Customer Reviews

The Spy Who Loved Me (James Bond) [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(126)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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...
The movie really has it all and we learn before the main titles that this is going to be a very different 007 movie from the ones that preceded it. In 1977 audiences rose to their feet to cheer what is still one of the most amazing stunts in motion picture history. Accompanied by a disco beat (that I like) Bond leaves the cabin of one of the EON series' sexiest femme fatales, is pursued by Russian assassins and then ski's off a mountain-top, apparently to his death. But no a parachute opens and our hero glides effortlessly across our screen and into the waiting hands of the main titles - perfect.
I've never been a fan of Bond in the main titles and this is unfortunately the one that started this trend. My favorite main title sequences are those in which 007 does not appear.
The sequence at the submarine base introduces us to a couple of recurring characters, first is Minster Frederick Gray and then Admiral Hargreaves (who would later be promoted to the position of M). These are two welcome additions and Gray's appearance in particular would help the series four years later when the series lost Bernard Lee.
We also are introduced to Gen. Gogol as head of the KGB. Gogol would return in each of the successive movies until 1987's THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS when actor Walter Gotell's health had deteriorated to such an extent that his part was rewritten to a mere cameo, while the chunk of his scenes went to John Rhys-Davies.
What follows is a mix of action (the car chase, battle inside the Liparus and train fight stand out), drama (confrontation in the hotel room in particular) and Moore getting to be ruthless (dispatching Sandor from the rooftop - "What a helpful chap.") Of course any review of the movie would be remiss not to mention the introduction of Jaws.
Jaws is a killing machine who, although clumsy, does not think twice about murdering his prey.
Many fans are admirers of Caroline Munro in this picture. For me, the main thing I like about her appearances are the looks it illicits from Bach's Amasova - are those flickers of jealousy?
Really, everything comes together perfectly, the perfect girl, some of the best action and drama, great locations and all the while Moore's great humor, it is in this movie that he delivers one of my all-time favorite 007 lines - "All those feathers and he still couldn't fly!"
UPDATE- It should be noted that there is a rerelease of this movie coming up on DVD which will feature a newly recorded scene specific audio commentary by Bond actor Roger Moore. So, it may well be worth holding off on a purchase until these Ultimate Editions are released towards the end of 2006.

This is the best Bond movie
It has all the elements you expect in a Bond picture.
Action, great special effects, a lovely Bond girl, great music, and a perfect Bond.

Roger Moore knows after two movies, exactly how he has to play bond. A though, humerous and serious Bond.

Barbara Bach is just lovely in this movie. She is beautiful and plays the russian agent Anya perfectly. The most beautiful Bond girl.

The villain, played by Curt Jurgens, is evil and a perfect adversarry.

Richard Kiel is the most rememberale Villain side-kick.
He is a perfect match for Bond, and has a nice weapon...
Talking about dropping in for a bite...

-The Best Bond movie! See it for yourself! It will enjoy you until the last minute!

This is my favourite Bond movie and I have seen them all. Here are some of its assets:

- Great locations: Egypt, Sardinia, makes you want to be there as well
- The best Bond villain: Jaws
- A sexy and intelligent Bond girl + a sexy and ruthless female villain, Naomi (her role should have been longer)
- One of the best enemy hideouts, Atlantis, a giant waterworld fortress and the inside of a huge oil tanker
- The sets inside Atlantis and the tanker don't have this cheap plastic filmset look that you have in the enemy hideouts of the earlier Connery movies
- Roger Moore delivering his strongest performance
- The gadgets are also great, especially the Lotus Esprit that also functions as a submarine
- Bond's love interest nearly is his equal in her abilities, not some Bimbo, like in many other Bond movies

All in all, a great movie, I've probably watched it dozens of times with a cask of beer and some crackers, always makes a great Bond evening

James Bond is assigned to foil the plans of the evil Stromberg (Curt Jürgens) to destroy the world, so that he can create an underwater utopia. As Stromberg and his criminal syndicate have targeted both the Soviets and the Americans/British, he is lucky to be teamed up with the lovely Russian agent Triple X-Anya Amosova, played by the gorgeous Barbara Bach.

Bach plays my second favourite Bond girl-and the Bond girls are ALL so exquisite that they are hard to choose between.

Bond engages with several other beauties from the Swiss Alps to the deserts of Egypt ( a scantily clad belly dancing bevy of lovelies , are one of the magnificent delights Bond comes across when visiting his Egyptian host).to the Sardinia, where Stromberg's underwater compound is based.

