YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE PART II
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THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977)
One of the better 007 films starring Roger Moore, this introduces Jaws (the seven foot tall assassin with pointed steel dentures) and Triple X (a Russian secret agent played by Barbara Bach). It has a terrific opening sequence and some great sequences throughout ("All those feathers and he still can't fly") but unfortunately the villain is weak and the movie is mostly a remake of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE from a decade earlier.
A gigantic vessel is capturing American craft (here, it's a huge supertanker opening up to swallow nuclear subs; before, it was a spacecraft opening up to swallow space capsules). The vessels and their crews are taken to an elborate secret hideout of a madman who is doing this to start a war between the West and the Soviet Union. In the earlier film, Bond was helped by Kissy Suzuki and here he is helped by Major Anna Amasova. In both cases, once the showdown starts, task force reinforcements rush in for a pitched battle with the bad guy's army. You can see a certain deja vu here. In both movies, Bond drives a white sports car accompanied by the foreign female agent helping him and fighting off enemy attacks. I half expected Bond's next movie to involve a madman planning to rob all the gold in the Bank of England, helped by a brutal henchman who throws a shoe and by a gang of lesbian truck drivers or something. (Actually that might have been more fun than how MOONRAKER turned out.)
The biggest drawback to me was Roger Moore playing Bond (as he did in the prervious film) with more of a comic side and the film in general has a lighter, mocking edge to it. Moore's Bond just doesn't seem tough enough to survive. The sexual double entendres sound crude and schoolboyish, not suave. This is how Moore was directed to play the role, but it's also his natural inclination as an actor. Moore's best moment is an underplayed emotional scene. Major Amasova is showing how she knows all about him; she says Bond was married once, his bride killed right after the wedding and Bond cuts her off to say that's enough. ("You're sensitive." "About some things, yes.") He gets up and walks away. Moore's Bond didn't have enough humanizing moments like this. He was mostly smooth, unruffled, walking through danger without being affected. This was okay for the Saint (although the TV character was greatly watered down from Leslie Charteris' mad genius) but not Fleming's character.
The villain is bland and unmemorable. So far we have had Dr No, Red Grant and Rosa Klebb, Goldfinger and Oddjob, Largo, Blofeld... all larger than life, grandiose, imposing, real threats. Here, it's Curt Jurgens underplaying the role of Stromerg, who has a huge base out in the ocean and who wants to wreck civilization so he can start a Utopia under the sea. I never found him convincing. Why couldn't he just start his underwater society anyway and ignore the surface world? He is a rehash of Blofeld, right down to dropping his secretary into a shark tank to intimidate some visitors. His demise is tasteless, getting shot in the crotch (three times) by Bond. The main henchman is pretty good, though. Jaws is played by seven-foot-tall acromegalic Richard Kiel. He had jagged steel dentures that bite through chains and necks and he is certainly menacing enough. In the scene in the pyramids, with the shifting light and ominous music, Jaws seems actually scary. He's one of the few Bond villains to survive and return, although the way he becomes mere comic relief in MOONRAKER is hard to take.
Barbara Bach is okay as Major Amazova. She's good-looking in her sultry way and she reacts quickly when things go wrong. With stronger directing in a different film, she could have been really convincing as the Soviet equivalent of a Double 0 agent. Her introducting, with a phone ringing for Agent Triple X and a big handsome blonde man sitting up in bed (ah, this must be the Russian James Bond) to step aside so Amasova can answer is great. .I was always amused when every single actress starring in a new James Bond movie announced that HER character was not going to be a helpless bimbo screaming to be rescued, no sir. Most of the time they were tough enough to be sidekicks in a cop-buddy movie but they could never quite take over because after all it was a James Bond movie and he was the star. Although even Connery's Bond was rescued by the girl quite a few times ("I'm glad I killed him." "YOU'RE glad?")
If the hopelessly silly MOONRAKER had followed the dismal MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, I would have given up on James Bond films. But THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was a step in the right direction. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was also a great improvement, more serious and with moments of real jeopardy for our hero. Unfortunately, Roger Moore didn't age well and started looking haggard. By A VIEW TO A KILL, I was worried Bond might fall and break a hip during a chase.
