twice, director Gilbert is back at the helm of a film that has more pieces working for it than against it. Wonderful cinematography by Claude Renoir and crackling editing by John Glen (who, like On Her Majesty’s Secret Service editor-turned-director Peter R. Hunt would soon take the directorial reins) keep the film moving a breakneck speed as Bond and XXX circle the globe.

Marvin Hamlisch takes over as orchestrator for this entry and he puts a dynamic spin on the underscore. So much of the Bond films don’t have music cues during key scenes but it’s with this film that I started to hear more attention paid to moments that heretofore weren’t scored. Let’s also not forget Hamlisch’s theme song, sung by Carly Simon, which became a catch phrase for Bond… “Nobody Does it Better”.

The Spy Who Loved Me has aged quite well and is easily one of the top three films of the series. It’s a great example of a series that could have laid over and died that instead took some time to recoup and come back with strong. Simply one of the best.

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