Octopussy

James McMahon -- This was the first time I walked out of the theatre feeling ashamed to be a Bond fan. There s a lot good in this film, but I never got to enjoy it because just as I was beginning to recover from one inanity, another came along; swinging through the trees with a Tarzan yell, the electric alligator, a camel doing a double take, Vijay swatting bundles of money with his tennis racket, attacking Khan's fortress using, as an assault vehicle, a hot air balloon, . . .with a huge union jack emblem, . . . with 65-year-old Q aboard. I found Maud Adams dull nine years earlier in The Man With The Golden Gun. The added years didn't help. Kristina Wayborn (Magda) should have had the role. Moore presented in clown makeup is sadly emblematic of what his movies had become. Robert Cotton -- Nice to see some complexity in the plot, but other than a few set pieces, did not age well in the least. Moore s actually good during the circus/train sequences, but the camp factor overwhelms it far too often. Sit-uh! Paul Baack -- If FYEO was night-and-day to Moonraker, then this film is taking us back into the twilight. Roger Moore hits the wall and looks every bit his age; the filmmakers conspired to keep him -- that is, to keep James Bond -- off the screen as much as possible. The result is that we get kind of a cool espionage/Cold War thriller, set against the intriguing backdrop of the world of art theft, forgery, and smuggling. Overlying this all is a nostalgia for the 19th-century British Raj of boy's fiction; we're presented with magnificent Indian palaces, sari-clad beauties, deadly Thugee, steam trains, menacing Sikhs with blunderbuses, knife-wielding gypsies, a traveling circus, a tiger hunt (albeit with James Bond instead of a tiger as the target,) sword swallowers and fakirs, and a cheerfully accommodating and subservient wog population. (I refer you to screenwriter George MacDonald Fraser's literary career for a clue as to where this came from.) We also get James Bond in a gorilla suit and, later, in full clown makeup and costume. On the other hand, we get Louis Jourdan chewing up the scenery and having a splendid time playing the oily Kamal Khan, a Bond villain worthy of the pantheon. Steven Berkoff''s General Orlov is also a treat, the scene of him silhouetted against his illuminated battle maps, body contorted like modern day Nosferatu, is a portrait in villainy of sublime brilliance. So I guess it's kind of a mixed bag...

Bill Koenig -- The portion of the movie set in Germany is the best, mostly tense and exciting (though going overboard on humor on occasion; plus, how does Bond get in and out the gorilla suit so fast?). The India sequences aren't up to the same level and the Tarzan yell is unforgivable. Overall, film isn't up to same level as FYEO, but John Glen's direction is more polished than his debut. Louis Jourdan's, "Octo-poosy, Octo-Poosy," line is a highlight of some sort. Ed Werner -- How can any self respecting Bond fan watch as his hero runs around during the climax of the movie in a clown outfit? We also have Q flying around in the field in a hot air balloon with a fifty foot Union Jack on it. That aside, this is kind of a fun ride. Roger Moore is really starting to look a little long in the tooth here, but if you really don't watch him too closely (not hard to do), he can still kind of pull it off. Maud Adams looks much better than she did in TMWTGG and gives a much more credible performance. The wasted Louis Jourdan plays the second oily villain in the series as Kamal Kahn (a poorly written character, portrayed with little to no originality). However, Steven Berkoff's General Orlov and Kabir Bedi's Gobinda hit the mark. One wishes they had received much more screen time. I'm still trying to figure out if the original or the fake Faberge egg was destroyed.... Michael Reed -- The original model of a half full/half empty film. The tone is right all the way through. The actors play it straight and play off each other well. Too many site gags (the fastest dressed clown and gorilla ever!) hurt it, but a decent, average attempt. Plot twists make it hard to follow but it doesn't ask you to think. Tom Zielinski -- Eminently forgettable. Some praise this film´s Cold War nuclear weapon storyline, I wasn´t impressed. Villain Louis Jordan was appropriately slick and slimy, but Roger Moore looks old. The lack of a memorable Bond girl, James Bond in both gorilla and clown suits(!), an aged Q in a Union Jack hot air balloon, and the inclusion of several other embarrassingly funny scenes doom Octopussy. Maud Adams was more interesting, more beautiful, and delivered a better performance in The Man With The Golden Gun. I didn´t even like Barry´s score. There is very little to recommend about this film.