directed by Lewis Gilbert
written by Christopher Wood
based on the novel by Ian Fleming
starring Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel, Corrine Clery, Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Desmond Llewelyn, Lois Maxwell, Toshiro Suga, Emily Bolton, Blanche Ravalec
Yes, it’s starting to get a bit trite with these films. This is the eleventh Bond and it’s showing just how formulaic this series has gotten over the years. Nothing changes, nothing transforms. Bond is still a pig who happens to know the best way to eat away at the knickers of every female he encounters. It’s completely predictable but it matters not when the scenes are thrilling and seem to be construing something that hasn’t been seen before. That is not the case with this film as most if not all of the action seems to be merely mixing up the locations a bit from previous films. This one puts Bond (Moore) in space where he magically saves Earth from total annihilation with his rapid fire thinking and the help of his present lust object the comely, efficient and hysterically named Dr. Holly Goodhead (Chiles).
We have here the effete and maniacal Hugo Drax (Lonsdale) who makes shuttles and shuffles about like a tit. You know he’s powerful because he moves slowly with his hands behind his back. He shifts dozens or so genetically sound humans up to space so he can create a master race and repopulate the earth where his subjects will worship him like some sort of god. He’s not the most scintillating of Bond adversaries and it’s difficult to take him seriously considering how soft and ineffectual he comes across. He lacks the authoritarian command that previous arch-fiends have demonstrated in their equally preposterous attempts to wreak total havoc on the planet in order to satisfy their crude, megalomaniacal ambitions. Style is shoved out of the plane like Bond in the opening sequence. The elegance of the first Bond films has been replaced by a cold, inexplicable dullness that causes this film to drag on toward its predictable, flat conclusion.
Still, the last twenty minutes are exceedingly thrilling up until the point when Bond and his lady friend start to sort everything out. Then we merely have more of the same leading to the two makeshift astronauts abandoning their posts and going for the ubiquitous good hearted screw. Bond nails three women in this film with absurd ease and none of them even bother to put up a fight. It’s always been the ones who refuse him that retain their dignity in his callous eyes. Pussy Galore made it difficult for him but all that cool resistence has been obliterated. I can’t but help find it tedious and rather hackneyed even with the cheap double entendres that accompany many of these escapades. When it was all new it came on decidedly with pizzazz and Bond’s brilliance for divesting girlies of their pink striped panties was a glorious thing. Now we’ve seen it all too many times before and it has lost its luster.
Dr. Goodhead, another of the greatly named Bond vixens, is something of a whiz space scientist. She’s serious, buttoned up, and terribly cold at times. She melts like cheap wax whenever she feels the heat emanating from Bond’s secret hangar and can hardly wait to lay him down and grind her naughty bits in his face. It would have been nice to have her see through the ruse where Bond breaks them down due to his extraordinary humping skills but alas that does not happen. She’s physically demonstrative, savvy, heady and drop dead gorgeous which should pose something of a challenge but that is not what these Bond films have become. It wouldn’t be Bond without a whole lot of tail because the character has so much sexual potency that he can hardly stand himself if he doesn’t take it out in random encounters with every woman save Miss Moneypenny that he meets. It used to be sexy but now it’s merely perfunctory. It’s what we expect him to do and it’s all become so systematic that it lacks the allure it once possessed back when it was Sean Connery doing the seducing.
I admit to not having taken to Roger Moore in this role. He’s dashing enough and there is a vitality about him that is necessary. But he lacks the smirk that Connery put forth which said that his character was having the time of his life and was at ease in every situtation. Moore’s too serious in these films and comes off as merely a artless action hero without a semblance of poetry to his maneuverings. He’s almost robotic at times and lacks the ease of movement which was Connery’s trademark.
The great Richard Kiel reprises his Jaws role and brings a tremendous life to the film. Every one of his appearances on screen is threatening and exquisitely framed. He makes this film better than it ought to be and provides terrific energy whenever he takes out whomever is standing in his way. His work late in the film is tender and heartrending and he does it all without speaking although he finally does so at the very end of the film.
The performances in this film are all adequately presented. Lois Chiles is lovely and potent and has all of the qualities a Bond girl needs. Goodhead is a bit sly, sneaky, and exceedingly smart although she never truly comes on like a total sexpot. She’s more reserved and self-contained which makes her rendevous’s with Bond somewhat refreshing but not too much. Michael Lonsdale provides his character with a languidness that he plays with for the duration of the film. Sometimes it feels like he’s moving too slowly and he’s about to pause to give a long soliloquy about the messianic potentialities inherent in mass extinction and world domination. But he doesn’t and merely proceeds dutifully and unimpressively.
Overall, this film just seems to lack the energy of some of the better Bond films. There is danger just before the end but prior to that there are just countless moments where nothing of note happens. Admittedly, all the scenes in “space” are pretty dynamic and gorgeously shot. It’s an impressive feat of technology to bring such a glorious set to life and it adds a haunting quality to the film that is lost during many of the other scenes. Ultimately the film comes off flatly and is not possessed of the urgency that some of the better films demonstrated with clarity and precision. It isn’t a terrible film only disappointing when compared to some of the others in the series.
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