Moonraker
mythrenegade
Posts: 35MI6 Agent
Continuing my romp through the Moore films, tonight's picture was Moonraker. This film is a huge letdown after watching TSWLM, but thankfully FYEO follows it...
The PTS is ok, and I love the idea of jumping out of a plane and taking someone else's parachute, but on the whole this doesn't hold a candle to the better PTS's of the series. Compare this to the one before it from TSWLM and there is simply no contest.
There is much to like in Moonraker. The detective work started at Drax headquarters, carried on to venice and then Rio is a great story. The scene on top of sugar loaf and the ensuing cable car battle is excellent. The boat chase is one of my personal favorites, mostly because of the scenery and music.
But it all doesn't quite fit. This film tries to include humor far too much, and it doesn't work. Jaws crashing at the bottom of sugar loaf, Jaws flapping his arms in the PTS, Jaws going over the waterfall, all of it seems forced and out of place. They took one of the best villians in the entire series and turned him into comic relief.
The scene with Bond, M, and the minister of defense entering what was once the lab was brilliant, but again the pieces don't fit. Bond has never brought them in like this before or since, it was very out of place. He simply doesn't work that way. The idea that these two guys would show up to verify what Bond saw is ludicrous in the first place.
For the first ninety minutes Moonraker is a decent film with some deep flaws. It seems rushed, a script that was utilized long before it was ready. Another few rewrites would likely have polished it up and removed some of the stupid humor that seems out of place. After the first ninety minutes they launch into space and the whole movie falls apart.
Suddenly fast and easy space travel is a reality. Suddenly laser rifles are commonplace. Suddenly a huge space station is instantly viable. And then in the next picture, it's all gone, as if it never existed. Moonraker simply pushes Bond to where it doesn't belong and never should have gone.
Despite my dislike of License to Kill, this movie ranks last on my list because even though it has some neat elements, it is filled with too many flaws and the end is so out of place.
I don't dread watching Moonraker, I enjoy the picture for a lot of reasons. It is a sad testimony to what could have been, in my mind, had they spent more time on the script and not been anxious to get Bond into outer space.
Joel
The PTS is ok, and I love the idea of jumping out of a plane and taking someone else's parachute, but on the whole this doesn't hold a candle to the better PTS's of the series. Compare this to the one before it from TSWLM and there is simply no contest.
There is much to like in Moonraker. The detective work started at Drax headquarters, carried on to venice and then Rio is a great story. The scene on top of sugar loaf and the ensuing cable car battle is excellent. The boat chase is one of my personal favorites, mostly because of the scenery and music.
But it all doesn't quite fit. This film tries to include humor far too much, and it doesn't work. Jaws crashing at the bottom of sugar loaf, Jaws flapping his arms in the PTS, Jaws going over the waterfall, all of it seems forced and out of place. They took one of the best villians in the entire series and turned him into comic relief.
The scene with Bond, M, and the minister of defense entering what was once the lab was brilliant, but again the pieces don't fit. Bond has never brought them in like this before or since, it was very out of place. He simply doesn't work that way. The idea that these two guys would show up to verify what Bond saw is ludicrous in the first place.
For the first ninety minutes Moonraker is a decent film with some deep flaws. It seems rushed, a script that was utilized long before it was ready. Another few rewrites would likely have polished it up and removed some of the stupid humor that seems out of place. After the first ninety minutes they launch into space and the whole movie falls apart.
Suddenly fast and easy space travel is a reality. Suddenly laser rifles are commonplace. Suddenly a huge space station is instantly viable. And then in the next picture, it's all gone, as if it never existed. Moonraker simply pushes Bond to where it doesn't belong and never should have gone.
Despite my dislike of License to Kill, this movie ranks last on my list because even though it has some neat elements, it is filled with too many flaws and the end is so out of place.
I don't dread watching Moonraker, I enjoy the picture for a lot of reasons. It is a sad testimony to what could have been, in my mind, had they spent more time on the script and not been anxious to get Bond into outer space.
Joel
Comments
Two things
First of all. Keep it in one location. Brazil worked wonderfully. It was a very Bondian location. Have 007 arrive in Rio, visit Draxs' Amazon shuttlefactory, let them escape, lots of exciting chases. But keep it within one country. Drax doesnt even need to go into outer space. He can release the orchid poison from an orbiting satellite.
