Double O Countdown: Moonraker

This is a tough one, there are easily seven things I hate about this movie, I'm not sure there are seven things that I like. Let's see what I can come up with.

The summer that "The Spy Who Loved Me" opened was the same summer as "Star Wars". EON Pictures saw the writing on the wall and they scratched "For Your Eyes Only" and rushed in a title that had "space" all over it. I think in rushing, they skimped on story and basically replicated the same plot as the last film, with space as a substitute for under the sea.

001 Shark Tank, Piranha Tank, Shark Tank, Snake Tank 

Creative juices start to dry up and the Shark Tank that was featured in "Thunderball" and "Live and Let Die" and "The Spy Who Loved Me", plus the Piranha Tank in "You Only Live Twice", are simply updated with an Anaconda tank to fit the South American Setting. He is smart enough not to cross the pond on the bridge, but surprise!! the path tips over and drops him in anyway.

 All the beautiful women must have distracted him

Fortunately James has snake vaccine.








Unfortunately, Jaws is waiting for him, despite being dropped off a waterfall.

002 It's no ejector seat but it will do in a pinch.

A boat chase through the Amazon and James manages to blow up some pursuers with relative ease.

 There are more boats however and after taking out a couple more, he runs out of river and into a waterfall. There is not much else to do but abandon ship in a hang glider conveniently provided in the top of his boat by Q branch.

 It's a great way to see the jungle and accidentally discover the secret rocket base hidden in the forest.

003  Dr. Goodhead takes Bond for a ride.

All space centers have a centrifuge right? How could James turn down the opportunity to test it out, he'd look like a wimp in front of the CIA.

Fortunately, as Roger Moore is getting on in years, this device provides him with a little facelift.

004  Rio From Above

A chance to see "Christ the Redeemer" gives Bond and Dr. Goodhead a chance to ride a cable car above the city.

Of course they are not the only tourists sightseeing that afternoon.

Realizing he does not have a return ticket, Jaws decides to join James and Holly on the ride down.

Next time don't settle for the economy tour.

005 Set Design to the Rescue

There are some clunky effects shots in the space battle, but the location is aces, with an imaginative design and practicality to much of what is shown.

Sections of the Space Station are connected with interior tubes that allow movement without having to rely on gravity boots on the floor of the station.

Fascist crazy billionaires get a chance to speak to the troops in an elegant landing that floats above them.

Plenty of parking is available for residents and visitors.

006 Hijacking the Moonraker

We had actually seen the space shuttle being transported on the back of a 747 at this point, so the opening shot fits in with contemporary visuals.

What happens next is not exactly the way it is planned by NASA.

Wait, can it do that? It doesn't matter, it's a cool idea to steal a space ship when you are one short.

007  Parachutes, I don't need no stinking parachute.

The best stunt in the movie is the opening escape by Bond from being thrown out of a plane without a parachute. Several years before "Point Break" James Bond had already figured out the answer.

When Jaws tosses Bond overboard, you wonder what will happen, and then you remember the guy who went out before James did.

James maneuvers himself into position and then,

Steals himself a parachute from the other guy.

So a great stunt right? Hell, it gets better when Jaws comes after him, but when they turn the music on for Jaws landing on earth, the circus starts. They blew their wad in the opening and then stepped on the action with a comic musical joke.  And they do it for two more hours. Fortunately, James Bond returns to Earth in the next adventure.








James Bond will Return in "For Your Eyes Only"

Double O Countdown: The Spy Who Loved Me

"The Spy Who Loved Me" is Roger Moore's best work as James Bond. The series had some humor still but did not go off the deep end until the next picture. It reworks the concept of "You Only Live Twice" pitting the Soviets and Americans against each other, this time to destroy the world so that the undersea empire of Stromberg will survive. Three nuclear submarines end up in a supertanker that was the largest sound-stage of any movie studio ever.

001 Submarines Fight World War Three inside a tanker.

002 The Pyramids Night Time Lighting Ceremony

I have no idea if this is a real thing or not, but it ought to be. Bond follows XXX to meet the mysterious seller of the tracking technology they are both after. They are not alone however, as the killer Jaws is also after the seller for a different purpose. All this takes place while the narrator of a cool light show at the pyramids keeps talking. This is the only time I ever thought about visiting Egypt.

