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If we take away the unflawed masterpieces that are TSWLM, FRWL and LALD, Octopussy is the best James Bond film of the series. Film number 13 wasn't unlucky for the series as it reached an All Time High with such a great and wonderful film that apart from the aforementioned films hasn't been bettered before or since.
Octopussy is a film carved out from the Cold War escualtion that was being undertaken under the leadership in the west of Thatcher and Reagan. The plot is a good solid Bond plot: baddies using a bomb to advance there own interests and to dominate the world. Octopussy delves deeper though, creating a lovely sub-plot of jewellery smuggling that hides the real intensions. Octopussy lays bare the frightening facts that were faced by the West in the 1980's: that there really was a mad Russian General looking to sweep away the post-war peace of Europe. The film takes place in a myriad of different places, from Cuba (implied), through to the grandeur of Sotherby's in London, to the magnificent exoticism of India through to Berlin and East Germany. A rich canvas of different styles and flavours come together to create a memorable backdrop for a magnificent story filmed in such a beautiful way.
Roger Moore is perfect in Octopussy. He delivers every line immaculately and perfectly timed, saying everything with grace and suaveness. He looks as fit as he ever has and doesn't look too old to be playing Bond. Moore is extremely comfortable in the role by this stage and the confidence he gets from equally Connery's record of six Bond movies is shown throughout the film. Moore, as always, delivers the humour and the one liners with great panache. But what stands Octopussy out from the rest of Moore's film is his quality acting during the serious and tense scenes. In this, Moore is magnificent and silences all those who say he is a cardboard cut out, a joke who can't act. Moore uses his tone of voice and his facial expressions to act and his performance in this is up there with the very best in the series.
Having discussed the plot and Moore's performance, it is only fair that I focus this review on the best scene within the Bond film franchise. I have stated previously my belief that the whole Germany sequence in the film is the greatest and most tensest scene in a Bond movie. Upon recent viewing, nothing dampens my view point. Credit must go to John Glen, the Editor and the actors involved, specifically Roger Moore for creating this spectacular sequence. With the tense scenes being played out against a backdrop of a terrific John Barry soundtrack, the Germany sequence in Octopussy exposes Moore's Bond as a spy who cares but despises evil. Bond is, for one of the rare times, visibly shocked and disgusted at a villains plan of killing innocent people. This fear and disgust from Moore drives the whole sequence and is so gripping for the audience. From the fight on the train, to the chase through the woods, to the desperation of Bond hitch hiking to the race against time, the sequence is mesmirising in it's pace and tension and it all heads for a frantic climax where Bond (dressed superbly as a clown) disarms the bomb. Brilliant...there is just no other word.
The wider cast of the film all play a key role in helping to establish Octopussy as a classic of the series. General Orlov, the Russian general hellbent on world domination, is complimented superbly by the sly, suave Kemal Khan, played deliciously by Louis Jourdan. Both are equally menacing in different ways and manipulate a number of people manipulatively to further there interests. Both are highly memorable and the only downside is that the success of them prompted the producers to 'repeat the trick' disastrously in TLD with the inept Koskov/Whitaker. Both are classic Bond villains in the tradition of Dr No, Goldfinger, Blofeld, Kananga and Scaramanga.
Octopussy is compliment by two fabously talented and beautiful Bond girls. Maud Adams is superb as Octopussy and a mature leading lady with a mature Bond is played so well, creating an energy and chemistry on screen that is rarely seen between Bond and the girl in other films. Octopussy's innocence of the plan by Orlov and Khan makes you feel sorry for her more than other. Magda plays almost a "Hench Bond Girl" role in at first seducing Bond to bed to get the egg before becoming an ally. Both are stunning and at beauty to the exoticism.
