Double O Countdown: A View to a Kill

Two out of three of the Roger Moore Bond films are on the bottom of my list of 007 cinematic adventures. I sometimes can't decide which is the more ridiculous, this film or "Moonraker". It doesn't matter much because it is still a James Bond film and we love even the ugliest of our kids. There are some things to like about this film, even though it was a sad end to the Roger Moore era.

001  Guest Star Patrick McNee.

James Bond films had a lot of impact on the 1960s pop culture. Spy shows were everywhere once the 007 films took off. One of the most inventive was the English show "The Avengers". Original female co star Honor Blackman appeared in "Goldfinger", even more prominent co-star Diana Rigg was Mrs. Bond for a brief amount of time. Eventually, John Steed joined them as a co-star in a Bond film.

 Patrick McNee died earlier this year and I went to a screening of the Howling that was part of a tribute to him at the American Cinematique.

002  A Jump Off the Eiffel Tower

The villain Mayday kills an informant and is chased by Bond up the Eiffel Tower. She uses the same technique he did to escape from the Soviets in the opening of "The Spy Who Loved Me".

The stunt was authorized, but some of the crew who missed an opportunity to particpate did an unauthorized jump later that day and got fired from the show.

003  James Bond invents Snowboarding

The film starts with an unrelated adventure at the North Pole. Bond has to escape on skies but loses them in the long pursuit. I've already said I'm a sucker for these snow scenes, this one takes a twist. After stealing a snowmobile and crashing it, Bond takes one of the runners and finds a new way to move across the frozen stuff. It was the first time most people saw a snowboard in use.

At one point, James gets some sick air.

004  Fisticuffs on the Golden Gate

The film features villain Max Zorin's dirigible headquarters.  In a scene stolen from "Goldfinger" one of the potential partners backs out of participating. He is dropped in the drink rather than given a drink as promised.

The high flying villain seems to have the upper-ground in any combat. When his plans falter he grabs the girl and Bond follows. The climax of the film is a fight on the Golden gate Bridge. Several actual locations were used to get a pretty impressive high altitude fight sequence.

005 Christopher Walken as Max Zorin, Product of Nazi genetic research.

Sometimes I think Walken was a failure as a Bond villain. He had no great lines and sometimes the plot called for capricious behavior. That's not his fault though, and when he flashes that creepy smile of his or displays his light on the feet dancing movements, he seems to be cast just right.

Big plans call for big gestures, and Walken is the ham who can deliver.

Max Zorin's retirement plan for his men is not one that they will appreciate.

Light on his feet, Fat Boy Slim's weapon of choice has him dancing into the fire with an axe on the Golden Gate Bridge.

When things don't go as planned, make sure you exaggerate your weird facial expressions, that's why they hired you instead of Rutger Hauer.

006 Mayday

Grace Jones could not act to save her life, but she had a fierce persona and a lean, muscular look that was just right for the mid 1980s. The tag line in the promotional material asked:

"Has 007 met his match? "

Mayday is Oddjob to Zorin's Goldfinger. A killing machine to be feared.

The Russians learn how dangerous she is before our hero does.

007  Once again the title song comes to the rescue.

The only  Bond song to reach Number one  in the U.S.

James Bond will Return in:

 "The Living Daylights".

Double O Countdown: Octopussy

I have a fondness for this film that is out of proportion to it's qualities. That fondness may stem from the circus theme, the Cold War plot, or maybe it is the Indian setting that dominates the movie. Anyway, this was the last good Roger Moore 007 outing. It went head to head with the Sean Connery starring "Never Say Never Again" rogue film in 1983, and it was the box office champ in that showdown. I like the posters for the movie as well. If you are interested in a post I did on the film for a blogathon last year, just click here. 

 001 The Clown Prince of James Bond Actors

Roger Moore just seems like a good sport to me. He was willing to make the movie the director and producers wanted, and he did not mind taking one for the team. As proof I offer the following.

Can you imagine Daniel Craig letting this happen to him?

