Plot: Agent 007 (Roger Moore) blasts into orbit in this action-packed adventure that takes him to Venice, rio de Janeiro and outer space. When Bond investigates the hijacking of an American space shuttle, he and beautiful CIA agent Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles) are soon locked in a life-or-death struggle against Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale), a power-mad industrialist whose horrific scheme may destroy all human life on Earth!
Firsts: Bond in space!
Gadgets: Wristwatch equipped with lethal darts and explosives, digital safecracker
Girls Bond slept with: Corinne Dufour, Holly Goodhead, and Manuela
Elaborate murder attempts that Bond escapes: Death by centrifuge machine, Death by python, trapped under space shuttle
Personal review: I am so torn on this one. There is a lot of potential here. But it seems that they undercut every potential exciting moment, with cheesy or corny comedy spots. To wit, the opening skydiving scene is really awesome until it ends with a thud, metaphorically and literally as Jaws crashes through the circus tent. Later on, you have a decent chase scene involving Bond's motorized gondola, which is cool, until they decide to have it also have a innertube underneath that allows it to drive on water. The ridiculousness of that scene is capped with a pigeon taking a double take. I'm not kidding.
Of course, the most laughable scenes come at the end with the big showdown in outer space. I'm sure when they were making the film, they felt that this climax would be on par with scenes like the underwater fight in Thunderball. Unfortunately, this had neither the realism nor the sufficient visual effects to make it work. Instead, it comes off looking like a cheap knock-off of Star Wars, which has been a major criticism of the film for years. But while those complaints are valid, it should be noted that it worked as this was the most financially successful Bond film to date.
Speaking of ripping off material, this film was seemingly thrown together so quickly, they decided to pay homage to several clasic films including Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Magnificent Seven, and even From Russia With Love! You can call this film a lot of things, but original isn't one of them.
As for some of the key players, they too are a mixed bag. I think Lois Chiles physically is in the top 5 of hottest Bond babes. She's also got a great name in this film. But from an acting standpoint, she's pretty terrible. Hugo Drax, as the film's primary villain seems to be just like Stromberg from the last film. He's a rich, loner weirdo who wants to start a new population of people. The only difference is that Stromberg wanted to do it under the sea and Drax wants to do it in space. Just like Stromberg, Drax lacks a certain charisma that I look for in a Bond villain. And Jaws makes a rare second appearance and receives complete character assassination. This time he's basically the coyote to Bond's road runner. He also falls in love which is the death knell of any character. Why they decided to bring him back only to treat him in this manner is beyond me. I should also note that this was the final performance of Bernard Lee as M. He passed away before the next film.
One interesting note about this film. In recent years, Bond films have been noted as especially egregious when it comes to product placement. I would like to point out that I believe this film is where that trend truly started. There are a few ridiculous scenes where the advertising for other products is really blatant. Now, these scenes play like they are parodying product placement, but when the film first aired they were intended as legitimate means of advertising.
There's a lot to criticize about this film. However, I'm still giving it a halfway decent score. The primary reason for this is because unlike the previous two Moore outings, this one at least kept me entertained for the entire time. Sure, the entertainment may not be of the kind that a Bond film should have, but it's entertainment nonetheless. I'm certainly glad that not all Bond films are like this, but every once in a while, a more jokey Bond film is ok. 7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment