For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

Must See Movie...

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Roger Moore was 53 years old when he made this James Bond movie, and he would do two more yet. But his age was showing here. Not so much in his face, but in his overall slower movements. Indeed, the script has much less physical stuff than one is used to in the 007 series. "For Your Eyes Only" is a slower film all around. It doesn't have the frenzy of a car or boat chase, or other fast actions segments. The one car chase scene with Bond in a Citroen is more funny than nail-biting. The opening has a slightly harrowing scenario with a helicopter, and there is a chase on skis. It seems that the writers have dumbed Bond down a bit as well. By that I mean, Moore doesn't show the usual savvy alertness and watchfulness. An example is when Bond climbs the monolith that St. Cyril's Monastery caps. As he reaches the top he doesn't look around to see where the guards may be. Instead he's looking down and gets caught by surprise by a guard. Bond doesn't have any new gadgets to help him out of tough spots. In all of the earlier scenes with the bad guys, Bond gets beat or chased and he never gets the upper hand. Definitely not the normal routine of James Bond. This film must have had different playwrights. The dialog was rather droll at times and it was missing the peppy and frequent witty lines that one has come to expect in the Bond films.The rest of the cast are okay, but again, it's a slow film. The song for this episode in the series is particularly good, and it did receive an Academy Award nomination. The scenery in the Eastern Mediterranean especially is beautiful.

It is saddening to hear about Roger Moore's passing in recent weeks. Looking back at his work, regardless of how good or bad his James Bond films were, he really did put as much effort into the role as he could and developed his own personality for the role, filling it with a sense of humor. He was also one of the more British-looking actors to play Bond, which helped him physically seem the part.For Your Eyes Only, his fifth Bond film, has him investigating the disappearance of the ATAC system, which can control British submarines. Tagging alongside him is Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet), whose parents-both hired by the British government to find ATAC-are killed by hit-man Hector Gonzales. With the help of assassin Columbo (Topol), they find out that Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover) is planning to give the ATAC system to the Soviet Union to accomplish his own ends.Moore gives one of his best performances as Bond in the film, albeit with a more serious personality than usual. This was part of director John Glen's intention to go back to basics and make this film simpler after the ridiculousness of Moonraker. Bond's one-liners are kept to a minimum and he seems very emotionally aware of the conflicts surrounding the side characters, such as Melina, who wants revenge on Kristatos for hiring Gonzales to kill her parents. His aggressiveness is especially shown when he knocks a car with one of Kristatos' henchmen off a cliff.Bouquet is one of the most beautiful Bond girls in the franchise, but her character is nothing special, being one of the many Bond girls who wants revenge on somebody for a past sin. Glover, while pulling off a good performance, is uninteresting as a villain, as he only wants to get money from the ATAC, although this could have been an intentional choice to keep things grounded. Some of the action is exciting, like when Bond climbs the mountain to Kristatos' base, but some set pieces are reused from other Bond films, like the skiing, already used in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and the opening of The Spy Who Loved Me.Perhaps, however, the biggest flaw of this film, is how the book-ending scenes contradict the whole intention to be more serious. In the opening scene, Bond visits his wife's grave (see On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and is later trapped in a helicopter by Blofeld (not identified as such because of a legal battle with Kevin McClory over the rights to the Thunderball story), whom Bond later drops down a chimney. Blofeld speaks in a ridiculously-accented voice none of the previous incarnations had and when Bond scoops him up, he pleads for his life, stupidly offering to buy Bond a delicatessen. What could have been an emotional payback scene is reduced to bad comedy (Blofeld killed his wife). Also, at the end of the film, Bond and Melina are getting ready to skinny-dip, but they are interrupted by the Secret Service, and Bond somehow directs the line of communication to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who starts talking with Melina's parrot while Bond and Melina finally go on their swim. This is not as contradictory to the film's goal as On Her Majesty's Secret Service was to its goal to present a more emotional Bond story, but it can take a more serious-minded Bond fan out of the movie.For Your Eyes Only is most likely Roger Moore's second best Bond film after The Spy Who Loved Me. It has a one-dimensional villain, repeated set-pieces, and unneeded book-ending scenes, but in the end, there is more good than bad, mainly because of Moore's more serious performance. The newer action scenes help too. One last thing to mention: Lynn-Holly Johnson plays a skater girl who falls in love with Bond, despite the fact that she's still a teen and he's in his fifties (Moore hadn't exactly aged that much at this point). Creepy? Sure, but Bond does the right thing and doesn't sleep with her.

