THE WATCHERS on GTFM's James Bond Special Last Sunday!!

We were guests on the local radio stations 007 special last sunday, the interview was recorded the Friday night, while doing our Bondathon. Take a listen & you can still donate? Thanks

Bondathon Podcast Part 7!!! We did it!!

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Here you go the final Podcast of the challenge at least - Daniel Craig. Casino Royale, Quantum Of Solace and SkyFall (NO SPOILERS) Enjoy!!!

Casino Royale (2006)

After watching the previous twenty films, this one is a hard thing to write about. Why? Simply because I really shouldn’t judge it on anything that’s come before it. The film is based on Fleming’s first James Bond book and is rightly so the choice of story to not only launch a new actor, but the producers have deliberately drawn a line in the sand. This Bond is the start of a new canon, for it is a reboot. This is BOND BEGINS!

So, with that in mind, what do we have?  James Bond, a highly trained naval commander, has just made 00 status at MI6. His first mission is to must stop a man called Le Chiffre, a banker to the worlds terrorist organizations, from winning a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro.

With the pre-titles sequence, we know we are watching something very, very different. Shot in black and white, styled like a noir cold war thriller from the Sixties. Daniel Craig is introduced with two assassinations, one brutal fight in a men’s public toilet and the second a quick simple kill. The gun barrel is kind of here!

The film opens with a very impressive stunt sequence; so not everything is new. The producers still use current trends within the Bond film franchise. This time in 2006 Parkour or Free Running was at its height within popular culture and watched mostly on YouTube. The film casts one of the main pioneers of this extreme sport, Sebastien Foucan. He plays a bomb maker that 007 chases down on foot, which leads to an awe-inspiring foot chase through a building site, jumping from high rise crane to crane and to a shoot out at an embassy. A very fresh action scene, but undenably Bondian.

Daneil Craig was a shock casting to fans and at the time it gave to negative press coverage, claiming him to be Bland Bond or Blonde Bond? Yes, I agree physically he doesn’t look like a traditional 007, that being tall, dark and handsome. But after a few minutes watching him as the character, you soon realise why he’s Bond, especially within this rebooted new franchise. They have taken Bond into a modern setting, foregoing the gentleman spy making his way round to megalomaniacs and fellow gentlemen spies from other nationalities. The world we live in is not the 1950s or 1960s, the world we live in is very complex and so are our enemies. This James Bond is a very believable 007, a orphan, Oxford University graduate who joined the navy, a career seaman reached the rank of Commander, would definitely spent time with the SBS regiment, before being recruited by MI6 for black ops. We find him at the start of his 00 promotion and Daniel Craig plays this part perfectly. He owns this Bond, he is a stone cold brutal killer, a highly educated man who can fit in a crowd and disappear just as fast. Ladies and gentleman, Bond is back… or more importantly, Bond has re-begun.

With the rebirth of an icon and also managing to deliver believable Bondian action scenes that thankfully don’t rely on CGI to complete them (see Die Another Day), they manage to get so much wrong, After the Parkour action, we have a fantastic chase/fight across runways of an airport, this brings us an hour into the film and we are introduced to Vesper a HM Treasury Agent, played by Eva Green. She accompanies Bond to the poker match at the casino.

Suddenly we are treated to the most expensive filmed re=enactment of Channel 4’s Late Night Poker! To make a card game exciting for a movie audience is a hard task, which this film proves– even with various distractions away from the game, from fights on stairways and Bond being poisoned. No matter what the script has for us it just never makes the poker scenes punch. However, what happens away from the poker table is interesting, not just the action – more importantly this new franchise, bravely and rightfully shows the effects upon our heroes. They are human, they feel, not everything can be repressed; no man is a robot. A scene where Bond cleans himself up after killing two men in the stairway while Vesper watched is just electrifying. No words are spoken, Bond cleans himself up and it’s just with a look and body movement that Craig delivers exactly what he’s feeling. Taking life is never easy and he didn’t want Vesper to see that side of him.            