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977)
One of the better 007 films starring Roger Moore, this introduces Jaws (the seven foot tall assassin with pointed steel dentures) and Triple X (a Russian secret agent played by Barbara Bach). It has a terrific opening sequence and some great sequences throughout ("All those feathers and he still can't fly") but unfortunately the villain is weak and the movie is mostly a remake of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE from a decade earlier.
A gigantic vessel is capturing American craft (here, it's a huge supertanker opening up to swallow nuclear subs; before, it was a spacecraft opening up to swallow space capsules). The vessels and their crews are taken to an elborate secret hideout of a madman who is doing this to start a war between the West and the Soviet Union. In the earlier film, Bond was helped by Kissy Suzuki and here he is helped by Major Anna Amasova. In both cases, once the showdown starts, task force reinforcements rush in for a pitched battle with the bad guy's army. You can see a certain deja vu here. In both movies, Bond drives a white sports car accompanied by the foreign female agent helping him and fighting off enemy attacks. I half expected Bond's next movie to involve a madman planning to rob all the gold in the Bank of England, helped by a brutal henchman who throws a shoe and by a gang of lesbian truck drivers or something. (Actually that might have been more fun than how MOONRAKER turned out.)
The biggest drawback to me was Roger Moore playing Bond (as he did in the prervious film) with more of a comic side and the film in general has a lighter, mocking edge to it. Moore's Bond just doesn't seem tough enough to survive. The sexual double entendres sound crude and schoolboyish, not suave. This is how Moore was directed to play the role, but it's also his natural inclination as an actor. Moore's best moment is an underplayed emotional scene. Major Amasova is showing how she knows all about him; she says Bond was married once, his bride killed right after the wedding and Bond cuts her off to say that's enough. ("You're sensitive." "About some things, yes.") He gets up and walks away. Moore's Bond didn't have enough humanizing moments like this. He was mostly smooth, unruffled, walking through danger without being affected. This was okay for the Saint (although the TV character was greatly watered down from Leslie Charteris' mad genius) but not Fleming's character.
The villain is bland and unmemorable. So far we have had Dr No, Red Grant and Rosa Klebb, Goldfinger and Oddjob, Largo, Blofeld... all larger than life, grandiose, imposing, real threats. Here, it's Curt Jurgens underplaying the role of Stromerg, who has a huge base out in the ocean and who wants to wreck civilization so he can start a Utopia under the sea. I never found him convincing. Why couldn't he just start his underwater society anyway and ignore the surface world? He is a rehash of Blofeld, right down to dropping his secretary into a shark tank to intimidate some visitors. His demise is tasteless, getting shot in the crotch (three times) by Bond. The main henchman is pretty good, though. Jaws is played by seven-foot-tall acromegalic Richard Kiel. He had jagged steel dentures that bite through chains and necks and he is certainly menacing enough. In the scene in the pyramids, with the shifting light and ominous music, Jaws seems actually scary. He's one of the few Bond villains to survive and return, although the way he becomes mere comic relief in MOONRAKER is hard to take.
Barbara Bach is okay as Major Amazova. She's good-looking in her sultry way and she reacts quickly when things go wrong. With stronger directing in a different film, she could have been really convincing as the Soviet equivalent of a Double 0 agent. Her introducting, with a phone ringing for Agent Triple X and a big handsome blonde man sitting up in bed (ah, this must be the Russian James Bond) to step aside so Amasova can answer is great. .I was always amused when every single actress starring in a new James Bond movie announced that HER character was not going to be a helpless bimbo screaming to be rescued, no sir. Most of the time they were tough enough to be sidekicks in a cop-buddy movie but they could never quite take over because after all it was a James Bond movie and he was the star. Although even Connery's Bond was rescued by the girl quite a few times ("I'm glad I killed him." "YOU'RE glad?")
If the hopelessly silly MOONRAKER had followed the dismal MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, I would have given up on James Bond films. But THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was a step in the right direction. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was also a great improvement, more serious and with moments of real jeopardy for our hero. Unfortunately, Roger Moore didn't age well and started looking haggard. By A VIEW TO A KILL, I was worried Bond might fall and break a hip during a chase.
statistics: Posted by doctorhermes428 — 4:43 PM - 1 day ago — Replies 3 — Views 309