Carry-On Moonraking

Muston

As I work my way through the Bond films again (I'm on a real Bond trip at the moment) Tonight I dusted off my copy of Moonraker (rarely watched as along with YOLT,TND & DAD it is one of my most hated Bond films.) And yes, after watching it I remember why I hate it so. But despite it being more like a spoof Bond than the real thing, I found myself breaking into a smile at the crap python, Jaws going over the waterfall, the double taking pigeon, the endless attempts to kill Bond.

I also never realised how sexy Lois Chiles was in it (though I'm sure they wanted people to giggle every time someone says "Dr Goodhead".)

Maybe all you can do it laugh at this film, take it for what it is can forget about it. Would it have been more appropriate if just before Bond shot Drax, the whole of the space station, plus Roger Moore and Drax had spontaneously started dancing the Jive Bunny while Moore did the Bond-2-C.

For a Dalton fan this is hard to watch, but if watched on a Friday night with a couple of beers?......Well, it could be worse.

hehadlotsofguts

I enjoyed it, great PTS, I thought the plot was interesting (choosing a group of perfect genetic male and female specimens to start a new civilization in space and exterminating those who are not deemed perfect by Drax's standards).
I also enjoyed to plot twist of Bond convincing Jaws and Dolly that they are out of place in Drax's plan.

Firemass

Weird. I've never considered Moonraker to be a "spoof" or "funny" It's always stood out to me as one of the biggest and best of the 007 movies. :x

KKwheelchair

Firemass wrote:

Weird. I've never considered Moonraker to be a "spoof" or "funny" It's always stood out to me as one of the biggest and best of the 007 movies. :x

Same here I always agree with your opinion Firemass.

NeverSayDie

KKwheelchair wrote:

Firemass wrote:

Weird. I've never considered Moonraker to be a "spoof" or "funny" It's always stood out to me as one of the biggest and best of the 007 movies. :x

Same here I always agree with your opinion Firemass.

Same here. Moonraker is superb entertainment. It is one of my most loved movies.
It was the highest grossing Bond film (not adjusting for inflation) until Goldeneye.

KKwheelchair

I am pretty sure even adjusting for inflation it is still one of the biggest movies in the series easily one of the best as well

AlphaOmegaSin

I see Moonraker as a Comedy Remake of the TSWLM, Ala Evil Dead 2.

Napoleon Plural

It's great fun - but of course, it helps if you remember the glamour of seeing it in the cinema as a kind, with the whole audience laughing at the gags, that sort of feelgood atmosphere you don't get watching it on your todd on DVD, where it must seem weird at times.

TheManfromJutopolis

Moonraker has always been comfortably my least favourite Bond film but decided to give it another chance after reading this thread. Having just watched it again for the first time in ages I can now say that it's still comfortably my least favourite Bond film. It's a shame really because the first half's not too bad - the scenes in California and Venice are probably as good as anything Moore did as Bond. But the film begins to lose me when it reaches Brazil and, in my opinion, the stuff in space is just a joke (which I guess was the point of the OP). I know they were trying to cash in on the whole Star Wars phenomenon but this is Bond, it doesn't need to follow trends. A pity, because Moonraker is probably my second favourite Fleming novel and deserves a good film treatment.

Jarvio

Muston wrote:

For a Dalton fan this is hard to watch

Well I'm a huge Moore fan yet I still find MR hard to watch )

Jarvio

Firemass wrote:

Weird. I've never considered Moonraker to be a "spoof" or "funny" It's always stood out to me as one of the biggest and best of the 007 movies. :x

We may agree about AVTAK but I'm afraid MR is where we differ... ahh well, can't win' em all!

Firemass

Jarvio wrote:

Firemass wrote:

Weird. I've never considered Moonraker to be a "spoof" or "funny" It's always stood out to me as one of the biggest and best of the 007 movies. :x

We may agree about AVTAK but I'm afraid MR is where we differ... ahh well, can't win' em all!

That's okay...AVTAK is far more important than Moonraker. B-)

Jarvio

Firemass wrote:

Jarvio wrote:

Firemass wrote:

Weird. I've never considered Moonraker to be a "spoof" or "funny" It's always stood out to me as one of the biggest and best of the 007 movies. :x

We may agree about AVTAK but I'm afraid MR is where we differ... ahh well, can't win' em all!

That's okay...AVTAK is far more important than Moonraker. B-)

Glad to hear it

For the record though, even though MR is my least favourite bond film, it still has it's merits. The centrifugal scene for example I thought was brilliant

KKwheelchair

I must agree that AVTAK is a movie that deserves a lot more recognition here

Firemass

Jarvio wrote:

For the record though, even though MR is my least favourite bond film, it still has it's merits. The centrifugal scene for example I thought was brilliant

Just one of many brilliant scenes. -{

Moonraker is such a spectacular, well-made film. I find the scenes aboard Drax's space station to be one of the most exciting and fun battles in the whole series. Some fans just can't accept the idea of Bond going into space and I can respect that. However, Connery could have easily found himself in a similar situation in YOLT if the budget allowed for it. )

KKwheelchair

So true YOLT could have ended up that way

Silhouette Man

KKwheelchair wrote:

I must agree that AVTAK is a movie that deserves a lot more recognition here

As both a Moonraker and AVTAK fan as well as a Fleming purist and Gardnerist I can only agree. Get your head around that one! )

KKwheelchair

I get you a bit I am a curious case their to I love a serious Bond and everything but Love those two movies I think it is because of my Childhood and because Christopher Walken is awesome

Rod Slater

This is my least favorite Bond movie of Moore's tenure. I think Roger was very good here and at times great but the movie has too many silly moments, Jaws is no longer menacing as much as buffoonish and it seems to get into the "space race" they simply redrafted the script from TSWLM! I can watch and enjoy it but I really wish I could somehow switch the timeline around and put AVTAK here (think Moore would be younger and any recasting of the other roles would probably be a plus!)