Mads Mikkelsen plays the villain. What’s interesting is he is not a top dog, not a conventional villain. However, because of his involvement with various organized crime and terrorist organisations, he is at the top of Bond’s watch list. It’s the information Bond wants from this accountant, who is desperate to replace money he’s ‘borrowed’ from these various unsavoury people and gambled it away. Le Cheffre makes an interesting villain, a man very much desperate, on the edge and very sinister.

The relationship between Vesper and Bond is a complex affair, but completely central to the story. They start as bickering work colleagues, more importantly it’s obviously flirtatious. They smoulder on screen, the chemistry is undeniable – this is why Bond hated her having to see what he can do, especially when he killed the men in the stairway. When Bond is captured and tortured, but survives and spends time recuperating in hospital. Vesper visits him. It’s here in the earliest start of his 00 status that Bond wonders if this is the life for him, he has fallen in love with her. His shield has fallen, he talks of leaving the service, this is the real thing for 007. So, when her betrayal is revealed it is that much more heart wrenching for us the viewer. Finding out that the person you love and trust the most in the world can destroy a man. Or in Bond’s case make a man, the man we know him to be.

The film does everything it should do, for some it didn’t have enough action or Bondian moments –well it shouldn’t, because he’s not there yet. He’s not fully that man yet, that’s to come – but first he must get revenge. Even if she betrayed him and he says he’s glad “.the bitch is dead”. We the audience and M know different. Alas, this is merely Part 1 of this story and for once in the franchises history the story continues directly on, straight after Bond pays Mr White a visit!

One of the best Bond films ever and one of the greatest re-boots ever!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Rhys

Bondathon Podcast part 6

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This Bondathon Podcast we review the Brosnan years - enjoy

The World Is Not Enough (1999)

 

007 is assigned by M to protect an oil heiress from her former kidnapper Renard, an international terrorist who can’t feel pain.

We are into film three of the Brosnan era, the film was released just on the verge of a new millennium and is the last Bond film of the twentieth century. A lot to live up to? Don’t fear, not for this film crew. The films opening sequence sets you up for exactly what your watching, the films pre-titles runs in at fifteen minutes, with three individual action sequences and a meeting in M’s office culminating with a boat chase on the Thames which ends just outside the Millennium Dome, handy considering it’s the Bond film of the millennium! With little time to catch your breath, as the audience, you know you’re watching an event, not just a film.

In the early stages of the film after the titles have run, Bond has his usual Q briefing scene. However, in this film it’s all more poignant as this is Desmond Llewelyn’s final appearance. In the scene we are introduced to his ‘junior’ assistant, R played by the legendary John Cleese. From an assistant being introduced and Llewelyn being at the times in his eighties, you can tell that the producers were putting things in place for the actor to leave the series. What a tragedy that, after a long career and life, Llewelyn died in a car crash just a few months after the release of this film. The scene is a great end to a legend of the Bond family and he is missed as Q still to this day.

The rest of the cast of this adventure is very impressive, well, apart from one entry! Pierce Brosnan by this film could relax and just play the part with his eyes closed, thankfully he does not do this! He again keeps surprising us the viewer, he shows more sides to this character than we’ve seen before. We have the stone killer, charming spy from GoldenEye, the vulnerability that he showed in Tomorrow Never Dies and here we get all that and more. Brosnan brings a loyalty to M, a friendship to his commanding officer, a brothers-in-arms mentality. Brosnan humanises Bond, not just vulnerability, but questions of why he does this life, what does he get from this and who does he truly trust.

Robert Carlyle is billed as the main villain; he plays the terrorist Renard. a man who is slowly dying and feels no pain. Carlyle could have easily overplayed this role and hammed it up. Wisely, he doesn’t and shows his acting skills, he gives us a subtle presence of menace, a man enjoying the evil side of life before his accepted soon demise.

