This is the next installment in my look back to the James Bond 007 series in anticipation for the new installment, Spectre coming out on November 6th. If you are interested in any of my earlier installments, click here.
Agent 007, James Bond (Roger Moore) may have finally met his match in the beautiful Octopussy (Maud Adams), involved in a disastrous plot to destroy détente. Taking him from the palaces of India to a speeding circus train in Germany and a mid-air battle on the wing of a high-flying jet, only Bond can stop this nightmarish scheme.
So this is the next to last Roger Moore Bond film (pause for sadness). I will admit that I like him as Bond and that maybe I like just as much if not more (moore would be an easy pun) as Sean Connery’s Bond. They each play the role differently by playing to their strengths and they both excel regardless of the strength of the inconsistent material under them. Since this post is not about that, I will now move on to the film. I will say that out of all the films I’ve seen so far for this retrospective, this film’s plot happens to be the worst. I don’t know what it is about 80s Bond films with titles that have nothing to do with the actual story (Oops, but yeah it has nothing to do with the story). The story in this one focuses mostly on jewelry smuggling which is not too exciting of a topic (Diamonds are Forever was vaguely about jewelry but it led to something). There were a few things that happened before and after this, however, that kind of muddled things up for me a little. Despite the shortcomings within the story, there was still some entertainment to be had here. Like with most films so far, the action seems to occur between the middle and the end of the film. Some of the sequences, such as the siege near the end, were similar to action sequences from previous films (there have been many sieges) but I found it still exciting. I would like to acknowledge Desmond Llewelyn here as I’ve always enjoyed his appearances as Q as I think he is a great actor and he brought a lot of class to the role. I do this because he deservedly got to play a bigger role in this film so we got to be spoiled by getting to see more of him which isn’t a bad thing for sure. What would have made the story more exciting to me is if it had a better villain. Louis Jordan as Kamal Kahn just didn’t do it for me. He was all charm and not much else. I suppose it’s not all his fault since he wasn’t the only villain. Maud Adams, who previously appeared in The Man with the Golden Gun in a different role, who played Octopussy was actually a strong, resourceful woman instead of just being a bimbo this time which was appreciated. The film didn’t go to too many places this time (India and Germany) but they still looked good, especially India. I also enjoyed the circus scenes as it was something new to see in the series. Overall. this was another exciting entry in the series but the story puts this one in the middle of pack.
Score: 7/10
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Next: A View to a Kill
The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
