Of all the Moore Bonds, "For Your Eyes Only" is one of the few James Bond flicks that starts with a bang, has a slipshod quality about it for almost the first half, and then builds rather impressively into a decent action flick. There is still some rampant silliness, as you would expect from a Roger Moore Bond film, but nothing as insanely over-the-top as "Moonraker," the previous installment that was more self-parody than anything else. "For Your Eyes Only" has a level of down-to-earth dynamics with our dapper Bond engaging in a few fistfights, a car chase with a diminutive vehicle that keeps belly flopping, and more. No gadgets this time, and no pigeons doing double takes.
A British ship at sea, the St. Georges, is firebombed. It is carrying a weapons system called the ATAC (Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator) and the Soviets want to grab hold of it. Not if superspy James Bond (Roger Moore) can help it, and certainly not if a couple of Greek businessmen can help it who presumably have ties to the Soviets. There is also Melina (a serenely beautiful Carole Bouquet) who witnessed the murder of her parents, one of whom was a marine archaeologist who was commissioned with finding the ship. Melina wants revenge and is handy with a crossbow. She runs into Bond and becomes smitten with him and his dry sense of humor. You know where this is going.
The most regaling moments center on a pistachio-loving Greek smuggler named Columbo (Chaim Topol), an enemy of the villain du jour Kristatos (Julian Glover), who makes it clear he is Bond's ally and they drink a toast to it. Topol energizes the scenes he's in and thankfully he appears continuously through the eye-filling finale at a monastery on a mountain. The mountain scenes are especially suspenseful as Bond tries to scale the treacherous cliffs and has each of his suspensions ropes untied by a henchman.
My issues with "For Your Eyes Only" rely on the villain Kristatos who doesn't seem like much of a menace and has no real memorable moments. Then there's Kristatos' protegee, ice skater Bibi Dahl (a definitely perky Lynn-Holly Johnson) with Olympics aspirations, who falls for Bond yet our superspy doesn't have the slightest interest. Bibi's character is cringe-inducing and simply marking time. On top of that, we get yet another silly ski chase (Moore's Bond did it again in "A View to a Kill") and the aforementioned car chase in the narrow streets of a town in Spain that leaves a lot to be desired.
Still, the movie does improve and has much to offer for Bond completists. A deadly coral reef trap is fairly nerve-wracking. I also admired the opening pre-credit sequence with Bond in a remote-controlled helicopter operated by someone who looks suspiciously like Blofeld. Roger Moore maintains that twinkle in his eye throughout and a little bit of grit to keep us interested.
No comments:
Post a Comment