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The Spy Who Loved Me (Special Edition)

The Spy Who Loved Me (Special Edition)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best
Review: As a Bond enthusiast, I know my stuff.
This is by far, one of the best 007 movies ever made.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST BONDS IN A NICE LOOKING TRANSFER
Review: "The Spy Who Loved Me" has Bond pitted against a billionaire madman, Strombold, obsessed with destroying the earth to build his own empire beneath the sea. This is the Bond, with that way too cool, white Lotus Espirit that turns into a submarine on cue. This is also the first movie to introduce movie goers to Jaws (Richard Kiel), a towering ogre with stainless steel teeth, who bites his victim's to death. Barbara Bach is the sexy Bond girl, Russian Agent Triple X.
For once, MGM's DVD actually looks pretty darn good and there's a reason for this. Back when laserdisc was king, MGM/UA undertook the task of starting to remaster the Bond titles. They only got far enough to do this movie, Octopussy and Moonraker before DVD wiped out the large disc format. So all subsequent restoration plans for the series went the way of the junk yard.
"The Spy Who Loved Me" exhibits a wonderfully smooth, anamorphically enhanced, visual presentation, with rich, bold and well balanced colors, solid black and contrast levels and a minimal amount of aliasing, edge enhancement and film grain. Fine details occasionally shimmer but do not distract. The audio (incorrectly noted on the back of the DVD as Stereo surround) is actually a brand new 5.1 stereo remastering effort that perfectly captures the score and special effects of the movie. Though at times the sound does become strident, for the most part, this is a sonically engaging presentation that is sure to please.

Extras: Once again, documentaries, stills, theatrical trailers, commentaries, a music video and other gems abound. MGM can be proud of their efforts on this disc. It's great!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Bond Pinnacle
Review: Roger Moore's third time around was one of his best, a movie that found him growing into the role, and the series finding its voice with him as the lead. No longer (at least for the Moore era)were the movies going to be as stylish as they were with Connery, or as silly as The Man With the Golden Gun got (although Moonraker lives in the same neighborhood). Moore's Bond was going to be a suave secret agent, a reluctant killer with a slight overreliance on puns. Moore's tongue-in-cheek nature has earned him the scorn of many a hard-edged Connery lover, and I must admit Moore grates on me sometimes. However, is it possible to say that I like his movies better than I like him as Bond? Because I do. Moore's Bond adventures are grand, sometimes over-the-top adventures that have rarely a dull moment, and strangely enough, he's just the actor to not get overwhelmed by it. Imagine Sean Connery in Moonraker!

TSWLM is a fun jaunt across the globe, as Bond and rival Russian secret agent XXX (played by Barbara Bach, future Mrs. Ringo Starr, that lucky lady)track down a madman who is capturing nuclear submarines with the intent of wiping out humankind. Really, though, the plot is not overly important. The movie is big and exciting, Agent XXX is a good foil for Bond (with personal reasons for wanting him dead), the submarine car makes its appearance, and Jaws is here. . .are you sold on this yet?

Moore's peak in the role, though "For Your Eyes Only" comes very close. Rent/buy this one today.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best Roger Moore Bond Flick, and... CAROLINE MUNRO!
Review: I'm admittedly not a big Bond fan, but I saw "The Spy Who Loved Me" recently and greatly enjoyed it. This is definitely one of the best Bond outings, and certainly the best with Roger Moore playing the popular secret agent.

The locations are great. The pic starts off with an awe-inspiring ski-jump from Canada's Mt. Asgard (Baffin Island). We also get Sardinia, Egypt, Scotland and the Bahamas. (The locations give the film a sort of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" feel).

The giant Richard Kiel as the villianous "Jaws" is outstanding. He's both threatening and humorous at the same time.

Barbara Bach is good as Agent XXX (yeah, right -- that's a believable spy identification). She certainly has an exotic beauty, but watch her get blown out of the water by the gorgeous Caroline Munro in her small bit part as the villianess Naomi. Bach can't hold a candle to the breathtakingly beautiful Munro!