Sophie Marceau is a first, a Bond Girl who is revealed to be the real mastermind villain – Renard is her henchman. She plays the part exceptionally, a true femme fatale, menacing bitchiness without being a screaming banshee villainess. She pays this manipulating evil woman so well, it worries me of the person she really is! I’m sure she’s just a fantastic actress.

Judi Dench’s M has a lot more involvement with this plot, M is even held hostage, not surprising when you have talent like Dench signed to this role and after two previous adventures to introduce Bond’s female boss. Like Brosnan does with Bond – she humanizes her role and shows a vulnerability to her character that pulls you in. You genuinely care about her M. What’s nice is the solid relationship between M and Bond.

The weak link I mentioned, Denise Richards as Dr Christmas Jones, the worst miscasting in Bond films for years. A nuclear scientist? Really? REALLY! She’s useless, just obviously here for the teenage men!

The film, like GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies before it, is again wall-to-wall action, deliberately delivering a high octane fueled adventure. Highlights are the boat chase on the Thames, the ski chase (the first ski action we’ve seen since fourteen years earlier in A View To A Kill – it’s a nice welcome return of ski action), the shoot out in the nuclear bunker where Bond meets Dr Christmas Jones, the bomb inside the pipeline, the helicopter sequence at Zukovsky’s factory and of course a showdown aboard a sinking submarine.

This is a great Bond film, wall-to-wall action and more importantly a strong plot, a plot with twists and turns, and solid performances by the cast (not including Richards!). This Bond film is very much overlooked and underrated by many. This is what a Bond film should be.

Rating: 5 out of 5

 Rhys 

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Whilst investigating the deliberate sinking of a Royal Navy ship in the South China Sea, Bond’s attention falls on media baron Elliot Carver and his organisation.

Considering the film is fifteen years old, there’s an amazing kind of prescience to it: given recent revelations about the role of the media and their underhanded tactics to get stories, the scenario presented here (whilst overblown) is at the very least plausible. The Bond films of the 1990s all took place in a kind of heightened reality, so a desire to start a war for ratings fits in to that quite well.

 Jonathan Pryce is brilliant as Carver, a total sociopath and megalomaniac willing to create a war situation for ratings and prepared to eliminate anyone who betrays him- including his own wife. I especially love his opening scene, deliberating about using the word ‘killed’ or ‘murdered’ in the headline- a man who knows the power of words. There’s also a certain amount of glee in his briefing where he sends his ‘golden retrievers’ to do his bidding and the showdown between Carver, Bond and Wai Lin in Saigon is also brilliantly played. Pryce took over the role after Anthony Hopkins dropped out of the role.

Michelle Yeoh is similarly great as Chinese agent Wai Lin who is running a parallel investigation to Bond’s into Carver. Wai Lin is a tough and proficient agent, more than capable of looking after herself (ably shown when she takes on a bunch of goons) and fully equipped with a range of nifty gadgets. Yeoh’s interplay with Brosnan is particularly good.

Teri Hatcher shines as Paris Carver, Elliot’s wife and Bond’s old flame who got ‘too close for comfort’ to 007. After meeting again in Hamburg, Paris decides to help Bond bring her husband down- and pays the ultimate price. There’s a vulnerability to Hatcher’s performance which is particularly affecting. There’s a lovely cameo by Vincent Schiavelli as Dr. Kaufmann- a small but very memorable role as Paris’ assassin. It’s a scene played with some menace but also some humour, which I think is a fair description of the script as a whole- good work by Bruce Feirstein.

There are some great action set-pieces- the sinking of the HMS Devonshire and Bond’s investigation of the sunken ship, the fight at the Hamburg printing press, the HALO jump, the motorcycle chase through Saigon and, of course, the sequence with the remote controlled BMW- all directed with flair by Roger Spottiswoode and ably supported by David Arnold’s superb score.

