62 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

From CBn's main page...

CBn Reviews 'For Your Eyes Only'
Forum members review the twelfth James Bond film

[mcsearg]

First...
THE BEST gunbarrel score of all the Bonds...

[Mr_Wint]

It's amusing to see how fans opinions change over the years. FYEO used to be a fan-favorite (because it was and still is a dam good film). Now it

[tonymascia1]

FYEO is in my top three of favorite Bond films.

Just the right blend of intrigue, suspense, and wit --- this film changed my opinion on Sir Roger and his take on Our Hero.

While Bill Conti's score was more "trendy" than a typical John Barry one, it fit the action in this movie very well.

Columbo is arguably in the top two of Bond "sidekicks" (the other being Karim Bey from FRWL); Kristatos is a refreshing change from the conquer/create a new world megalomaniac; Carole Bouquet has one of the all-time great smiles.

As a bonus, my five-year-old daughter LOVES when I mimic Max's "Give us a kiss..."

Edited by tonymascia1, 18 October 2005 - 01:30 PM.

[mcsearg]

Another great aspect of the movie was the lack of gadgets. After Moonraker, it was necessary to have Bond more reliant on his wits and instincts instead of gadgets. This movie was one of the great entries of the series. Carol Bouquet was a gorgeous Bond girl (Second to Barbara Bach, for me that is). This movie is in my top five ...

[columbo]

I think For Your Eyes only one of the best if not THE BEST James Bond movie.
Excellent story, great bond girl, great villains. Columbo is one of the best.
The villain could be better. I love the first scenes, sheena easton, the revenge story.
EXCELLENT

Attached Files

•  columbo.jpg   27.96KB   39 downloads

[Agent 76]

First...
THE BEST gunbarrel score of all the Bonds...

you might wanna see this:

gunbarrel

[Qwerty]

[quote name='Mr_Wint' date='18 October 2005 - 08:47']It's amusing to see how fans opinions change over the years. FYEO used to be a fan-favorite (because it was and still is a dam good film). Now it

[mcsearg]

First...
THE BEST gunbarrel score of all the Bonds...

you might wanna see this:

gunbarrel

Nice, Agent76... I have the movie score on CD as well as the gunbarrell score on my cellphone.. But its always nice to hear.. Really gets you going..

[Qwerty]

[Moderator's Note: Poll added to this thread.]

[ESBlofeld]

When I think of the Bond of the novels, it's the FYEO Moore portrayal that I think of.

The humour is appropriately restrained without being missing altogether, with little of the bad puns that plagued the Moore years.

More to the point, we see Moore at the age when the literary Bond's concerns are definitely becoming a concern. The literary Bond is supposed to retire his 00 status at the age of 45, and Moore is definitely looking to be approaching that in his overall attitude.

He's also showing some discernment, reeling in the playboy image. FYEO establishes that Bond is no cradle robber, and not automatically inclined to turn on his seduction mode.

[Daddy Bond]

For your eyes only is more down to earth than the previous two outings and it is excellent. Although I am a big fan of TSWLM and MR, I like this movie 3rd out of Moore's outings as Bond.

Great title song!

I really like the main Bond girl in this one. It's great that she's out hunting those who killed her parents - and she's using a crossbow! Man, she means business, OUCH. She's also very beautiful and intelligent.

FYEO has some classic chase scenes (in the snow and the Citroen car chase). I love it when Bond's car blows up and he tosses his keys - hillarious - then when he sees her car.

The Greek is great and the whole encounter on the mountain top monastery is great.

All in all, a great Bond film.

[Bond fan since March 2000]

Ok, I'm re-reviewing all 21 Bond films & I started with my least favorite & am working my way to #1. So enjoy!

#17 For Your Eyes Only, 1981

For Your Eyes Only is the most Fleming-esque of the Roger Moore Bonds. There's not many gadgets, relying on Bond to use his wits & there are some darker things for Bond to do. The tone works along with great action & a better, more original story than we expect from Bond. But it has the worst cast ever assembled for a Bond film that keeps this from being higher on my list of Bond films.

