Moonraker

James McMahon -- A collection of problems sinks this effort. Moore looks old, and fails to put much into his performance. Even his effortless charm seems an effort. The jokes are over the top as are the gadgets. Perhaps worst is the unnecessary use of a gondola turned Hovercraft in plain sight, in broad daylight, in the center of St. Mark s Square, as Moore preens, just for a sight gag (a pigeon does a double-take). Unfortunately, there are plenty more examples of bad jokes. The use of product placement was very intrusive. Bond is horribly out of place in outer space. He was there only because Star Wars had come out two years earlier and the Bond films, known as innovators, became imitators. Michael Lonsdale as Hugo Drax could have been excellent, but wasn t given much to do in a role with little of the character exposition found in the novel. Robert Cotton -- Some fun dialogue, all over the top. Two good scenes. Moore in the centrifuge and Corrine Clery being hunted down in the forest. Except for his centrifuge scene, Moore plays it so calmly that the film can be used to sedate children or small animals. Paul Baack -- It's got the one of the best poster in the entire series -- the Daniel Goozee teaser shown above. It's got one of John Barry's best scores, one of his best theme songs -- sung by Shirley Bassey!, and one of Maurice Binder's best title sequences. The rest of it is almost entirely worthless.

Bill Koenig -- Roger Moore looks like he's sleepwalking at times (though he has a couple of good scenes). The hovercraft scene almost ruins a decent chase scene in Venice. The outer space effects are OK but not up to Lucasfilm levels. Too jokey at times, it's hard to take Drax (Michael Lonsdale) as an opponent too much of the time. Ken Adam and John Barry are again the real stars of the film. Ed Werner -- One thing this movie has going for it, is that The Man with the Golden Gun preceeded it. Michael Lonsdale (Hugo Drax) is still probably wondering why he agreed to be in this film as it is way beneath his talents. Lois Chiles, who I envisioned as a great Bond Girl when I first saw The Great Gatsby in 1974, has about the same acting ability as Roger Moore. We get our second helping of Jaws and this time he has a love interest! The pigeon in the Venice square is a travesty. The bottom line is Bond is not Luke Skywalker and does not belong in space. The blatant rip off of jumping on the Star Wars bandwagon shows that at this point, the powers that be determined that the Bond movies will begin to follow Hollywood trends as opposed to setting them. Michael Reed -- This is a "TOO" film - Too far into science "fiction", too many gadgets that aren't realistic, too much reliance on suspension of disbelief, and bringing back Jaws, too. The worst Bond film. Tom Zielinski -- Here it is, a hugely expensive and hugely successful entry in the series. Following (again) the popular cinema trends of the times, this one takes James Bond into space. And yet, that is at the bottom of my list of issues with this film. Where to begin…Roger Moore at his comedic height, a cold and uninteresting and relatively plain Lois Chiles, blatant product placement, the return of Jaws as a good guy, double-taking pigeons, hovercrafts in St. Mark´s Square, average to poor special effect…it´s all unforgivable. OK, let´s talk about the positives. Errrr...ummm...OK, the centrifuge scene was pretty good. The pre-credit sequence was excellent, right up until Jaws survives a free-fall from an airplane by flapping his arms like a bird landing in a circus tent. That scene basically defines the entire film - self-indulgent bloat that sacrifices any semblance of danger and the James Bond character for laughs. Or commercial placement. Or both. Feh.