A triumph all round.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Tez

GoldenEye (1995)

Seven years have passed since Licence To Kill and after court battles, pre-production finally began on the seventeenth 007 adventure – but then the real disaster struck us fans. Dalton decided that seven years was too long a gap to return from and he left the franchise. What Now, we asked? The answer: Pierce Brosnan. Fans in the UK asked: who? We’d never heard of Remington Steele! We spent our time fretting: will he be good? Will the film be any good? Is there a place for Bond in a post-Cold War world? Maybe it should be left alone?

How wrong were we? From the start of the film, you’re unable to catch your breath. Bond bungee-jumps from a bridge, has a shoot out with Russian soldiers, side by side with Sean Bean’s 006, then escapes by leaping from a cliff on a motorcycle, only to jump into a plane and fly off with the base behind him exploding! With just this scene, I had never felt a feeling before, the feeling you get once in a franchise maybe? Brosnan was simply BORN to play Bond, he has the believability that women would fall at his feet, he has a dark edge that’s behind his eyes, he can happily just kill you if you get in the way of his mission and of course the man looks like he was genetically made to look like Fleming’s iconic character.

The villain of this adventure, well that’s the clever part. Sean Bean plays a 00 agent who is disenchanted with the UK and has wanted revenge for his Cossack heritage ever since. He is just charming to a villainous core and very much Bond’s equal. For once we have a British villain, a traitor no less.

Famke Janssen plays his willing henchwoman, Xenia Onatopp who likes to kill men by crushing them with her thighs, a character who gets sexual pleasure from the hunt and the kill. Janssen exudes evil and menace, with a perverted fetish side to a T.

The Bond Girl, well, now we have the reign of the Bond women; the Bond girls have grown up. Now, we have female characters with balls. Natalya (played by Izabella Scorupco) manages to give a very strong believability when she decides to show Bond her vulnerable side. Also, she is a weapons expert and has a lot to do for the plot to progress and is must ally for Bond to complete his mission.

I can’t talk about the cast without mentioning the first performance of Judi Dench as M. Dench delivers a stoic performance, a hard-nosed warrior leader and her few scenes are memorable and powerful.

This film is a perfect example of a Bondian movie, it gets the balance right between strong plot, strong well acted characters and the OTT stunt sequences. You’re along for the ride and you’ll love ever minute of the film. In 1995 Bond became box office material again. I want to give this film 5 out of 5 – but I can’t, for there is a large shadow that hangs over the entire film: the music score by Eric Serra.

A film’s music score is a character within the film, It helps to develop the tale, to cue emotional chords within you and, of course, to heighten the exciting parts. Serra’s score is a failure on all counts. The score just ends up juxtaposing all the way through – it feels like an unwelcome visitor to the Bond universe. It’s actually distracting a lot of the time. Thank Bondian God he never returned to the franchise. For that reason the film has to drop a point.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Rhys 


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That's the last film for Day 2 - we're off to get some sleep! Tomorrow we hit the home straight-  3 more Brosnans, 2 Craigs at home and then off to the cinema to finally get to see Skyfall. Goodnight for now!

Bondathon Podcast Part 5: The Dalton Years

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Here's our reviews of Timothy Dalton's all to short tenure as 007 - enjoy !!

Licence To Kill (1989)

On his wedding day, Felix Leiter (aided by James Bond as his best man) brings in Colombian drug lord Franz Sanchez. However, Sanchez escapes and exacts a terrible revenge on Leiter and his new bride Della. Frustrated that nobody will do anything, Bond vows revenge- but has to step outside the bounds of his license to kill to do so.

There’s no messing around here, from the very beginning we have balls-to-the-wall action. We are in a different world to the usual Bond film; this is grittier, much more real. Gone are the grandiloquent plans of world domination and exotically-named villains, we are in a very real and very violent world of drug dealers- Sanchez is a man who would cut out a love rival’s heart as soon as look at him so murdering Della and feeding Felix to a shark is par for the course. Robert Davi’s performance is chilling and full of quiet menace. He’s yet another Bond villain with a penchant for sharks. The drugs network is hidden via televangelism messages done by Professor Joe Butcher, played with silky charm by former Vegas showman Wayne Newton.

