29 replies to this topic

[SirMiles83]

These two films have been two of my favorite of the Bond series. They both have their postives and few negatives.
Action-Both films have about the same amount of action. Both's action scenes are well done and entertaining.
Music- I think Octopussy gets this one hands down. Barry's score is great. I didn't take to Bill Conti's hip music in FYEO.
Plot-Both plots are great. FYEO's conquest for the ATAC was good, but I think that OP's nuclear disarmament plot was more powerful.
Villains-Although I like Locque, I thought Kristatos as more of a thug, and they can't compare to the combination of General Orlov and Kamal Kahn. Kamal was an excellent stylish gentleman villain, and General Orlov was a great mad Russian general. Also, the motley crew of henchman such as Gobinda, the twin assassins, and the thug with the chainsaw yo-yo, were reminscent of the great crew of villains in LALD.
Misc-The locales were great in both: the alps in FYEO, and the India scenes were nice as well. Acting was good in both. Bond girls in FYEO had the amazing Melina Havelock, but OP had Maud return to play another great Bond girl in Octopussy. I think the Bond girl edge goes to FYEO though, because I like Melina so much.
Final Verdict-IMO the final verdict is OP as the victor. Any other thoughts?

[4 Ur Eyez Only]

I totally agree!

These 2 movies PUT Roger Moore over the top as the BEST! These 2 movies came later in his career..

How hard is it to make the first 3 of the series great???

Look at Sean's after Goldfinger.. they all are off.. he walked through them.. and they just kept trying to recapture Goldfinger.. over and over..

NOT Roger and the crew that worked on his!!!!

NOW lets then look before For your Eyes Only..

we have The Spy Who Loved Me.. which is in MOST to everyones top lists! ..and kept the 3rd Bond of the actor's career be the BEST one! (until Pierce ruined that)

THEN think of Roger's others which are different and fill out his career as Bond. Live and Let Die, The Man with Golden Gun BITH very interesting.. taking chances..

Moonraker is probably the only one that isn't original.. as in plot.. BUT it has nice FX for a film of the time.. dated now, but still at the time.. * EVERYONE sees at the end of TSWLM they didn't have Moonraker as the movie "James Bond will return " as.. COULD you imagine if Roger made in a row TSWLM, FYEO, Octopussy!! WOW that would have been a serious run!

*** BUT Anyone that has played Bond.. usually has his best movies early and fade..

BUT NO one yet has had back to back AMAZING Movies.. totally different from one of each other LATE in his career.

[Xenobia]

OP vs FYEO: an interesting battle to ponder.

Both do have excellent actresses playing the main roles, and the key supporting Bond girls. Both also have strong plot lines, excellent cinematopgraphy, great locations, and good music.

The problem is, FYEO gave us a tantalizing look at a direction the series could have gone in: Bond as a more mature man taking on the world in a more low key and still chilling way, while passing on the wisdom he has learned while being on the good side of a reflection in blood. Octopussy did a one 180 and went right for the silly.

The trouble with OP begins when Bond responds to his own theme! Hello! How would Bond know his own music?

This is followed by Tarzan 007. Need I say more?

And of course, there is the piece de resistance...as in someone should have resisted the urge to film this scene: James the clown. Again, need I say more.

For those tragic missteps, in my book FYEO triumphs over Octopussy.

-- Xenobia

[BONDFINESSE 007]

i gotta go with octopussy, sometimes when i watch fyeo i get sleepy, it just knocks me right out....sometimes

[freemo]

I'm willing to let the tragic missteps slide. Octopussy by a nose.

Bond flys a mini jet, bids at an auction, plays dead, swims in a hollowed out crocodile, yells like Tarzan, steals a car, dresses up as a clown and spends a few nights on an island populated exclusively by women. What more could one possibily want ?

My highlight of this film is the backgammon game between Bond and Kamal, easily one of the best gambling scenes in the series. "Spend the money quickly Mr Bond" Kamal tell him, Bond does just that, generously distributuing his new found fortune among the locals.

The action scenes are awesome, so are the ones in For Your Eyes Only. So much effort mush have been put into making the action in these films thrilling and entertaining. So much you wouldn't see in any other film, and barely an explosion in sight. My one major gripe about the newest two Bodn films is the lack of this effort in the action scenes (DAD sword fight excluded).

Off topic, but I've never understood the notion that an explosion makes for a good action scene. You've seen one explosion, you've seen them all. Unless there is countless debree belong building that needed to be destroyed flying all over the shop, the only service an explosion serves is keeping the audience awake.

What are we talking about again ? Ah, yes, For Your Eyes Only vs. Octopussy. I'll pick Octopussy, excellent Bond girls, great villians, very large plot, great locations, and Roger at his finest. That's the sort of adventure that one dreams of being the hero of.

