Sunday, June 7, 2015

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977)

Kinda like in how in the fifth Bond film, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, where a big spaceship was gobbling up American and Russian spaceships in order to start a war between the two superpowers, in this film a large ship is gobbling up American and Russian nuclear submarines in order to start a war between the two superpowers.  How original.

Anyway, at the beginning of the film, James Bond kills a Russian agent and as Fate would have it, the agent's (understandably) bitter girlfriend is now Bond's new partner in a joint effort to figure out who's stealing the submarines.  The most likely culprit...the freaky part-fish super villain who happens to live in a gigantic ocean lair complete with a small army and a humongous ship that's capable of gobbling up smaller vessels.

I enjoyed TSWLM alright, but it wasn't as much fun as the last two installments.  The un-original story didn't help things at all.  Also the new Bond girl, Barbara Bach, was pretty boring.  She's just kinda...ehh.  Attractive, but no real personality.  I can't really put my finger on it, but I never really got into this episode.  Some dude with fishhands that's never explained, more nudity via pornographic magazine pictures, a completely illogical submarine car, run of the mill car chase, snow skiing, forgettable villain, jet skiing, helicopters.  Overall, things were just average.  I did like the henchman, Jaws, because he was just so ridiculous!  I wish he had had more scenes.

Two and a half thunderballs out of five. 

Part 1 - Dr. No (1962)
Part 2 - From Russia With Love (1963)
Part 3 - Goldfinger (1964)
Part 4 - Thunderball (1965)
Part 5 - You Only Live Twice (1967)
Part 6 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Part 7 - Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Part 8 - Live and Let Die (1973)
Part 9 - The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Part 11 - Moonraker (1979)
Part 12 - For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Part 13 - Octopussy (1983)
Part 14 - A View to a Kill (1985)
Part 15 - The Living Daylights (1987)
Part 16 - License to Kill (1989)
Part 17 - GoldenEye (1995)
Part 18 - Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Part 19 - The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Part 20 - Die Another Day (2002)
Part 21 - Casino Royale (2006)
Part 22 - Quantum of Solace (2008)
Part 23 - Skyfall (2012)
Part 24 - Spectre (2015)
Part 25 - No Time to Die (2021)

Non-Eon James Bond films:
Casino Royale (1967)
Never Say Never (1983)