Am I the only one to love Moonraker?
mooreisbest
Posts: 49MI6 Agent
I really love this film. I know it is over the top in the extreme and some of the scenes are plain silly, but I do get a big kick out of it. Maybe only Roger could make it fun, but for me Moonraker is always a great ride, and after buying the new dvd, I'm enjoying it once more. However I know a lot of people dislike it, so I'm wondering if I am the only one to love it. The theme is great too, and Doctor Holly Goodhead, well, you can only hope she lives up to that name!:D
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What lets it down is he puerile humour which we all cringed at during 1979. But there are enough good bits to make it very enjoyable ie the space battle, the speedboat chase, the cablecar fight.
If it had been tightened up on the humour it could have been top 12.
I kid you not.
Quibble all you want about Bond going into space, the whole point of Drax's caper hinges on the fact that Bond HAS to go into space.
And, make no mistake, I do not think some Bond-fans truly appreciate how crazy this caper is compared to the others.
Beyond crazy. Chilling.
For you see,our world is filled with powerful men like Drax who would gladly press a button that could wipe out the majority of us...all in the name of a clean start.
THAT is why Drax is the last of the Bond super-villians with a world-domination plan...if you're going to dream...dream big.
MR is not perfect by any means...just good old-fashioned spectacular Bond entertainment.The knee-jerk reaction since 1979 has always been one of instant dismissal and cheap-shots. Well,THATS gonna change.
"You missed, Mr. Bond."
"Did I? As you said, such good sport."
Of course, if CR is Bond in 2006, then MR could take place in 20 years time...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
IMO, take out the double-taking pigeon and you have a pretty solid Bond film...not too unlike TSWLM (which featured a submersible Lotus which I don't think anyone has successfully emulated in real life) not to mention Jaws giving a man-eating shark a hicky.
It does go OTT at times and a few editorial cuts here and there would have probably made it more palatable for the Fleming Traditionalists. But then again no Bond film is 100% perfect.
We'll probably never see a Bond movie of that scope again and, double taking pidgeons or not, that's a real pity from where I stand.
Well stated, Jack Burton. And no, mooreisbest, you're not alone in your love for MR. It was the first 007 film I saw in the cinema as a child and I'll always have a strong sentimental affection for it. I too find the constant bashing of MR more OTT than the film itself. Sure, it's unfaithful to the Fleming source material and it emphasizes the comedy aspects of Bond but so did every Bond film(save FYEO and OP, at least as far as Fleming fidelity goes since both FYEO and OP have a lot of comedy in them also) made between 1971 and 1985. I think MR gets unfairly singled out and criticized for those aspects.
After the (relative) box-office disappointment of TMWTGG and a legal wrangle over the departing Harry Saltzman's stake in the Bond franchise, Cubby Broccoli saw TSWLM as a make-or-break movie and threw everything into making it work. It did, decisively, and few could resist the temptation to do the same thing again... only bigger. Since TSWLM was seen as rectifying the mistakes of TMWTGG, the aspects which made it work were re-used with more money thrown at them.
Audiences liked Jaws? Bring him back!
The jokes got laughs? Do more!
People liked the car/submarine? Let's have a gondola/hovercraft!
Mix this in with the percieved necessity for rivalling Star Wars and there's only one way to go- up. As has been said before, at the heart of MR is a very good James Bond movie; with just a little restraint (don't bring Jaws into the PTS; take out that bloody pigeon; remove Dolly) it could have been vastly improved. Sometimes, less is indeed Moore.
I'd dispute that. The music for "Moonraker" IS great- JB did some of his finest work here ("Bond Lured To Pyramid", "Flight Into Space") but to dismiss his later work ignores the intensity ("Airship To Silicon Valley") of the AVTAK score as well as the variety ("Where Has Everybody Gone", the title track) and often beauty ("Into Vienna", "Mujahadin And Opium") of TLD.
Agreed.This is easily one of the best looking films in the entire series and considering that really all of the Bond films are fantasies(including FRWL and CR'06),this one(like TSWLM) is even more so.
In my opinion,Drax has some of the finest dialogue of any of the Bond villains(reportedly written with the thought that James Mason might be play this role),and Michel Lonsdale delivers it brilliantly.Quite frankly,I have never cared for Jaws, and believe that this movie(and TSWLM) would have been greatly improved had he not been in it--but that's the only major quibble I have with this film.
It epitimises all that was wrong with the RM era when the series lost its way. James Bond became a follower rather than a leader in the 70s. LALD was following the blaxploitation movies such as Shaft, TMWTGG jumped on the martial arts bandwagon and MR was an attempt to catch some of the Star Wars dollars.
The keypad in Venice playing the Close Encounters tune just shows the shortage of original ideas.
You can seriously stretch creditibility with a Bond movie such as YOLT and TSWLM but with MR the elastic snapped. Sending Bond into space was a few steps too far and shootouts between space marines and baddies with lazer guns is just to much.
It is the prime example of the excesses which epitimised Roger Mooore's tenure.
The PTS was one of the best in the series but ruined by including Jaws. The gondola chase was unoriginal but would have got by if the gondola had not changed into a hoovercraft.
The whole inclusion of Jaws was a mistake. He was a one trick pony and should have been killed off in TSWLM - but he was popular so lets bring back and make him a goodie and give him a cutsie girlfriend. Pass the barf bag.
MR would have worked as an Austin Powers movie, but for me it will never be a proper JB movie.
Yeah, that sucked....;%
Why is it that to some people, James Bond films always have to be either gritty Fleming thrillers or goofy Austin Powers-esque self-parodies? It's an attitude I've always found annoying. Seriously, I have difficulty believing anyone could mistake MR for an Austin Powers movie.
I don't expect all the Bond movies to be realistic and gritty - I love YOLT and TSWLM and even chunks of DAD - but there has to be a line where the excesses stop and MR stepped over it.