[Dunph]

Babs, I fear you're taking the little humourous touches in Octopussy a little too seriously, (perhaps apart from the Tarzan one).

originally posted by Xenobia:
The trouble with OP begins when Bond responds to his own theme! Hello! How would Bond know his own music?

It's a nice little touch I feel, a little Moore-ish, though. The producers have always slipped in references to past scores and themes in the action. Though you may hate it, I reckon it's a nice moment. (and plus, Bond doesn't necessarily have to know the music as his theme, it could have some other significance to him, like music all MI-6 contacts use).....I'm rambling now. I hope you get the gist of that.

originally posted by Xenobia:
And of course, there is the piece de resistance...as in someone should have resisted the urge to film this scene: James the clown. Again, need I say more.

I love this sequence, and the contrast between Bond's get-up and his attitude is brilliant, it's a tense sequence, and one of Moore's best IMHO.

Octopussy does win over For Your Eyes Only though overall for me, though, even though the score for For Your Eyes Only kicks disco ****

[[dark]]

Originally posted by Dunphboy007
I love this sequence, and the contrast between Bond's get-up and his attitude is brilliant, it's a tense sequence, and one of Moore's best IMHO.

Totally agree. Despite Bond's ridiculous nature (and aside from the fact that Bond finds time to perfectly apply his clown make-up in a crisis), the scene maintains an air of tension.

Overall, Octopussy wins hands-down. It has so much going for it and Moore is perfect! I tend to find For Your Eyes Only a little over-rated.

[4 Ur Eyez Only]

I would chose Octopussy! I actually think It is the best one of ALL the bond movies! It has it all!! John Glen by far is the best director of the bond films! He knows the perfect blend..

BEFORE Octopussy.. everyone in the series/crew kept trying to remake Goldfinger.. and the just looked like rip off..

Octopussy is fresh!! also the last time you can actually do/use the Cold War and make it a serious threat!!..

The Movie takes you everywhere! they have that perfect amount of story...

The Begining: we are thrown into a agent in a clown suit undercover, running for his life!! and get killed over an egg?? which is great it hooks you in! (intense)

Bond goes to the office for the mission.. and then they find out it is a fake? soooo they go to an auction ( best bond scene ever..it has charmp,humor, and he totally messes with Khan!)

Bond goes everywhere in this movie! India was a great choice, totally new.. the mix the serious story.. then right when it is going to be too serious and drag they throw in more tension with Bond & Khan! with loaded dice.. there is humor and tension!!

something they dont do anymore but is what is needed.. Bond checking into a hotel! small but it is a piece of the Bond Puzzle.

we then have enough story and perfect Bond type seens that we didn't see much of in the past Auction & Bacgamon (sp?) game!!!

WE get a great amazing scene with a taxi chase!!

*IN this movie there are very special BOND Type Scene more then any other movie combined!! In the Taxi chase we think Bond gets killed/stabbed? BUT its the money he just won!! Nice humor WHICH works of Bond throwing the money and it lands in the Beggers Plate!!!! Which is a nice way to catch your breath of the action/tension! Then BOND has yet another interesting way to get out of the Chase.. by throwing ALL his winnings in the air and all the vendor/kids/beggers run on the street and pick up the money!!!

wow allot of fun.. total mix of humor,bond type scenes you would read in the novels, games, & action!

we get a great Q Branch scene..which Bond load up for his big battle to get into the place..and fight the villians.

a nice romantic scene with Bond at Dinner with the villians girl! which yet again places perfectly for the pacing..

we have Bond attracted sexually to Octopussy a villian of the movie! But they have allot in common!! 2 of a kind

There is a total nugget of the story which is the phoney counterfiting of jewels.. but we find out later there is a bigger plot to start WW3!! Things Octopussy has no clue about..

and the action!! wow look at all this in one movie.. BUT it doesn't feel like an action movie! because of the pacing, bond type scenes,charmp,humor,romance,exotic places,gadgets & ect.. all perfectly blended into a movie!!

As for the action scenes, Taxi Chase, fighting in the back alley of India in a sword fight, at a circus defusing a bomb!, fighting under,inside & ontop a train, car chases,train chases,gun battles in a palace, Bond being hunted like an animal in the jungle, allot of sneeking/snooping around! Bond on top of a plane!!..ect...ect..

also we have the Yo-Yo Blade Assassian!!!!! also the 2 twin knife throwers from the traveling circus!

Yes Octopussy is better then For Yor Eyes Only.. and easliy you can say this movie gives you MORE..in a perfectly blended up to date movie of Action, Bond scenes you would see in a Novel, Romance, Humor. Charming Villians, Henchman & exciting Assassins..