A spy ship has been sunk in Greece with the ATAC machine. It's a machine that can be used to send nuclear missiles & the Russians want it. To stop the Russians is James Bond (Roger Moore) who goes through Spain, Italy & Greece along with the help of Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet) whose parents were murdered after knowingly been involved with the ATAC machine.

First off, Roger Moore is terrific as James Bond here. He brings that natural humor he has, but also feels tough enough to handle a sticky situation, unlike other Bonds he was in. And Carole Bouquet is a stunningly beautiful & tough Bond girl & matches Bond in every scene. It's too bad that those two along with the series regulars are the only good performances in the movie. No Bond film has ever had a cast as crappy & forgettable as this one. Julian Glover plays Kristatos, the villain & plays it with no menace or presence & creates not the worst, but the most instantly forgettable Bond villain ever. Michael Gothard plays Locque, the main henchmen who never speaks & after Jaws is quite weak & quite lame. Topol is a Felix Leiter-like ally & he's not much better.

The worst offenders however are James Villiers as Bill Tanner, M's replacement since Bernard Lee died just before he was to film his scenes & does a horrific job. The other is Lynn-Holly Johnson as a young skater who tries to seduce Bond & is absolutely annoying in the little screen time she has. And isn't it creepy that a girl who looks like my sister (if I had one) is trying to seduce a then 53 year-old Roger Moore.

But For Your Eyes Only is filled with action on snow, underwater, in a helicopter & on a mountain & most of all the action is done quite well. A lot of it is done to Rocky composer Bill Conti's terrific & thrilling musical score that makes a lot of scenes a lot more exciting. Then there is some wonderful scenes for Roger Moore to do including a rare Moore moment when he kicks Locque's car down a mountain in cold blood.

Had there been a much better cast, For Your Eyes Only would rank much higher, because this one has a lot of unused potential. It certainly delivers when it comes to action & those tired of the constantly tounge-in cheek Roger Moore will enjoy this slightly more dark & down to earth Bond.

[LadySylvia]

Here is a link to my review of the 1981 Bond movie, "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY":


http://ladylavinia.l....com/31657.html

[00Twelve]

When I think of the Bond of the novels, it's the FYEO Moore portrayal that I think of.

[Keir]

Where to start...
Worst car chase scene of any Bond with the obligatory upside-down car being hit side-on. Why on earth the pursuers shoot at him from behind but constantly insist on trying to ram his car of the road instead of shooting his head off is beyond me. As usual with this period film, day turns to night and vice-versa with alarming (ir)regularity. Malena sees parents shot to death from an aeroplane right in front of her and she simply looks into the sky with a look as if to say she's thinkng what she did with her car keys. And how does she have the resources to hunt after trained professionals throughout Europe, whether in Spain, Italy or Greece? And what is it with her crossbow?! Unbelievable escapes from people on motorised vehicles shooting machine-gun fire at prey etc. As usual with Moore films, one can only shrug as he suddenly shoots up in the air on skis and hits someone who happens to be, however improbably, in his trajectory. This happens twice or thrice i this film. Terrible late 70s-style TV music; compare with the lush David Arnold score in the latest film. Child nymphomaniac is casually introduced to Bond (looking exactly like everyone else in standard ski clothes) for 20 seconds and so lusts after him that she finds out where he's staying, breaks into his room and jumps naked into his bed.
And since when are sharks a threat in the Mediterranean???

Edited by Keir, 22 April 2007 - 02:18 PM.

[Shaun Forever]

I find it quite overrated, it's still a good film, just has a disapointing ending, the soundtrack is not up to standard. It just does nothing for me, hard to put my finger on it.


But still, they tried to make it a little more serious, which is a plus.

[TheREAL008]

Roger Moore's BEST Bond movie.

