For Your Eyes Only


release year: 1981
genre: James Bond
viewing setting: home Bluray 1/25/19 and 2/17/17 and 12/18/12 and home DVD 5/10/10 and home laserdisc 1/11/00

synopsis: The ship carrying Britain's ATAC sub-guidance system sinks, so the race is on to find and recover the device.

impressions: This one was pretty good. It had a simple but fast-moving plot, plenty of stunts and action, one of the loveliest Bond girls, one of the most likeable Bond allies, and one of the best theme songs. Of note: opening scene with revenge on Blofeld, fight in ice rink, underwater action, minisub fight, sharks, fortress and mountain climb.

acting: Roger Moore was subdued here, but he still did a good job, minimizing the corny lines and actions. Carole Bouquet did a good job as a serious Bond woman. Topol did a great job as Bond's main ally. Julian Glover was a fairly strong bad guy.

chase scenes: 1 foot/car, 1 long ski

mass fight at end: none (small-scale skirmish between Columbo's guys and Cristatos' guys)

neat gadgets: exploding Lotus, Identograph

confirmed Bond kills: 6

confirmed Bond seductions: 2 (he could have had Bibi too, but he decided she was too young for him)

obnoxious female names: none

defining Bond moments: 

quotable: 
Bond: "The Chinese have a saying: before setting out on revenge, you first dig two graves."

Cristatos: (advising Bond with a half-million dollar bet on the table) "The odds favor standing pat."
Bond: "If you favor the odds."

Bond: "I'm a novelist. I'm preparing a book about Greek smugglers. Do you know any?"

Melina: "I didn't think it would end like this."
Bond: "We're not dead yet."

Bond: (in confessional booth) "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned."
Q: (disguised as priest) "That's putting it mildly, 007."

final word: A little more serious and down-to-Earth than most; this is Moore's second-best Bond movie, in my opinion.

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