The action sequences in the film are thoroughly enjoyable and superb. The chase of 009 after the brilliant title song is equally as tense and dramatic as the Germany sequence discussed earlier. It's almost shocking the brutality of it, something that is never credited to the film. The chase scene in the taxi is equally as strong and frenetic and the actors and stunt team do a great job in providing entertainment whilst showing a real sense of plight. Ultimately, Octopussy will be remembered in terms of action for the beginning and the end...and both involve a plane! The PTS in Octopussy is one of the very best in terms of action and stunts. The plane scene is terrific and once again tense. As is the ending, though with admittedly less of an effect. Both are still quality and shouldn;t be undervalued. The chase scene through the jungle is just as great and tense, something aided by Moore looking dishevelled and desperate (Tarzan is OP's only fault).
Overall, Octopussy is an outstanding Bond film, one of the very best. I'm amazed there is not much love it as it is a superb entry into the series and Moore gives one of his finest performances.
Maybe this wasn't the place for this kind of review as I realize now it's for favorite reviews and not general reviews so I apologize before time, but I'm sticking with what I said. I will add though, despite all the berating, there is a lot of fun to be had and it does get you involved
Goodnight
The story itself here wasn't masterfully designed, but like I said about Skyfall: sometimes it's more important how you tell a story than the actual story itself. With the hunt for the Faberge egg, following all of the hands it's been through, along with the fake one, makes me commend the writers for their cleverness.
Winning lots of money at a casino and then uses it to attract a blockade of people in a chase sequence. This is among many things that other Bond actors would have too much pride to do, whereas Moore relishes doing these kind of things. But beneath the silly antics, in some more serious scenes, are this Bond's genuine concern for the world and humanity beyond just his mission.
The action scenes are at their best, most tense and full of wit. They're creative and absurd, between Bond pretending to hide in a gorilla suit, a clan of girls taking down guards, the train sequences, knife-throwing and, of course, Roger Moore in a clown suit trying to defuse a bomb. Bond's tenure as a clown was a bit on the short side, but it was every bit as entertaining as I thought it would be.
There have often been arguments that the "campy" take on the Bond series was for the worse, but Octopussy, at least to me, proves that silly can be done right, if there's an overall quality movie behind it. Yes, Moore at this point is very old, but I wouldn't have replaced him with anyone.
Theme Song: (All Time High by Rita Coolidge) It gets a lot of hate. It's a decent song with a nice melody. Sometimes the singing is lethargic but it's good enough I guess.
"Bond Girl": (Octopussy) As an older woman, she was well-cased with an older Roger Moore. And, thankfully, she's more than just a trope this time in her 2nd outing.
Villain: None of them are impressive, neither the forgettable general nor his burly henchman, whose names I'm already forgetting. However, a Bond film's quality doesn't always rely on their villains.
One-Liners: "Englishman. Likes eggs, preferably Faberge, and dice, preferably loaded."
Overall Rating: 8/10 (Great)
Need to quote @DarthDimi again.
The reviews threads are for that purpose only. They are not for general discussion of each movie.
In 1981, Harrison Ford starred as Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, produced by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg. Set in the 1930's, Indiana Jones is a throwback to the film serials of the 30's. Both Lucas and Spielberg were inspired by the early Bond films, and both readily acknowledged that. Lucas imagined a tough, resourceful and incorruptible character – think of an American James Bond – who would support as franchise. The action sequences to “Raiders” even rivaled those seen in For Your Eyes Only.
With the success of For Your Eyes Only – it virtually matched the box office takings of the hi-tech Moonraker – Cubby knew that the more grounded approach worked. Thus, he decided to continue in the same vein with Octopussy, EON's thirteenth Bond picture.
Cubby contacted George MacDonald Fraser to write the first draft for the new Bond film. Fraser authored the Flashman stories, set primarily in 1800's India. Which, incidentally, was part of the world that Commander Bond had not visited. Naturally the filmmakers determined to rectify that.
Fraser's “Flashman” stories were a combination of derring-do adventure, set against a historical setting. This was the same feeling that the filmmakers wanted to capture – the old world and slightly nostalgic, romantic atmosphere that was prevalent in both the Indiana Jones film and the Flashman novels.
After Fraser, Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson undertook the writing of Octopussy's screenplay. Together they produced an absorbing tale full of intrigue, romance, and old world thrills and spills; set mainly in India, with the more modern setting centred in Germany.
