I wasn't a Bond fan back in the day, but when the movies came out, I always wondered what the titles were all about. "Goldfinger" is an example, but "Octopussy" really threw me for a loop. I was never curious enough to find out, but I've taken up watching the films in series order recently so now I'm in the know. Maud Adams portrays the infamously named Octopussy of the title, heading up a band of female jewelry smugglers whose insignia is modeled on the blue ringed octopus. I couldn't resist checking to see if there is such a thing, and now that I know, I think the filmmakers missed a huge opportunity to make more of the creature in the story line. It turns out the blue ringed octopus has venom a thousand times more powerful than cyanide, enough to kill up to twenty six humans in a matter of minutes. What possibilities for a Bond villain to exploit.
Well, I don't know. I was paying pretty close attention to the story and I have to admit this one went off in a number of different directions that made things difficult to follow. You have to give Roger Moore some credit for putting up with some of the nonsense Double 007 had to go through here, like the crocodile get-up and the clown suit. The vine swing with a Weissmuller Tarzan tribute was notable for me only because of my fondness for all those jungle flicks back in the day, but really? And I don't know about you, but the stuffed sheep's head might have looked interesting in it's own way, but come on - who would eat anything like that? Like the poached monkey brain in one of those Indiana Jones pictures.
So if I've got this right, the lunatic Russian General Orlov (Steven Berkoff) had this plan to have all of Europe unilaterally disarm after a nuclear bomb goes off 'by accident', with no one to blame because it wouldn't have been able to trace back to the Russkies. But the guy is shot by his own soldiers for turning into a common jewelry thief. All of this following a set up that involved the theft of a priceless Faberge egg, recovered by Bond and returned to the Russians, lent back to the Brits, and stolen from Bond by wealthy Indian industrialist Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan). Adding a little color to the story, the Octopussy Circus becomes ground zero for a deadly atomic bomb explosion unless James Bond can defuse the device just in the nick of time with one second to spare. Sounds like par for the course to me.
And by the way, anyone else wondering about the Faberge egg? Anybody care?
Well, I don't know. I was paying pretty close attention to the story and I have to admit this one went off in a number of different directions that made things difficult to follow. You have to give Roger Moore some credit for putting up with some of the nonsense Double 007 had to go through here, like the crocodile get-up and the clown suit. The vine swing with a Weissmuller Tarzan tribute was notable for me only because of my fondness for all those jungle flicks back in the day, but really? And I don't know about you, but the stuffed sheep's head might have looked interesting in it's own way, but come on - who would eat anything like that? Like the poached monkey brain in one of those Indiana Jones pictures.
So if I've got this right, the lunatic Russian General Orlov (Steven Berkoff) had this plan to have all of Europe unilaterally disarm after a nuclear bomb goes off 'by accident', with no one to blame because it wouldn't have been able to trace back to the Russkies. But the guy is shot by his own soldiers for turning into a common jewelry thief. All of this following a set up that involved the theft of a priceless Faberge egg, recovered by Bond and returned to the Russians, lent back to the Brits, and stolen from Bond by wealthy Indian industrialist Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan). Adding a little color to the story, the Octopussy Circus becomes ground zero for a deadly atomic bomb explosion unless James Bond can defuse the device just in the nick of time with one second to spare. Sounds like par for the course to me.
And by the way, anyone else wondering about the Faberge egg? Anybody care?