Review of For Your Eyes Only (1981) by Kai82 — 25 Dec 2020

The twelfth James Bond movie and for me an underwhelming or better said mostly unremarkable experience except of the set up (ideas) and intro. After the remarkable intro the story starts on a British spy ship equipped with an ATAC system (Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator).

It is a system for communication and coordination for British submarines (or in other words the keys to the submarine kingdom;-). After an accident the device is gone missing and James Bond is send out on a mission to retrieve it.

Because of the high value it will attract many factions. The set up is amazing on paper and in the movie. However all that follows in not that interesting. I think I should clarify. It is not even bad and I have chosen the word unremarkable on purpose.

I quickly lost interest and it was the first movie in the franchise that gave me boredom. There are some good moments as in every James Bond movie but these cant turn the tide. For the actors I say the same.

There are no serious missteps but the script doesn't give the characters much room to shine. Roger Moore is as always the James Bond we love (I repeat myself I wont participate in the Sean Connery or Roger Moore discussion).

Julian Glover is such a remarkable actor but here he cant do much. I cant go in details for his role but say he is one of the weakest in the franchise. There is also no menacing foe here. The other actors deliver but cant shine except maybe Q;-).

I know that after giving us Moonraker which was set in space they wanted a more grounded James Bond movie but this is not the problem here. Grounded movies of the franchise have worked before and after this.

Commercially it was a success but it was no ones favorite movie be it critics or fans. The sets are however beautiful and Meteora is a place I would like to see / visit in real live. The soundtrack for the movie is also neither bad or great.

Overall this was to that date the worst movie in the franchise. I even have forgotten this movie existed for a while (except some scenes). I give a bonus point for the ideas and some remarkable scenes that sadly are not enough to turn the tide.