Rating: -
Even when I was just discovering the Bond movies in 2000, I had never found Octopussy to be even remotely interesting, due to the fact that it had a ridiculous plot. And more importantly, it was my first Bond movie. I watched it 3 times and got extremely bored towards the end.
Octopussy, as redundant and annoying as its title, runs 133 minutes, 45 of which consist of plot setting up. As for the "plot", it completely rips off Indiana Jones. The location in India is pretty fascinating, but that's where the fascination stops. Moore plays a sweaty and tired Bond here, and toward the end, we're left rolling our eyes and scratching our heads. As for the ending showdown on the plane... ridiculous and over the top. There IS a reason For Your Eyes Only's opening scene was ridiculous, but here it just is never pulled off.
What gives this 2 stars and not one is the Indian location and the music score. Absolutely fantastic, this may have some of the best music in 007 history, and yes I even liked the opening theme a lot. But otherwise, unless you are planning on owning all of the ultimate editions, buy it for the special features, and that only. Not the stinker that is Octopussy.
Rating: -
I must admit that I found this to be vintage Moore: campy, never believable, full of slapstick, and consistently over the top. This is Bond reduced to formula: bad guy, sexy girls, fights in weird locales, and no genuine emotion whatsoever. I once enjoyed things like this, but now find them boring and a waste of time. I know lots of people like Moore and it is OK if you accept it for what it is - fun junk.
But then, I never could accept any other Bond after the Connery era, which made the adventure somewhat believable and with more subtle humor.
Recommended if you know you like Moore, but if you are hoping for something a little better, forget it.
Rating: -
Great! The only thing that I still haven't got use to the menu at the front instead of playing the movie without having to make choice first.
Rating: -
When last we left our suave agent he was making out with one of the ugliest girls in Bond cinema history at the end of "For Your Eyes Only." Two years later and we got this, the first Bond movie I ever saw - and I saw it on HBO. Roger Moore returns to chase the Faberge' egg, also called the 'property of a lady' (the name of a later Bond movie that was never made and was supposed to star Timothy Dalton). In the opening scene, Bond tries his usual brand of hijinks and gets busted. Simultaneously, another agent gets the golden egg and flees East Germany. He is stabbed in the back - literally - by two German twin brothers (probably named Schmidt). He manages to get back to MI6 and give them the egg. Bond travels to the auction and notices who has come to buy the egg. In the process, he switches the two.
Two hours later - after a safari, a train chase, and a plane crash - Bond emerges unscathed as the hero along with Maud Adams, who couldn't possibly be in this movie because she died in "The Man With The Golden Gun." A number of things stick out about this movie.
First of all, the enunciating Louis Jourdan plays quite well as the lead villain even if his scenes do seem to often be way too far apart. His sharing with Octopussy (Adams' character's real name and the other memorable part of the movie) the claim that Bond 'likes dice, preferably loaded' was amusing with his over-enunciating. Jourdan's plan is to blow up a nuclear bomb on a military installation. Bond knows this and puts on a clown suit to enter the circus (no pun intended). He saves the day and then manages to get on Jourdan's plane and crash it without ever being behind the controls.
Another bright spot is tennis player Vijay Armitraj who, unfortunately, gets saw-bladed to death. Q is - as is almost always the case - immaculately played by Desmond Llewellyn.
"Octopussy" is worth a watch or two. Not great but in the third tier set of Bond movies.
Rating: -
"Octopussy" (1983) suffers from the same kitchen-sink approach that brought down "Moonraker." Despite a few impressive action sequences, this 007 caper remains as tired as Roger Moore's aging spy. The Ian Fleming spirit that briefly resurfaced in "For Your Eyes Only" has vanished. Instead, we're back to the slapstick silliness and lackluster villains of earlier Moore outings. Though an EON production, "Octopussy" was far less Bondian than Sean Connery's unofficial "Never Say Never Again."
|