Moonraker

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad
Review: "Moonraker" is the most tongue in cheek of the Bond films, but it has some real good action sequences. I don't think it's worse than "A View to a Kill" though. In fact, they don't really get worse than "A View to a Kill."

The plot concerns Hugo Drax, a guy who wants to wipe out world population. This one also features a great boat chase, and one of the best pre credit sequences in Bond movies. Jaws is back, but as Richard Kiel says, "All these kids wanted him to be a good guy." So they decide to give him a girlfriend. HOW [sad] IS THAT?

The film is nearly rescued by some action, especially the boat chase, the laser fight, and the museum sequence.

In my opinion, this is only for people who are die hard Bond fans, like me. Believe me, it's the best of the big bad three (the others being MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN and VIEW TO A KILL.)

Rating:
Summary: "Take Me Around The World Again"
Review: After the success of Star Wars in 1977, the Bond producers decided that Moonraker would proceed For Your Eyes Only as the next Bond adventure. Richard Kiel's steel-toothed goon, Jaws, returned(by popular demand!). Bond and Jaws seem amused to encounter each other again. It's a small world between secret agents and professional hit men! Moore's and Kiel's moments together are certainly the highlight of Moonraker. The film is glossy and well plotted. John Berry's score is classy and satisfying. However, after Bond leaves California, Moonraker becomes a real bore. Moonraker is essentially Roger Moore's Thunderball, or his You Only Live Twice. Gadgets, special effects, and handsome locales dominate Moonraker. Characterization, drama, and suspense take a backseat. A View To A Kill(1985) remains my least favorite Moore outing, but Moonraker competes for the dishonor.

The beginning of the film is excellent. The pre-credits sequence is absolutely incredible. The use of stuntmen is visually minimized, and the scene looks believable. Bond is pushed out of a plane without a parachute. Using his body as a torpedo, he sweeps downward and steals his enemy's parachute. Then Jaws peers out the plane with his devilish grin. He jumps, and Bond and Jaws try to outmaneuver each other. When Jaws attempts to bite Bond, 007 pulls his parachute and is lifted to safety. Jaws tries to do the same but isn't so lucky.

When Hugo Drax's Moonraker shuttle is highjacked, Bond is assigned to find out what happened. He goes to California and encounters Hugo Drax, played by Michael Lonsdale. Lonsdale portrays Drax with a droll wit and his scenes are all memorable. He is given some of the greatest lines. "Take care of Mr. Bond...see that some harm comes to him. (To Bond) You appear with the inevitability of an unloved season."

Moonraker merely alters the plot from The Spy Who Loved Me. Hugo Drax attempts to destroy the world's population so he can create a new one. Stromberg attempted to do the very same thing, but underwater.

In California, Bond meets the lovely Corrine, and she is certainly a more heartfelt character than Louis Chiles's hollow Holly Goodhead is. One wishes Corrine had been the heroine.

By Moonraker, Roger Moore's age is starting to show. For probabaly the last time he looks slim and youthful. Moore shines in two memorable scenes. While strapped to a centrifuge, Drax's henchman, Chang, alters the machine to try kill Bond. Bond survives, and Moore effectively portrays Bond's anger and physical exhaustion. Later, Drax attempts to murder Bond once more. While pheasant shooting, Drax hires a sniper to shoot Bond from a tree. Drax offers his gun to Bond, hoping to distract him with the pheasants so he'll be an easy target. Bond consciously misses the pheasant. "You missed Mr. Bond", remarks Drax. The sniper fall from the tree, dead. "Did I?", muses Bond with understated relish.

Following California, Moonraker takes Bond from Venice to Brazil and finally to outer space. All too often Bond escapes from danger with the help of some gadget. The climax at the space station lacks excitement as the astronauts fight in a zero gravity atmosphere. Moore gets to dispose of Drax with a good witticism. "Take a step for mankind", Bond says as he pushes Hugo Drax out in space. However, Moonraker ends with a real groaner of a line. After some lovemaking Holly asks Bond to "Take me around the world again." "Why not?" Moore smugly replies.

Rating:
Summary: From Bond 11 to Bond 20
Review: This is the 11th Bond film in the Series starring Roger Moore.

