We left off the last post with Connery reprising the role of Bond in 1971's Diamonds Are Forever. As stated prior, Connery was losing the Bond edge in You only Live Twice & it was pretty gone by Diamonds. Connery pretty much mailed in his last Bond performance (his last EON performance that is). Enter Roger Moore.
Moore had been briefly considered for the role of James Bond but producers went with Lazenby then went back to Connery. Moore had successful runs in several television series throughout the 60's. He got the job at the age of 45 and would make 7 Bond films from 1973-1985. Here they are:
Live and Let Die was a pretty good film and it did well at the box office. Man With The Golden Gun would be Moore's lowest grossing Bond film and it showed. Christopher, who's usually an excellent villain, played Scaramanga (he has 3 nipples BTW) in a comical way (which would be a problem during this time) and had Herve Villachaize (Tattoo from Fantasy Island) as his butler, Nick Nack. Scaramanga had a deal with Nick Nack that if Nick Nack killed Scaramanga, Nick Nack would get all of Scaramanga's wealth. The weird premise about this film is that Scaramanga was this international assassin that everyone knows about, is so reclusive but manages to lead a lavish lifestyle that could have been featured on Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous!This just wasn't a good movie.
So far I'm going to give Moore a 1 for 2. His 3rd outing was The Spy Who Loved Me where he teams up with Soviet agent Triple X (who happens to be an uber-babe) played by Barbara Bach. In my opinion, Bach's hotness is only matched by her limited acting skills. In this film Moore actually gets the old Bond edge back because he seems really agitated about the villain's plans to set off a nuclear war and guns him down (only after Stromberg took a shot at Bond). Curt Jergens played Stromberg, a super wealthy industrialist who plans to obliterate life on Earth using American and Soviet ballistic missile submarines so that he and his new civilization can live out life underwater (this would mark the beginning of the demented wealthy industrialist looking to kill billions so he can start a new civilization phase). Stromberg isn't comical like Scaramanga but he kind dresses like a clown in an opera so it's hard to take him too seriously and he always seems to be at his giant dinner table. Spy is a fun movie to watch and despite Bach's lack of acting prowess, she has good chemistry with Moore. This film also introduced the audience to Jaws. A henchman for hire who kills his victims by ripping out their throats with his metal teeth. Jaws is kind of comic book like in a sense that he's indestructible (he gets dumped into a tank with a shark and it's Jaws that take a bite out of the shark - great scene!). All in all this is a good film and I watch it when it comes on TBS.
So now Moore has done 3 Bond films and 2 were good (since the franchise starting going in a different direction in 1971). Moore's 4th film was Moonraker. When I saw Moonraker as a 9 y/o, I thought it was really cool. As an adult it's a stupid film and that's being nice. After the huge success of Star Wars in 1977, producer Albert Broccoli wanted to use Bond to cash in on the it's coat tails. What you get is Moonraker, essentially a near re-make of the previous Bond film and here's why: Drax (the villain) is a wealthy industrialist who's secretly wreaking havoc with American space shuttle launches because he's a got a clandestine space station that he doesn't want discovered. Why does he have a clandestine space station discovered you ask? Well from there he will launch mutated flowers with spores that will annihilate the human race so he can repopulate the Earth with his chosen couples (who all just happen to be a bunch of extremely good looking men & women). Yes, he's going to commit genocide to save humanity from itself and start all over, a new Garden of Eden. Sounds a lot like Stromberg's plan but it's outer space instead of underwater.
For Your Eyes Only came out in 1982 and I remember I didn't think it was all that great as a kid but as an adult it's a really good film. There's no wealthy industrialist hellbent on destroying humanity or ridiculous henchmen it's almost a straight spy thriller. Bond investigates the sinking of a British warship and has to find a missing defense computer (or something, I don't know how to explain it) and finds that it coincides with a murder of marine archeologist working for the British Government. This was Moore's best Bond film and it probably should've been his last as he nearing 60 years old.
Moore's last 2 Bond film's were Octopussy and A View To A Kill. Both were bad films. Octopussy had some good moments that could've been salvaged but it's a bad film. Moore was clearly too old to play 007, it's a classic case of a star athlete who sticks around too long after his prime (Willie Mays comes to mind). It shows in these last 2 films although still charming and debonair, he's clearly not doing his own stunts (it show's) and he's not in very good physical shape. As for A View To A Kill, it did give us Christopher Walken as Zorin,the villain. His goal was to flood Silicon Valley so that he could become the sole producer of microchips, kind of sounds similar to say Goldfinger? Goldfiner was going to detonate a dirty nuke at Fort Knox (thereby destroying the world's gold supply) so he can corner the market on gold and be it's only producer. See the parallels? Duran Duran did the them song to A View To Kill and it's the only redeeming quality.
Here's how I would rank Moore's Bond films:
In part 3 I will go into the Dalton & Brosnon eras. Thanks for your time and as usual your comments and opinions are welcome & appreciated.