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Where to start...
Worst car chase scene of any Bond with the obligatory upside-down car being hit side-on. Why on earth the pursuers shoot at him from behind but constantly insist on trying to ram his car of the road instead of shooting his head off is beyond me.

That annoyed me, even as a child. The Citreon car chase belonged more in a Burt Reyolds film of the same time period than in a Bond film.

Unbelievable escapes from people on motorised vehicles shooting machine-gun fire at prey etc. As usual with Moore films, one can only shrug as he suddenly shoots up in the air on skis and hits someone who happens to be, however improbably, in his trajectory. This happens twice or thrice i this film.

Didn't bother me so much. However it is funny that these things happen in the allegedly "serious, gritty and realistic" Moore Bond film that supposed to be so "superior" to the likes of The Man with the Golden Gun and Moonraker.

Terrible late 70s-style TV music; compare with the lush David Arnold score in the latest film.

The score really does hurt the film. For example, the Bond/Kriegler ski chase. Objectively speaking, a well staged action sequence. However, Bill Conti's terribly dated score ruins it for me. Compare this to Bond's similar ski escape from Piz Gloria in OHMSS. It's vastly superior to its similar FYEO sequence and I think John Barry's excellent scoring helps in no small way. Of course, I think OHMSS also had a better script as well for that's a topic for another thread.

Child nymphomaniac is casually introduced to Bond (looking exactly like everyone else in standard ski clothes) for 20 seconds and so lusts after him that she finds out where he's staying, breaks into his room and jumps naked into his bed.

Exactly. And again, this is in is the "serious, Fleming-ish" Roger Moore film? And folks complain about Nick Nack, Goodnight, J.W. Pepper and the Jaws/Dolly love story. Bibi's stalking of Moore's Bond ranks right alongside those other examples.

Edited by PrinceKamalKhan, 23 April 2007 - 04:32 AM.

[Keir]

Thanks for the backup, Prince Khan. The thing that made the movie for me as a kid was the intro- I was always a fan of continuity, whether in Bonds or comic boks and get unreasonably childish when I see M Casino Royale disregard everything that came before.
Sure the location didn't look great (why the hell would Blofeld kidnap Bond from a lovely little rural churchyard to take him to the isle of Dogs to kill him?) But it was Blofeld! And with a great accent (ignoring Charles Gray's but what can you do?). What was the point about bribing Bond with a delicatesan, though? At least it referred to a point in Bond's past which is usually ignored and yet created the man.

[Panavision]

When Max repeats, St Cyrils, why does Bond see Q? Couldn't he just see Milos Columbo, who knows what St Cyrils is. After all, it's established that they knew each other. It seemed rather pointless to have Q in that scene, but I do like the dialogue.

[00Twelve]

Oh, you know, Q was just getting a big campy push back then. Thankfully they left out a "field lab" scene for this one film in the middle of the height of Moore's time, but obviously Bond could have met with anyone else and it would have been more practical than Q. If it had to be someone from MI6 and not Columbo, it could have been (and would have been in the early Connery days) a (gasp) regular field operative, or an agent for MI6's Greece station.

Ah well, provided a cute moment, anyway.

[PrinceKamalKhan]

Oh, you know, Q was just getting a big campy push back then. Thankfully they left out a "field lab" scene for this one film in the middle of the height of Moore's time, but obviously Bond could have met with anyone else and it would have been more practical than Q. If it had to be someone from MI6 and not Columbo, it could have been (and would have been in the early Connery days) a (gasp) regular field operative, or an agent for MI6's Greece station.

Ah well, provided a cute moment, anyway.

Indeed it is a cute moment. I have no problem with it. However, isn't this the film that everyone says "eschews" the cute moments in favor of being grittier and realistic? In many ways, FYEO plays like an episode of "The Saint" with plenty of "cute" moments.

