James Bond - For Your Eyes Only

5 February 2015

For Your Eyes Only

• Director:  John Glen
• Based on the novels  by Ian Fleming
• Cast: Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Topol, Lynn-Holly Johnson, Julian Glover, Cassandra Harris, Michael Gothard, Charles Dance, Paul Brooke, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Roger Moore  – The Saint
• Topol – Fiddler on the Roof
• Julian Glover – Merlin, Ivanhoe, Star Wars V the Empire Strikes Back, The Avengers, The Girl with the Green Eyes, Tom Jones
• Michael Gothard – The Devils
• Charles Dance – Merlin, Black and White, Gosford Park, Hilary and Jackie, Michael Collins, Undertow, Alien 3
• Paul Brooke – Hustle, Phantom of the Opera, Alfie, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Saving Grace, Joan of Arc, Mr. Bean, A Dry White Season, Black Adder, All’s Well that Ends Well, Daniel Deronda
• Why? Curious. Hal and I saw several Bond films in a Bond festival in the early 70’s and enjoyed them. Sean Connery is the only Bond we have ever seen.  Friends have said later actors have been good too. And with Judi Dench they can’t be all bad.  So we bought the box...
• Seen:  January 30, 2015  

It has to be better than last week’s Moonraker. Right?

Wow. Double-Oh-Seven actually visits his wife’s grave! And the white cat is back! The film has already earned a couple of points. Another one for spearing the villain’s wheelchair and dropping him from the helicopter into the industrial chimney.  And we actually get to see the singer. Sheena Easton, no less. It’s not a very good song, though.

That was the first five or ten minutes. The rest is boring. The chases and gunfights are endless. The cliff climbing in spectacular Greek mountains is quite exciting for the first five or six hours (I exaggerate slightly) but it goes on forever like everything in the JB films. What they need is a good editor to cut about an hour from each film.

But what’s this? A parody of Margaret Thatcher at the end!?! Good one!

That brings it all the way up to

2* of 5