There is such small things wrong with it.. a Tarzan Yell yes true.. done in Post Production that doesn't work.. I agree, even when I saw it in the theater in 1983..I felt that.. But that is 3 seconds.. I have seen other Bond Movies that the humor is sooo swefully dry..and just bombs.

But Clearly this is the BEST Bond move of them all!! Not just Rogers Movies.. but all the other actors.. Having John Glen is and was the key!! He made all different kinds of movies.. and using a refreshing feel to old stuff.. This is the 13th MOVIE!! and is the best one! IF you like Fantasy Bond Movies..compared to the Serious Bond Movies... John Glen can do both and in Octopussy he showed the perfect Blend of EVERYTHING!

The Action Fanasty Romance

The Music

Everything is perfect in this John Glen James Bond Movie!!!

:cool:

[mkkbb]

I think Bond as a clown was one of the best scenes ever filmed, as it was suspensful, and also tested Bond to the limits.... how.....

How would you convince an army general (or whatever he was) that a cannon contained a nuclear bomb, in a circus, dressed as a clown???

And in FYEO, it has probably one of the best explosions I've ever seen, the docks explosion where Bond just escapes in time after a huge shootout against Kristatos' men with [Topol's] crew.

Rather than having just explosions, do something with them, like having people inside them (like GoldenEye), or make it more tense like in FYEO.

[ChandlerBing]

One of my favorite scenes with Moore was his confrontations with Locke. he gets that stance, shoots him through the windshield, kicks that bugger right off the bloody cliff...oh, boy, was that good!

[DLibrasnow]

I agree with you Xen, I would pick FYEO between the two movie.
That's not to say that FYEO wins in all categories. I think the OP pre-titles sequence was better and I really liked the scene at Sotheby's and the backgammon game. I didn't mind the moment when Bond responds to his own theme either - I took it as just a tune used by Mi6 as a means of identifying one another....it's a lot less cumbersome than "Do you have a match?....... I use a lighter!...... Even better....Until they go wrong."

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by ChandlerBing
One of my favorite scenes with Moore was his confrontations with Locke.  he gets that stance, shoots him through the windshield, kicks that bugger right off the bloody cliff...oh, boy, was that good!

My favorite scene from all the Bond movies......"You left this with Ferrara I believe."

[ChandlerBing]

He had no head for heights.

[kevrichardson]

For Your Eyes Only is a small scale James Bond Film . A true Cold War Drama like From Russia With Love . Octopussy while also a Cold war Bond Film . Is more in line with ThunderBall . A large scale epic Bond . I enjoy both films .

[rafterman]

Octopussy wins for me, I enjoy it more each time...Maud is just too good...

[goldengun]

One of Moore's finest moments was kicking over the car in FYEO. His final one-liner to Locque is memorable - Roger really makes the viewer root for him. The final scenes including the fight with Kriegler on the mountain are fantastic.

Melina is a nice looking babe too.

But Octopussy has one of the finest suspense filled scnese in a Bond film with the highway chase as he goes to diffuse the bomb.

No one can tell me that they didn't watch that whole scene from the train fight, killing one of the twins, Moore stealing a car, chase on the Autobahn, avoiding the cops and then dispensing of the bomb - and not feel the tension of the movie right there. I haven't felt that much tension in a Bond movie since Octopussy - not even Bronsan's films.

Magda is a nice looking babe too.

Both movies are great entries, and really they allow Bond to start the 80's with great success. I am glad that Moore handed over a VERY healthy franchise over to Timothy Dalton.

I always wondered though, in the scene where Bond steals the car from the German lady in Octopussy - how would the scene be written for Connery's Bond?

Thoughts?

[zencat]

Octopussy all the way. I think it's one of the best Bonds period.

[DLibrasnow]

Originally posted by goldengun

Melina is a nice looking babe too.

No arguments here at all, Carole Bouquet is simply stunning -- and French too

[Turn]

Octopussy by far. My favorite Moore Bond and in my top 5.

FYEO is an attempt to be too straight a story in line with the very early films whereas OP gets a better balance from the early and later films and it comes off well for the most part. Sure the Tarzan yell was bad, but the rest makes up for it.

As somebody said in another thread, following the goofiness of MR, FYEO is almost completely in the opposite direction. They decided fewer special effects and more stunts. This resulted in repeating a lot from earlier films -- underwater stuff, skiing, car chases. And Kristatos ranks near the bottom of my list of villains.

OP does it better with the train stunts and the raid on Kamal's fortress and the hanging outside the planes. Less believable than some of the FYEO stunts, but more fun.

[Kernal Son]

Good question, Sir Miles.