Dalton is an absolute revelation here, a bundle of rage and determination. There are several subtle nods to Bond’s previous marriage and there’s a lovely moment when Della offers her garter, as the next one to catch it will wed, and Bond gently refuses. He is unrepentant in his disposal of Killifer, callously throwing the suitcase of blood money to weight him down. The scene where Bond is stripped of his licence to kill is just amazing (incidentally, Robert Brown gets his finest hour as M in that scene).. Bond uses a combination of brawn and brains in his vendetta- not only physically punishing people but also casting the seeds of doubt in Sanchez’s mind as who to trust. The physical and mental strain of the mission is writ large over Bond by the end of it. There are some amazing action sequences, especially with the tankers at the end.

David Hedison returns to the role of Felix Leiter for the first time since Live And Let Die (he is one of only two actors to play the role of Leiter more than once) and his easy camaraderie with Dalton is a pleasure to watch. Such is that relationship that, when Felix is attacked, you are absolutely on Bond’s side with his desire for revenge. Q ends up going to Isthmus City (on Moneypenny’s behest) to help equip Bond in his fight against Sanchez. It’s great to see Desmond Llewelyn get an extended role and his relationship with Dalton is slightly different to that of other Bonds- there’s an avuncular concern for 007 (which may be due to the age difference between the two men)

The two Bond girls are on opposite ends of the scale. Talisa Soto gives a great performance as Lupe, Sanchez’s girlfriend. Well, girlfriend may be a very generous term; she’s more his possession. She is desperate to leave him and forms an attachment with James hoping to get out. Carey Lowell is also great as Pam Bouvier, a former army pilot. Bond meets up with her in s scuzzy bar where she’s packing a sawn-off shotgun; she can certainly handle herself. The chemistry between her and Dalton is positively electric which adds another dimension.  She won’t take any nonsense at all which is just brilliant.

Make no mistake, this is a grown-up revenge thriller totally deserving of its 15 certificate. It’s also one of the most intelligent, gripping and engrossing films made in the 1980s and one of the best Bond films.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Tez

The Living Daylights (1987)

Russian General Koskov defects, but it is all a lie to get all sides running around, so he and a arms dealer General Brad Whittaker can prepare a new world war to make money of the sales of arms.

Moore left and now it’s time to shake things up, time to get Bond back to being Bond, James Bond. Timothy Dalton takes centre stage and he fills it so well, with the opening pre-title sequence where a training operation is over-run by an assassin. You know you’re in safe hands when the lead actor can be seen actually doing a lot of his own stunts and more importantly you believe he could kill you. Dalton brings with him a sense of realism to the role, he plays the role gritty, close to his instincts but has the stony side that a young Connery has and the wit and charm of Moore.

With Dalton comes a new Monepenny, a younger model and a fresh thinking woman played by Caroline Bliss. Jeroen Krabbe plays the film’s villain – but saying that, this Bond film is a tangled web of espionage, very much in the vain of From Russia With Love was. There’s more than just one nemesis- Joe Don Baker plays corrupt arms dealer Brad Whittaker- and the Bond Girl is played by Maryam d’Abo. The interesting thing here is for first time in numerous films, the female role has been treated as actually a role, a character, and not just a piece of set dressing, She’s a independent, competent woman and what’s nice is she is an innocent party who got mixed up with a wrong individual.

The action is handled superbly, ranging from a car chase across the snow of the Austrian border, with a Bond car full of (very Goldfinger) gadgets, that leads to using a cello case as a sled. We have the action move location and it then takes place in Afghanistan, which at the time was in the control of the USSR and Bond helps the local rebels (Taliban?). But probably the most remembered action sequence is Bond hanging out on a net from the back of a plane, tens of thousands of feet high in the sky, fighting Koskov’s henchman – just classic Bondian fun, but now with a Dalton cutting edge.

