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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For Your Eyes Only, February 25, 2007
One of the most revered of the Roger Moore Bond stints, this film starts with the much-maligned Bond vs. Blofeld mini-meet teaser. Blofeld is back for about seven minutes trying to kill Bond by trapping him in a radio-controlled helicopter, only to see Bond outsmart him one last time. This is considered a stupid start to a superior Bond outing, but I have to say I really don't mind it; Bond clinging to the outside of a wildly careening helicopter, completely at the mercy of his old foe, makes for an exciting deathtrap. I also like the fact that Blofeld uses Bond's visit to his deceased wife's gravesite against him, since, of course it was Blofeld who had her killed. The teaser is horribly ruined right at the end when Bond, who gains the advantage at the last second and has his wife's murderer at his mercy, starts throwing out joke lines, and is entirely too whimsical given the situation. And Blofeld's final bit of dialogue is awful.
Enough about the teaser (and let's skip over Sheena Easton's image being allowed to invade the opening credits), onto the film proper: it's undeniably terrific as a more realistic approach to Bond. The plot is still slick and streamlined, with lots of fun twists, explosions, car chases, gorgeous women, ritzy and/or exotic locales, assassins, gadgets, and breathtaking stunts. So. Where then does the realism come in? It's, uh, well hmm, it's rather difficult to pin down at first, but would become, I think, more apparent if watched on a double-bill with Die Another Day.
In For Your Eyes Only, many of the extended action sequences are slowed down to create tension, rather than over-the-top action. I think back to the lightning fast jump-cutting all throughout On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and then I think of the simmering tension of the mountain-climbing mayhem near the end of For Your Eyes Only. Before that, there are three watery deathtrap sequences in a row for Bond to survive: hand-to-hand combat with a thug in a deepwater diving suit 400 feet below, where movement is slow and awkward; next, a mini-sub duel involving two unwieldy vehicles; finally, a keelhauling sequence where villain Kristatos pulls Bond and his lady of the 80's across the same coral reef three times just to spill enough blood to lure in the sharks. There is, about all this, a strangely unhurried pace that should continuously drag the film down--make it a dull Bond flick. But it doesn't. If movement underwater, and climbing a tall mountain while the bad guy tries to scrape you off the side, are keynotes to the script, you might as well find a way to make it work, by sacrificing loud super-speed for trembling tension. Then they praise you for realism in Bond, so you can't lose.
Anyway, the plot is splendid. Bond gets manipulated by the villain into chasing the wrong man, while the actual head creepo closes in on A.T.A.C., a revolutionary surveillance system that sank off Albania in a spyship disguised as a fishing trawler. He wants to sell it to the Russians so they can use it against its British makers. When he murders a man named Havelock just to prevent him from getting to A.T.A.C. first, his beautiful (are you shocked?) daughter picks up a crossbow and targets revenge. Carole Bouquet is one of my favourite Bond ladies, and of course Bond thinks so too once they meet, though he's troubled by her bloodthirstiness.
Final word: it's one of Roger Moore's best Bond films, though it is not as thrilling or outrageous as most other 007 extravaganzas. Moore is suave, if perhaps a little underwhelming at times; he seems quite assured in the role here, and it's somewhat delightful that the army of trained killers he wades through in this adventure can't ruffle him half as much as the young flirtatious figure-skater who jumps in his lap every chance she gets. For Your Eyes Only is a classy, seamless production that I enjoy every time I power it up.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Back to Basics, January 6, 2007
After James Bond's outer space adventure and other outrageousness, 007 returns to earth. Roger Moore tries getting a tougher image in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. John Barry is once again absent and Bill Conti is brought in to score. It seems to have all worked but the film does seem to run out of steam near the end.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More or less Roger's finest hour, February 18, 2007
For Your Eyes Only is showing its age a bit now. At the time a hugely welcome return to basics after the leaden FX spectacle of Moonraker (the second remake of You Only Live Twice in a row for the series), it still holds up as one of the best of Roger Moore's Bonds, but its faults are much more apparent than they once were. Among them is the tendency to undercut everything with unfunny little jokes (a scoreboard keeping count of thugs Bond knocks out, Bond giving a bemused royal wave to pursuing thugs, and a horrendous cameo from a Maggie Thatcher lookalike in the end), some flat studio work (no disguising the fact that the mountaintop Greek monastery is just a Pinewood set), a dated Bill Conti score and a comic relief nympho nymphet Lynn Holly Johnson constantly throwing herself at a disinterested Bond. Luckily, the pluses more than compensate - a stronger plot than usual for the Moore efforts, at least one cold-blooded murder, and a very welcome absence of gadgets until the postscript that ensures that Bond has to extricate himself with his own wits in some pretty good setpieces. Best among them is a mountaineering sequence where he uses his bootlaces - not steel bootlaces, just common bootlaces - to save himself in an old mountaineers trick.
Although the original DVD wasn't the most fully loaded disc on the market, there's less of an upgrade in terms of extras than meets the eye on this 2-disc 'ultimate edition.' Alongside Roger Moore's new audio commentary there are two deleted scenes, one of them a welcome addition that brings a bit of tension to Bond and Melina's relationship as she chastises him over his nocturnal activities, but the three new featurettes are little more than fairly raw behind the scenes footage while the multi-angle alternate versions of Bond's cold-blooded killing of Loque are particularly badly laid out. The menu also lists the 3 slight variations on the theatrical trailer carried over from the previous edition as TV spots!
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