This duality between colonial style India and modern Germany is quite fascinating, the contrast between new and old, and Bond's reaction to that is diverting. Bond seems quite at home in India, recalling the then colonial Jamaica that the literary Bond found himself in from time to time.
Octopussy's screenplay also managed to find room for two of Ian Fleming's short stories, Octopussy and The Property of a Lady, which are worked well into the film.
Published posthumously in 1966, after Octopussy was run in comic book form for the Daily Express, Octopussy details the story of Major D. Smythe and the location of Nazi gold. Bond tracks the Major down, and gives him time to sort his affairs out, before taking him in.
In the film, the titular Octopussy (Maud Adams) is the daughter of Smythe, and thanks Bond for allowing her father to commit suicide, rather than face the ignominy of a court martial.
The Property of a Lady was also contained in the Octopussy short story collection, alongside The Living Daylights. Like Octopussy, it appeared before in a 1963 Sotheby's Auction House publication. In the film, Bond travels to Sotheby's on the trail of a fake Fabergé Egg. This leads to a quite wonderful scene in which Bond enters a bidding war with Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan). This allows Bond to see how badly Khan wants the Egg, provoking Khan to pay over the odds for the rare jewel. It is a clever way to have both stories incorporated, even more so when it reveals facets to Bond's character, namely compassion (Smythe) and provocation (Khan).
The screenwriters devise a fiendishly clever plot for Octopussy. What appears to be a simple gem smuggling caper, turns out to be much more sinister. The plot to Octopussy is thus – 009 is discovered dead clutching a fake Fabergé Egg, dressed as a clown. Octopussy, a wily circus entrepreneur, and exiled Afghan Prince, Kamal Khan, have a successful gem smuggling empire, using Octopussy's travelling circus as a front.
General Orlov (Steven Berkoff) is using Octopussy's circus to smuggle valuable Kremlin gems, such as the exquisite Romanov star; the spoils going three ways: Khan, Octopussy, and himself.
In fact, Orlov and Khan are planning to double cross Octopussy. They plan to instead smuggle a nuclear bomb, with the circus, into an U.S. Air Force Base in Western Germany. Orlov hopes to force unilateral disarmament, following the “accident”, leaving the way clear for the Soviet Army to go unchecked throughout Western Europe.
It is quite refreshing to have a plot that is so intelligent in design, making Octopussy one of the most multifarious schemes in the series, which supports several repeat viewings.
All of which plays on the fears of nuclear war. This was informed by the fact that the Cold War was heating up over Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF). The U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, promised to remove all the INF's from Europe, providing his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, relinquishes his own nuclear forces. Naturally, the European powers were not happy about this suggestion.
The Soviet Forces were vastly superior to the NATO forces, and it was feared that the Soviet Army could waltz right through Western Europe, in a similar scenario to Orlov's vision. The only thing stopping that was the INF's of NATO.
Once more international events provided gist for the Bond screenwriters. The Bond films have always prided themselves on being apolitical, so one of the villains of the piece was the rogue and unhinged Russian General Orlov, played with great relish by Berkoff. Both the Western and Soviet government's worked together to stop Orlov.
The screenplay itself is brisk and inventive. For example, the PTS centred around Bond's Acrostar mini jet is a hoot, featuring humour and thrills. The mini jet was meant to appear in Moonraker, but even that expansive a film could not fit it in. The Acrostar is well recycled here.
The sequences set in India are imaginative and seem to be set in a bygone era. Two such examples are when Bond is being hunted by Kamal's men in an homage to the novel, The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, 1924, and the extended Tuk-Tuk chase through the teeming streets of Udaipur.
Unfortunately the segments set in India fall prey to a few gags – Bond does a Tarzan yell while swinging from some vines. This was former tennis star Vijay Amritraj's début film, as Bond's local contact. In the Tuk-Tuk chase, Vijay fends the thugs off with a tennis racket, and the onlookers react as if they are at Wimbledon, just to name but a couple.
