Ian Fleming's James Bond entered the '80s with a power-ballad theme song ahead of its time, but little else about "For Your Eyes Only" marks a progressive foray into the future for 007. Rather, it's back to basics, which is altogether comforting to Bond fans, albeit a little flat.
"For Your Eyes Only" gets off to a rocky start, teasing the return of Blofeld in an irrelevant helicopter sequence more interested in giving a middle finger to former "Bond" writer/producer Kevin McClory (who won the rights to the character in a court case) than meaningfully entertaining "Bond" fans. The post-opening credits early going is also a little rough in the way it introduces Carole Bouquet as a revenge-driven Bond girl. And composer Bill Conti makes it extremely apparent that John Barry did not score this movie.
The film gets progressively better, sequence by sequence. A ski chase in Cortina improves upon a Spanish road chase in a tiny Citroen. Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson's script doesn't break ground here as Bond (Roger Moore) and Bouquet's Melina chase after the MacGuffin, but its remarkably truer to the espionage Bond world of the Sean Connery era.
So much of "FYEO" is a knee-jerk response to criticisms of "Moonraker," which pushed hard on innovation while losing story and character. For all the ways "FYEO" compensates for that, it loses innovation. So much of the film is a reprisal of concepts executed better in "Thunderball" and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service."
John Glen, an editor on "The Spy Who Loved Me," "Moonraker" and "OHMSS," takes over for Lewis Gilbert despite no directing credits to his name previously, a sign of Albert R. Broccoli wanting to maintain status quo. Glen is rather brilliant in conducting the Cortina ski chase, but the rest is merely the execution of formulaic beats. Aside from the ending rock-climbing sequence with some phenomenal stunt work, there are few other memorable visual moments.
Production designer Ken Adam is also sorely missed. His set work infused each "Bond" movie with a certain verve, often bringing a gravity to what was otherwise just formula. "FYEO" has some great location shooting in the Italian Alps and mountains of Greece, but globe-trotting is nothing new to this franchise.
Same old, same old isn't a bad thing, but "For Your Eyes Only" has little that it can tout as above, beyond or different from its peers aside from a crossbow-wielding blue-eyed young French woman (playing a Greek woman), a jaw-dropping rock-climbing stunt and Bond turning down a teenager character for sex before ending up with a character played by an actress a whole one year older than her.
It's the vanilla ice cream of the Roger Moore era-you're not going to throw it out, but you're not exactly going to rave about it to all your friends. Strangest of all, it grades out about the same as "Moonraker," but for entirely different reasons.
~Steven C
"For Your Eyes Only" gets off to a rocky start, teasing the return of Blofeld in an irrelevant helicopter sequence more interested in giving a middle finger to former "Bond" writer/producer Kevin McClory (who won the rights to the character in a court case) than meaningfully entertaining "Bond" fans. The post-opening credits early going is also a little rough in the way it introduces Carole Bouquet as a revenge-driven Bond girl. And composer Bill Conti makes it extremely apparent that John Barry did not score this movie.
The film gets progressively better, sequence by sequence. A ski chase in Cortina improves upon a Spanish road chase in a tiny Citroen. Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson's script doesn't break ground here as Bond (Roger Moore) and Bouquet's Melina chase after the MacGuffin, but its remarkably truer to the espionage Bond world of the Sean Connery era.
So much of "FYEO" is a knee-jerk response to criticisms of "Moonraker," which pushed hard on innovation while losing story and character. For all the ways "FYEO" compensates for that, it loses innovation. So much of the film is a reprisal of concepts executed better in "Thunderball" and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service."
John Glen, an editor on "The Spy Who Loved Me," "Moonraker" and "OHMSS," takes over for Lewis Gilbert despite no directing credits to his name previously, a sign of Albert R. Broccoli wanting to maintain status quo. Glen is rather brilliant in conducting the Cortina ski chase, but the rest is merely the execution of formulaic beats. Aside from the ending rock-climbing sequence with some phenomenal stunt work, there are few other memorable visual moments.
Production designer Ken Adam is also sorely missed. His set work infused each "Bond" movie with a certain verve, often bringing a gravity to what was otherwise just formula. "FYEO" has some great location shooting in the Italian Alps and mountains of Greece, but globe-trotting is nothing new to this franchise.
Same old, same old isn't a bad thing, but "For Your Eyes Only" has little that it can tout as above, beyond or different from its peers aside from a crossbow-wielding blue-eyed young French woman (playing a Greek woman), a jaw-dropping rock-climbing stunt and Bond turning down a teenager character for sex before ending up with a character played by an actress a whole one year older than her.
It's the vanilla ice cream of the Roger Moore era-you're not going to throw it out, but you're not exactly going to rave about it to all your friends. Strangest of all, it grades out about the same as "Moonraker," but for entirely different reasons.
~Steven C