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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: Bond Breaks Out Again in "The Spy Who Loved Me"
Review: "The Spy Who Loved Me", released in 1977, is the tenth entry of the James Bond series and it is the first to be produced by Cubby Broccoli since his breakup with former partner Harray Salztman. Roger Moore returns for his third stint as the sauve British secret agent and an old alum, Lewis Gilbert, returns the director. Of course, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, and Desmond Llewelyn once again star as "M", Miss Moneypenny, and "Q".

"The Spy Who Loved Me" represented a return to the giant epic storyline that has not been really seen in a Bond film since "You Only Live Twice", also directed by Lewis Gilbert, in 1967. However, this film would not just be a return to the past. Armed with the largest budget for a Bond film to date, this was to be an epic worthy of a blockbuster of the seventies. The special effects, the chases, the stunts, the villains, the women would all become bigger than life.

The moviegoer quickly gets the message even before the opening credits that this is not your usual Bond film. In the first few minutes, Bond is making love to a beautiful enemy agent, then skiing down the Austrian Alps where he then chased by a gang of Soviet killers, kills one of them with a rocket firing ski pole, pulls off a couple a nifty skiing maneuvers, and promptly skis off a cliff, where he pulls a parachute emblazen with the Union Jack. In five minutes one gets an exciting movie experience that many films could not achieve in two hours.

The rest of the story is also quite excellent. The film begins with the capture of a British missile submarine by parties unknown. At nearly the same time, a Soviet sub, also armed with nuclear missiles has also disappeared. It seems that one entity is responsible and it is revealed that a top secret satelite tracking system was used to locate the subs. The plans for tracking system will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, giving the new owner a great advantage in the Cold War. Great Britain naturally send James Bond but the Soviets send in their best agent, the beautiful but deadly Major Anya Amasova, codenamed "triple X". They both have the same mission, get the plans for the tracker at any cost. But as it turns out, the seller of the plans had stolen them from another, a man named Karl Stromberg who has has the system designed for another, more sinister purpose than mere international blackmail, he is out to trigger World War III! The British and Soviet government now decide to pool their resources meaning that Bond and Amasova must work together but the relationship is strained when Anya discovers that Bond has recently killed her lover and swears to kill him once the mission is over. Can Bond both save the world and himself?

To go along with the great script is a very good cast. Roger Moore appears to finally be at ease with him character and it shows on film. Exotic Barbara Bach is perfect as Anya Amasova. Curt Jurgens who plays shipping magnate Karl Stromberg, projects such a cold, dispassionate personality that he could have been mistaken for Blofeld in the Bonds of the early sixties. Carol Munro is also good as the helicopter pilot sent to kill Bond and Anya. But perhaps the most memorable character is the evil henchman Jaws played by Richard Kiel. Jaws is the one Bond henchman who was difficult to and, it seems, impossible to kill.

"The Spy Who Loved Me" manages to achieve something that the other Bond films in the seventies do not: it tells a entertaining, gripping spy tale and tells it in a grand manner. It also secured the future of James Bond to return for years to come. The box office for "The Spy Who Loved Me" was the largest to date for a Bond film, reviving popularity not seen in a decade.

The best print of this film is currently the DVD put out by MGM. However, the print on the DVD has obviously not been remastered and a special edition of this film probably be released some time in the future. However whether one buys now or waits until later, make sure "The Spy Who Loved Me" gets into your library.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fine DVD to accompany a great movie
Review: This is my personal favorite of the Roger Moore 007 movies so I was looking forward to the DVD to see what sort of commentary would be provided to go along with it. Here we are treated ti Producer Micheal Wilson, Designer Ken Adam and writer Chrostopher Wood recounting their memories of the movie in a screen-specific commentary. Added to this is a lengthy "Making of...." feature (over 40 minutes) that all in all combines to make this a movie that belongs in everyones DVD library. The movie iteself is intriguing with very satisfying action scenes, humor and the most beautiful actress ever to grace the movie screen - Barbara Bach...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best Moore film
Review: Roger Moore's breakthrough film, TSWLM, is arguably his best. The girls are great, including Barbara Bach, Caroline Munro, Sue Vanner, and Olga Bisera. I absolutely love the pre-title ski chase, and the gunfight aboard the Liparus is excellent. The cinematography is top-notch, and the sets by Ken Adam (Dr.No), (You Only Live Twice) are quite possibly the best in the entire series. Roger Moore proves he can give a better performance playing the campy, comic, self-deprecating Bond better than the serious, espionage Bond he played in For Your Eyes Only even though he does give a pretty good performance. However, even though he specializes in playing the comic Bond,he certainly isn't as suave, witty, or good overall as Sean Connery, who delivered an excellent performance in Diamonds Are Forever and a fairly good one in Never Say Never Again. Carly Simon's Nobody Does It Better title theme is my third favorite in the series, and the score is my third favorite also. Curt Jurgens is a good villain, yet he takes a back seat to the lead henchmen Jaws, just as Kananga takes a back seat to Tee-Hee and Baron Samedi. Overall, my fifth favorite Bond film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best 007 Movie Ever
Review: With the Cold War over, many 007 films have become dated. But the Spy Who Loved Me retains it's excitement and enjoyment with a good story, and the teaming of Roger Moore and Barbara Bach as agents who join forces to stop a madman (Curt Jergens) from blowing up the world. With Richard Kiel as Jaws and Desmond Lewyleen as Q, the film has great action, romance, humor, and an explosive climax. This ranks as the best James Bond movie ever made and they never did it better after this.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bond and Beyond
Review: The Spy Who Loved Me ranks as one of the best Bond films, ranked up there right with Goldfinger and George Lazenby's forgotten 007 adventure On Her Majesty's Secret Service. This is definitely Roger Moore's best Bond film, and to all things accountable, is worth the money you spend on it.