Thankfully Octopussy only has a few instances of overt humour, and indeed there is a lot of tension once the film reaches Germany, after the exotic, entertaining passages in India. When Bond is in Germany chasing the bomb, Octopussy's climax is one of the tensest in all of Bondom. Even more so when one compares it to the escapades in India.
Some reviewers have pointed out that the two different portions of Octopussy are discordant. Is the film meant to be breezy such as Moonraker or relatively serious like For Your Eyes Only?
Yet that is the ingenuity of Octopussy's story. One needs the diversion of the India segments for it to have the same effect – a volte-face as the movie hurtles towards its climax. The romance of India and the seriousness of Germany make Octopussy one of the more complex and colourful outings for Commander Bond.
There is a great deal of tension to Octopussy just beneath the genial nature to the film: the knife wielding twins pursuing 009; the aforementioned auction scene; Bond and Kamal doing battle over backgammon, a neat reworking of the iconic golf game in Goldfinger, and Bond and Orlov's confrontation in the train carriage. All subtly, and suitability, tense.
One truly standout sequence takes place at the U.S. Air Force Base in Western Germany. The circus is in town – the circus that Orlov has smuggled a nuclear bomb in. Being hounded by the German police, Bond is forced to go undercover as a clown, frantically trying to convince the U.S. General that there is a bomb inside of the big top.
Roger Moore loses his air of unflappability as all hell breaks lose. The fact that Moore's Bond is in such a state, ups the tension to almost unbearable levels. It is a superb scene, and one that could have been mishandled very easily, what with Moore dressed up as a clown. The directing by the returning John Glen, and the music by the also returning John Barry, helps greatly.
Indeed Moore is excellent value in his sixth appearance as 007, keeping the steely determination from For Your Eyes Only alongside the lightness of touch from Spy and Moonraker.
Moore did not want to star in Octopussy. Two major objections to Moore playing Bond again were his age – Moore would be 55 when shooting began in '82 – and the fact that, from a viewpoint of an actor, Bond is the same from the first scene to the last; no character development.
In the June of 1982, James Brolin was screen-tested for the role of 007. But luckily Moore relented, much to Cubby's delight. In 1981, Kevin McClory finally found a backer to his Thunderball remake. Cubby was not keen on breaking in a new Bond - not when the original Bond, Sean Connery himself, would be starring in the rival 007 picture. Entitled Never Say Never Again, it was slated for release in the summer of '83 – along with EON's offering, Octopussy. The battle of the Bonds was on.
Octopussy is quite possibly Moore's most superlative turn as 007. His usual levity is undercut with a slight world-weary professionalism. Underneath the charm of Moore's 007, there is a pretty ruthless character.
One sees many sides to the Bond persona – quietly sombre on discovering Vijay's mauled body; Bond provoking Khan in both the auction sequence and the backgammon scene; cold vengeance when Bond hurls a knife into 009's assassin and best of all, when Bond realizes the harrowing scheme of Orlov on board a train compartment. The sudden realization is a superb piece of acting by Moore, and is a match for noted stage actor Berkoff.
Moore himself was worried that he was getting a little too long in the tooth to convincingly play 007. And indeed there is some truth in that. Moore just about gets away with it in Octopussy. Time stands still for no man, and Moore has nicely matured in the role. Anyway, Moore's haughty cynicism offsets his advancing years quite wonderfully.
Moore is also aided by being paired up with an age appropriate romantic foil, in the way of Maud Adams' marvellous Octopussy. They have such fabulous chemistry and camaraderie together; in part due to their similar ages, and in part due to the fact that Moore and Adams are good friends. In fact, Bond and Octopussy's relationship is so strong that one could imagine them settling down together in the future.
Octopussy is more than just a Bond girl, however. Although Octopussy revived the “Octopus Cult” as a front for her gem racketeering, Octopussy has diversified into hotels, circuses, and shipping; searching for lost young and displaced women in Southeast Asia, giving them a purpose and sisterhood.
Octopussy is one of the most memorable ladies to be encountered by Bond. She is brave, bright, and beautiful. A worthy role for Adams, who was rather shortchanged in her previous brush with Bondage in The Man With The Golden Gun, as Andrea Anders.