Many rightly cite Ursala Andress' coming out of the water in a white bikini in "Dr. No" as the ultimate Bond-babe moment (a famous movie-moment indeed!). Most men would agree that Caroline Munro's introduction in this flick is a serious rival. It's, at least, the second best bond-babe moment. Rent or buy this movie to see for yourself. Guys, I guaruntee you WILL NOT be let down! The only disapointing feature of Munro's role is that it's ridiculously too brief! (Catch "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" to see Caroline in a bigger role).

The DVD Special Edition includes a documentary on the picture, which includes an interview with Ms. Munro. Believe it or not, she's almost as beautiful today as she was in 1977. I have a friend that saw her personally at a convention relatively recently and he can verify this.

As you can see, whereas I may not be the biggest Bond fan in the world, I AM a big fan of Caroline Munro. In "The Spy Who Loved Me" she's like the icing on the cake of a great flick! In fact, "The Spy Who Loved Me" is so good that I may YET become a big Bond fan!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Nobody Does It Better
Review: This is Roger Moore's finest outing as James Bond 007. "The Spy Who Loved Me" or TSWLM ranks as one of the all-time best Bond movies. The pre-credits ski sequence is outstanding, the song/credits are terrific, and there's a great deal of action/humor/romance as we following the world's most famous secret agent across the globe. I can only think of "Goldfinger" and "From Russia With Love" being better James Bond movies. If you or your kid has never seen a 007 adventure this would not be a bad one to start watching !!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "What do you think you're doing, Bond?"
Review: Many people don't like Roger Moore's Bond, but "The Spy Who Loved Me" is a hard movie not to like. Yes, this is a 70's kitsch interpretation of Fleming's Bond, and if you're in the mood for Sean Connery's hard hitting 60's Cold War style (and Connery is my personal favorite) then don't watch this! But if you're in the mood for... a)breathtaking (if not entirely plausible) opening sequences b)Roger Moore's deadpan English aristocratic charm c)Goofy names ("Agent XXX")d)Spoofs on popular 70's movies (uh..."Jaws"?)e)a great Carly Simon song f)double entendre galore, g)an opening title sequence so kitschy you'll laugh out loud... then watch this!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It is Truly Bond...and Beyond!!!
Review: The absolute best Bond film!!! A "must have" for any Bond fan. Although I like all the actors who played Bond, especially Connery and Brosnan, Roger Moore has been my personal favorite. No Bond can possibly get any smoother and more sophisticated than Moore's Bond. I say "The Moore, the Merrier."
Not only is this the best Moore Bond film, but it's also my favorite of all the Bond films. First of all, it's set at the peak of Moore's career as Bond. He isn't too young nor too old here...he's just right! Secondly, the film contains the absolute best Bond girl (Barbara Bach as Maj. Anya Amasova-Agent XXX). She is both very beautiful and very resourceful. She's his equal in every way imaginable. Of course, it is somewhat unrealistic that the best operative that Russia has is a woman, especially in those oppresive years of the Soviet regime, but then this is after all a Bond film and we certainly can't have Bond teaming up with a male operative. Thirdly, this film is great because it gives us the absolute best henchman (Richard Kiel as Jaws). He is definitely a menacing sight to behold... I also think the main villain deserves much more credit than many give him. Although he doesn't do much to showcase his acting abilities here, Curt Jurgens, with his cold blue eyes, is a natural to play the megalomaniac Karl Stromberg. I especially like his underwater palace Atlantis as well as the scenes where he rests comfortably in his lap of luxury inside Atlantis while Jaws does all the dirty work for him. Walter Gotell also makes his first of few recurring appearances as General Gogol of the K.G.B. (He is Anya's boss here, similar to M being 007's boss). This film also has one of 007's finest vehicles, the Lotus Esprit which transforms into a submarine. It looks amazing!
As one can see, this film has just about the best of everything that you could ever find in any Bond film...best girl, best henchman, best car, Moore's best Bond, and, of course, who can forget the great theme 'Nobody Does it Better' by Carly Simon...it's a true classic! Anyone who sees this film will get a thrill of a ride from beginning to end!!!
P.S.: It also has one of the best Bond teasers. I get a chill every time I see 007 skiing off the edge of the cliff and falling down freefall. Amazing! I love how the parachute opens up and then gracefully glides us into Carly Simon's opening theme...Beautiful, simply beautiful...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Quality Bond Film
Review: I really enoyed The Spy Who Loved Me. It was a fun movie that you can certainly watch more than once. As a fan of the James Bond movies, I think this is one of my favorites -- in my top 5. (The others being From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and For Your Eyes Only.) Roger Moore really has mastered being the gentleman secret agent here.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Awful!
Review: Though Ian Fleming was definitely right in demanding that the film have nothing to do with his book--definitely the worst of the 12 (not counting For Your Eyes Only, which is pretty corny, and Octopussy that's hideous)--what they did to The Spy Who Loved Me is awful.

