Review of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) by Lenny R — 19 Nov 2015

A top-shelf return to the hard-charging action and cheeky humor that defined the 007 franchise, this Spy game boasts much to love even though it set up a slippery slope of series tropes that brought about absurdity in some of the later chapters. The best of Roger Moore's very different take on the super spy made famous by Sean Connery, The Spy Who Loved Me perfectly walks the fine line between serious and silly by putting story at the forefront. Oh, it's not without some choppy waters (doesn't Curd Jurgens' megalomaniacal oceanographer Stromberg know that nuking the land means polluting the waters too?), but the dynamic between Bond and the woman (Barbara Bach, beautifully playing Bond's equal) whose lover he killed makes for some great interplay.

In this PG-rated spy adventure, James Bond (Moore) investigates the hijacking of British and Russian submarines carrying nuclear warheads with the help of a KGB agent (Bach) whose lover he killed.

The set design and set pieces remain some of the series' best, and the opening sequence ranks as Bond's best before Spectre came along. Also, steel-toothed oak Jaws makes for a henchman for the ages and the locations (especially the pyramids in Egypt) underlay the awesome importance of location, location, location in this franchise. Sadly, save for a rare exception (For Your Eyes Only), this film charts the highest peak that the franchise would reach for quite sometime.

Bottom line: Nobody Does It Better.