Review of Moonraker (1979) by Bryan P — 09 Dec 2010

Moonraker(1979)-6/10...the 11th James Bond film and Moore's 4th is not one of the best Bonds...the notion of Bond in space is quite ridiculous. Directed by Lews Gilbert with the title song sung by Shirley Bassey (her 3rd one!) Bond teams up with CIA agent Holly Goodhead(great Bond girl name) played by Lois Chiles to stop Hugo Drax played by Michael Lonsdale...who plans to destroy the earth with a deadly gas in order to create a master race from his space-station, high above the heavens. A very similar plot to the previous film...the settings are all that really change. This film also marked the last time Bernard Lee appeared in as M(the head of British Intelligence)...also it brought the return of Richard Kiel as the lethal steel-jawed assassin, Jaws who has a change of heart at the end. The locations in this film are a standout like a beautiful chateau in California, and the scenes in Venice and Rio De Janiero. This film was also heavily influenced by sci-fi films that really became popular at the time especially after the success of Star Wars. There are some nice music homages to both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of the Third Kind that I enjoy. As I said earlier this is probably Moore's weakest Bond film and it certainly ranks low in th Bond franchise.

"Reginald Bundy...critic for the times.".