To give a brief summery, the film tells the story of a psychotic water-obsessed villain who hopes to bring about an apocalypse so that civilization will begin anew, but this time underwater. The guy steals two nuclear submarines--one from the Soviets, the other from the British--and sends them to attack New York and Moscow. He hopes this will cause WWIII and destroy the world. The loss of the countries' submarines results in cooperation between the Soviets and the British and consequently a joint mission (OO7 and XXX [a female KGB agent] ) to recover the ships and find out what's going on. Well as you can probably guess, after some car chases, and various other attempts on their lives, the two spies infiltrate the villain's base undercover, get caught, and almost killed. OO7 escapes, rescues XXX, and finishes the film by having sex with her.

The wisdom of Bond and his superiors is hideous, tares the plot apart, and ruins any possibility of enjoying this film for anything other than yet another example of how badly the books were brought to the screen. There are various incidents:
First, around the beginning of the film, before the Soviet/ British alliance has been formed, Bond and Anya Amasova (XXX) share a drink at a lounge somewhere in the Middle-East (Egypt or some other pyramid place). Both agents display their knowledge of each other--demonstrating the great abilities of their two countries' intelligence bureaus. Bond turns for a moment and Anya offers him a drink. He consumes it. Now, what on earth is OO7 doing accepting a beverage from a KGB agent?! Shouldn't his first thought be that this is an attempt by the enemy to kill him?! That organization is estimated at killing between 3.5 and 20 million of their own people under Stalin, and was still doing a considerable amount of whacking, and incarceration in the 70's. In relation to this, when the water nut outlines his plan, XXX whimpers about "mass murder." Come on! An organization like her's definitely has no right to complain about that feature.
And even worse, around the middle of the film, what in the world is the Ministry of Defense thinking when they invite XXX and her superiors into Q's lab?! OO7 even describes one of the gadgets (a spiked chair) to her. This is the archenemy of the West and they're showing them top-secret equipment!
Also, about midway through the film, Anya claims that she intends to kill Bond after the mission is over. This is due to the fact that he was responsible for killing her boyfriend who attempted to assassinate Bond at the start of the film. And yet even after hearing this information OO7 still puts implicit trust in this enemy agent. He shows no indication of making sure he is armed when he's near her and at the very end he rescues her and all but give his side-arm to the Soviet. She then threatens to shoot him when he gets champagne for them, but relents for some reason, shoots the cork instead, and proceeds to have sex with him. This is a very irrational (earlier in the film she forgets the keys when she tries to escape in a hit-man's car, is inexperienced with a standard transmission, falls asleep while they're imprisoned, can't speak any middle-eastern language [even when she's specifically sent there], and on top of all that doesn't seem to realizes that unless she kills herself too, or thinks up some other convincing BS explanation for the homicide, knocking off Bond will cause major diplomatic trouble between the British and the Soviets), ungrateful, enemy agent and yet Bond takes no precautions against her at all.

All this stupidity destroys the enjoyment of The Spy Who Loved Me. And of course once again we have the inexplicable deal of the villain revealing his secret plans.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Oh dear oh dear
Review: Well, it's a romp for sure but not one of the best Bond's (unless you're really into 70's kitsch). Makes a perfect twin bookend to "Moonraker" as the two Bond movies that rather lost their way. More funny than thrilling.


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