In this one the frightening Jaws is also introduced as Stromberg's bloodthirsty assassin, , with his metallic razor sharp fangs, which cut through metal bars and chains, the necks of several of his victims, and even a man-eating shark. Jaws also crawls out of various seeming deaths-the perfect foil to Bond, as he has appeared as Bond's nemesis in several subsequent 007 flix.

This is certainly the best of all the Roger Moore Bond's, and while Moore's over-flippant style can be irritating, the surrounding, the action and the ladies let him get away with it , in this one at least.

The theme song by Carly Simon -Nobody Does it Better- is the best Bond theme song.

One has to admit that the title used for the sequel to Austin Powers was indeed very funny. But how many out there actually remember what its original source is, or for that matter, how good a film "The Spy Who Loved Me" actually was? This movie is the pinacle of the Roger Moore era and features his best performance as 007. But that is only the tip of the iceberg. The film has every element that makes a great James Bond film: a good villain with a great scheme (the dream of an underwater civilization), an even better henchman in Jaws (before he became a cartoon), one of the best and most beautiful Bond ladies (Barbara Bach as Russian agent XXX), perhaps second only to "Dr. No's" Ursulla Andress (although this one is a lot more liberated and sophisticated), exotic locales (Egypt, Sardinia), a fantastic gadget in the Lotus Espirit submarine car, which some might feel even rivals the original Aston Martin, an unforgetable title song (Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better"), and what is perhaps the most breathtaking stunt in the series (the ski-parachute jump in the opening sequence). The only slightly dissappointing aspect of the DVD is that the commentary by the director and crew is not as informative as most of the others. But the film is too good to even let that bother you.

Bond villains have a great way of delivering expansive threats. I've always wanted to be a guy like that. They also wear shiny tunics, and keep a couple hundred henchmen in matching brightly-colored polyester jumpsuits on the payroll. Stromberg, the thick-accented European baddie played with Alaskan wine relish by Curt Jurgens, is one of the better things about "The Spy Who Loved Me". He also has one of the cooler lairs in the Bond pantheon, with his octopoid home that rises into and out of the water accompanied by classical music.

Many rank TSWLM as one of the better Bond outings, and that's a good call. This was Cubby Broccoli's first time out as solo Bond producer, after buying out Harry Salzman, and he gets all the ingredients right. Spy is as much a template for the next 25 years' worth of Bond movies as was "Dr. No" and "Goldfinger" for the first 15. The opening stunt sequence, featuring Rick Sylvester's free-fall ski jump into the stratosphere, is certainly the defining moment for 007's current look, as much as Shirley Eaton's death-by-gold-paint launched the Bond phenomenon in the '60s. Even the most recent Bond movies follow "Spy"'s pacing and structure to a T.

Working with a lot of jumbled-up elements, "Spy" coalesces into a really satisfying whole: a nifty score by Marvin Hamlisch, Carly Simon's power-ballad opening song, a night-time set piece at the Pyramids, Richard Kiel's menacing metal-mouthed henchman in the improbably wide-lapeled powder-blue 1970s sports coat of death -- and Ken Adam's massive Supertanker set, complete with working elevators, lots of ramps and catwalks, and a control room blocked off by bulletproof steel shutters. This set catches fire and sinks into the Atlantic with impressive realism.

The DVD release features the usual movie trailers and TV ads, a pair of original documentaries (the 40-minute making-of, and a 20-minute feature on set designer Adam), and a well-organized photo gallery sorted by filming locations.

The highlight of the special features is the audio commentary. Earlier Bond movies featured a cut-and-paste commentary track, moderated by Bond experts. This track is a little more "standard", recorded all at once, and featuring Adam, director Lewis Gilbert, and series producer Michael G. Wilson ... with a little bit of help from screenwriter Christopher Wood. Adam and Wilson have terrific recall, and tell us about Cubby Broccoli's pasta-making adventure; which location restaurants got the crew sick; and reminds us that the nuclear missiles used in the movie were not actually fully armed. The DVD box promises commentary by "cast and crew", but that's only half right.

Roger Moore had a decent start as James Bond in "Live and Let Die," then faltered in "The Man with the Golden Gun." In "The Spy Who Loved Me" Bond roars back with one of his best and one of the best in the Bond series.

Karl Stromberg (Kurt Jürgens) is attempting to cause the superpowers to destroy each other so that he can become the controlling force in a world that will live on the ocean's floor. James Bond and Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) play cat and mouse with Stromberg's henchmen as they try to find out who is stealing Soviet and American nuclear submarines, how they are being stolen, and why they are being stolen. In the course of their search they meet up with Richard Kiel as Jaws in his first Bond appearance, and the beautiful Caroline Munro as Naomi. Munro has played in a variety of B-movies such as "Dr. Phibes Rises Again!" and "At the Earth's Core."

