For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I don't know why, but Roger Moore's 'For Your Eyes Only' never really gets mentioned in 'Bond circles.' It's as if it never really happened and was just some sort of way of killing time in between his (usually agreed as the best) 'Spy Who Loved Me' and his slightly less serious and slightly less capable 'Octopussy/View to a Kill.' Perhaps it was because it never seemed to be on TV during the time when people actually watched terrestrial TV in the eighties and nineties. However, just because it's not up there with the best (or down there with Bond swinging through the jungle making Tarzan noises!), doesn't mean that it's not pretty good fun.Maybe this is Roger Moore's 'comfort period' where he was certain that he'd laid Connery's ghost to rest and made the role his own enough to just simply cruise. The story is nothing new (certainly not be today's standards, but perhaps it was slightly more original at the time); it revolves around the Russians trying to get their hands on an important piece of British tech and Bond having to get there first before an unscrupulous third party sells it to our Soviet foes. And, as is customary, there are plenty of beautiful women along the way, wonderfully-exotic scenery courtesy of the Greek islands and underwater diving moments and all manner of car chases and punch-ups (plus a chase scene on skis which – although well-choreographed – does come across as a little over-the-top and cartoony!).It's a pretty standard affair, but good with it. Special mention to some moments like Roger Moore's Bond exhibiting possibly his 'darkest' moment when he kills a henchman out of revenge. But then that sort of this is counter-balanced by the humorous moments when a young (and by 'young' I'm guessing she's roughly eighteen years old) constantly comes on to Bond, scaring him more than Jaws and Oddjob ever could! Plus the Bond girl Melina Havelock, played by Carole Bouquet, does possibly save Bond's backside more than any other girl before him, showing how far the representation of women in Bond films has come since Ursula Andress came out of the water in 'Dr No.' No one has used a crossbow more fiercely until 'The Walking Dead's' Daryl Dixon! Overall, if you're in any way a fan of Moore's why interpretation of the superspy, you really should settle down for this one. It may not be the best, but it certainly isn't the worst and the rock-climbing scene/fight near the end really is pretty tense. I just wonder what the (then) Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher thought about her 'cameo' in the film?

For the twelfth installment of the James Bond franchise (and Roger Moore's fifth turn in the lead role), the decision was made to, (aside from the cold opening) return the series to a more grounded and series route with focus on intrigue over gimmickry. And the results are mostly pretty successful. What we have here is Bond being sent on a mission to infiltrate the Greek underworld in order to locate and recover a missile command system, a task that also sees him getting caught up in an interlinked revenge plot. Revenge is actually a main theme throughout, and I liked it. Our main Bond girl is on a quest to avenge the deaths of her parents, and the cold opening sees Bond get vengeance on longtime arch nemesis Blofeld for good, though, due to legal reasons, he isn't called that. It's still obvious that's who it is though. I did enjoy this film, but I will be honest and say that it is a tad slow and times, and that it often feels dragged out and longer than the running time suggests. I appreciated that they toned down the camp, but aside from a few decently staged action sequences (the diving and fortress assault scenes especially) this one isn't really all that memorable, and the main villain is also not all that noteworthy or memorable. All in all though, this is one of Moore's better films, and I'd place it in the upper middle of his era when it comes to rankings.

And so James Bond enters the 1980's decade with this spectacular entry, one of the many greatest moments from Roger Moore as 007, and the first film directed by John Glen, previously an editor of several Bond films, who dominated that decade with all the 1980's Bond films. Besides the grandiosity usually brought and developed each episode goes by, this is a definitive work of the era and one that saved United Artists from vanishing after the huge financial losses they had with Cimino's "Heaven's Gate", so there's plenty reasons to be thankful to "For Your Eyes Only". Moore's fifth entry in the series is an adventure following a mysterious encryption device stolen by a powerful tycoon (Julian Glover), who as usually with the series, wants to control all the powers of be. To assist 007 there's the mortal yet lovely Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) whose parents were killed by this tycoon and she wants revenge; and there's also a Greek intelligence chief (Topol) who'll help MI6 and Bond in getting the device back and get rid off of the bad guys. In between, there's a forced "romance" between James and a teenage roller-skater (Lynn-Holly Johnson), protegé of the millionaire. That last part was just lame and gladly, Bond refuses her advances in between her training for the Olympics. "For Your Eyes Only" conquers viewers and Bond fans from the get go, a magnificent opening sequence where Bond is challenged by this Blofeld-like character (they couldn't use Blofeld name due to legal reasons), inside of a helicopter whose pilot was killed and Blofeld controls the air vehicle from afar, doing all possible ways to kill James - frightening sequences and greatly filmed. But there's some changes too, good and sad. Bill Conti takes over as composer, creating a nice soundtrack and a memorable theme song sung by Sheena Easton; and on the sad factor, M character is gone due to Bernard Lee's passing a few months before shooting - instead they have a ministry as head of the operation.Now the film: it's routine but the makers always find a way to break routine with outstanding action/adventure sequences that tops the ones presented in previous films. The bobsled chase is amazing (sadly, a stuntman died during the making of it); the underwater scenes when Bond and Melina are searching things inside the sunken ship is mind-blowing and there's even the villain's mini-submarine involved; a lethal henchman played by the great Michael Gothard (quite an ironic casting since his character here doesn't mutter a word while in Ken Russell's "The Devils" he was the loudest voice in the room, also a diabolical evil guy), who steals the show whenever he appears. And dramatically speaking this movie is quite well, specially when it comes to Melina's revenge about her parents killing, the movie never lost momentum when it came to those sequences - sometimes in other 007 flicks the drama is distracting. The major problem was the pacing in parts, even in some action moments and the whole thing about the teenage girl, which was embarrassing to watch, not because it couldn't happen but because it doesn't have much room to be there.Moore, as always, was a delightful class act who never missed an opportunity to throw hilarious one-liners and never failed with any of those (I think he has several during the car chase sequence). However, this has a more serious tone than some of his previous films since the producers wanted to avoid the riot and feast of absurdity "Moonraker" was - lots of fun though. Why you should go ahead with this? Well, the fore-mentioned reasons are enough; it's entertaining, exciting, rich in greatness of action, suspense and adventure, a ridiculous body count - James did the most of it -, the usual tolerable romance and Topol is a kick-ass sidekick, and let us not forget that Desmond Llewelyn as Q is also present to steal the show with his remarks and utility gadgets - the sequence where he does a profile sketch of the villain's henchman is hilarious. Bond entered the decade with grace, style, charm and lots of kills to his count. 10/10

First, the lead has to have some height, stature. The Greek goddess was as good as a women gets. This is why the franchise suffered trying to adapt to more modern low end times for new audiences. For the year it was really great and watch every 1-2 two years. Classy and excellent manners will always rule. No tattoo's needed. Always looking forward to proper direction in this franchise so it continues and really should continue. The modern day updates should be of the technical content not the human content that always made the series fly so high. The series is an learning experience for more common audience to strive higher in their lives. Not to bring the franchise down to that level. From the most interesting man in the world.