Another 00 gets tracked down and killed early in the movie, trying to escape dressed as a clown. He manages to deliver the MacGuffin of the film, a Faberge Egg.

Late in the film, 007 needs to also blend into thecircus background he finds himself in, and lo and behold, he is done up the way the other agent was. Holy bookends! Well anyway it works for the story and the image of Bond saving the day from nuclear destruction as a clown probably fits most critics views of James Bond to begin with.

I give them credit for chutzpah anyway.

002 The Flying Guillotine

The only place I'd ever heard of a weapon like this was in some crazy Kung Fu movies from the 1970s. It may not make much sense but it is a lot of fun.

003 The Pre-Title Mini Jet

The opening of the film is an entirely self contained story that has nothing to do with the main plot. Bond is up to some spy business in Cuba and has to escape. Fortunately, he has a RV that he is towing which is perfect for the moment.

In one side of the building.

Out the other side.






 And after blowing up the secret military operation and escaping, you discover you need fuel, no problem.

004 Kalashnikov on the Stairs

Many cool moments in Bond films are fleeting and feature James shooting a weapon in an unusual way. Like the shot of 007 sliding on his belly with a machine gun from "OHMSS", this is just one of those fun moments. They also get in a Bond style joke . 

To outfox the thugs on the first floor, Bond descends the stairway in an unconventional manner, with his gun blazing.

All is well until he notices the stop at the bottom of the stairs. 

Its OK though, that's the advantage of having a machine gun. 

 He just shoots it and it breaks off when he gets there. Smooth James, not enough ooos in smooth. 

 

005 James Bond loves to get it on on a train. 

Bond is notorious for traveling by train, which makes some of his fights more interesting because of the close quarters. In this film, the close quarters are replaced by a open sky. 

 He gets smuggles himself aboard the circus train and confronts the deadly acrobat knife throwing team that killed his 00 predecessor on this assignment.

 The struggle finally ends up on the roof of the train as it travels through East Germany.

It is one of the better action sequences in the Roger Moore films.

006 The Plane Fight

Not content to have mixed it up with secondary characters on a train, he ends up having a great fight on the outside of a plane when it is in the air. Again, this was terrific stuntwork.

The blue screen work matches up pretty well with the actual stunt.

 

007  I love the Cold War plot.

The movie was released in 1983. The Soviet Union was in a strong strategic position with conventional weapons in Eastern Europe. American policy moved to deploy theater nuclear weapons to balance out the  advantage the Soviets had. That move was controversial and was one of the factors behind the Nuclear Freeze movement of the time. This film plays off of real geopolitics of the moment. A rogue Russian General, is planninbg to detonate a nuclear device on a NATO base, which will be blamed on the U.S, resulting in a withdrawl of nukes from the theater and giving the Soviets an opportunity to invade. 

The general cannot convince his superiors so he finances his plot with loot stolen from pre-revolutionary art collections

The smuggler "Octopussy" thinks she is moving contraband jewels, but she has been fooled by a switch to a device hidden in the cannon of the human canonball in her circus, scheduled to visit a NATO base. 

 No honor among thieves.

James Bond will Return in "A View to a Kill"

Double O Countdown: For Your Eyes Only

I really liked that this movie brought James Bond back to Earth. The story is more basic, with a MacGuffan that everybody wants. The bad guys are not megalomaniac bizillionaires trying to destroy the whole planet, they are just evil spies, willing to sell out their friends for money. I also like that the film has a revenge theme that it took from the collection of short stories that this title came from. There are a couple of things that hurt it a bit, what the hell is Lynn-Holly Johnson doing in the story, and we could do without the Margaret Thatcher parody at the end. Also, the Chief of Staff Bill Tanner was Bond's friend in the books, here he is an insufferable snob with delusions of replacing M, it may be my least favorite character in all the Bond films. Let's not dwell on the bad however, instead, enjoy the seven best things in the film.

001 Farewell to Blofeld

Bond is interrupted in a moment of reverie at the grave of his lost bride. It is one of the few times that plot point ever comes up in the series.