AlphaOmegaSin

I still don't see why they did not just make a faithful Adaptation of the Novel. It would be amazing to see Drax's Testing Ground on the Coast of Britain. All of the Henchman wearing Mustaches and being Bold. Witnessing Drax go into his psychotic Rant near the End.

Napoleon Plural

Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun.

AlphaOmegaSin

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun.

It would be Thrilling though, especially the Scene with the Steam getting blown into the Air Vent.

Firemass

AlphaOmegaSin wrote:

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun.

It would be Thrilling though, especially the Scene with the Steam getting blown into the Air Vent.

That was kinda in the movie. Goodhead and Bond escape the blast chamber through the ventilation shaft and get singed by the shuttle exhaust as it roars through the vents.

AlphaOmegaSin

Firemass wrote:

AlphaOmegaSin wrote:

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Yeah, sounds like a lot of fun.

It would be Thrilling though, especially the Scene with the Steam getting blown into the Air Vent.

That was kinda in the movie. Goodhead and Bond escape the blast chamber through the ventilation shaft and get singed by the shuttle exhaust as it roars through the vents.

Yes I know that. What I am trying to convey is that a faithful Adaptation would do very well.

Shady Tree

There are one or two incidental references in MR to the Fleming novel - such as Frederick Grey's remark that he plays bridge with Drax - but basically I see the film as the ultimate reworking of Bond's 60s and 70s cinematic 'spectaculars', TB, YOLT and TSWLM. For example, the sabotaged centrifugal force training session elaborately reworks the TB Shrublands sequence with the rack/stretching machine, and the laser gun fight in space harks back to the operatic underwater fight at the climax of TB. Bond's relationship with Holly Goodhead - with questions of trust, joining forces and his reference to "detente" - evokes his relationship with Anya in TSWLM (but the tension seems somewhat odd in the context of MR, since the spirit of friendly cooperation between Bond and the CIA had long been established in previous movies).

I like MR. For me, Ken Adam and John Barry alone are worth the price of admission. It's a shame that reaction against the obvious examples of broad comedy sometimes obscures the film's more serious dramatic moments and spectacle... For example, I love Bond's disorientation when he leaves the centrifugal force training machine - he's visibly shaken and, for once, he's too affected, or too disgusted, to make a quip. It's one of Moore's best moments as Bond. Indeed, the whole sequence is immensely exciting - especially on the big screen, with the sound ramped up. When Bond is on the point of losing consciousness, the subjective flashback to Q in M's office, and the demonstration of the dart-firing wrist gadget, is brilliantly edited in.

The pursuit and death of Corinne in the woods is shot and scored with a beauty which is really quite disturbing given the nature of her killing. M's quiet faith in Bond when Frederick Grey says he should be taken off the case is touching - especially with hindsight, knowing that this was to be Bernard Lee's last Bond movie. There's genuine tension in the scene where Bond has to destroy the last of Drax's pods using the shuttle laser on manual. And I remember just how special the PTS seemed when I first enjoyed the movie in 1979. The aerial stunts were amazing, like nothing we'd ever seen. Last but not least, Manuela's really hot, even though her scream when Jaws picks her up like a rag doll isn't the most convincing!

chrisisall

Shady Tree wrote:

I like MR. For me, Ken Adam and John Barry alone are worth the price of admission. It's a shame that reaction against the obvious examples of broad comedy sometimes obscures the film's more serious dramatic moments and spectacle...

Like Star Trek V, there is a great movie in there waiting to have the foolishness edited out...

KKwheelchair

Nice one Chrisisall

Firemass

chrisisall wrote:

Like Star Trek V, there is a great movie in there waiting to have the foolishness edited out...

That statement would be true if we were talking about TMWTGG or Octopussy. However, Moonraker is nearly perfect just the way it is. The only real flaw, as Shady Tree pointed out, is the "shaky" co-operation with the CIA was a bit strange. Like they were trying too hard to copy TSWLM.

KKWheelchair, one thing to keep in mind is that Chrisisall hasn't actually watched Moonraker since it came out in the theatres... ) If he saw it again he may be pleasantly surprised. No JW Pepper, No Bibi Dahl, No Tarzan yells, No clown costumes, No talking parrots, and No Bill Conti! These factors alone ensured Moonraker to remain in my top 3 Roger Moore films alongside TSWLM and AVTAK.

Mr_Osato

This is another guilty pleasure movie. It is rediculous over the top, but unlike DAF or DAD, I enjoy this one a lot more. Maybe because I love the locations so much, I love Rio and Venice, 2 amazing cities. I liked Dr Goodhead also, she is quite fine and Lonsdale gave a cool performance as Drax, with some of the best one-liners in the Bond history. Music is great also of course. This movie is like fast food, the quality isnt great but still very tasty at certain times.

KKwheelchair

Mr_Osato wrote:

This is another guilty pleasure movie. It is rediculous over the top, but unlike DAF or DAD, I enjoy this one a lot more. Maybe because I love the locations so much, I love Rio and Venice, 2 amazing cities. I liked Dr Goodhead also, she is quite fine and Lonsdale gave a cool performance as Drax, with some of the best one-liners in the Bond history. Music is great also of course. This movie is like fast food, the quality isnt great but still very tasty at certain times.

Yes Lonsdale's Drax is great

chrisisall

Firemass wrote:

No JW Pepper, No Bibi Dahl, No Tarzan yells, No clown costumes, No talking parrots, and No Bill Conti!

No Jaws & Dolly? :x