Bond is up against three fine villains in Octopussy: the subtly menacing Kamal Khan; the overtly menacing General Orlov; and the just menacing Gobinda (Kabir Bedi), the statuesque henchman to Khan. Bedi was suggested for the part by Fraser.
In Octopussy, the three ne'er-do-wells complement each other well, being colourful in their villainy. Special mention has to go to Louis Jordan, a friend of Cubby’s, whose gentlemanly conduct and sophistication recalls the great reprobates of old. Khan even wines and dines Bond, whilst discussing his favourite torture methods. Incidentally, during said dinner scene, the main course is stuffed goat’s head. Khan gleefully pops an eye into his mouth. A similar scene is to be found in the 1984 film, “Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom”. During a dinner scene, set also in India, Dr. Jones witnesses such unusual meals as monkey brains, served straight from the monkey’s skull.
One important piece of casting is Robert Brown as the new M. Moore recommended Brown for the role, after they had became good friends on the T.V. series, “Ivanhoe”. Brown is a fine actor, but his M lacks authority in the role, compared to the great Bernard Lee.
Desmond Llewelyn shines in an enlarged role as Q. He was the one to find Vijay's body. Q is too valuable an asset to be doing fieldwork, however, as a couple of minutes earlier Khan's thugs would have found Q instead of Vijay. On finding Vijay’s mutilated body, there is a tender, poignant moment from Bond; and that is a testament to Amritraj's amiable portrayal. The trio of Bond, Q, and Vijay have a nice dynamic in Q's Indian lab.
There is an increased rota of gadgets in Octopussy: some fantastic – the Acrostar Mini Jet in the PTS; some daft – Bond's fake crocodile submarine; and some nifty real life espionage gizmos, such as the tracking/listening device. Unlike previous movies, the gadgets on display in Octopussy are fallible. The listening device, for example, is interrupted by a common hair dryer; which means Bond is still proactive in moving the story along.
Indeed Octopussy is a perfect meshing of both the styles of Spy and For Your Eyes Only, reflected in Moore's performance and aided by the great directing by John Glen.
Glen shows improvement over For Your Eyes Only with Octopussy, with the pace being more consistent. Certainly Glen's directing is more composed, mirroring Glen's own confidence as a director.
After Glen's success with For Your Eyes Only's more grounded approach, the filmmakers loosened up a little with Octopussy, including more gadgets and slightly more fantasy. But the film retained all the believable thrills and spills that were the cornerstones to For Your Eyes Only, least of all the repositioning of the role of 007.
Like For Your Eyes Only, the story to Octopussy is particularly good, so one does not need any embellishments from the director. The screenplay has some inventive and entertaining set pieces, which is Glen's strongest suit. The action in Octopussy is innovative, which Glen and his stunt team pull off consummately.
For the train sequences – Nene Valley in England doubled for Germany – the filmmakers had Bond hanging off the outside of a moving train. Stuntman Martin Grace collided with a concrete station while filming this risky scene. The stunt team did scout out the track beforehand, but they were entering into unchecked territory when Grace had his terrible accident.
Grace should have been dashed beneath the wheels of the train, yet tragedy was averted when Grace held on to the train. His sheer bloody-mindedness and tenacity is a monument to this brave man's strength. Grace suffered, amongst other things, a broken hip. He was back working by A View To A Kill.
Arthur Wooster considered giving up shooting the second unit; he was so disturbed by this incident. Understandably, the entire cast and crew were very tense. Late in 1982, Grace visited Pinewood to give everyone a boost.
B.J. Worth and Jake Lombard came back into Bondom, having previously appeared in Moonraker's fantastic PTS, to film the exciting plane sequence that concludes the movie.
Two crew members who were vital in achieving For Your Eyes Only's more grounded style were Alan Hume (Director of Photography) and Peter Lamont (Production Designer).
Hume makes the most out of the extensive location shooting in India, giving the picture a suitability exotic and colourful atmosphere. The direction team continue to use soft focus on certain pick-up shots. Whether that was to disguise the Pinewood scenes, as opposed to the footage shot on location, or to soften Moore's age, or as a general trend for the 80's, it is distracting.
