You can find the James Bond Watch Party Page Here. Just like that February is almost over. We’re officially done with Moore as Bond in our re-watch but the blogs haven’t caught up yet, so I’ll be posting several here in the next week or so. I literally cannot wait for warmer weather like so many of the exotic Bond filming locales. We don’t have an ocean here but I can’t wait for it to not be cold for a while after having a foot of snow on the ground for a few weeks. The fourth Bond movie with Moore at the helm and 11th overall came out in 1979, were almost caught up to when I was born in good ol’ 1982.
Cast of Characters:
Bond, James Bond: Roger Moore (x4)
Big Bad: Hugo Drax played by Michael Lonsdale and Jaws played by Richard Kiel is back baby as the main henchman turned good guy in the end, what a plot twist that was.
Femme Fatale: Holly Goodhead played by Lois Chilles and Corinne Dufour played by Corinne Clery
Ladies who had the pleasure of being James Boned: 3 (Corinne Dufour, Manuela, Holly Goodhead)
Moneypenny: Lois Maxwell (x11)
M: Bernard Lee (x11), his last time playing M as he passed away before he could appear in the next installment of the franchise. 😦
Q: Desmond Llewelyn (x9)
Foreign Agent/Spy: Jaws turning double agent and saving Bond in this one.
Theme Song: Moonraker, composed by John Barry and performed by Shirley Bassey
Director: Lewis Gilbert (x3)
The Movie – This movie was fantastic and I moved it above The Man with the Golden Gun to make it my favorite Roger Moore Bond so far. Don’t get me wrong the Man with the Golden Gun was really great but there was just something about Moonraker that I enjoyed so damn much. I love me some Sci-Fi and the plot on this one was easy to follow and had a seriously epic space battle at the end. Jaws was the villain/henchman again and the special effects got seriously better in this movie than all of the previous Bond installments combined. The opening scene is a crazy with Bond being thrown out of a plane without a parachute, the movie only got better from there. Jaws somehow ends up having a redemption arc and pretty much turns into a good guy after finding true love. Yeah that entire sentence I just typed actually happened in this awesome movie. The new Villian Hugo Drax was also freaking great and I’m sad he seems like he’ll just be a one off, he had multiple awesome lairs, and he was such a smarmy French bastard. His evil plan was seriously messed up, he was essentially space Hitler trying to create the master race, but in space! Moonraker is locked and loaded for fun, I give this one 9 out of 10 PPKs.
My First to Worst my rankings after Moonraker:
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
Live and Let Die
From Russia with Love
Ellie’s Thoughts: This is my second favorite Bond movie so far, I think. The villain was great, the plot fast-paced, and I thought the story was very original for a Bond film. To be honest it’s been awhile since I’ve watched it, but it was a definite standout amongst a bunch of movies that are overwhelmingly similar. As always, all of the cool on-location stuff feels like a bit of a vacation, and combined with the sci-fi space stuff, Moonraker was a nice escape that didn’t go on for too long.
I give Moonraker 9 out of 10 martinis shaken, not stirred
Up next, For Your Eyes Only…
Cuppa 