This might be the biggest difference between 2 Bond movies by the same actor in style, feel and direction.
Agreed. Moore's most serious film for sure and apart from Lynn Holly Johnson storyline it would have been a masterpiece but still Moore's best Bond film.
Octopussy is obviously the better film, it feels like that film has a life. It is fun and serious in a great mix, and i really love how the story is grounded in the political life of the 80's. Moore is much, much, much better here than in FYEO. We can actually see him enjoying playing the part here!
FYEO is overrated, dull and quite boring. Some serious action scenes are destroyed by slapstick moments and bad music. It is too unbalanced where OP is a fun and easy Bond film with a coherrent style!
One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
BIG TAMWrexham, North Wales, UK.Posts: 773MI6 Agent
Difficult one.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY feels classier & has a better pacing to it, but it's weakened by the silly opening & end scenes.
I love the Cold War plot of OCTOPUSSY & the last third chase to diffuse the bomb, which to my mind is one of the best segments of any Bond film. But it suffers from some hokey comedy in the Indian segment.
I think I might have to go for OCTOPUSSY on the basis of the overall story & the last third.
My vote goes to FYEO. I think Moore gives his finest performance as Bond, and the level of silliness typical of the Roger Bond films is cut way down. Octopussy is a close second as the best of Roger Moore's Bonds.
What is this? Has hell frozen over? Blackleiter has something nice to say about a Moore Bond film? I should retire after this.
My vote goes to FYEO. I think Moore gives his finest performance as Bond, and the level of silliness typical of the Roger Bond films is cut way down. Octopussy is a close second as the best of Roger Moore's Bonds.
What is this? Has hell frozen over? Blackleiter has something nice to say about a Moore Bond film? I should retire after this.
Don't be so shocked, my friend! As I has said before, Moore is my least favorite Bond, but he's still Bond! And to give credit where credit is due, I feel that FYEO, while still weaker than most other Bond films, is a decent effort and, in my opinion, Moore's best. So there's no need to contemplate retirement - we'd miss you around here! )
FYEO is overrated, dull and quite boring. Some serious action scenes are destroyed by slapstick moments and bad music. It is too unbalanced where OP is a fun and easy Bond film with a coherrent style!
Yeah, as much as I want to like FYEO i tend to agree with your conclusions. Octopussy is just so much more entertaining and fun.
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
FYEO is overrated, dull and quite boring. Some serious action scenes are destroyed by slapstick moments and bad music. It is too unbalanced where OP is a fun and easy Bond film with a coherrent style!
Yeah, as much as I want to like FYEO i tend to agree with your conclusions. Octopussy is just so much more entertaining and fun.
Yes, I agree here as well. FYEO is well done, but OP has so much more of an epic Bond feel to it, as well as Barry music. By the end of FYEO I feel like I've watched a hugely expensive TV movie; OP OTOH feels like a proper major event.
Sidebar here: thanks to timmer at MI6 for clearing up a 32 year question about FYEO that haunted me...
The delicatessen in stainless steel line was offered up by Cubby. It's an old mafia term that he was familiar with. From IMDB "A delicatessen was a popular mafia commodity back in the roaring 20's and 30's, and the most valuable delis were the ones with stainless steel countertops (easy to clean, thus less bacteria-laden than wooden chopping blocks). Consequently, a "delicatessen in stainless steel" was considered a worthy gift and thus a potent bribe."
Watched Octopussy last night. I am not too keen on this one. It has his strong moments but also plenty of weak moments.
The strong: I liked the auction, straight from Flemings short story. Also Roger has some nice lines in this one: 'This will keep you in curry for the rest of the month,' and ' I know the price of eggs went up...' lines still make me laugh today. Also PTS is done very well, it is nice to see Q in a bigger role than usual and the locations in India are phenomenal.
Now the weak. I did not think Khamal Khan was menacing at all. not for a single second. Maud Adams, why did they re-use her again? I think she looked way hotter in TMWTGG btw, must be the make up or something.
After India, I kind of lost the interest. The whole circus thing was a bit boring and the location was dull, even though from a historic perspective it was nice that we saw check point Charley. Nevertheless, I was a bit bored, the glamour was gone. Maybe because of the Gorilla suit, the acrobat suit and of course the clown suit.
All in all, a decent flick. Better than AVTAK, but less entertaining than the other over the top Bond, MR. I guess I am in the minority here, but OP is my second least favourite Moore movie. Entertaining, but thats it. Nothing special.
I agree with most of your parts, Osato, but I think, that you are wrong re. Checkpoint Charlie.
