BEFORE: I realize I'm asking the impossible of James Bond films at this point. I want them to be original, without duplicating plots from previous films that is, and be realistic (but not TOO realistic) and also sort of wild and fantastic (but not TOO wild and fantastic). Plus it needs to walk that fine line between a coherent plot and non-stop action - it would be great if it could have both. Am I asking too much?
Roger Moore carries over again from "Moonraker", along with most of his support staff. Sadly, we said goodbye last night to Bernard Lee, making his final appearance as M.
THE PLOT: Agent 007 is assigned to hunt for a lost British encryption device and prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
AFTER: Chapter 14, in which our hero gets his revenge on Blofeld, then defends himself from bullets with a beach umbrella, then turns down an Olympic athlete young enough to be his daughter. Doesn't she know he likes his women older, and married?
So "Moonraker" had a bit too much of the fantasy element, and "For Your Eyes Only" didn't have enough. This was all pretty basic stuff - smuggling, assassinations, drugs - it's too close to reality, nothing really exciting when you get down to it.
Plus, is it me or did Bond really get sidetracked here? The mission SHOULD have been "The encryption device has been lost - find it." Instead it was "figure out who has the technology and ability to recover the device", which isn't really the same thing. In the time it took to figure this out, Bond could have recovered the device from a sunken ship with a magnet and a fishing pole, five times over. Did anyone even check the sunken ship to see if the device was still there, before going off on a wild-goose chase?
There is also some bit of silliness here, an ending with a Margaret Thatcher lookalike calling Bond on the phone. Maybe they felt they ended too many movies with Bond caught in the middle of sex?
LOCATIONS: Greece, Spain
VILLAINS: Kristatos, Locque
BABES: Melina Havelock, Bibi Dahl, Countess Lisl von Schlaf
ALLIES: Q, Moneypenny, Milos Columbo.
PASTIMES: Ice skating (again?), baccarat (again?), scuba-diving (again?), rock-climbing, hockey.
CARS: Lotus Esprit Turbo 2.2 sportscars, a Citroën 2CV
GADGETS: Um, none? That's weird...
THEME: "For Your Eyes Only" by Sheena Easton, another one of the really good ones. And Easton herself appears in the opening credits, so clearly she was hot enough to be sort of an honorary Bond babe...
Also starring Desmond Llewellyn, Lois Maxwell, Walter Gotell (all three carrying over from "Moonraker"), Julian Glover (last seen in "Tom Jones"), Carole Bouquet, Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Cassandra Harris, Michael Gothard. Jeremy "Boba Fett" Bulloch (last seen in "The Spy Who Loved Me") was in there somewhere, but I didn't spot him. (That's another two-fer of "Star Wars" actors, since Julian Glover played Gen. Veers in "The Empire Strikes Back")
RATING: 4 out of 10 scuba tanks
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