Eben07

Oct19

19. Octopussy

by EBurgoon on October 19, 2012 at 12:07 am

19. Octopussy

A giggle-getter for Moore on par with Pussy Galore.

Bond investigates a ring of smugglers and circus performers who have been profiting off fake Russian artifacts, but are really being used by a crazy rogue Russian general who is seeking to nuke West Germany. They make two “00″ agents dress up like circus clowns.

My Issues

So you might have started to notice a trend at this point. Roger Moore catching heat for being a bad James Bond. I will firmly state, that Roger Moore is not my favorite Bond. I kinda look at Roger Moore’s reign as 007 as Adam West’s to Batman. There were good things about the campiness and cheesiness of Roger Moore’s work as James Bond, and I enjoy his work in a few of his roles as Bond, but there are times where they really let Moore play it up and deliver the cheesiest lines. There are times where you get the cold and calculating 007 and then it’s capped with the awkward pun or cheesy line and it takes you out of the danger.
Moore’s Bond was during an era of the Cold War where it was possibly too difficult and tense to really do anything all that cutthroat or have him run and gun Soviets. Moore’s 007 always danced around the lines of the Cold War.

Why 19 and not 20?

That opening scene with the acrobatic jet is pretty freaking cool until Moore’s Bond pulls up to the petrol station and asks for a fill-up. I also really have a love-hate thing with “00″ agents dressed as clowns. How scary is a circus clown with a license to kill?

This movie also had to dance toe to toe with Never Say Never Again… and I feel like at the time that couldn’t have been an easy undertaking. Having Connery return to the role of James Bond as Roger Moore swore he also wanted to stop playing Bond must have made for a pretty awkward dance – particularly how the two actors interpretations as to what 007 needed to be in the era in which they played them. Even as a psuedo-remake, I’d probably rather watch Never Say Never Again than Octopussy simply because I prefer that more cynical and brooding Bond.

└ Tags: Best of James Bond, James Bond, roger moore

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Oct17

20. Moonraker

by EBurgoon on October 17, 2012 at 7:07 am

Posted In: Blog Entries

20. Moonraker

James Bond… IN SPPAAAAAAACE

PLOT SUMMARY

After a space shuttle is hijacked in space, Bond is sent to investigate Hugo Drax, a millionaire who basically turns out to be hatching a plan to nerve gas everybody on the planet while he and his master race of people hang out on a space station. Once the gas clears, the’ll return to Earth and Drax will be King of the World! James Bond stops him with the help of an undercover CIA astronaut, Jaws, and some weird blonde pigtail lady.

My Issues

One of the chief annoyances I have with Moonraker is that is so far removed from Ian Fleming’s original work. The book James Bond thwarts what is basically an undercover Nazi who is going to destroy London with a nuclear weapon and a rocket that he created with his secret identity. Basically, nothing like Moonraker the movie, but a plot that perhaps became cliche by the late 1970s.
Secondly, they make what is arguably one of the more menacing Bond villains, Jaws, into a comic relief act. It was kind of a sad way to bring back a great henchman.
The Venice boat chase is pretty terrible. The dude comes out of a coffin with knives out, and Bond dispatches him with ease and the whole thing turns into a gunfight. Why would you pop out of a coffin with knives if you have a guy with a tommy gun in the back of the boat? Theatricality?

Why it is #20 and not #21

I think the only reason I weight this one at 20 over the lower two notches is the menacing performance of the actor that played Hugo Drax. He is Bond villain through and through and has a pretty maniacal plot that almost succeeds. The scene where he has the two dogs chase down his treacherous female pilot through a wooded area is incredibly haunting. Walken in a View to a Kill is equally good – but Walken is known for his creepy wierdness. I feel like Drax did a lot more with less and is much more seriously evil.

Plus, I’m a sucker for pew pew pew laser battles that set a world record for most zero gravity cables in a film scene. That’s pretty awesome. Even if it was done just to get some extra scratch off Star Wars’ popularity.

The Moonraker Trailer