This film manages to walk the fine line, it delivers new Bond, a Bond for the late 80s – a Bond closer to the book while at the same time keeping just the right amount of fun in the film, giving us an action adventure film that delivers just what a Bond fan wants and to be honest needed at that time.  It is truly one of my favourites as Dalton is our Welsh James Bond.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Rhys

Bondathon Podcast Part 4

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We review the last 3 films of Moore's era. Then we take some time out and talk about the experience so far and also we chat about the longest serving agent 007 - Roger Moore. Enjoy

http://www.justgiving.com/thewatcherscharitybondathon2012

A View To A Kill (1985)

Investigations into a horse-racing scandal leads Bond to Max Zorin, a French industrialist and ex-KGB agent who has plans to destroy Silicon Valley.

Microchip technology was a big talking point in the mid-1980s so, once again, it’s an interesting take using a contemporary issue.

It’s real action-a-go-go in this one. The pre-credits sequence features another frantic ski chase (even if the brief snippet of ‘California Girls’ by the Beach Boys as Bond snowboarding down the hill was unnecessary) and an ingenious boat shaped like an iceberg. After only twenty minutes in, there is the breathless chase up the Eiffel Tower, May Day’s skydive off and the subsequent car chase. The steeplechase scene, with the moving jumps, is also brilliantly done. Bond’s escape from the sunken car is similarly excellent as is the fire engine chase through San Francisco and the finale atop the Golden Gate Bridge.

Christopher Walken is inspired casting as Zorin. Already an Oscar winner by this point, he brings his trademark intensity to the role which is refreshing after a run of lacklustre villains (Kristatos and Kamal Khan). His encounters with Roger Moore really spark and he’s a fitting adversary for Moore’s last hurrah. His off-hand quip after disposing of a business rival from his airship- ‘So would anyone else like to drop out?’- is delivered perfectly. Grace Jones is a perfect match for Walken; they’re both as crazy as each other. Her May Day is also full of intensity; she is Zorin’s confidante, lover and pet assassin, dispatching people unquestioningly. Zorin turns on her at the end, leaving her to die in the flooded mine and she sacrifices herself to save the day. A traditional trope but done well.

It’s a shame that Tanya Roberts doesn’t have the same spark in her performance. That said, the character of Stacey Sutton is thinly written, much more of a damsel-in-distress type of Bond girl. There’s also, perhaps more crucially, very little chemistry between Roberts and Moore. He seems to be constantly chiding her or telling her what to do, acting more like a father or a boss than a romantic interest, which becomes quickly intolerable for the audience.

The DVD release is rated 12 (a rating that didn’t exist when the first was first released; it was either a PG or a 15); it is easy to see why the film has been re-rated from PG. There’s a particularly graphic moment with someone being sucked into a propeller and when Zorin blithely but mercilessly guns down the workers in his mine.

All in all, this is a very fitting swansong for Roger Moore, even though he himself does not rate this film highly (due to the excessive violence amongst other things). It redeems the godawful mess that was Octopussy and provides a decent coda to his twelve-year tenure as 007.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

A submarine carrying an ATAC decryption system is attacked and the ATAC is sunk. Bond must attempt to recover the device before it falls into enemy hands. Along the way, he encounters a young woman named Melina Havelock who is seeking revenge for the deaths of her parents.

For Your Eyes Only is in marked contrast to the previous adventure, a much more realistic and grounded enterprise than the fantastical Moonraker. A dazzling pre-credits sequence shows Bond visit his late wife Tracy’s grave and then dispose of a wheelchair-bound Blofeld down a smokestack.

The direction by John Glen is superb across the board. The sequence aboard the sunken St Georges where Bond and Melina retrieve the ATAC is shot well as is the subsequent keel-hauling. The stunt work is strong- the chase sequence involving the Citroen 2CV is great as is the ski sequence. Attention should also be drawn to one particular scene which is excellently directed: when Bond kicks Locque’s car off the edge of the cliff.

