List Price:   $14.98 Price:   find out more information

Buy posters from this movie

After a pre-credit sequence that goes from the sublime (Bond pushed out of a plane without a parachute - great aerial photography) to the ridiculous (Jaws follows but lands on a circus top), which sums the film up nicely, we have Shirley Bassys dull and bland theme tune - the worst of the series.

A British aeroplane has blown up whilst transporting a Moonraker space shuttle from the USA to Britain. However there's no trace of the Moonraker in the wreckage. Bond is assigned to find out what has happened to it, a mission that will take him from Venice to Rio to outer space, and will team him up with astronaut Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles) against the space-obsessed billionaire Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale).

Director Lewis Gilbert had already dealt with space once before with Bond ('You Only Live Twice') and knew how to make Bond big ('The Spy Who Loved Me'). What's needed with 'Moonraker' however is a hand to reign in the outrageous impulses, because 'Moonraker' stands as the most silly of all Bond films. It's not so much the fact that Bond goes into space (although the film does fall apart when that happens), it's the fact that there's too much smug spoofing going on.

For example, Bond is pursued through the canals of Venice on his motorised gondola. That's not too silly though. What is however, is the fact that when it reaches land it inflates to a hovercraft and drives through St Marks square leading everyone to double-take, including a pigeon (I kid you not). I guess the writers forgot about Bond being a secret agent. You know, keeping undercover and not drawing attention to yourself, by not being the most conspicuous man in the city.

Then there's the reappearance of Jaws. Again, he's out to rip Bond apart until he (literally) crashes into a cute little blonde girl and falls in love instantly. When this happens, the love theme from 'Dr. Zhivago' swells up on the soundtrack as they gaze lovingly into each others eyes. You half expect Graham Chapman from Monty Python to march on at this point and declare "Right stop this! You're getting far too silly".

This reflects badly on Moore who throws in his most smug, facile, slimy and patronising (women just take one look at him and melt now. And a lot that get involved get killed with no comment on or from Bond) performance of Bond. Everything he does is done with a terrible quip or double entendre. It's as if Bond can't get up in the morning and have breakfast without saying something like "Ah, nothing like cornflakes and...CREAM!!", or read the paper without saying "Nothing like a good...DOUBLE SPREAD!!".

It's a great shame that this tone runs throughout 'Moonraker' as otherwise there's a lot to recommend it. There's some terrific action sequences from a literally smashing brawl in a museum to a dizzying top of a cable-car fight. The film also looks terrific too, particularly the silent flight of the moonrakers and the reveal of the space station. There's some lovely incidental moments also, such as Bond's casual disposal of Drax's assassin in the trees, and Drax getting rid of a treacherous employee by sending her to the dogs.

Chiles is very good as Goodhead, a rare Bond girl that doesn't simper immediately into Moore's arms, and Lonsdale is a droll, almost bored villain that gets some of the best lines since Goldfinger "Look after Mr Bond. See that some harm comes to him". You also get, sadly, the last performance of the original M, Bernard Lee and as ever he's quietly magnificent. Q gets a good run-out although Miss Moneypenny is pretty disregarded here.

It's a shame then, that for every great moment 'Moonraker' has there'll be a silly one around the corner to spoil it.

'Moonraker' has a strange following as many of the Bond purists will damn it as the worst Bond ever, whilst for those raised on Moore's Bond will declare it as the best ever. Too cartoonish for it's own good, the best you can say about is that it's never boring. It is however frequently smug, silly and stupid. This is a long way from Bond shooting an unarmed man in the back several times.

 del.icio.us    
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1224&reviewer=293
originally posted: 07/27/04 01:24:12
 printer-friendly format