Lamont channels his inner Ken Adam for a wonderfully elaborate set for the Russian meeting room. Lamont's design details, on Octopussy's octopus bed, for example are just pleasing to the eye.
Making a welcome return is John Barry. The suspenseful scenes in particular are a highlight to Barry's score, with Barry eliciting very foreboding musical cues. Since Moonraker, Barry had shifted away from the big, brassy sounds to a more lyrical, magisterial, and string-based type of sound, which is very true of Octopussy's romantic themes.
Barry also included an extra quotient of the James Bond Theme, no doubt to combat the rival 007 film, Never Say Never Again. In 1965, Kevin McClory agreed not to pursue his screen rights to Thunderball for ten years. By the mid 70's, ten years had passed. McClory brought on board spy novelist Len Deighton and Sean Connery to write a screen treatment. EON felt that project had strayed too far from McClory's screen rights, i.e. too far from the novel Thunderball, and proceeded to block it.
In 1981, McClory reached a deal with lawyer turned producer, Jack Schwartzman, to finance his long awaited Bond picture. Schwartzman turned to Lorenzo Semple Jr. to work on the screenplay and hired Irvin Kershner, fresh from his success with “The Empire Strikes Back”, to direct.
Peter Hunt and Tom Mankiewicz were approached to work on Never Say Never Again, but both felt that it would be a betrayal of Cubby.
Sean Connery would star in Never Say Never Again, but on certain conditions – a percentage of the profits, plus script and casting approval. As trouble mounted in shooting Never Say Never Again, Connery took on a producer’s role to get the film back on track.
Octopussy began production in August 1982, and Never Say Never Again just a month later. Whilst Octopussy finished on time, Never Say Never Again experienced delays, which pushed back its release date to the 6th of October, 1983. Originally, McClory wanted his film to coincide with EON's offering.
Despite having an accomplished director in Kershner and a talented cast – joining Connery were Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max von Sydow, Edward Fox and Rowan Atkinson – Never Say Never Again is a bore of a movie.
The direction of Kershner is insipid, the action limp, the musical score is atrocious, and it lacked the production values of the EON films. The one redeeming feature of Never Say Never Again is Connery's terrific portrayal of 007, combining the charisma and wit of old, with a world weary aspect.
Naturally the media and critics lapped up the Connery vehicle, while unfairly panning Octopussy. Luckily the public paid them no heed - in the box office takings Octopussy comfortably beat Never Say Never Again with a total of $183.7 million to $135.7, although it has to be said that Octopussy benefited from a summer release, a far stronger time for movies to come out. The takings in the U.S. of $68 million particularly impressed United Artists, whom were still smarting over the disastrous fall out from their Western, “Heavens Gate”.
It isn't hard to see why Octopussy won the battle of the Bonds, being enjoyable and entertaining; a real old fashioned romp. The screenplay is especially meaty, shooting in India gives the film colour, and Octopussy has one of the most memorable casts of the Roger Moore era.
Indeed Roger Moore's stock had never been higher. Not only did he give one of his best performances as 007, he also triumphed over Sean Connery, a feat many thought not possible. Cubby and Moore quickly arrived at a deal for Moore to star as 007 for the seventh time.
To start with positives I feel Roger delivered a pretty good performance as bond and mixed the humor, seriousness and badassness well enough in this film though I would say it is perhaps his weakest performance as Bond. Louis Jordan imo did great as Kamal Khan even if the character itself wasn't to great, he made the character his own and did give the character a personality that I did enjoy watching even if the character itself was not exactly the most thrilling. I did also like kamal’s right hand man/bodyguard who kinda reminded me a little bit of past henchmen like red grant for example though he is nowhere near as good, I still enjoyed him nonetheless.