Moore had been briefly considered for the role of James Bond but producers went with Lazenby then went back to Connery. Moore had successful runs in several television series throughout the 60's. He got the job at the age of 45 and would make 7 Bond films from 1973-1985. Here they are:
- Live and Let Die (1973)
- Man With the Golden Gun (1974)
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
- Moonraker (1979)
- For Your Eyes Only (1981)
- Octopussy (1983)
- A View To A Kill (1985)
Live and Let Die was a pretty good film and it did well at the box office. Man With The Golden Gun would be Moore's lowest grossing Bond film and it showed. Christopher, who's usually an excellent villain, played Scaramanga (he has 3 nipples BTW) in a comical way (which would be a problem during this time) and had Herve Villachaize (Tattoo from Fantasy Island) as his butler, Nick Nack. Scaramanga had a deal with Nick Nack that if Nick Nack killed Scaramanga, Nick Nack would get all of Scaramanga's wealth. The weird premise about this film is that Scaramanga was this international assassin that everyone knows about, is so reclusive but manages to lead a lavish lifestyle that could have been featured on Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous!This just wasn't a good movie.
So far I'm going to give Moore a 1 for 2. His 3rd outing was The Spy Who Loved Me where he teams up with Soviet agent Triple X (who happens to be an uber-babe) played by Barbara Bach. In my opinion, Bach's hotness is only matched by her limited acting skills. In this film Moore actually gets the old Bond edge back because he seems really agitated about the villain's plans to set off a nuclear war and guns him down (only after Stromberg took a shot at Bond). Curt Jergens played Stromberg, a super wealthy industrialist who plans to obliterate life on Earth using American and Soviet ballistic missile submarines so that he and his new civilization can live out life underwater (this would mark the beginning of the demented wealthy industrialist looking to kill billions so he can start a new civilization phase). Stromberg isn't comical like Scaramanga but he kind dresses like a clown in an opera so it's hard to take him too seriously and he always seems to be at his giant dinner table. Spy is a fun movie to watch and despite Bach's lack of acting prowess, she has good chemistry with Moore. This film also introduced the audience to Jaws. A henchman for hire who kills his victims by ripping out their throats with his metal teeth. Jaws is kind of comic book like in a sense that he's indestructible (he gets dumped into a tank with a shark and it's Jaws that take a bite out of the shark - great scene!). All in all this is a good film and I watch it when it comes on TBS.
So now Moore has done 3 Bond films and 2 were good (since the franchise starting going in a different direction in 1971). Moore's 4th film was Moonraker. When I saw Moonraker as a 9 y/o, I thought it was really cool. As an adult it's a stupid film and that's being nice. After the huge success of Star Wars in 1977, producer Albert Broccoli wanted to use Bond to cash in on the it's coat tails. What you get is Moonraker, essentially a near re-make of the previous Bond film and here's why: Drax (the villain) is a wealthy industrialist who's secretly wreaking havoc with American space shuttle launches because he's a got a clandestine space station that he doesn't want discovered. Why does he have a clandestine space station discovered you ask? Well from there he will launch mutated flowers with spores that will annihilate the human race so he can repopulate the Earth with his chosen couples (who all just happen to be a bunch of extremely good looking men & women). Yes, he's going to commit genocide to save humanity from itself and start all over, a new Garden of Eden. Sounds a lot like Stromberg's plan but it's outer space instead of underwater.
For Your Eyes Only came out in 1982 and I remember I didn't think it was all that great as a kid but as an adult it's a really good film. There's no wealthy industrialist hellbent on destroying humanity or ridiculous henchmen it's almost a straight spy thriller. Bond investigates the sinking of a British warship and has to find a missing defense computer (or something, I don't know how to explain it) and finds that it coincides with a murder of marine archeologist working for the British Government. This was Moore's best Bond film and it probably should've been his last as he nearing 60 years old.
Moore's last 2 Bond film's were Octopussy and A View To A Kill. Both were bad films. Octopussy had some good moments that could've been salvaged but it's a bad film. Moore was clearly too old to play 007, it's a classic case of a star athlete who sticks around too long after his prime (Willie Mays comes to mind). It shows in these last 2 films although still charming and debonair, he's clearly not doing his own stunts (it show's) and he's not in very good physical shape. As for A View To A Kill, it did give us Christopher Walken as Zorin,the villain. His goal was to flood Silicon Valley so that he could become the sole producer of microchips, kind of sounds similar to say Goldfinger? Goldfiner was going to detonate a dirty nuke at Fort Knox (thereby destroying the world's gold supply) so he can corner the market on gold and be it's only producer. See the parallels? Duran Duran did the them song to A View To Kill and it's the only redeeming quality.
Here's how I would rank Moore's Bond films:
- The Spy Who Loved Me
- For Your Eyes Only: If this film was on a bit more often it might be #1.
- Live and Let Die
- Moonraker: It's got Jaws in it, Jaws beats Scaramanga any day.
- Man With The Golden Gun
- Octopussy
- A View To A Kill
In part 3 I will go into the Dalton & Brosnon eras. Thanks for your time and as usual your comments and opinions are welcome & appreciated.
No comments:
Post a Comment