[manfromjapan]

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (John Glen, 1981)
After the silliness of MOONRAKER (1979), the Bond team brought 007 down to earth. There's a lot of Fleming material in the film (from two short stories), the characters are a lot more believable, and Roger Moore's Bond gets bashed about in the unsurprisingly well-staged and inventive action scenes. There's a real espionage feel, too. Carole Bouquet is a very beautiful Bond girl. Actually one of the best in the series, and very under-rated. Even Moore's persona is tougher in this one, the twelfth in the official series.

[PrinceKamalKhan]

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (John Glen, 1981)
Actually one of the best in the series, and very under-rated.

Under-rated by whom, manfromjapan? Most reviews I've read of FYEO are very favorable like yours so I wouldn't call it under-rated. Personally speaking I find it a bit over-rated but that's me. I think OHMSS and TLD for example are much more under-rated than FYEO.

Carole Bouquet is a very beautiful Bond girl.

Do agree there. Miss Bouquet's Melina is a worthy addition to the gallery of Bond's women and infinitely better than most of the Brosnan era girls. Too bad her Melina never met Dalton's Bond.

[Cruiserweight]

10

[BoogieBond]

I gave it 8.
Not quite in the "Classic" category, but a more gritty finish. Down to earth (Or as much Bond can be)
The action sequences are all fine, all the elements work to a degree. Some things oft mentioned about FYEO that make it more unique to Rog's cannon. Moore's performance(more serious) is great , the film has more elements of the corresponding novel(and parts of the Goldfinger and LALD novel) to ground it even further. It is the only Rog film that feels fleming(I know LALD is a very loose adaption also with characters and some elements also adapted) But this is, although not quite a top 5, is definitely one I would reach for in the DVD stack and is one 007 adventure I like a lot.

[Golden Claw]

6/10. I give it a C grade. It's like so-so for me. Rodge's third best Bond movie, after LALD & TMWTGG. I like the score and the cast, actually. A 19-yr old Bibi Dahl trying to seduce Rodge is no worse than a 53 yr old Rodge romancing a 23 yr old Carole Bouquet. Incestuous.

The villain, Kristatos and his henchman Locque are rather different from the normal ones. So is Columbo. I like the plot twist where Kristatos is revealed as the villain and not Columbo. John Glen's direction is not bad either.

What I dislike about the movie is Rodge himself. At 53, he looks like James Bond's father; simply to old to be believable as Bond. He looks bored and he's on auto-pilot throughout the movie. He should've stayed at home for this one. This movie belonged to Timothy Dalton.

[broadshoulder]

I am utterly biased as FYEO has and alway will be my favourite Bond film.

My thirteen year old nephew is getting into Bond and I lent him a couple of books and one time when he was staying over we tried FYEO and MR on my big widescreen TV. MR he enjoyed but groaned at every action scene ending in a bad joke. I pointed out Lois Chiles and the production design as plus points and he agreed. He said he'd probably watch it again.

With FYEO I started with the proviso "Remember this film was when the Cold War started up again.."

We sat down and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He thought it had the right amout of charm and action and immediately wanted to book a flight to Greece and see the ruins and monasteries. But it was the story which kept him going. The fact that there were twists and turns and no one could be really trusted. Is Brink a villain or ally? What is Kristatos doing with the Russians? Each character had solid motivation and character perimeters that defined the plot. And Carole Bouquet at 23 was utterly ravishing (she is now). The action scenes, a long time before cgi, were jawdropping and even the lowkey ending with the ATAC being destroyed (implying the entire Cold War was the pursuit of a useless McGuffin) was enthraling for him.

FYEO is Broccoli and co taking Bond seriously again for the first time in many a year. You get the impression that the whole crew and cast were taking this one seriously and enjoying a change of direction.

Very very underrated.

[Scottlee]

I'm surprised I've never voted on this one before! FYEO creeps into the '9' bracket for me. It's my 2nd favourite Roger Moore Bond film, and probably sneaks into my overall top ten.