Pros and Cons: Octopussy

Absolutely_Cart

The 13th film in the James Bond series and the 6th to feature Roger Moore. After the more serious For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy takes a shift back to the humor.

Pros:
* A mysterious and unique introduction
* The clever game of chasing for the real Faberge egg
* The auction scene and backgammon scene
* Some of the most creative action scenes in the series
* Plenty of hilarious comedic moments (campy done well)
* Octopussy, as an older, Bond woman
* Roger Moore disarming a bomb in a clown suit
* Lots of tension despite being a comedy film
* Kamal Khan is Bond's darker gentlemanly counterpart
* Unique post-detente plot

Cons:
* Is formulaic at times (the dinner scene for example)
* Moore is starting to get old

Overall Thoughts

Certainly an underrated gem. Secret agents dressing in clown suits chasing after a Faberge egg while terrorists are smuggling diamonds and want to bomb a circus. Lots of imagination. Moore was the perfect actor for the movie, balancing a gentlemanly grace with humor too. Despite a heaping amount of camp, the Cold War based story is one of the more intricate and realistic ones.

chrisisall

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

liked the Tarzan yell. Sue me. Lol.

You will be hearing from our lawyers in the morning.

But yeah, a lot of fun to be had on this one. :007)

MilleniumForce

Pros:
-Roger Moore is still doing well here
-A great cast of villains, all of them memorable
-Adams provides a great performance of Octopussy
-PTS is a classic
-Nice title song
-Vijay is a good character
-Q gets more screen time
-The train sequence
-The plane sequence
-The tense Bomb deactivation sequence
-The plot revolving around the circus
-Great car chase
-Unusual Tuk Tuk chase
-Sotheby's scene

Cons:
-Some dodgy back projection/blue screen
-Tarzan yell
-How did no one realise Khan was cheating at backgammon? He gets double six every time!

A fun Bond film, and generally a fun film. It has all the elements a Bond film needs. I think Octopussy is very underated, and I think it gets a lot of criticism because it's a Moore film which automatically makes it silly.
9.5/10

Firemass

Octopussy might have the most dynamic range of Pros and Cons out of any Bond film. What I mean is the pros are very good and the cons are very bad. Some other "pros" that weren't mentioned are: General Orlov, John Barry score, and amazing pre-title sequence.

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

The auction scene and the backgammon scene

Both straight from Fleming's pages! (Property of a Lady and Moonraker)

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

Plenty of hilarious comedic moments (campy done well)

To me this is the main drawback of the film.

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

Roger Moore disarming a bomb in a clown suit

I'm not crazy about this either, but I have to admit it was an appropriate disguise and a tense scene.

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

The clever game of chasing for the real Faberge egg

I get confused about which is the fake. Apparently, it's a moot point because at the end of the film they are taking about the Romanov Star and have forgotten about the egg completely.

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

Some of the most creative action scenes in the series

The PTS is my favorite of the series. The 2nd half of the film is also great in this regard.

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

Clothed men and bikini-clad women

Hmmm. I suppose that is a bit unfair.

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

It does stick very closely to the Goldfinger formula,

Does it?

Absolutely_Cart

The great thing about this movie is that you have Roger Moore in a clown suit, yet the scene with the bomb is still serious, suspenseful and realistic.

Firemass

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

The great thing about this movie is that you have Roger Moore in a clown suit, yet the scene with the bomb is still serious, suspenseful and realistic.

The real question is how did he changed into that outfit in like 2 minutes?? And how did he fit into Mishka's tiny red and black outfit?

broadshoulder

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

Stereotypical portrayal of India

To be honest - what were you expecting.Bond adjusts his tie as he walks past the festering slums of India. Bond tucking into a vodka martini as beggar women assault him for pennies?

The Bond films tend to show the pretty side of life. They show photogenic side. We see the maharajahs palaces, large lakes, elephants etc. We do venture into a thieves den with the go-go gangsters ("we don't want to make enemies of the woman") but thats about it.

It was seeing Octopussy as a kid with the helicopter flying over the Taj Mahal that spurred me to see it. I backpacked round it in 2000. Went to Udaipur and had lunch at the lake palace and they had OP playing in the cafes at night.

Cons - the tarzan yell
Pros - everything else

Barbel

Firemass wrote:

Absolutely_Cart wrote:

The great thing about this movie is that you have Roger Moore in a clown suit, yet the scene with the bomb is still serious, suspenseful and realistic.

The real question is how did he changed into that outfit in like 2 minutes?? And how did he fit into Mishka's tiny red and black outfit?

Not to mention how quickly he gets out of the gorilla suit.

Firemass

Barbel wrote:

Not to mention how quickly he gets out of the gorilla suit.

Funny. I was about to add that as well. )

broadshoulder wrote:

I backpacked round it in 2000. Went to Udaipur and had lunch at the lake palace and they had OP playing in the cafes at night.

Awesome!

As for the "stereotypical portrayal" I suspect Cart was referring to the Marketplace scenes with the sword swallower and bed of nails and those type of things.

broadshoulder

Firemass wrote:

[

As for the "stereotypical portrayal" I suspect Cart was referring to the Marketplace scenes with the sword swallower and bed of nails and those type of things.

I suspect your right. But the Bond films concentrate on the fantasy elements. No festering slums or people wanting to free you of your cash here.

But there are very nice places in India. Udaipur is one of them. Kept nice for tourists I suppose.