Compared to the other two Bond films that preceded FYEO there are significant improvements. The other two Bond films were not based on their original sources and the former a short story could of incorporated the other short Bond stories in to the central basis. They were also becoming cheesy and comical not fast action packed films as they could of been. This was the genre of the time and the works of Ian Fleming could also off been adapted to this cinema style. From his earlier experiences in cinema and television Moore was equally as capable off playing Bond as Connery was. FYEO is an attempted improvement in that it incorporates the central work of the Fleming novel as part of the main basis of the film. The characters are well cast and the classic Lotus Esprit gets an appearance in the film though in my view there could of been an exciting car chase with esprit in Italy rather then destroying it. The theme of the film is also a sincere attempt to keep it organic as opposed to the other Bond films played by Moore. Now the conspicuous faultsThough it makes good use of the novels the start of the scene should of been taken from the short story A View to a Kill about an assassin which Bond handles not the corny opening that it begins with Blomsfeld. The appearance of Thatcher ruined the serious and sincere intention of the film. The film should of been set exclusively in Italy with the lead character (Judy in the original) being Anglo-Italian The film works at a slow pace and is not fast or action packed that can keep viewers attention to a Bond film. The scene were Kristatos is pulling bond and Melina through the water is recycled from Live and Let Die making it slightly banal and the end scene just drags the viewer to the end. This should of been Sir Rogers last Bond film as he himself suggested after this one. He was noble, deserving and great but eventually the scripts were becoming banal. Octopussy and A View to a Kill were desperate attempts for reinvigorating but with hindsight after this one Timothy Dalton should of finalised James Bond with Casino Royale and the Living Daylights.

Definitely the best James Bond movie of J.B Mk. III - The Roger Moore Era - I think. Many Bond-fans I think applies with me, not every other one, of course.. I've read biographies from crew and cast - and other logs from the crossover between the 70's and the 80's - that the hubris and anticlimax that followed a movie called Moonraker caused some hang-over in the production team. There was, at the time, no plans of topping that expensive "space-flick". Get back to earth, bring back some of the good old-fashioned spy story.John Glen's debut in the director's seat (had been assistant/2nd unit for several times) was a terrific start to the 80's. The whole movie throughout is impregnated by a sense of re-start, and a "think things over"-feeling. Discussions of inviting Steven Spielberg to direct had been around, so was a thought of giving Timothy Dalton his debut as 007. Many rumors circulated at the time of giving this movie its blueprints.....OK, Roger Moore already showed some signs of ageing here, 53 years old. (Some age for a supposed to be fit and athletic MI6 agent.....) But, the character was already well worked in, the audience had learned to love the charming gentleman, who jumped in and out of hard trials. (With some hindsight, maybe this movie should have been an honorable farewell for Roger, a good-bye in flying colors, handing over the baton to, let's say Dalton.) But they played it safe for another while...The movie itself has aged well. Feels quite modern some 35 years later. Great stunts as the thrilling opening chopper scene, and the famous Citroën 2CV car chase. To complete the fresh and innovative theme song during the pre-credits, Maurice Binder cuts in performer for the first time, shown in figure. Female artist Sheena Easton completes her lovely voice with an appearance on screen, to the delight of the male audience. An airy, atmospheric tune with just the right touch for kicking off the 80's. The ATAC head story, and the "avenge the Havelock's"-story, matches each other well. Carole Bouquet's plays a strong, independent and sensitive woman. Not just being James Bond's amusement, as many of them in 007 past. I also think that the audience welcomed a more human villain, rather than a psychotic billionaire who's planning to destroy the world. Julian Glover performs well, and professionally cushioned.In my opinion, it's one of the very best compounded and successfully collected James Bond Movies. 9 out of 10.