I also liked Q's role here as he was more involved than he usually was at the time and he brought some great fun humor moments to the movie which I more than appreciate, and the gadgets while absolutely wacky made me chuckle a bit. I liked some of the locations here such as India though they are not nearly as great as past entries. This film also has some nice action moments such as Bond killing the knife guy and following up with “that was for 009”, the house shootout with Moore mowing down the baddies while sliding down a railing with the AK74 (I assume that is what gun it was), and the PTS is pretty good all things considered and probably the best scene in the film imo. Last but not least we have quite another fine score by John Barry, though I do not find his tracks really memorable here I still enjoyed what was here.
now as for the negatives well, the movie I feel does get lost on what it wants to be at times, what I mean is that the film tends to swap between serious and wacky so much that I honestly dunno what the film is even supposed to be and it makes me wonder if it is a bond film at some moments. Another flaw is that the first hour is pretty slow and kinda a bit boring but nothing to horrid and unwatchable in my eyes, it could have used some trimming perhaps. I also feel Orlov was an absolute waste as a villain as he had little screen time, didn't really do much other than deliver the bomb and in the end got one scene with Bond (a rather good one imo) and gets killed by some russians which was rather lame for a main villain death (him and Kamal are the Co Main Villains).
This may not be popular to say but I also did not really care for the character of Octopussy, she just seemed pretty meh all the time and her turn at the end just seemed a little forced though not as forced as Pussy Galore’s turn in Goldfinger. Lastly I do need to mention this one stupid bit in this film and that is Moore dressing up as a clown, while I do not feel it totally ruins Bond like others may suggest, I feel that it is perhaps to comical even for Moore standards and it makes bond look foolish, still at the very least he only did it as a means to stop a bomb and escape the cops who were after him, so it is passable.
Overall, Octopussy is not exactly to great and has serious flaws, but there's enjoyment to be had here, and it is certainly not near the worst Bond film in my eyes. my final rating is a 6.5 out of 10
Unfortunately, it wants to be a comedy action-adventure. So much of the attempts at humour fall flat. I can deal with the silliness of the Roger Moore era: seeing 55 year old Moore escape by swinging on vines is silly enough, when you add a Tarzan yell over the soundtrack, you're breaking the fourth wall just to point out how silly you are being. If there's one thing Bond movies don't need, it's Brechtian Verfremdung.
Pity, as Octopussy is just a few edits away from being one of the greats in the series.
Clownish Escapades and Missed Opportunities
The absurdity of this film reaches its peak with a Tarzan yell. "That should keep you in curry for a while"? Really? Commanding a tiger to sit? And why are the troops guarding Bond wearing parachutes when they're MPs? In case they fall into a ditch?
You had the budget to create a quality film, as the story isn't as flawed as previous entries, yet you chose an overly silly and campy approach. In all my reviews of Roger Moore's era as Bond, I can tolerate silliness, but there's a limit.
John Glen stands out as the worst director to ever helm a Bond film. His commentary track reveals that many of the bad ideas originated directly from him. While he excelled at directing stunts, storytelling was not his forte. And they allowed him to direct three more films?
The clown disguise was the final straw. The true clowns here are those responsible for this film.
Moore's penultimate appearance is a mixed bag. Great opening, fine theme song with it, but once more the movie itself too often degenerates into slapstick moments that deviate away from any reality the character or actor should try to portray.
Kind of like Moonraker (where Moore again) provides plenty of instances of fun moments and there's action in abundance but it's hijacked by too many instances of absurd or implausible sequences where the viewer at times questions their own sanity. It's a pity.
Maud Adams was probably too old by this time to qualify as the leading Bond girl, Louis Jourdan (an accomplished actor) just doesn't carry nearly enough menace although the knife throwing twins do provide a threat and utilized far more than some directors/ screenwriters would allow.
Glen was prevalent throughout the 1980's and his second entry here offers a high-tempo , at times extravaganza that can thrill enthusiasts and neutrals alike but bottom line being Moore by this time should have been replaced for the role, and with the actor in question playing Tarzan, sitting tigers and gorilla, clown suit et cetera there's something not quite right about the whole thing. It's still enormous fun however.
Just realized replied to this 12 years back, thought it were a recent response and writing out a similar thing until noticed the timeline. What the hell.