We’ve taken a short break after the painful Moonraker in order to regroup and continue on our Bond bonanza.

Bond enters the 80s with For Your Eyes Only and the producers felt the need to shake things up a bit. Second unit director John Glen is brought in to helm the whole project, his intention being to dial back the wackiness and try to revive some of the more successful aspects of the older films.

The pre-title sequence shows that this isn’t going to happen straight away. Bond winds up in a helicopter remote-controlled by a bald person with a white cat. Stuff happens, the whole thing ends with Bond dumping [Blofeld] the man into a chimney. It’s a childish ‘fuck you’ from the producers, angered at the licensing issues banning them from using Blofeld and SPECTRE in their films.

Once things get going though the new tone does start to come through. A British spy ship containing nuclear decryption codes sinks, and the man sent to investigate is assassinated. Bond needs to find out what happened and recover the information.

Yes, Bond is sort of saving the world but this is definitely more of a Cold War style thriller. It’s a bit more grown up, harking back to films like From Russia With Love where Bond does what you might actually call spying instead of just cocking about.

Bernard Lee died before his scenes as ‘M’ could be shot, so this is sadly the first film where he is not present. His performances were consistently good and often provided much needed relief from some otherwise awful productions.

Roger Moore comes back for the fifth time and despite looking a little older these days he’s still got the charm and wit we’ve come to enjoy.

The stand out role for me is Topol, who plays the pistachio-chewing bad-guy-ally Milos Columbo. He lends a personable air to the role, larger than life but realistic.

Julian Glover is also well cast as the smooth smuggler Aristotle Kristatos.

There’s a revenge plot running through the film. Leading lady Carole Bouquet is supposed to be out to get her father’s killer, and Bond is trying to stop her from doing so prematurely. This feels like a neglected story line; we get glimpses of Bouquet’s character looking mean, nothing more.

She makes the most of the screen time she gets though, providing some depth to the film where others would have failed.

Unfortunately, For Your Eyes Only tries too hard to mix the spectacular sequences of yore with a gritty spy-thriller. What results is a convoluted story, a very confusing tone and ultimately a forgettable film. At least they finally did away with the wild shootout at the end…

A good entry into the catalogue, but unlikely one that makes many top ten lists.

http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/07/04/foryoureyesonly/

Bibi vs. Melina

Agent 007 (Roger Moore) seeks to apprehend a lost British encryption device in order to prevent the Soviets from acquiring it as events switch from the Ionian Sea to a villa in Spain to wintery actions in Northern Italy to a Greek Island to Albania to an abandoned mountaintop monastery (Meteora, Greece).

Whilst “For Your Eyes Only” (1981) tones down the excesses of the previous film “Moonraker” (1979), it still contains the requisite Bond staples & absurdities and is another strong installment in Moore’s 7-film stint (1973-1985). There are high society pool parties, mountainside car chases, ski thrills, ice skating, underwater intrigue and an exciting cliff-climbing close.

Of course, there are the usual beautiful women, this time headed by grief-stricken brunette Melina (Carole Bouquet) with bubbly teen figure skater Bibi (Lynn-Holly Johnson) in second. Although some find winsome Lynn-Holly annoying as curvy Bibi, she’s a highlight of the film and one of the best ‘Bond girls’ in the franchise IMHO. Plus her naïve, spirited disposition works as a necessary counterpoint to Melina’s comatose solemnity. James’ line to Bibi is priceless: “Well, you get your clothes on and I'll buy you an ice cream.” Johnson, incidentally was 21-22 during shooting while her character was around 16-17.

The film runs 2 hours, 7 minutes.

GRADE: A-

This and the Spy Who Loved me were Roger Moore's top 2 of his own Bond films... and I can see that.

It's not as over-the-top as Moonraker (which is one of the worst Bond movies ever made), it's not as silly as some of his other outings, although, if you are a Moore fan that hasn't seen this yet, fear not, it still has the Silly Bond moments that are his trope.

It's actually just... solid. For Your Eyes Only is the Roger Moore film that could have been a solid, stand alone movie, removed from the 007 franchise, that still stood up on it's own.

It's a bit darker than the others, it's a bit more realistic, it's a bit more story driven... and yet it maintains the Moore Era silliness that people come to expect out of his films, but with an actual story feel to it.

The Spy Who Loved Me is Moore's magnum opus in the 007 franchise, but For Your Eyes Only comes pretty close to dethroning it.

Even as an unapologetic Connery Bond fan, this is one of the best in the franchise.

This is an epic Bond film.
007 is sent to beat Russia to find an important device that sank in the ocean. It's important to the security of the British people.
There is non stop action, beautiful women, beautiful scenery, exotic locales, wit, gadgets, everything that makes Bond movies special and entertaining.
Over the top? Well, all Bond movies are over the top, which is why the ones that pretend not to be over the top look sillier than the ones that don't make the pretense.
In Carole Boquet as Melina, we have the most beautiful of all the Bond females, with perhaps the exception of Bach in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Melina also helps to make this as great a movie as it is. I rate it as the second best 007 film ever made, just behind "The Spy Who Loved Me".
And that's great company.

A British spy trawler is sunk in the Aegean Sea. Oceanographer Jack Hedley ("Havelock") is tasked with trying to find the ship before a vital piece of tracking hardware falls into enemy hands. Things don't go to plan though, and once the wreck has been located a brutal murder ensues and Roger Moore ("007"), aided by the daughter of the murdered scientist (Carole Bouquet), has to try and track down the stolen kit before it falls into the hands of the Soviets. The adventure elements of this are pretty good as are the gadgets, but the casting isn't up to much. Aside from the star, there is little skill on offer as Topol, an oddly cast Julian Glover as baddie "Kristatos" and the thoroughly peevish ice-skating protegé Lynn-Holly Johnson ("Bibi") all struggle to keep this sluggish plot rumbling along until a really rather half-baked ending. It's got some fine cinematography of Greece and the set-piece action scenes work well enough, but I'm afraid this outing for "Mr. Bond" is not one of his better ones in my book.