This will give it more of a cohesive Brazilan feel perhaps incorporating Iguacu and Salvador for logical reasons rather then just aesthetic ones.It would cut out Venic and California but the villains estate could be in the Amazon jungle and the glassblowing in Salvador or Brasilia.
Jaws needs his menace returned. Jettison the silly humour which destroys the tension. Especially the silly love story. Going from the DVD commentary alot of the silly stuff is from Lewis Gilbert (the bondola etc) and even Christopher Wood the screenwriter cringed at some of the humour.
Play it as a hard thriller set in Brazil about a genius in the jungle who has achieved his dream of space exploration. Or have him as Stromberg, so obcessed with the destruction of the rainforest he is willing to kill mankind just to save it.
However, this one is definitely close to the bottom of the barrel. Only The Man With The Golden Gun is worse, imho.
Where this film succeeds is the production quality. It does genuinely look stunning, and obviously a massive budget was put into this. There is also one of the best action scenes ever filmed in the fight between Bond and Chang, and aside from the inexplicable and embarassing 'Jaws crashing through the circus' fiasco, the pre title scene is very impressive indeed. Despite some dubious back projection work (a staple of Bond films then though), the cable car battle is actually very good.
However, so much is wrong elsewhere. Every performance here is rather flat, imho. Nobody stands out at all. Roger Moore is probably 2nd only to Sean Connery for my favourite Bond, but this film is definitely his worst from an acting point of view. He sleepwalks through this, and is in fact barely even given a good one-liner, so really I think the dreadful script is at fault. The Bond girls here are simply perfunctory at best, utterly unmemorable at worst.
The comedy that is here is just awful- probably the Bond films' lowest ebb is the scene where Bond is on that boat with idiot henchmen falling into the water, a cheesy gondola scene and an astonishingly bad sequence with the 'pigeon double take'. Also, that whole set up with Jaws and his love Dolly is painful to watch- and Jaws is somewhat inexplicably brought back anyway. I found him a terrific foe in TSWLM but here, he's used as an idiot.
And not being a sci fi fan (apart from Doctor Who;)), I find the climax to be terribly boring too, I'm afraid.
So for me, this is a film that really epitomises the series at its most excessive- only Die Another Day is worse in this respect.
P.S. I want to defend Jaws. Although his ending up with Dolly was unforgivable, he was extremely chilling during the Mardi Gras scene. He was also IMO appropiately scary in the chairlift scene.
I loved the whole parachute PTS scene, it's one of my all time faves. The best part of the whole movie occurred in the first 10 minutes and then the start of the descention ride towards stupidity began.
The wrecking of Jaws...one of the best Bond villians ever disgusted me. They turned Jaws into a steel toothed clown. I was 11 or 12 when I first saw TSWLM and any scene with Jaws in it was accompanied by genuine feelings of fear and dread for what might happen to 007. To see Jaws reduced to that level of comedy was just sad.
Case and Point...
What if they took Grant from FRWL and had him get all googly-eyed over girl??? Then, instead of that classic train fight between Grant and Bond, Grant and the girl just skipped off into the distance holding hands and had a shot of Connery smiling and shaking his head as he waved good-bye to the two lovebirds as they disappeared?
Moonraker's cheesey ending robbed every James Bond fan of what might have been one of Bonds most memorable rematch confrontations...and that in itself is the real shame. The tension they could have built in that movie by making the viewer wait for Bond and Jaws to finally cross paths could have made Moonraker an instant classic. -They dropped the ball huge on this one IMHO.
The Highs:
The PTS. Despite the flapping Jaws there's some great stuntwork on view.
The Centrifuge Scene. One of the greatest moments in Roger Moore's era. It's one of the few moments in the entire series where Bond is in real visible distress.
The Pheasant Shoot and Corinne Dufour's death. Not to put too fine a point on it, classic Bond pure and simple. I never fail to laugh at "You missed, Mr Bond" "Did I?" And Dufour's death at the teeth of Drax's dogs is particularly haunting.
The acting. Roger is Roger, say no Moore.
The Sets. Simply stunning. Combined all together, probably the best in the series. For years I thought the Centrifuge was real and was stunned when I eventually discovered it was just a set.