I think, generally speaking, that Octopussy is underrated (at least among the general public). For the most part, it's a great Bond film: good villains, excellent scheme, exciting locales, etc. Roger does an excellent job, and for once you really feel that Bond is beleagured. If only....

If only there wasn't the Tarzan yell, telling the kitty to "Sit!", the clown get up. For all that, I have to tip the scales in favor of FYEO. It's a film that is fully committed to itself and remains focused without descending into the wink-wink, nudge-nudge syndrom that afflicted some of the films in the 70s and 80s.

FYEO also has one of my favorite pre-title sequences...so I am a little biased based on that alone!

[brendan007]

i enjoy both films, but octopussy is definetly the better of the two. octopussy is a really excellent bond film, its in my top three. great location, great action, good plot and a gripping finale is wat makes octopussy so great. having nsna as competition really forced the producers to go all out, and they did.

[kevrichardson]

What really interest about this thread is how many people really like the film Octopussy . Since so many people complain about the Moore years . I am convince that only the true die hard Bond fan could enjoy Octopussy . I would have thought it would run in favor of "For You Eyes Only" . Since it is closer to "FRWL" in style . No gadgets , only count down to doomsday plot . Very little in the way of broad humor . Which marred some of Moore's other films .

[ChandlerBing]

Octopussy {still can't type it with a straight face} would have been a great one to go out on for Roger, but then, well, he didn't.

[Scottlee]

I prefer OP over FYEO. Close call though, because the two are my 2nd and 3rd favourite films of the Moore era.

On a different note, I think some people over-criticize the humour in OP. So what if Moore yells like Tarzan? You only see if for 2 seconds of the film.

[SirMiles83]

I think that the two worst sound effects added to a Bond scene was the tarzan yell in OP, and the dumb sound when Bond's AMC did the 360 leap in TMWTGG. Although those two small parts of the films don't really affect my viewing of the whole film that much.

[Double-Oh-Zero]

Every Bond film has it's faults. The Tarzan yell in OP was one of them. In FYEO, it was Bibi, who was more of a nuisance than anything else. Yes, FYEO is a good Bond film, with probably the best ski chase (along with TSWLM) in the series. But it's larger fault that puts it below OP is that FYEO drags on rather slowly and unexcitedly, bar the aforementioned chase.

Everyone keeps saying how the scene with Locque being shoved over the cliff in his car returned to the cold-blooded Bond, but keep in mind the same sort of thing happened in OP when he knifed the.... well, knife thrower, and said "And that was for 009."

Also, I've come to realize that Bond in the clown suit isn't as bad as it seems. The humour, action and wit run rampant in this film, and the villains are far superior in OP than in FYEO, IMHO. Plus, the Q scene is funnier in OP (although the "I want a nose, Q, not a banana" line from FYEO is one of the funniest Q moments, I think). The finale, chase and gambling scenes are also very, very well done. As Freemo said, the gabling scene is one of the best of the series. Couldn't agree more.

For me, OP is superior to FYEO.

[jojo40]

There's a question here on this thread on how Sean Connery would have reacted to the German lady when moore is off to diffuse the bomb.

While Moore just stole her car, Connery would have grabbed her from the phone booth and pummelled her by employing the Hulk Hogan smack down.....then he would either use the phone or steal her car to add injury to insult...

Moore did the next best thing and stole the chicks car - MOORE was great!

[General Koskov]

Octopussy, but FYEO was pretty much just as good, except:

I like endings where a whole hell of a lot of stuff goes on and everyone's after Bond and the good guys don't know what's happening and the stupid kids don't give Bond a lift but he gives 'em the finger so it's alright and then he wears a clown suit and you really feel like kicking the general in the 'nads but that feeling goes away because Bond rides a balloon and a horse and Q gets the girls and Bond jumps out of a plane and breaks his leg and the last line is quite memorable.

So that should make my reasoning clear--I get my jollies from frantic endings.

[raggedtiger]

Originally posted by jojo40


While Moore just stole her car, Connery would have grabbed her from the phone booth and pummelled her by employing the Hulk Hogan smack down.....then he would either use the phone or steal her car to add injury to insult...

I concur, Connery would have slapped her silly. Then again didn't Moore slap around Maud Adams in TMWTTGG? I suppose he too could have slapped the German lady.

[Dr Noah]

Octopussy wins by a mile.

FYEO has some good points, but everything (pre-credit sequence, underwater scenes, ski chase etc) seems to go on a bit too long (if they cut out the bald guy falling into the chimney it would have been a classic). Plus you could edit out the Bibbi Dahl subplot and no one would notice.

The comic ending is also one of the worst of the series. I cringe whenever "mrs Thatcher" pops up. It also dates the movie badly.