Whilst Julian Glover never really convinces as a great threat as the villain Kristatos, he gives a solid enough performance. Topol is strong as Greek smuggler Milos Colombo whilst Carole Bouquet is fantastic in the role of Melina. Strong and determined, she is more than prepared to take matters into her own hands to avenge the deaths of her parents. The characters of Bibi Dahl and her ice-skating coach Jacoba Brink don’t add much to the main plot and could have easily been excised. There’s something quite awkward about seeing the very young Bibi throwing herself at the much older Bond. The MI6 scenes also suffer from the absence of Bernard Lee, who sadly passed away before starting filming.

It’s interesting to see the Russians taking less of a neutral position in this one: Gogol is willing to buy the ATAC once it’s been retrieved and commissions Ktistatos to do it. However, when Bond destroys the ATAC rather than either side have, Gogol’s gesture of pragmatism speaks volumes.

All in all, a return to Earth from the sci-fi heights of Moonraker and a decent espionage thriller.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Moonraker (1979)

 

The space shuttle Moonraker is stolen. Suspicions lead Bond to the company that built the shuttle, owned by billionaire Hugo Drax, who has an idea – to move new ‘Adam snd Eves’ to a space base and then eradicate all other human life below and start a new civilisation. But, of course you are, Mr Drax!           

At the end of The Spy Who Loved Me we see the usual message to us fans, ‘James Bond will Return’. However, it said ‘…in For Your Eyes Only’! Well this obviously was the plan in 1977 when The Spy Who Loved Me was released – but then something happened in that same year. Star Wars. Science Fiction was not taken seriously in cinema before George Lucas’ groundbreaking tour de force. So when that film broke all box office records and made a pile of cash, every other studio was looking to make their science fiction projects, indeed SCI-FI was in vogue. Projects before Star Wars that were green lit for release in 1979 probably would never have been made – films such as Ridley Scott’s Alien and definitely we would not of seen a return to the cinema for Star Trek. With Sci-fi being the ‘in thing’ and Broccoli not one to never see an opportunity, we have Moonraker instead. Based on Ian Fleming’s novel of the same name, the film is of course very different but what we basically have here is Bond in Space for a filmgoing audience of 1979, who had an appetite for Sci-Fi space adventure fun, and Bond delivers just that.

Moonraker is one of my personal favourite Bond movies for the Sci-Fi angle, but also because of Hugo Drax played by Michael Lonsdale. His villain is sinister, stoic, slick and just simply a sociopath. There’s a scene early on that best sums up this man: a member of his staff helps Bond, he fires her then literally sets the dogs on her! In Drax’s employ we now find Jaws, again played by the mighty Richard Kiel. Bringing Jaws back is in my opinion a stroke of genius. Familiarity with a villain can be a good thing. Jaws is a scary henchman, his brute strength and intimidating stature all go in to making a now truly iconic villain. It is then such a shame what they do with him in this (and his final appearance) film; they do two things wrong: 1) they made him become a ‘good guy’ and 2) he falls in love!

With the Moore films we do definately notice the productions are upping the tongue-in-cheek, cheap laughs. Not just in dialogue and quick references – the cheekiness is spreading into the set pieces and action sequences. The Spy Who Loved Me had a submarine car, Moonraker has a boat chase in Venice, but with a gondola that transforms into a hovercraft. It’s this kind of thing that actual clashes with the more sincere elements, like a truly villainous villain, chemical weapons or even if Moore brings more of Bonds psyche forward rather than raising an eyebrow. The films by now are definitely being made with the family in mind – something for everyone.

Moonraker has its flaws, but for me it’s a guilty Bond pleasure. The battle in space at the end makes up for every small discrepancy it makes up forgetting to the finale (well for this fan). It’s probably the best example of ‘give the fans what they want’ and they wanted Bond in Space and well, we got it!

3 out of 5

Rhys