003 Jaws

A hired killer who stands over seven feet and has steel teeth that he uses to bite the carotid artery in his victims neck. Richard Kiel played the part in two Bond films, and despite the obvious rip-off of the name from a familiar film from a couple of summers earlier, he became iconic in his own right.

Taking a bite from his namesake

His hand is as big as Bonds head. That's pretty intimidating.

004  Speaking of Submarines

After the ejection seat of "Goldfinger" you might wonder what the Q branch would come up with for 007 to drive on assignment. Well, they out do themselves here, a high speed Lostus that doubles as a submersible,

A cool car and helicopter chase, ends with a plunge into the Corsican sea.

 Caroline Munro, B movie Queen of the era, captains the helicopter.

005 Carly Simon sings the theme song. 

This tune was all over the radio in the late seventies. Some people  (Fogs) even think it is the best Bond theme. It has a polish that makes the movie feel sophisticated even when it is occasionally silly.

006 My Favorite Moment From Roger Moore as 007

Most people think of Roger Moore's James Bond as an avuncular,  dandy who never got his nails dirty. Here is a sequence in which Moore explodes that myth. After a fight in the rooftop of an Egyptian apartment, Jaws partner, Sandor, teeters on the brink of death, grasping Bond's tie to keep from toppling over.

 Bond questions him about the location of the arms merchant who has the submarine tracking tool for sale. As soon as he gets his answer, Bond flicks his tie.

 Down goes the bad guy, another casualty of the spy game.

Than 007 casually straightens out his tie to look good for the rest of the afternoon. Cold, James, really cold.

007 The Pre-Title Sequence

Almost everyone will agree, this was a spectacular stunt. The unfurling of the Union Jack got a standing ovation at the Royal Premier of the film attended by Prince Charles. I'll stand up for our allies here as well. For Queen and Country James.






James Bond Will Return in: "Moonraker"

Double O Countdown: The Man With The Golden Gun

The Man with the Golden Gun is one of the lesser Bonds in my opinion, put it does have some points to recommend it and I have to admit that each time I see it, it grows on me.

001 The Kung Fu Kick gets a 007 Twist

The early Seventies were filled with Blaxpoitation and Kung Fu Movies. Since the year before, Bond had indulged in the urban drama of the gritty streets, it seems logical that Bruce Lee will not have died in vain. His legacy provides Bond wit an opportunity to don a gi and get his karate freak on. Of course in the end, the twist is that the two teen girls are the real Bruce Lees of the film.

002 The Cartoon Funhouse Shooting Gallery

At the beginning of the film, a mob assassin shows up to do in Scaramanga, but he is deposited in a strange "dark ride" environment. It makes little sense but it is visually fun and it sets up the duel between Bond and Scaramanga at the end of the film.

003 The Secret Lair

The movie has some spectacular locations, none more beautiful than the island lair of Scaramanga, supposedly located just inside Chinese territory to give him cover.

The lush background for the duel between the titans of death is also the location of a solar energy plant. And it's not located in the California dessert just before the Nevada border.

004 A Penny Slide Whistle Ruins a Great Stunt

As complicated and dangerous as the alligator gag in the previous movie, but requiring more physics and math than most of us will ever do. AMC cars, a sponsor of the film (based on the make of most of the vehicles in Thailand) gets it's money's worth with an incredible 360 degree spin of a car jump. It looks great but as it happens, someone made the mistake of choosing to make it a comedy moment and they add a slide whistle sound effect to the film. It spoils the moment but not the achievement.

005 The Sun Never Sets on England (or at least English Territory)

Great Britain still controlled Hong Kong in 1974 , and in the harbor, a shipwrecked "Queen Elizabeth", the companion luxury liner to the "Queen Mary", lies on it's side,a burnt out hull, or does it. MI6 apparently can't afford the rents in Hong Kong anymore than the rest of the world, so some great set design is used to take a piece of contemporary history and turn it into a James Bond moment.

006  Francisco Scaramanga AKA Christopher Lee

With his skyscraper frame and intense eyes, he makes a perfect Bond Villain. The late Christopher Lee loos terrific in the white suits and sea island shirts that he wears in this film. He feels like he is indeed a match for James Bond.