Here is some info on Bond 20 starring Pierce Brosnan

Latest news on Bond 20, no name yet, but here is the cast list

JAMES BOND - Pierce Brosnan
Gala Brand - Rosamund Pike
Jinx - Halle Berry
Jack Wade - Joe Don Baker
Miss Moneypenny - Samantha Bond
M - Dame Judi Dench
Q - John Cleese
Tanner - Michael Kitchen
Nurse Warmflash - Serena Scott Thomas
Robinson - Colin Salmon
Admiral Roebuck - Geoffrey Palmer

Some of the cast does not have confirmed roles

Produced by Michael G Wilson & Barbara Broccoli
Music by David Arnold
Production Designer Peter Lamont
SFX supervisor Chris Corbould
Action Unit Director Vic Armstrong
Executive Producer Anthony Waye
Costumes By Lindy Hemming
Directed By Lee Tamahori

Currently being made by EON productions, at Pinewood Studios in London
Will be released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer & United Artists
Christmas 2002

Rating:
Summary: "Overblown but enjoyable..."
Review: Obvious the filmakers have gone a little too far, as we find Bond in pursuit of intergalatic madman Hugo Drax (Michel Lonsdale). Overblown but enjoyable film features spectacular stunts and Oscar-nominated special effects, but the script is too ridiculous to ignore. Moore is too cardboard a character now, but Lois Chiles is wonderful as Holly Goodhead. Richard Keil returns as Jaws.

Rating:
Summary: Moore Nonsense.
Review: I am not going to lie, I actually liked this film due to the action and the return of the character Jaws. The somewhat Sci-fi action film centers around Hugo Drax, who wants to destroy the earth with a nerve gas which only affects humans not animals. Pretty cool plot and action scenes keep your attention, although Roger Moore overkilled the part as bond. Especially at the snake scene where he was in the water one moment and then his hair was nicely combed a couple of minutes later (that is cheesy). The gadgets were corny in this film too, especially the darts that react off of nerve impulses from your wrist. This is a saturday afternoon movie when your car is in the shop and you are stuck in the house with no transportation cause your wife is at the mall...., and your cable is out.. type of movie to watch. Keep this one on the back burner for a rainy day.

Rating:
Summary: the credits are more exciting...
Review: When Albert "Cubby" Brocolli first produced this movie, he said quote "This is not science fiction, this is science fact." As far as I am concerned, there is about as much science fact in this movie as there is in your normal Power Rangers episode.

This movie is awful. I admit, I dont give it much credit for the fact that this JB movie was ahead of its time and was the biggest money maker in Bond history, but that DOESN'T mean that this movie is good. Roger Moore was in his worst JB role. Man his witticisms were weaker than Holly Goodhead, and man, that is bad. If we have doctors like Holly Goodhead, GOD HELP OUR COUNTRY!!!

The one glimmering star in this (...) movie was Hugo Drax, played by Michel Lonsdale. He had a lot of good one liners, and was intimidating at times, but he could not carry this movie.

The plot must have been written when the whole crew was having a lunch break, kinda like when you were a kid, trying to get your homework done in a hurry before the teacher would call for your assignment.

All in all, not so good. (They did comeback from this awful movie in For Your Eyes Only, so they salvaged something from this disaster.)

Rating:
Summary: James Bond Meets Star Wars.
Review: I guess it made a certain degree of sense that James Bond would want to join the Star Wars/Star Trek trend that seemed to be appearing by the end of the 1970's, and Director Lewis Gilbert did it in style. With Roger Moore once again playing 007 and Richard Kiel reprising his role as Jaws, who actually ends up being 007's ally in the grand final as 007 must stop a millionare named Hugo Drax from destroying the human race high above orbit in a space station (Constructed from sets left over from Star Wars). With great special effects and a pretty decent story, the movie is also gifted by the title song sung by Shirley Bassey and original music scored by John Barry. Buy it if you like good science fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Worst Bond Film Ever
Review: At first I thought Octopussy was the worst Bond film until I saw Moonraker. I am surprised they even call this cheesy flick a Bond film. Here is some reasons why I didn't like this film:
The movie dragged on and on, espically when Bond was in space.
The villain had no reason what-so-ever to do what he was doing, so the plot falls flat.
Any shot at subtle humor Moonraker has is pathetic.
So if you like Bond, I suggest skip Moonraker.

