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Tuesday, July 6, 2010
BD impressions: For Your Eyes Only
3:56 PM / BD Impressions / 
15 Comments
As the James Bond series limps into the 1980s, it's beginning to look as crusty and worn-out as its incumbent star, Roger Moore. The clichés are now so firmly established that all those involved seem simply to be going through the motions, and it's hard to care about the plot, which has nothing to offer that we haven't seen a dozen times before or more. Even the Maurice Binder opening titles are beginning to look like he just doesn't give a damn any more. Which is a shame, because FOR YOUR EYES ONLY is on the whole a step up from the last Bond film I watched, LIVE AND LET DIE (Moore's first outing as 007). The plot may have nothing to offer, but during the various set-pieces, the film does come to life for some impressively staged stunts, the most striking of which is an extended ski chase. My interest in the movie peaked and dipped throughout its two-hours-plus running time, and whenever I was engaged, you can bet your bottom dollar it was because of an action set-piece rather than anything to do with the narrative.
On the other hand, the pre-credits sequence, involving an obvious Blofeld stand-in, some really bad puns and the sort of jokey slapstick comedy that always comes to mind whenever I think of the Moore Bonds, is pretty dreadful, ranking as one of the worst openings in the series' history and very nearly derailing the film before it gets off the ground. It contains one of the series' few callbacks to a previous Bond film and, in the process, somehow manages to piss all over the memory of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE's melancholy ending. Worse still, it seems to have been included solely as a means of giving Kevin McClory the middle finger. Bad move, Bond producers, bad move.
Thankfully, nothing which follows is anything like as bad, and while I don't fully agree with the assertion that FOR YOUR EYES ONLY is a Timothy Dalton Bond film before its time, it does contain a couple of very satisfying moments in which Moore's "nice English gent" mask slips and the ruthless bastard portrayed on occasion by Connery, Dalton and Craig (and, needless to say, the literary Bond of the original novels) emerges. In fact, there's a scene involving a truck, a cliff and a well-placed kick that I'm inclined to feel is considerably nastier than anything Connery's Bond ever did. On the whole, though, it's hard to shake the feeling that he's simply going through the motions, and for whatever reason I still have great trouble ever feeling that he's in any danger - even when being used as shark-bait or being set upon by a team of homicidal ice hockey players. I suspect the problem is that he just seems so detached from the events unfolding around him that it's hard to see him as anything other than an observer.
A few more random thoughts: despite the dull-looking opening titles, I quite liked the Sheena Easton song. I also rather enjoyed Bill Conti's score, but I'm not convinced it fit particularly well with some of the action scenes. There's an earlier sequence, involving Bond and his sidekick du jour, Melina, escaping an armed gang in Melina's mini, that feels a bit too jaunty and jokey. Speaking of Melina, she may not go down in history as one of the greatest Bond girls but she's a good deal more feisty and resourceful than the dimwits in LIVE AND LET DIE... not to mention that the actor playing her, Carole Bouquet, is incredibly easy on the eyes. By the way, it's not true that she never smiles. (The film's other Bond girl, Lynn-Holly Johnson, on the other hand, is just infuriating, and thankfully the filmmakers have the good sense to limit her screen time.) And the closing gag, while completely tone-destroying, did, I must admit, make me laugh.
Well, for the time being, I'm done with Roger Moore, despite only having watched two of his seven films (barring THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN and MOONRAKER, the rest aren't available on BD yet, and I don't feel like paying for either of those two). Next up: Timothy Dalton in LICENCE TO KILL. Hmm... or shall I rent THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS on DVD first?
