Moonraker
This Bond entry, the fourth outing in the series for Roger Moore, was obviously made at the time in 1979 to cash in on the recent success of Star Wars, Close Encounters, and The Star Trek Movie so that the franchise could lay claim to this being their “James Bond Outer Space Movie”. Long reviled by many for its admittedly campy elements, this is actually quite underrated and does further the high-quality consistency that the Moore movies exhibited. More importantly, one must remember that the Bond series is NOT exactly high-end drama, so the lack of realism and goofball moments help keep the films FUN first and foremost, and without the fun it can be pretty turgid (like a number of the early Connerys). This time Bond is called in to investigate the theft of a highly designed spacecraft, and quickly comes face to face with the mastermind villain who also manufactured it, and of course, instead of playing it cool with 007, immediately orders his men to kill Bond with failed results, thus making him obviously guilty. The villain this time is Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale), who curiously bears a close resemblance to Kevin Smith while sporting the wardrobe of Dr. Evil and at times seeming to channel the spirit of Orson Welles with his big booming voice. In other words, no great shakes yet again in this department, but credit to all for trying. The main Bond girl (with the ridiculous name of Holly Goodhead) is played here by Lois Chiles, gorgeous yes, but easily one of the more wooden performances by a female lead in the series. Fortunately, the filmmakers were insightful enough to bring back Richard Kiel as Jaws, certainly the Jason Voorhees of Bond henchmen with a great re-introduction into the story (Drax On Phone: “Now, we need to find a replacement for Chang…Oh! Yes, well, if you can get HIM…”), and certainly Kiel’s facial expressions when Bond outsmarts and leaves him in the lurch (which naturally would kill any normal human) are truly priceless. As for Drax’s master plan, which is to bring “beautiful people” to his space station to breed a master race who will return to Earth after he’s wiped out the population with a nerve gas, is certainly the stuff of megalomaniacal fancy. Also worth noting is an absolutely FANTASTIC pre-credits sequence (maybe the best so far) showing Bond battling bad guys while skydiving out of a plane, with excellent stunts, camerawork, and editing. Then there are the truly ludicrous elements, such as a fight scene between Bond and a stereotypical sinister Asian hitman that more recalls the slapstick Clouseau-Kato battles in the old Pink Panther films than anything else, and a final battle in space involving lots of ray guns between Drax’s men and U.S. soldiers (who apparently were ready to fly into space and wage warfare on a moment’s notice), that has lots of fancy FX but not much plausibility. Still, it’s fun and entertaining above all else, and Moore seems to fit the part like it’s a second skin, so that’s good as well. Overall, recommended for Bond fans with an open mind and a sense of humor…
7/10