After a stellar opening, featuring a miraculous skydiving stunt for the ages (only somewhat diminished by a few shots where it's painfully obvious it's not the real actors) the film eventually gets a little overlong and silly, but it has all the hallmarks of Moore era -- fun jokes, over-the-top effects and beautiful locales.
Moore, the horniest Bond of them all, is starting to show his age a little bit here, and he's sort of coasting in a way he doesn't in The Spy Who Loved Me and the excellent follow-up to this movie, For Your Eyes Only.
But I still get a kick out of him in the role. I think the moment where he rides a gondola with an inflatable bottom down the streets of Venice is one of his most iconic moments as 007.
The plot to this film is pretty incomprehensible to me. The villain, Drax, well played by Michael Lonsdale, is looking to create some sort of alternative society in space. That makes him not too different from Stromberg in the previous film, a bizarre bad guy who wants to blow up the world the create a new one.
That's part of why I think the next Bond film is superior, the plot is not quite as labyrinthian. But let me not dwell on what doesn't work in this film, since I did enjoy watching it. Besides Moore, the movie looks great. Following the breakout success of The Spy Who Loved Me, this was, believe it or not, the most successful 007 film at the box office until the Pierce Brosnan era kicked off with Goldeneye.
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| Roger Moore in Moonraker |
Still, it takes a little long to get focused, and the Jaws character, such a great villain in the last film, becomes a sillier, more cuddly addition this time around and I don't think his send-off, with a girl who looks remarkably like an in-character Amy Poehler, is right for a Bond film.
The movie is often ranked as one of the worst Bond films, but I don't think that's entirely fair.
Sure, it was clearly cashing in on the recent success of Star Wars but it does have enough genuine thrills and tension to be effective when it needs to be.
I think Moonraker might be a lot of fun for kids getting their first exposure to 007, although the pace and the kissing might be a turn off. It's delightfully silly and attractive but not especially memorable. And it suffers from a problem that increasingly plagues this series, overstuffed last acts. At this point we've come to expect a drawn-out finale, but they are the elements of these films that hold up the least well.
My rankings so far:
1) From Russia With Love
2) The Spy Who Loved Me
3) Goldfinger
4) Live and Let Die
5) Dr. No
6) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
7) You Only Live Twice
8) Diamonds Are Forever
9) Thunderball
10) Moonraker
11) The Man with the Golden Gun
Liz's take: I think what the Moore Bond films have going for them is that they're always pretty solid. They hit certain key 007 points -- the villain has a cool lair, there's going to be a cool chase sequence (preferably by boat) which is fun and exciting. That said, the Bond girl in this one was fine, the villain wasn't particularly exceptional. The film clearly came out post-Star Wars, and it shows.
I think the Moore Bond movies as a whole make the Connery ones seem kind of quaint, they have consistently gotten more extravagant and they're truly action films as opposed to espionage thrillers. The Connery films, yes they have action, but they don't feel quite as modern.
In fact I think I might prefer Moore as Bond to Connery. Maybe if Lazenby had more turns I might have appreciated him more than Connery too. But Moore's actually kicking butt for me so far. This one I feel like though didn't have quite as silly, it seemed more serious,
I don't really find Jaws that compelling as a character, he's just a giant hunk of a dude and I found him tiresome after a second go-round. Still, even if it's not a great film, it's certainly not bad.
Liz's rankings:
1) On Her Majesty's Secret Service
2) Goldfinger
3) Dr. No
4) Live and Let Die
5) The Man with the Golden Gun
6) The Spy Who Loved Me
7) Moonraker
8) You Only Live Twice
9) From Russia With Love
10) Diamonds Are Forever
11) Thunderball
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