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.
In an assignment that must make him ski off of the edges of cliffs and also driving a car underwater, Agent 007, James Bond (Roger Moore) must join forces with the beautiful Russian agent Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) to defeat the evil megalomaniac billionaire Karl Stromberg (Curt Jurgens), who wants to destroy New York City using nuclear weapons stolen from hijacked submarines. To do this, he must face one of his most formidable adversaries in one of Stromberg’s henchmen, Jaws (Richard Kiel), a seven-foot man with terrifying steel teeth.
So this is new territory for me as this is the first classic Bond film in which I haven’t already seen. This definition is open to debate but what I mean by classic Bond film is any film pre-Brosnan. I was aware that this film is known for a big skiing scene. I thought it was a great scene but it did show the film’s age when close-up shots looked obviously fake (stationary guy in front of a moving background). I haven’t been mentioning too many of these little things in my reviews thus far as I am understanding of when these films were made. Just like he was in both of his films so far, Roger Moore is still cool and seemingly unfazed by everything which is the impression I’m starting to get of his Bond and I am liking it so far. The main difference from the other films is that he dropped a lot more puns in this one and the majority of them surprisingly worked. Barbara Bach’s Amasova was surprisingly not a stupid Bond girl this time as was able to stand up to Bond and she was able to keep up with him throughout the film. I thought they had great chemistry with one another but of course she eventually gives in to him (What other reason would it be called “The Spy Who Loved Me”?). I found the main plot of the film to be quite underwhelming as I found the time that they could have used to develop the villain and his plan but instead it was used to develop the relationship between Bond and Amasova. It’s not that I didn’t like it, it just made the villain seem boring to me as I did not find him to be very scary. The plot wasn’t very original either as it was very similar to the previous film You Only Live Twice as they both involved a villain hijacking things and there were other scenes that were also similar. I did like the amount of action in this one as it approached close to Connery levels with the sound effect boosted fighting and the scenes near the end. I did enjoy Richard Kiel’s Jaws as he served as a formidable opponent for Bond by being so strong and seemingly indestructible. I thought he was a little too indestructible, in my opinion, and at least an explanation as to how he got that way would have been nice. Overall. this still another decent entry but it still fails to stand out from the others.
Score: 7/10
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Next: Moonraker
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.