Higgins

Octopussy is probably the best movie from the entire series

AlphaOmegaSin

Pros -

An amazing Soundtrack
Stunning Locations
A brilliant Set of Villains
The whole Train Sequence is very well done

Cons -

The Clown Scene )

Thunderpussy

I agree with Higgins, ( must be time for a medical check up ) I think with
FYEO and OP, Moore gave his best performance as 007. -{ , can't think of
anything off hand, that annoys me about it.

AlphaOmegaSin

Agreed -{

OP would not have worked with another Actor

Silhouette Man

Prince Kamal Khan's character motivation has always bothered me in this one.

Higgins

broadshoulder wrote:

It was seeing Octopussy as a kid with the helicopter flying over the Taj Mahal that spurred me to see it. I backpacked round it in 2000. Went to Udaipur and had lunch at the lake palace and they had OP playing in the cafes at night.

Woah, thank you for living my dream.
It's still on my list and I feel exactly the same when the helicopter takes off! {[]

MilleniumForce

broadshoulder wrote:

Went to Udaipur and had lunch at the lake palace and they had OP playing in the cafes at night.

I believe they still show it in some places there daily. Doesn't the Piz Gloria restaraunts also show the ski scenes from OHMSS?

AlphaOmegaSin

I think they do -{

They also serve 007 Burgers.

chrisisall

Thunderpussy wrote:

I agree with Higgins, ( must be time for a medical check up )

Higgins makes a nice comment like that about every movie. What a good chap.

Absolutely_Cart

Every movie is higgins favorite bond movie. Except for 2 of them.

AlphaOmegaSin

We all know that Higgins adores the Dalton Films )

broadshoulder

broadshoulder wrote:

[

It was seeing Octopussy as a kid with the helicopter flying over the Taj Mahal that spurred me to see it. I backpacked round it in 2000. Went to Udaipur and had lunch at the lake palace and they had OP playing in the cafes at night.

Woah, thank you for living my dream.
It's still on my list and I feel exactly the same when the helicopter takes off!

I've been flicking through my pics of the lake palace. Even then it cost and arm and a leg to stay there. Its interesting and the colour has worn away from the building. But when you see the 'little octopussies' on the staircase it all makes sense. Or those elephant statuettes on the outside.

Of course according to it in 2015 Lake Pichola is subject to drought.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGAJUc6eiB0 The Taj Mahal

Firemass

Silhouette Man wrote:

Prince Kamal Khan's character motivation has always bothered me in this one.

Why would an exiled Afghan prince be planting an nuclear bomb in East Germany ?

I feel like someone explained it to me once, but I forget. It seems like Khan was doing General Orlov's dirty work for him, but what's in it for Khan ?

"Khaaaaaaaaaaan!"

Thunderpussy

Doesn't he get to keep all the jewellery ?

Absolutely_Cart

its like they wanted to tack a cold war story on there because thats what 007 is supposed to be

Thunderpussy

I actually think OP has a great story to it.

chrisisall

Thunderpussy wrote:

I actually think OP has a great story to it.

It SHOULD. Look who wrote it.

broadshoulder

chrisisall wrote:

Thunderpussy wrote:

I actually think OP has a great story to it.

It SHOULD. Look who wrote it.

George McDonald Fraser?

Absolutely_Cart

Just saw this one again yesterday. It ages like fine wine. It's a much deeper film than I originally thought.

The foliage in this movie looks beautiful on Blu-Ray

AlphaOmegaSin

It is one of the most beautiful looking Bond Films ever made -{

CmdrAtticus

Pros:

- The PTS - mysterious and intense - it comes across to me like something Fleming would
have written.
- The auction.
- Bond vs Soviets
- Circus cover to smuggle in bomb.
- Faberge eggs (Property of A Lady)
- Old fashioned stunt work - train fight, horse/plane chase, plane fight.
- Bond getting onto the train, confronting Orlov.

Cons:
- The whole "Octopussy" joke. It was a pet in a Bond short story and a Fleming
adolescent sex pun. I don't think he ever envisioned it as the title of a major
Bond film. I would have preferred that it had remained just the name of the pet
(and certainly not the name of Maud Adams character or circus). Most would
probably disagree, but I wished the film had been given a different title.

- The infamous Tarzan yell and the whole sit command with the Tiger as well as
the interchange with the tour boat. All done just for cheap laughs as typical
in the Moore films. However, as usual, it only undermines being able to take
the rest of the film with any amount of seriousness.

- Q scenes. Again, strickly put in for laughs (like the flaccid rope trick) - and
I still don't know why Q has to kit Bond in the field all the time or why the Service
would have hidden weapons research labs all around the globe (or how it could
afford them). Yes, I do want Q to kit out Bond, but I would prefer it done in
M's office or in the London labs. He would still get the same amount of screen time.

- Bond's wardrobe changes. Now's he's Superman? In a flash he's a clown or
out of a gorilla suit (without getting the attention of someone in the same room?).

- He tumbles off a moving train with the villain without being injured. EON's
SuperBond still lives!

- Bond/Q in the hot air balloon. Really? What is Q doing there? Why wouldn't
Bond have entered with the troupe on the ground?

- Theme song. Pretty tepid - would have been fine for the end credits, but
certainly too romantic for the main theme.

Summary. It's one of Moore's best entries. A clever, more complex plot involving
the Soviets, a circus, smuggling Russian jewels and a nuclear threat. Had it been written
with a more serious attitude like FYEO, had less farce and a better title, it would have
made a film I would watch more often and placed a few more notches up in my
favorites list.