An assassin who gets a million dollars a contract, Scaramanga also manages a business stealing technology and using it to blackmail the rest of the world. His secret weapon, well let's just say we will be discussing this in a moment.





When he acquires the solex that turns his solar panels into energy, he also manages to turn that energy into a weapon. The golden rays of the sun become a metaphorical golden gun that he uses against
Bond's plane.

007 The Golden Gun

My most coveted piece of Bond memorabilia. I'd love to get one of these reproductions of the clever Golden Gun that the villain uses to dispatch the objects of his contracts.

  A cigarette case, a lighter, a fountain pen and a cuff link, come together to create a deadly toy.

Just the Christmas present that anyone would be happy to recieve, hint hint, nudge, nudge.

James Bond will Return in: 

"The Spy Who Loved Me"

All Things Must Pass

Sunday night, we seized the opportunity to have one last go at this documentary about the rise and fall of Tower records, with a Q and A session with Director Colin Hanks and Executive Producer Glen Zipper. It was a last minute add after two nights of previous screenings that we were not able to make it to. I can happily say I am really glad to have made it to the film, it was a fascinating look into the history of one of the great retail stores that catered to music lovers around the world. The movie examines not only the impact that Tower had on the culture of music but it also provides a unique example of history, a detailed look at an  American business in the second half of the Twentieth Century.

Russ Solomon is the founder of Tower Records and an out-sized personality that took to the music business after selling used records from the jukebox in his father's drugstore. The film follows his story as he builds a business, expands it almost accidentally and creates a unique business culture that empowered the managers of the stores he owned to imbue them with their own personality. Hanks started the process of putting this film together more than seven years ago, and he was able to get many hours of interviews with his subjects over that time. As with ever film, the story evolves from the material that gets developed and the editor hones it into a narrative that makes some sense. This turned into a look at the "family" that was created by the Tower records approach. Ultimately that family has to go through a pretty harsh crisis and when it gets to that point, we have been surprisingly brought into the fold to share it with them.

In the Q & A, Hanks explained that everyone had stories about their experiences with Tower. One of the questions from the audience concerned a specific location. As the director put it, "Those stories are better told over a beer in a bar than they are on screen." The one really great exception occurs when the story is told by one of the biggest rock stars of the last forty years. Elton John is interviewed and through a quirk of fate, there is even film of him going over his lists of music as he shops at Tower on Sunset Blvd. Personally, I always liked going to Tower wherever I happened to be. In 1977, we were at a Debate Tournament in Sacramento and we went shopping at Tower one night while we were there. I picked up an 8-track of the Bee Gees Mr. Natural at the home store for the chain. Most of my later Tower experiences were with the stores in Buena Park, Brea, and Hollywood.

There is a good mix of personalities from the company to tell the story. They all seemed to love the company although they did not always seem to like each other. The fall of the company may have been casually blamed on Napster, I seem to remember Justin Timberlake making a snide comment as the character of Sean Parker in "The Social Network", crowing over the corpse of Tower, but in this movie, the collapse was shown to be a lot more complicated. On-line music has not killed the sold off Tower Stores in Japan, so there might still have been a place for the company, if they had not been so heavily leveraged and the economy had not tanked.  Technology has changed the marketplace, but there is still a large segment of the population who love physical media (like me) and wish we had a paradise to indulge in browsing, handling, sharing and dreaming in real time rather than the virtual world.

My friend Michael, met us at the theater and he is a big music guy. In addition to being a former projectionist, he is an aficionado of analog vinyl  music. He seemed to really appreciate the movie as well. It is a great opportunity to see some old clips of Los Angeles and San Fransisco as well as to bend another persons ear about the good old days of record stores. Licorice Pizza, Music Plus, The Wherehouse are all gone, but none of them are recalled with the fondness that people have for Tower records. If you have any interest in the story, this is a film to check out.

We took an extra few minutes to cruise down from the Archlight and visit the old Sunset site. Hanks had been on the Mark in the Morning show the Wednesday before the weekend, promoting the film, and he had mentioned that they had restored some of the look of the old building for an opening party that they had. It probably won't stay that way forever, but if your nostalgia itch gets to be strong enough, take a trip down the blvd. and let your heart jump in hope that the past eight years has all been a nightmare and we can now stop in and find out what's new in the music world.