Image quality: Slightly underwhelming-looking, this one. Unlike many of the other Lowry Bond restorations, this one certainly looks its age, which is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because the obvious digital manipulation that plagued the earlier restorations is greatly reduced here; a curse, because it lacks the crispness and "agelessness" of these titles. This may, of course, simply be down to the original photography, which looks rather drab and tired. I guess what I would say about this one is that it looks CONSISTENT, meaning that flaws like the softness that pervades, are present throughout, rather than popping up without warning like the frozen grain patterns and "cut-out" effect of the likes of DR. NO et al. 7/10
For Your Eyes Only
studio: 20th Century Fox/MGM; country: UK; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 30.9 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 34.66 Mbit/sec
If you're keeping track:
- Dr. No - 7/10
- From Russia with Love - 8/10
- Goldfinger - 8/10
- Thunderball - 6/10
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service - 7/10
- Live and Let Die - 4/10
- For Your Eyes Only - 6/10
- Casino Royale - 8/10
- Quantum of Solace - 5/10
15 Comments
Well, in my defence, I know next to nothing about cars. And yes, the sequence did remind me of the Parisian chase in THE BOURNE IDENTITY.
I can well believe that this is Moore's best Bond film... which doesn't bode well for the rest of his line-up. :D
(Posted on Tuesday, July 6, 2010 at 5:51 PM)
Marcus:
I personally found the plot to be utterly forgettable, to the extent that I frequently lost track of what was going on, who was looking for what, etc. I don't think this had anything to do with the plot being overly complicated - on the contrary, I think it was because I struggled to believe that Maibum and Wilson cared about the narrative beyond its purpose in taking the audience from one action scene to the next. If these set-pieces hadn't been so well-handled I suspect I would have lost interest very quickly.
As for Solitaire in LIVE AND LET DIE, perhaps "dimwit" was the wrong word, but she came across to me as an almost entirely useless sidekick whose only purpose was to look pretty - which, I had to admit, she was very good at.
Neil:
No, no love for Moore from me, I'm afraid. I'll admit that I've only seen two of his films in recent memory (though I definitely saw most of MOONRAKER as a child, and I caught the second half of THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN on ITV a few years back), but I'm afraid I just don't buy him as the character. I preferred him in LIVE AND LET DIE, to be honest, but even then I felt he was a poor replacement for Connery. My biggest issue with him, beyond the often jokey nature of his performances and the films he appeared in (partly, I suspect, his own fault, and partly that of the producers), is that I just can't buy him as someone who has been through the mill. He is by all accounts a very nice man in real life, and I think that shines through a little too much in his performance - I like my Bond to have a bit of nastiness in him.
I actually already have LICENCE TO KILL. I picked it up late last year, back when I began this quasi Bond project.
(Posted on Wednesday, July 7, 2010 at 10:57 AM)
Marucs:
"In defense of Solitaire, she was a "damsel" bondgirl and never really acted as Bond's sidekick. I took her character as Kananga's personal oracle that Bond takes advantage of to pursue with the mission. If anything, some of the worst and most forgettable bondgirls were pretty reliable and resourceful sidekicks (Jinx from Die Another Day, Holly Goodhead from Moonraker, Christmas Jones from The World is Not Enough, Kissy Suzuki and Aki from You Only Live Twice)."
Good point, actually. I should probably also acknowledge that Vesper Lynd, arguably the most impressive Bond girl in recent years (my favourite, certainly), was pretty useless in a scrap.
Bosque:
Personally, I can't really claim to have "grown up" with any Bond, given that what were arguably my formative years roughly coincided with Bond's absence from the cinema between LICENCE TO KILL and GOLDENEYE. Bond was always a staple on TV during any public holiday, though, and I can remember with some degree of vividness seeing many of the Connery and Moore films throughout the late 80s and early 90s. I wasn't sufficiently interested in them at the time to remember the films as a whole, but I do remember isolated scenes, such as the laser in GOLDFINGER and, erm, the pre-credits sequence to FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, which has haunted me for years.
(Posted on Friday, July 9, 2010 at 5:45 PM)
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1. Neil (B$B) said:
"There's an earlier sequence, involving Bond and his sidekick du jour, Melina, escaping an armed gang in Melina's mini."
It's a 2CV, not a mini. Maybe thinking of Bourne. :)
IMHO, This is Moore's best Bond film.
(Posted on Tuesday, July 6, 2010 at 5:35 PM)