Review of For Your Eyes Only (1981) by Drew O — 20 Nov 2011

For Your Eyes Only remains the most mediocre entry of the entire Bond series. There are just as many things to love about it as there is to hate, and there's even more that is just plain decent, nothing better.

The plot, for starters, is one of the things to like. Finally, Bond returns to his espionage roots and goes on a reasonable mission for a change. Nothing involving space, destroying the world, voodoo, or any Roger Moore trash like that. Its plot is somewhat similar to From Russia with Love, with Bond focusing on acquiring a device before the Russians do. The difference is, FRWL is a much, much better film.

I also enjoy the action sequences in this film. There's actually quite a lot of action. The ski chase near the beginning is entertaining, and Bond and Columbo's raid on one of Kristatos's warehouses ranks as one of the better shoot-out sequences of the series. Kristatos is also a pretty decent villain, better than Hugo Drax or Karl Stromberg.

Now we get to the bad. The pre-title sequence is not good. Yes, it does finally wrap up the Blofeld story, but how does Bond get his revenge? By dropping Blofeld down a smoke stack. Yes, it is as dumb as it sounds. Not helping its cause is Blofeld's cry of "MR. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOND!" as he falls. Melina is also one of the more bland Bond girls, and Bibi (while attractive) is just plain annoying.

There's also this really bad underwater scene where Bond fights a robot while trying to retrieve the ATAC. It absolutely ruins the seriousness set up by the rest of the film and brings it back to typical Moore. The seriousness itself is also a problem. It's impossible to take Roger Moore seriously, and the tone of the film feels more fit for Timothy Dalton. Octopussy was serious as well, but had plenty of Moore touches that kept it within his abilities. Things like that is what makes Octopussy, and not this, Roger Moore's best Bond adventure.

For Your Eyes only is definitely not a bad film, but it isn't a good one either. Its slow but sometimes fun, and is still one of Moore's better films, though that is not saying very much.