If you don't have any other James Bond films, I recommend you buy the 5-DVD set that has recently been released in May. The first 7-DVD set released much better films, while this one has duds like Moonraker and The Man with the Golden Gun, yet the extras on these DVDs are first-rate. This is the most beautifully transfered of all of the films in the set, as does it have the most special features.

What makes this movie so good? Roger Moore, in his third outing as Bond, seems to have finally gotten used to the role as 007. It seems as though all three of the longest-running Bonds (Connery, Moore and Brosnan) all had their best films the third time around--Connery's Goldfinger, Moore in this film, and Brosnan in The World is Not Enough. Barbara Bach as XXX is the second best Bond Girl in this movie, thankfully walking around in her performance in nicely revealing evening dresses. As did this film have the best henchman and villain since Goldfinger--Jaws and Stromberg. Telly Savalas' Blofeld in OHMSS was well-done, but this villain was a milestone in a string of less than satisfactory Bond films.

The features of this disc are first-rate. The 45-minute documentary is very interesting for Bond enthusiasts like myself. The previews (which are all basically the same) only goes to show how they have changed over the years. Watching one of these old movie previews nowadays is just like watching actual clips from the movie, something I'm not quite used to. Plus they always show the film's best stunts, so if you haven't watched the movie before, view that before you see the extras.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This is Moore's best and one for the collecion! Buy it!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "Remember - The Spy Who Loved Me"
Review: On July 7,1977 (7-7-77), The Spy Who Loved Me roared into theaters across the country to become one of the most financially successful Bond films of all time. The tenth in the series, TSWLM marks the begining of the big Bond films, a trend that would continue (with the exception of For Your Eyes Only) throughout the rest of the series. In this film, James Bond (Roger Moore) must join forces with Soviet secret agent XXX (Barbara Bach) as they track down two missing nuclear submarines. Their search takes them to Egypt, Sardinia, and Atlantis, a giant underwater city owned by the shipping mogal Stromberg. Stromberg wishes to use the two submarine to start World War III by launching nuclear missles at New York City and Moscow. If successful, he wishes to start a new civilization under the sea. This is a grand movie. The action, gadgetry and the sets themslves are absolutly wonderful. Two more reasons to see TSWLM: the villanous Jaws (7-foot 2-inch actor Richard Keil) and "Nobdy Does It Better" the title song is arguably one of the best Bond songs of all - it's my personal favorite. So anyway, see this movie. It's the biggest. It's the Best. It's Bond. And B-E-Y-O-N-D.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Moore's Best Bond
Review: This is Roger Moore's best Bond movie... not high praise. Actually, it's his only good one. If you can get past the weird '70s Teflon air of some of it, it has great stunts, a memorable theme song, a wonderful Lotus Esprit, and luscious Barbara Bach with her silly Rooshian accent. Not bad at all.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Remember - The Spy Who Loved Me
Review: The Spy Who Loved Me, the tenth installment in the Bond series, is arguably Roger Moore's second best; For Your Eyes Only was slightly better. In TSWLM, Bond must stop a manical shipping tycoon named Stromberg from starting World War III and starting a new civilization under the sea. He works with Russian agent XXX (Barbara Bach), and travels to Egypt, Sardinia, and Atlantis, an underwater city and the lair of Stromberg. This film, which is the first Bond to be produced solely by Cubby Brocoli, also has a cool henceman, Jaws, who survived only be too cartoonish two years later in 1979's Moonraker. Anyway, if you like a good Bond film, remember- The Spy Who Loved Me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BEST BOND AFTER GOLDFINGER.....AND WIDESCREEN ON DVD
Review: The Spy Who Loved Me is, to me, the best James Bond film after Goldfinger. And it is best viewed as it was originally intended, on a widescreen, which the DVD provides. After years of watching the SPy who Loved Me on the pan and scan versions on VHS, seeing it on DVD is like watching a whole new movie....you never know how much the other little details you missed on VHS.

There is a 45 minutes to an hour long documentary on the background of the Spy Who Loved Me which is very interesting.

There are also the commercial and theatric trailers. Let's say that movie trailers in the 1970s are done in a different style than todays. These trailers invoked more groans than eager anticipation.

As for the film itself, every classic traditional Bondian element is present and used to the FULL...amazing pre-titles sequence, great song by Carly Simon, accompanied by one of Maurice Binder's best titles. Great villain in Curt Jurgens, and the best henchman since Oddjob in Richard Kiel's Jaws. Great stunts, great soundtrack, and of course, the girls.....Barbara Bach is a great Anya Amasova; Caroline Munro is a virtual showstopper in a stunning bikini and pilots a mean helicopter. Olga Bisera and Sue Vanner are also suitably beautiful and alluring.

The Spy Who Loved Me is Roger Moore's best appearance as 007, and it is an epic in every sense of the word.


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