For Your Eyes Only
Dovy
Posts: 206MI6 Agent
The scenery and sets are absolutely outstanding as in previous films. The realism of the action is also great. The special effects are excellent.The only thing that bothers me is that the storylines get somewhat repetitive and predictable. Stolen weapons, danger to the world, a megalomaniac billionaire, water and street chases, the humorous segments and the same romantic addition (this time including Jaws, who I assume is headed for life in prison as a serial murderer).
Roger Moore's humor and sarcasm are good, but getting a bit repetitive as well. I look forward to comments from others as well. It's worth noting that James Bond is a Renaissance Man, and is as indestructible as Jaws. He's a perfect navy commander, airplane pilot, multilingual in several languages, never gets seriously injured and has extra energy for romance, although it's always temporary.
Comments
are you sure the film you saw is called For Your Eyes Only ?
That's the film following Moonraker. But if you specifically refer to the storyline with Columbo and Kristatos, that's where you have Bond in his 50s climbing up the side of a mountain with endless energy and end up the same way in the arms of a woman.
apologies @Dovy I misunderstood
from your opening post it sure read like you were talking about Moonraker, which blatantly recycles most of the elements of The Spy Who Loved Me. Bondfilms were very formualic by this point.
__________________________________
Dovy said: the storylines get somewhat repetitive and predictable. Stolen weapons, danger to the world, a megalomaniac billionaire, water and street chases, the humorous segments and the same romantic addition (this time including Jaws, who I assume is headed for life in prison as a serial murderer)
__________________________________
For Your Eyes Only is noteworthy as the one where they deliberately abandoned or subverted much of that formula. The Lotus is blown up and instead we get the Citroen chase (actually a much more impressive chase sequence). MooreBond has a more protective avuncular relationship with the leading lady rather than the leering and childish sex-puns of previous films. The plot is not a global scale epic but rather a sequence of small scale interconnected short stores linked by the search for the mcguffin. The scene at the start where the ship sinks looks much like the start of ...Spy..., but turns out to be a random accident. And the big baddy behind the baddies at the end turns out to be Bond's old frenemy Gogol.
I think this is a very clever entry in the series because of these subversions and more.
Caractacus Potts, you beautifully summarized what makes FYEO the best Moore Bond movie. I have to say though that I didn’t like it the first time I watched it in the theater because being a juvenile then, I was upset that that it was missing the juvenile elements that made me love the previous two entries.
FYEO is an underrated Bond film. I enjoy it immensely, although it isn't one of the very very best. I enjoy its all-round grounding, or at least something more appropriate to it. Pity about the silly PTS but it is as if by tossing Blofeld from a remote control helicopter the producers were tossing away the daftness of the 1970s and bringing us back to something like reality.
Why was this Blofeld in a wheelchair when he didn't look too bad in the car when he killed Tracy?
We aren't told, but there are theories- mine is in "Imaginary Conversations", post 2081. 😊
I also kinda liked it.
Though the plot was a bit hard to understand and there's some left unexplained (e.g. Kristatos' connections to the Russians, his real intention of getting the ATAC machine, why he lured Bond against Columbo if all he wants is the ATAC machine?), the plot was a bit convoluted in that part, not very much explained.
Also, the Plot twist could be easily predicted and one could smell it miles away.
Also it's a bit inconsistent in tone, they're trying to make this a serious Bond film, but there's still some campy moments here and there that's felt out of place.
And there's Bibi Dahl and the Thatcher reference, and don't get me started on Blofeld's inclusion in the PTS.
But anyways, I liked it.
My favorite scene was when Bond visits Tracy's grave and the scenes where he's acting like a mentor/father figure to Melina, and the third act (the keel hauling scene and the mountain climbing scene), there's some scenes here that I really liked.
Dovy said:
Why was this Blofeld in a wheelchair when he didn't look too bad in the car when he killed Tracy?
__________________________________
the last we saw of Blofeld was the end of Diamonds are Forever when he was trying to escape in his one man sub and Bond gained control of the crane and bashed it all about. Maybe Blofeld wasnt wearing his seatbelt?
Solid film overall with a good PTS (that is marred a bit Blofeld's odd delicatessen in stainless steel line) and some very good action sequences. That said there were some elements that didn't work for me.
I groaned every time Bibi showed up. For a movie that was supposed to be an attempt at a more grounded, back to basics Bond, her scenes which were probably meant to provide a bit of comic relief, just felt really out of place, jarring and a little creepy given the age discrepancy.
Moore and Carole Bouquet also really didn't have any chemistry for me, which is surprising because I always thought Moore's ability to work with all his leading Bond girls was one of his strengths.
The way Bond turns his back on Kristatos at the end and almost gets shot in the back if not for a save from Colombo also seemed a bit odd and not well thought out to me. Very careless move there for someone who is supposed to be such a seasoned agent. I always grimace a bit at that part.