Rating:
Summary: The reason they got rid of Moore
Review: I'm sorry, but this is in no way, shape or form a Bond movie. It is a Roger Moore movie, it has his puns, but lacks the style that makes James Bond the greatest spy of film history. If you're image of James Bond is Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan, Moonraker is not for you. focus on the fan favorites of Connery (Dr No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice) and Brosnan (Goldeneye, The World is Not Enough) and you will appreciate the character that is Bond. This movie, this strange, bizarre movie "Moonraker" is lucky it never made "Mystery Science Theater 3000".

Rating:
Summary: THE SLEEKEST, MOST-POLISHED BOND FILM...IF NOT THE BEST!
Review: "MOONRAKER" is MY favorite of all the James Bond films. I have seen every Bond film at least 20 times each. I cannot speak for other fans, because we all have different perspectives, likes/dislikes, and opinions on what makes up the "best" James Bond film. I can only state MY opinion.

First of all, "MOONRAKER" is, to me, at least, the most ENJOYABLE of all the James Bond films. It is the sleekest and most-polished of them all; this may explain why some Bond fans consider it not "gritty" enough, and therefore, not among the best. I think the themesong "Moonraker," ALSO MY FAVORITE, exquisitely gentle and flowing, delicate as moonlight itself, sung by Shirley Bassey, sets the tone for the entire movie. Interesting how the end credits picked up the pace with an uptempo disco remix of the title song. But then again, released to theatres in June of 1979, it WAS to be the Summer of Disco.

The scenery in southern California; a mini-France at Drax's estate; Venice, Italy; Rio de Janeiro and Iguassu Falls, Brazil; and of course the twinkling night sky of outer space DEFINITELY make "MOONRAKER" the most BEAUTIFUL and VISUALLY STUNNING of all the Bond films. I can WATCH the movie over and over and over, if ONLY for the scenery. The Sugar Loaf Mountain surveillance/cable car sequence in Rio de Janeiro is my favorite of ANY Bond film. It is definitely the most scenic and enthralling.

...and what about LOIS CHILES, certainly the most chic and classsy of all the female Bond cohorts. Looking like a brunette Shelley Hack, Miss Chiles is probably THE most capable and intelligent of ALL the Bond "girls," which may threaten some male fantasies of what the "Bond girl" is supposed to be...the ineffectual, weak, helpless damsel in distress...not Holly Goodhead...as American CIA operative and fully-trained astronaut on loan from NASA, she SAVES Bond from disaster as often, if not more, than he saves her...Remember: SHE drove the rocket and the Moonraker space shuttle...together they were the strongest TEAM effort of Bond and female counterpart...Interesting note: JACLYN SMITH, of American television program CHARLIE'S ANGELS, was first choice for the role of Holly Goodhead, but declined the role due to the suggestive name of the character and scheduling conflicts. I wonder how the film might have been had she taken the role. Regretably the small role of Manuela, Bond's sidekick from Station VH, in Rio de Janeiro, gets virtually no screen time at all.

Of course the gadgetry is great...I mean, really, a runaway centrifuge...please. A mine-shooting speedboat with detachable hang-glider. Poison pens for relaxing anacondas...Nerve-impulse darts...a watch that blows explosives...an ENTIRE CITY in space, invisible to radar (what...it never cast a shadow over a continent at NOON? COME ON!)

The only real problem I have with this film is the depiction of Hugo Drax. A man who, obsessed with the sterilization of the world and starting it over, not unlike a certain world leader we once had, is subtley portrayed as a homosexual. He directly propositions James Bond at tea time on his California estate, while offering him a sandwich (listen for the line), and none of Drax's ladies are involved with Drax directly...only with the Noah's Ark mission into space. Drax's companion in his own Moonraker shuttle is a young male. While currently we may be able to laugh it off as idiotic, sadly enough, such a portrayal was within the realms of political correctness in 1979.

Anyway, enjoy this film for what it is, no more, no less. Even if you don't think it was the best Bond film ever, it was certainly the best film and box-office smash of 1979, and one of the best action/adventure/space-themed films of the 1970's.

HOLLY: "James, take me around the world one more time..." HA HA HA HA HA HA!