As far as I know, they recreated the checkpoint somewhere else.
I'm pretty sure the filmed at Checkpoint Charlie itself - it was where principal photography started. There was a poster produced at the time - I will see if I can find a copy.
BT I agree with you about the beautiful parts of Germany which are underused in the series.
I'm glad that FYEO is well regarded amongst fans and often included on Top 10 Bond lists. Many fans also consider it to be Roger's best go at 007. However, I've never totally been convinced this is a great Bond film.
What I finally realized: Roger Moore and FYEO are simply not a good match.
Here are my top 3 main reasons.
1. The extreme sports: Age wise Roger should have retired after Moonraker. However, he could still pull off a Bond film IF they took his age into consideration. Instead, they give ol' Rog the most physically demanding and athletic role of all the Bond films. He practically wins gold medals in all types of winter olympics. His limber stunt double darting around on skis is so obviously not Roger Moore that it really detracts from the experience.
2. The girls are all wrong for Roger: Bibi Dahl batting eyelashes at Roger is simply unbelievable due to him being like twice her age. The scene where he turns her down to buy her an ice cream also draws attention to the age gap. Despite all this drama, the Bond girl Melina is the same age as Bibi!
3. Worst clothing ever for Roger: He's a sharp dresser and looks very uncomfortable in the casual clothes. Plus, they are ugly 1981 colors and fashions. The striped hat he wears skiing is goofy as heck. Dinner with Kristatos and the scenes with the Countess are great because Roger is wearing a Tux. Unfortunately, Colombo insists he change into a shiny navy blue outfit that reminds me of something my grandma would wear for power walking. I also have mixed feelings about his climbing gear and light pastel shirts. All these outfits are just so unflattering for the classy and impeccably dressed Roger Moore.
I would be embarrassed to show this film to someone and claim it was Roger's best role as 007. Don't get me wrong, he still delivers a flawless performance, but these others factors are definitely not in his favor.
Now, Octopussy on the other hand, resolves ALL these problems.
1.Most of the stunts are clinging to the side of a train or an airplane and done very convincingly with the stunt crew. Not a whole lot of running around in this film. Even though Roger is 55, he can pull off Bond much smoother.
2. Maud Adams was a perfect match for Roger. In her 40's, very grown up and sophisticated woman of the world. Although, it was unfair for Moneypenny to be noted as "aging" where Roger still made Ms. Smallbone gush.
3. Bond looks great in OP. Tuxedos, white dinner jackets, tan safari suits, three-piece suits, commando gear and the blouson all looked super cool for Moore's style of Bond.
Overall, FYEO feels uncomfortable, whereas OP is tailor made for Roger Moore.
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
-{ firemass does make some good points, sadly though I prefer FYEO as it uses
several elements taken from Fleming namely the two short stories, Risico &
For your eyes only.
Although I can agree the girls ( For Moore ) were better cast in OP.
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
Cheers. Well, I was just trying to deduce why FYEO wasn't working for me. At first I wondered if Rog wasn't suited for the "more serious" tone of FYEO. But I know that's not the reason because he plays it straight in most of the films anyway. It's usually John Glenn that adds the goofy moments while Rog is working hard to do his job.
Thunderpussy- I love the Risico portion of FYEO. That's a perfect mini-Bond film kind of like the first half of the Living Daylights.
Countess was a much better match for Roger. No Bibi, no Melina. Great beach attack scene. Ends with the cliff kick. I actually have shown that portion of the film to someone who was curious about Roger as 007. -{
My current 10 favorite:
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
Cheers. Well, I was just trying to deduce why FYEO wasn't working for me. At first I wondered if Rog wasn't suited for the "more serious" tone of FYEO. But I know that's not the reason because he plays it straight in most of the films anyway. It's usually John Glenn that adds the goofy moments while Rog is working hard to do his job.
Thunderpussy- I love the Risico portion of FYEO. That's a perfect mini-Bond film kind of like the first half of the Living Daylights.
Countess was a much better match for Roger. No Bibi, no Melina. Great beach attack scene. Ends with the cliff kick. I actually have shown that portion of the film to someone who was curious about Roger as 007. -{
Although I can see what you're getting at, I don't really see much difference between most of the Roger Moore films when it comes to the shortcomings you raised about FYEO, for example:
- One of my biggest complaints about ALL of the Moore films is the obvious use of stunt doubles. I don't see that as being more egregious in FYEO than it is in any of the others.
