Country: United States
Genre: Action/Comedy
Director: John Glen
Year: 1981
Rating: 
TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE
It’s hard to imagine, now that Daniel Craig has thoroughly redefined the image of James Bond as a hard-edged, nasty baddass, but back in the early 80s, the James Bond franchise had largely degenerated into self-satire, dominated by gadgets and increasingly silly bonmots. It didn’t help that Roger Moore’s take on Bond was so goofy.
Fortunately, For Your Eyes Only was a step in the right direction for the franchise, coming after possibly the silliest entry in the series, Moonraker.
Yes, For Your Eyes Only is light action adventure for the most part, but there is unexpected grit in a few sequences. The first is a chase between Bond, on foot and Emile Leopold Locque (a cold and hateful Michael Gothard), in a sports car.
In effect, Locque is driving through a parking garage (actually a castle) and Bond is running up the steps, huffing and puffing, trying to beat him to the exit. For once, there’s something at stake: Locque has murdered a woman Bond has slept with purely out of meanness and Bond wants revenge.
Another notable sequence involves Bond climbing up a steep cliff to a mountain fortress. A henchman has discovered Bond and is busily prying out the pitons that are securing Bond’s rope to the mountain. Every time he pries one out, Bond falls 50 feet or so and has more weight hanging on fewer pitons. It’s a suspenseful race against time. Will Bond manage to scale the cliff before the henchman yanks out the last piton? Director John Glen does an excellent job wringing the maximum amount of suspense from the sequence.
And to be fair, even the most routine of the stunt sequences we’re used to from the Bond series are fun. And some of the jokes are pretty good. I liked the parrot and Margaret Thatcher. If you aren’t too put off by the wretched acting of Bond’s love interest (Melina Havelock), For Your Eyes Only is modestly entertaining.
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This entry was posted on Friday, December 25th, 2009 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Action, Comedy, Movie Reviews, Recommended, United States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
“For Your Eyes Only” Undeniably one of Roger Moore’s best outings as 007.