Impromptu fistfights aboard submarines or rooftops. Car chases through narrow two-lane roads. Beautiful exotic women, amazing locales. Yep, you are in another extravagant James Bond adventure starring Roger Moore in his third outing as superspy James Bond fighting a megalomaniac in some sort of underwater barge that is shaped like some emerging black octopus lair without tentacles.
The capitalist megalomaniac with webbed hands is Stromberg (a slightly underused Curd Jurgens) who lives inside this unnatural wonder of the seas. His dastardly plan? World domination? Something along those lines. Firing nuclear warheads and creating an underwater civilization is Stromberg's absurd idea (this could be a Lex Luthor plan). The bigger question in some of Moore's Bond efforts is why do men with more money than sense think that creating civilizations by blowing up countries is around the corner? If the guy had no money, would he have such a ridiculous plan? Leaving aside such thoughtful questions, Bond (Roger Moore) is ready to stop Stromberg and make peace and love with a Russian KGB agent named XXX (luscious Barbara Bach), who has a certain vendetta against a British Secret Service agent who killed her lover in the Alps. A slight narrative twist to the usual.
"The Spy Who Loved Me" has fantastic action scenes that merit countless viewings, especially the memorable ski chase that opens the film where Bond jumps off a mountain with a Union Jack parachute. There are also nifty car chases involving high-powered motorbikes and Bond's vehicle, a Lotus Esprit, that can change into a submarine! Some of the action in the Octopus finale is a little routine (none of it is as well-staged as similar scenes from "You Only Live Twice," both films directed by Lewis Gilbert) but we do get a few good fight scenes especially with the iconic large henchman Jaws (Richard Kiel) who comes equipped with razor sharp metal teeth. Speaking of Jaws, Bond fights him at least three times including a hair-raising train fight.
So for good old-fashioned action scenes and fistfights, buxom babes, and quick-witted one-liners courtesy of Moore's Bond, "Spy Who Loved Me" has it in spades. As for villains, other than Jaws and another thug with a wrestler's body (Milton Reid, a former wrestler), Jurgens is up to the task as Stromberg but there is barely enough of him. The revenge subplot doesn't quite deliver any payoff. Still, "Spy Who Loved Me" delivers Bond with enough flair and wit and general excitement to rate as solid escapist entertainment.
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