 A helicopter has been dispatched to bring him back to headquarters, but low and behold, a familiar bald headed, cat stroking figure in a wheelchair seems to have taken remote control over the copter.

Because SPECTRE and Blofeld are part of the ongoing litigation with another producer, the character is never identified, but every Bond fan knows who it is supposed to be. The scene did play a bit with a comic touch but the result is a lot more satisfying than leaving the character hanging in a bathysphere while an oil rig blows up around him. Naturally 007 regains control of the copter and then turns the tables on his old adversary.

This is the sort of nasty exit we want for Earnst Stavro Blofeld. Dropped by Bond down a hole from which there will be no escape. Even hearing him plead comically with Bond doesn't take away from the fact that Tracy's killer has finally met his doom.

002 Castle in the Sky

After storming a space station and an underwater city in his previous adventures. Bond has to follow his enemy to a monastery on a rock that is basically a fortress in the clouds. Before Tom Cruise di all his climbing stunts in the Mission Impossible Series, James Bond was a mountain climber ahead of his time.

003 Another Shark Death Planned for 007

One more time, sharks are supposed to be the end of James Bond. This death is actually planned for Bond and Solitaire in the novel "Live and Let Die" but gets transposed to this adventure in the Aegean rather than the Caribbean.

Captured and tied up with Melina, a great Bond girl who can take care of herself.







They get yanked off of their boat and dragged across a corral reef, to bring blood and sharks

 

Of course they foil the plan and a nameless henchmen gets eaten instead.

004  Back to the Slopes.

For a guy who does not like the snow, I'm a sucker for ski sequences, and this one is pretty good, featuring a ski jumping hill and biathlon and motorcycles.

Bond lucks out as he is forced to ski down a giant slide, where at the bottom, the villainous Eric Krieger, East German Biathlon champion is waiting to shoot him. Another henchman ends up chasing Bond on the slope and Krieger does not know which figure to shoot.

 Bond flees down a cross country style slope, avoiding the killers by twisting and turning in mid air.

More henchmen on motorcycles equipped with spiked tires pursue him through the woods.

A cleverly placed ski pole managed to dismount a pursing cyclist.

And frustrated man mountain Krieger flings his motorcycle ineffectively at the escaping 007.

005 The Traditional double cross switch of allies.

Bond has believed that intelligence informer Kristatos is his ally. He has told Bond that the likely killer of his station head is a smuggler known as "the dove" who is actually a former war partisan and partner of Kristatos called Columbo.

 

In a plot point right from one of the Fleming stories, this whole tale was told at dinner and the center-pieces on the table contain a tape recorder that allows Columbo to here Bond agree to kill him. Imagine our surprise when it turns out that Columbo is the real patriot and Kristatos has been describing his own criminal actions as those of his former friend. 

The delightful Topal, the star of "Fiddler on the Roof" plays Bonds new ally. Together, they take down a heroin storage warehouse in a solid action scene.

006 Sheena Easton

The Scottish chanteuse sings the title song and is the only artist to sing a title song whose image appears in the credit sequence. It's a music video just as MTV was getting started. It also serves as commercial for the film.

 

007 Once more Roger Moore gets a shot at being a Badass. 

The killer Locque, who Bond and Melina have pursued, is at the warehouse when Bond and Columbo make their move. He escapes in a car that travels up a steep set of switchbacks on a hill. Bond id determined to get to him and runs flat out up a series of staircases that are a more direct line to the top of the hill.

At the top, in a tunnel that the car must go through, Bond stops and takes aim.

Locque is shot in the shoulder, loses control of the car and it veers to the edge of a cliff.

Bond confronts the killer and delivers a message, returning the dove pin that Locque left on the body of Bond's colleague.

And then, like he did in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and in "Dr. No", Bond shows that he can be a cold blooded bastard, and the film is better for it. He kicks the car an that is the end of Lpcque.

James Bond will Return in "Octopussy".