We are now in a new age of the James Bond franchise. Amazon has procured the rights and seems set on delivering quite a large amount of content now that they have it. And per usual, there are quite a few names popping up in the rumor mill for the role—primarily Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland. In spite of the mixed-at-best reactions to Quantum of Solace and Spectre, most look at Daniel Craig’s time as Bond as either the best or second-best era of the franchise, and it’s going to be tough to live up to the phase we exited just four years ago with No Time to Die.
Videos by ComicBook.com
As for the worst, some say Timothy Dalton’s two films while others pick Pierce Brosnan’s run, with the exception of GoldenEye take that prize. Then there are those who say George Lazenby in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service—not the film as a whole, but his performance in it. Falling toward the middle is Roger Moore’s record seven-film run. Because he starred in so many of them (Connery had six, excluding the unofficial Never Say Never Again), his collection of films is without a doubt a mixed bag. They’re also certainly products of the ’70s and ’80s. Which of them work and which ones don’t? Let’s find out.
7) The Man with the Golden Gun
Even factoring in the formidable presence of the late Christopher Lee, The Man with the Golden Gun is one of the weakest 007 movies. Even though it’s about the same length as the remainder of the pre-Craig Bond catalogue, it feels about 30 minutes too long thanks to some wonky pacing.
Even at the time, critics felt this to be the weakest entry in the franchise, and its standing hasn’t improved over the subsequent decades. Outside the pacing, there are a few distinct problems. For one, the humor never works, especially when it comes to Sheriff J.W. Pepper, returning from Live and Let Die (of which he was also the worst part). Then there’s Mary Goodnight, who is neither well written nor well performed by Britt Ekland. Lee is great as Francisco Scaramanga, and his assassin funhouse makes for a few neat, tense set pieces, but The Man with the Golden Gun is a tough watch.
Rent The Man with the Golden Gun on Amazon Video.
6) Octopussy
To Octopussy‘s credit, it’s the forgettable one, whereas The Man with the Golden Gun is the outright bad one. Hence, it ranks higher. But not by much.
This is the one where Bond puts on clown make-up, and given how bored Moore seems, it’s as though he knew this was the franchise reaching the point of tedium. There’s nothing here that wasn’t done, and done better at that, in previous installments. On the upside, the saw blade yo-yos are cool and Louis Jourdan always made for a great villain (though this film wastes him, but not as badly as it wastes Rambo: First Blood Part II and Beverly Hills Cop‘s Steven Berkoff)
Stream Octopussy on FuboTV.
5) Moonraker
Moonraker was a big hit for United Artists, but it’s a bit of a tonal mess. And not just because most of it takes place here on Earth before jumping up to a space station for a blatantly Star Wars-inspired laser gun battle.
This is the movie that has Jaws, who was immediately a formidable opponent in the previous movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, turned into what amounts to a punchline. He’s played for laughs pretty consistently here, and it never works. In that lies the aforementioned tonal issue. It’s one of the goofier installments of the franchise, but when it’s not being that it has scenes where Michael Lonsdale’s Hugo Drax sics his hounds on the sweet Corinne Dufour.
Rent Moonraker on Amazon Video.
4) Live and Let Die
With what is almost certainly the best theme tune and a great villain (or pair of villains, in a way) in Yaphet Kotto’s Dr. Kananga and Mr. Big, Live and Let Die was a very solid beginning of Moore’s tenure. It hasn’t aged incredibly well as far as cultural sensitivity goes, but it’s nothing compared to some of the language in Ian Felming’s books, especially the one upon which this film is based. The way Bond tricks Jane Seymour’s Solitaire into sleeping with him also feels pretty icky to watch.
But the good greatly outweighs the bad here. Moore immediately feels like a natural, the pincer-armed Tee Hee Johnson and Voodoo cultist Baron Samedi are top-tier henchmen, Seymour is wonderful as Solitaire, and it has two of the best set pieces in Moore’s entire run. Specifically, the gator farm sequence and the bayou speedboat chase (which features a Guinness World Record-setting stunt).
Stream Live and Let Die on FuboTV.
3) A View to a Kill
There are undoubtedly some rough aspects to A View to a Kill that help shed some light on why it’s such a dismissed and outright disliked installment of the 007 saga. But for the most part it’s really a rock-solid goodbye for Roger Moore in the Bond role and about a thousand times more entertaining than Octopussy.
The primary issue with View is that Moore was about a decade too old for the part at this point, and it’s awkward watching him strike up a romance with the late Tanya Roberts, who was 22 years his junior. Even though Octopussy came out just two years prior, Moore really shows his age here. He moves different, his face is more markedly wrinkled, and he’s simply not quite believable as a superspy. But Octopussy would have been such a boring way for him to end his tenure. This one has Christopher Walken, a scene-stealing Grace Jones, and a finale on the Golden Gate Bridge that ranks high with the best of the Bond action sequences.
Rent A View to a Kill on Amazon Video.
2) For Your Eyes Only
For Your Eyes Only is essentially the opposite of the Pierce Brosnan era. Even including the comparatively restrained GoldenEye, all of his movies felt like what they were: $100 million plus action movies with massive set pieces. For Your Eyes Only is more often than not content to be small-scale, and it works.
After the outright silliness of Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only was Albert R. Broccoli and United Artists’ attempt to bring the saga back down to the comparative tonal realism of the early Bond films. That was a somewhat surprising move, considering Moonraker was a substantial financial success, but it was the right call. This is a straightforward tale of revenge, and to that point this isn’t even really Bond’s story—it’s Melina Havelock’s (played phenomenally by Carole Bouquet). Had they excised the goofy Bond and Blofeld opening scene, which feels entirely out of place with the rest of the film, and the character of Bibi Dahl, this would be the best Moore Bond entry.
Rent For Your Eyes Only on Amazon Video.
1) The Spy Who Loved Me
There are several aspects that have allowed The Spy Who Loved Me to be the most fondly remembered of the Moore era. It’s just about as solid as Connery’s era at its best. For one, after Mary Goodnight in The Man with the Golden Gun, the franchise really needed to do something about their Bond girls. It was neither endearing nor respectable to basically have them be dumb blondes who perpetually need saving. They fixed that problem with this film, Moore’s third, via Barbara Bach’s Anya Amasova. Intellectually, Amasova is Bond’s equal, and as a spy she is equally formidable. It’s Bond, so she is somewhat made to come off as an object of his, and most of the audience’s, desire, but there’s a lot more agency in her character than any Bond film up to this point.
As for the rest of the cast, Moore seems to understand that this film is a bit more serious than Golden Gun (tonally, it’s the most balanced of his era), and that’s how he plays it. Curt Jurgens’ Karl Stromberg is one of the franchise’s most ruthless, menacing villains, and his aquatic spider is one of the saga’s more iconic villain hangouts. Then there’s Richard Kiel, who often steals scenes without uttering a sound. While his Jaws would come back in Moonraker, it was because of this film and this film alone that he became such a legendary side villain in the Bond canon. In short, The Spy Who Loved Me is a film with fairly solid pacing, a great and game cast, a few outstanding set pieces, a hummable opening tune, and fantastic gadgets. It’s top-tier Bond and the best of Moore’s era.
Rent The Spy Who Loved Me on Amazon Video.
Most Viewed
-
Courtesy of Marvel -
Logo courtesy of Marvel Studios
