You can find the James Bond Watch Party Page Here. Aaaaand it’s April, spring is officially here because my perennial flowers are sprouted in front of my house and the weather is getting quite delightful. The flowers smell wonderful and the longer days are very welcome. Also my wife and I both have our first vaccine shot, hooray science! We should both be fully vaccinated by the end of the month. The fifth Bond movie with Moore at the helm and 12th overall came out in 1981, we’re officially into the best decade evah.
Cast of Characters:
Bond, James Bond: Roger Moore (x5)
Big Bad: Blowfeld is back at the beginning, seemingly trapping Bond in a remote controlled helicopter as he was mourning the death of his wife Tracy, who Blowfeld also killed. James seemingly kills him AGAIN. I’m not sure how this guy keeps surviving. The cat appears to be unscathed though. Even though Blowfeld is not named in this movie and his face is never show because there was some weird legal battle going on, this is the last we see of Bond’s penultimate villain and nemesis. Aris Kristasos played by Julian Glover and Emile Leopold Locque played by Michael Gothard and Erik Kriegler played by John Wyman are the bad guys in this one.
Femme Fatale/Bond Girl(s): Melina Havelock played by Carole Boquet, Bibi Dahl played by Lynn-Holly Johnson (hilariously enough she is the star of the ice skating movie Ice Castles from the late 70’s. My wife’s former boss was in that movie as she was also an ice skating prodigy before an injury derailed her career) and the Countess Lisl Von Schlaf played by Cassandra Harris.
Ladies who had the pleasure of being James Boned: 2 – The Countess Lisl who gets assassinated shortly after by an unfortunate run in with a dune buggy and Melina Havelock who is real easy on the eyes. I really thought the ice skater Bibi throwing herself at Bond was going to end up in her getting James Boned, but negative.
Moneypenny: Lois Maxwell (x12)
M: With no more Bernard Lee this movie doesn’t have an M 😦
Q: Desmond Llewelyn (x10)
Foreign Agent/Spy: Milos Columbo played by Chaim Topol.
Theme Song: For Your Eyes Only, composed by Billi Conti and Micheal Leeson performed by Sheena Easton.
Director: John Glen, First time directing a Bond movie, but we will see his name more in the future.
The Movie – This one was just okay in my book. It had its moments but it didn’t have anything new to bring to the table. It seemed very cookie cutter and all the plots points had been done in previous Bond films, one of the most tiresome was the Bond girl seeking revenge on the bad guy that killed someone close to her. The Blowfeld fight and subsequent death at the beginning was odd and I kept expecting him to show up again but apparently that was his last hurrah. This was the 2nd time in a Roger Moore Bond that his wife Tracy was mentioned, he was visiting her grave in the beginning when Blowfeld’s helicopter picked him up for shenanigans. I thought the ice skating Bond girl Bibi was extra hilarious because she pretty much plays the same character in Ice Castles and I know someone who was in that movie! There was no M in this one because Bernard Lee passed away and that made me sad, Moneypenny also looked super old in this entry. I am excited that we are in the 80’s and there were some super sweet 80’s cars and the song was super cheesy and early 80’s. So far through five Bond’s with Roger Moore they are very hit or miss, this one wasn’t as bad as Live and Let Die but it wasn’t better than any of his other entries. I give this one 5 out of 10 PPKs.
My First to worst my rankings after For Your Eyes Only:
Goldfinger
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Moonraker
The Man with the Golden Gun
The Spy Who Loved Me
Dr. No
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
Diamonds are Forever
For Your Eyes Only
Live and Let Die
From Russia with Love
Ellie’s Thoughts: Probably my second least favorite of the entire franchise so far. Totally canned plot, phoned-in acting, added absolutely nothing new or exciting. The best part of the whole movie was Bibi Dahl’s enthusiastic fangirling. What a snoozefest.
2/10 martinis shaken, not stirred.
Up next, Octopussy…
We are halfway through the Bond Blu Ray box that I bought a few years ago. It includes all the Bond movies on Blu Ray except for Spectre, which I also own on Blu Ray (I need to figure out where I have it stashed though!), and the delayed and soon to be released No Time To Die (which I’m seriously excited to watch). Even though Never Say Never again isn’t considered part of the official canon I’m going to check it out after we watch Octopussy since they both came out in 1983. It has Connery in it and how can I say no to more Connery.
Cuppa 