Moore's previous two Bond films minimized gadgetry in an attempt to focus on Bond the spy, but in this movie the gadgets are back all around. The best gadget is the coolest Bond car since the Aston-Martin DB-5, a Lotus Esprit Turbo. This car can go underwater, is generally bullet proof, has underwater mines, missiles (poor Caroline Munro) and several other interesting gadgets. At the beginning of the movie Bond escapes from assorted Soviet assassins by skiing off a cliff and then parachuting to safety. Of course he is aided in that getaway by a ski pole gun. Bond also has a type of jet ski. In one of the more interesting scenes in the movie Bond uses an electromagnet in combat against Jaws. You would also have to include Stromberg's underwater fortress as part of the gadgets in the movie, along with a ship that eats submarines. I think you get the drift. There are a lot of gadgets in this movie.

The movie unfolds in a variety of exotic locations. The best are in Egypt where pyramids and excavations form a backdrop for several scenes. The locations also include a mountainous Mediterranean island along with the beautiful beaches of that island.

The score keeps up the tradition of having an outstanding theme song with Carly Simon's rendition of "The Spy Who Loved Me," one of the best theme songs to any Bond movie and a hit for Simon in the 70s.

This movie is quite interesting in that Stromberg in the central antagonist, and yet the majority of the action is between Bond and various Stromberg henchmen. Richard Kiel gets a lot of film time, including a rather interesting battle with Bond and Amasova in a desert excavation, and then another battle with Jaws on Stromberg's underwater fortress, ending with Jaws in a brief, ironic battle with a shark. The wimpy captain of the tanker also gets quite a bit of film time, unfortunately. The captain is one of the wimpiest Bond bad guys ever. Naomi, on the other hand, is in the tradition of the beautiful, strong and evil women that Bond has had to face often, particularly in newer Bond films.

The comedy in this movie was significantly subdued after the near parody of "The Man with the Golden Gun." Thank goodness. The humor had become overwhelming and distracting. Moore's Bond is relatively serious in this film, with the fewest one-liners and double entendre's of any of the previous several Bond films. The result is a much more serious and effective spy movie.

This movie succeeds with a solid plot that is a throw back to the earliest Connery films, a solid cast, excellent locations, and plausible gadgets. One of the best of the series and perhaps Moore's best.

Roger Moore's tenure as James Bond included the worst 007 entries. The best of a mostly bad lot, "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) functions as a greatest-hits anthology with barely enough plot holding it together. Director Lewis Gilbert stages some terrific action setpieces, but the large budget cannot mask a derivative screenplay and lackluster Bond villain (played by Curt Jurgens). At least Moore has a slightly harder edge than usual.

Roger Moore finally hits his stride, in this, my personal favorite of the James Bond epics. A thrilling throwback to the 60's Bonds has 007 going after demented millionaire Karl Stromberg (a smooth and scary Curt Jurgens), who plots to destroy the free world in order to rule an undersea kingdom of his own. Assisting him is towering steel-toothed goon, Jaws (an even scarier Richard Kiel). Jaws is the BEST Bond Henchman in history (at least in this Bond effort)! He could even give Oddjob, or Tee Hee, a run for their money! Barbara Bach is one of the best Bond girls as Anya Ammasova (aka: Agent XXX)! One wishes that B-movie siren Caroline Munro had more screen time, as luscious femme-fatalle Naomi. Non-stop action and gadgets gallore! Gotta love that Lotus Esprit Submarine Car! Stunt skiier Rick Sylvester performs one of filmdom's greatest stunts. His ski-jump off Mt. Asgard, is still a total jaw-dropper! Production designer Ken Adams's best work since You Only Live Twice (the Academy justifiably gave Adams his long-overdue Oscar nomination for his work on the Bond series)! Oscar winning composer Marvin Hamlisch also scored with nominations for Best Original Score and for Best Song. 70's crooner Carly Simon sings the classic Bond tune "Nobody Does It Better" with perfect tonality! To me, this is the one Bond movie that has it ALL!

This is one of my favorite 007 flims and I love it so much. Hero;James Bond Places;London,Egypt Girls; Anya Amansova Villain;Stromberg Henchmen Naomi,Jaws Villains project;nuking,stealing submaries from moscow I suggest you get this for DVD you really won't regret it. And Barbara Bach is sexy as Triple XXX.