The Location's. Not much different from above, Perhaps not the best, but not far off.
Special Effects. For the most part they are of a high order and have stood the test of time pretty well. It shouldn't be forgotten that MR was nominated for an Oscar in the Special Effects category.
The score. One of John Barry's best. Only beaten by his even more majestic YOLT & OHMSS. Not forgetting Shirley Bassey's wonderful rendition of the title song. Definitely underrated.
The Lows:
Jaws. He's in the film mainly for laughs. Virtually all the menace from TSWLM has gone. To make matters worse he has a cringeworthy romance with Dolly.
The Silliness. See above. Also, double take pigeon's, Bondola's etc.
The Laser Battle. I am not one of those who is put off by Bond being in outer space. I mostly enjoy this part of the film, especially when Bond & Holly Goodhead are hunting down the three globes heading for Earth's atmosphere. However, the laser battle was OTT for me.
Overall, MR has too many positive elements for it to be considered the worst Bond film despite the big impact of the negative elements.
For the record, it is not a chairlift. The location is called Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janero. You can see it by typing this into google earth or google maps: -22.948611,-43.157222
If you look to the west you can see the plaza at the bottom of the tram. This is where the tram crashes through all the 7-Up signs... If you look to the north, you can see the airport that Bond and Goodhead were looking at.
This gave me a GREAT idea for a new thread. Google earth coordinates for bond locations!
Joel
I'm not saying as a bad thing, what i want to show is tha it has the elements that Moore was familiar with. Besides the PTS, the Rio fight and perhaps the centrifugate machine , there is nothing else to make it remember in the future (that's all i remember writing this post) no Lotus like in TSWLM(is one of the things if not THE one we always remember Moore for)
The bad (worst, awful) thing is the Space part and the plan as well... i stay with the theory of a nuclear shelter but please, not in space.
When i saw it again a year ago i enjoy it in the Moore level (some jokes but it has many more than i would recommend) but when they were in space, that is a turn off
It has some elements that in retrospect it could have done without, but on the whole, and remembering the time it was made, it's a cracking good couple of hours of escapism.
Roger Moore still looks great in MR, the villain is good, the special effects are fabulous and my only major gripe is MR turning Jaws into a total comedy character.
That said, Jaws has his best moment in MR. His realisation that he or his girlfriend don't fit in with Drax's plans is brilliant. I never thought that he turned good at this point, he just realised that it was better on this occasion to join forces with Rog and co.
It's made with a lot of class and although not my favourite Bond film, that will always be Thunderball, it certainly stands up to repeating viewing.
Duncan
By not trying to do anything 'deep' or 'important' Moonraker succeeds on its own merits as a thoroughly entertaining Bond picture. This sets it apart from the split-personality and woefully written/acted Die Another Day, and it is not tired like A View To A Kill. I may prefer the likes of From Russia with Love, The Living Daylights or Casino Royale, however for different reasons Moonraker is outrageous fun.
So do I. I think it's easily his best performance in which he was performing to his own strengths. In fact, I would say that, of all his movies, this contains the best hybrid of the 60s and 70s era Bond. That scene in the centrefuge was awesome and Moore's performance could have come straight out of Thunderball. Drax is easily the most interesting villain of the Moore era-- he has some great lines, a personal favorite being "You appear with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season" and Lonsdale's performance is wonderful. I have always enjoyed Lois Chiles as a Bond-girl (as well as the lovely Corrine Dufour) and I must say I appreciated the notable lack of bras in the film. A lot of people complain about Bond being in space-- they can cry me a river. Bond being in space is hardly more ridiculous than a lot of what happens in the Bond movies, and it was a lot of fun. Where the film undeniably bites it, however, is with all the unfortunate slapstick. I totally agree that it has nothing but a negative effect on the movie, but in my opinion it is merely an example of what I refer to as the Jar Jar Binks effect, namely something utterly awful appearing in something that is otherwise quite cool and where all could be made well with some judicious editing.
Now, the action is more a catalyst for Bond's emotions. So there's a car chase, and Vesper is thrown in the road, or the house is sinking and Vesper is trapped. Okay, it's not all like that, much of it stems from the plot too, but it's not like how it used to be. Now much of those films seem a bit shallow.
Roger Moore 1927-2017