- The age difference between Moore and his leading ladies - while I agree that the gap is larger than usual between Bond and Bibi, Moore is still typically much older than his female co-stars. And I'll say this in favor of FYEO - at least Bond turns Bibi down!
- Although you say that Moore "plays it straight" in most of his films, I'd say that he veers wildly between playing it straight and going for the laughs in his films. To me it appears that there is less "veering" than usual in FYEO, and that's one of the reasons it's my favorite among the Moore films.
- As for Moore's clothing, you might be right because I honestly can't say I paid much attention to what he was wearing in FYEO.
For Your Eyes Only..... Carole Bouquet :x :x and Topol are great in this one. I do like Maud Adams and Octopussy is a fun film...but I don't care for the circus and clown makeup parts of the movie. Don't get me wrong I love Octopussy but if I had to choose...it would be FYEO.
BIG TAMWrexham, North Wales, UK.Posts: 773MI6 Agent
I've rewatched these two recently. I preferred FOR YOUR EYES ONLY for its consistency of tone. Odd jokey moment aside, it feels more of a thriller. OCTOPUSSY's Berlin/circus scenes are terrific, as is the disarming of the bomb, but Moore's too old by this stage. I actually find his age works for him in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. He still looks pretty good & his fatherly treatment of the amorous Bibi is most amusing.
Both are great films....yet very different.After MR everyone wanted to go 'back to Earth' They did so brilliantly with FYEO.I think it freed them up to go spectacular a little again with OP.It's a perfect combination.I LOVE that these two films are consecutive Bonds and in the order they are in.
FYEO-I find Colombo a great ally and Kristatos a nasty villain.European locales are great although I was disappointed Gonzalez' villa was not really in Spain.Of course,kicking Locque's car off the cliff is great.Moore WAS up on that mountain at the finish,too so let's give him some credit! I find both the Citroen chase and the ski chase fantastic and pure Bond.
OP-Terrific,even epic,film.There is never a dull moment for it's deliciously long (2 hr 13 min) run time.Fantastic Indian locales.Heinous villains(Although I agree with a previous poster that Orlov was much more menacing than Kamal Khan) and a Cold War plot that wasn't shy about making at least one Russian a nutjob.Although I find much to admire in it the absolutely unbelievable action sequences are what make it my second favorite Bond(after OHMSS).
Comments
Agreed. Moore's most serious film for sure and apart from Lynn Holly Johnson storyline it would have been a masterpiece but still Moore's best Bond film.
FYEO is overrated, dull and quite boring. Some serious action scenes are destroyed by slapstick moments and bad music. It is too unbalanced where OP is a fun and easy Bond film with a coherrent style!
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY feels classier & has a better pacing to it, but it's weakened by the silly opening & end scenes.
I love the Cold War plot of OCTOPUSSY & the last third chase to diffuse the bomb, which to my mind is one of the best segments of any Bond film. But it suffers from some hokey comedy in the Indian segment.
I think I might have to go for OCTOPUSSY on the basis of the overall story & the last third.
Don't be so shocked, my friend! As I has said before, Moore is my least favorite Bond, but he's still Bond! And to give credit where credit is due, I feel that FYEO, while still weaker than most other Bond films, is a decent effort and, in my opinion, Moore's best. So there's no need to contemplate retirement - we'd miss you around here!
Yeah, as much as I want to like FYEO i tend to agree with your conclusions. Octopussy is just so much more entertaining and fun.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
these things never happen to me
if only
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
-{
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
The strong: I liked the auction, straight from Flemings short story. Also Roger has some nice lines in this one: 'This will keep you in curry for the rest of the month,' and ' I know the price of eggs went up...' lines still make me laugh today. Also PTS is done very well, it is nice to see Q in a bigger role than usual and the locations in India are phenomenal.
Now the weak. I did not think Khamal Khan was menacing at all. not for a single second. Maud Adams, why did they re-use her again? I think she looked way hotter in TMWTGG btw, must be the make up or something.
After India, I kind of lost the interest. The whole circus thing was a bit boring and the location was dull, even though from a historic perspective it was nice that we saw check point Charley. Nevertheless, I was a bit bored, the glamour was gone. Maybe because of the Gorilla suit, the acrobat suit and of course the clown suit.
All in all, a decent flick. Better than AVTAK, but less entertaining than the other over the top Bond, MR. I guess I am in the minority here, but OP is my second least favourite Moore movie. Entertaining, but thats it. Nothing special.
1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
As far as I know, they recreated the checkpoint somewhere else.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
Though Germany has a lot of beautiful places - unfortunately none of them showed up in a Bond movie
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I'm pretty sure the filmed at Checkpoint Charlie itself - it was where principal photography started. There was a poster produced at the time - I will see if I can find a copy.
BT I agree with you about the beautiful parts of Germany which are underused in the series.
What I finally realized: Roger Moore and FYEO are simply not a good match.
Here are my top 3 main reasons.
1. The extreme sports: Age wise Roger should have retired after Moonraker. However, he could still pull off a Bond film IF they took his age into consideration. Instead, they give ol' Rog the most physically demanding and athletic role of all the Bond films. He practically wins gold medals in all types of winter olympics. His limber stunt double darting around on skis is so obviously not Roger Moore that it really detracts from the experience.
2. The girls are all wrong for Roger: Bibi Dahl batting eyelashes at Roger is simply unbelievable due to him being like twice her age. The scene where he turns her down to buy her an ice cream also draws attention to the age gap. Despite all this drama, the Bond girl Melina is the same age as Bibi!
3. Worst clothing ever for Roger: He's a sharp dresser and looks very uncomfortable in the casual clothes. Plus, they are ugly 1981 colors and fashions. The striped hat he wears skiing is goofy as heck. Dinner with Kristatos and the scenes with the Countess are great because Roger is wearing a Tux. Unfortunately, Colombo insists he change into a shiny navy blue outfit that reminds me of something my grandma would wear for power walking. I also have mixed feelings about his climbing gear and light pastel shirts. All these outfits are just so unflattering for the classy and impeccably dressed Roger Moore.
I would be embarrassed to show this film to someone and claim it was Roger's best role as 007. Don't get me wrong, he still delivers a flawless performance, but these others factors are definitely not in his favor.
Now, Octopussy on the other hand, resolves ALL these problems.
1.Most of the stunts are clinging to the side of a train or an airplane and done very convincingly with the stunt crew. Not a whole lot of running around in this film. Even though Roger is 55, he can pull off Bond much smoother.
2. Maud Adams was a perfect match for Roger. In her 40's, very grown up and sophisticated woman of the world. Although, it was unfair for Moneypenny to be noted as "aging" where Roger still made Ms. Smallbone gush.
3. Bond looks great in OP. Tuxedos, white dinner jackets, tan safari suits, three-piece suits, commando gear and the blouson all looked super cool for Moore's style of Bond.
Overall, FYEO feels uncomfortable, whereas OP is tailor made for Roger Moore.
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
several elements taken from Fleming namely the two short stories, Risico &
For your eyes only.
Although I can agree the girls ( For Moore ) were better cast in OP.
Thunderpussy- I love the Risico portion of FYEO. That's a perfect mini-Bond film kind of like the first half of the Living Daylights.
Countess was a much better match for Roger. No Bibi, no Melina. Great beach attack scene. Ends with the cliff kick. I actually have shown that portion of the film to someone who was curious about Roger as 007. -{
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Although I can see what you're getting at, I don't really see much difference between most of the Roger Moore films when it comes to the shortcomings you raised about FYEO, for example:
- One of my biggest complaints about ALL of the Moore films is the obvious use of stunt doubles. I don't see that as being more egregious in FYEO than it is in any of the others.
- The age difference between Moore and his leading ladies - while I agree that the gap is larger than usual between Bond and Bibi, Moore is still typically much older than his female co-stars. And I'll say this in favor of FYEO - at least Bond turns Bibi down!
- Although you say that Moore "plays it straight" in most of his films, I'd say that he veers wildly between playing it straight and going for the laughs in his films. To me it appears that there is less "veering" than usual in FYEO, and that's one of the reasons it's my favorite among the Moore films.
- As for Moore's clothing, you might be right because I honestly can't say I paid much attention to what he was wearing in FYEO.
FYEO-I find Colombo a great ally and Kristatos a nasty villain.European locales are great although I was disappointed Gonzalez' villa was not really in Spain.Of course,kicking Locque's car off the cliff is great.Moore WAS up on that mountain at the finish,too so let's give him some credit! I find both the Citroen chase and the ski chase fantastic and pure Bond.
OP-Terrific,even epic,film.There is never a dull moment for it's deliciously long (2 hr 13 min) run time.Fantastic Indian locales.Heinous villains(Although I agree with a previous poster that Orlov was much more menacing than Kamal Khan) and a Cold War plot that wasn't shy about making at least one Russian a nutjob.Although I find much to admire in it the absolutely unbelievable action sequences are what make it my second favorite Bond(after OHMSS).