For Your Eyes Only is a return to the basic James Bond than any of the previous films had been. It is for this reason why this film is the second best James Bond film of all time.

Movies like Moonraker, You Only Live Twice, and Goldfinger have plots which are pretty far-fetched and slightly more outlandish than most of the other films in the series. For Your Eyes Only is more like the Connery films such as Doctor No, From Russia With Love; and definitely has the realism of George Lazenby's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I think that making this kind of a movie was very smart for the producers to do. And the Bond franchise hasn't really been different since.

Several things that make this film great are the locations, the plot, and the action scenes. Greece and Austria are perfect setting for this film because they fit in great with the action scenarios. At Austria, the winter sports action scenes are the definite highlights of the movie. Bond racing against a blonde muscleman and two dangerous motorcycle thugs is excellent. Probably the best location are the underwater scenes off the coast of greece where the ancient temple is.

The plot is great because it is a change from the evil megalomaniac scene from the 1970s Bond films. It is a change that Director John Glen made beautifully work with this movie.

The action scenes are great from the ski chase in Austria, to the car chase in Cuba, to the boat chases in the ocean near Greece. And the finale takes place atop a majestic St. Cyrils in Greece where Bond does some rock climbing that would make anybody queezy.

For Your Eyes Only is marvelous in every way possible. It combines the classicalness of James Bond with the realism of government agent work. It also has some of the best music by Bill Conti which turn the underwater scenes into showstoppers. For Your Eyes Only has been the finest work of the James Bond library for 21 years...and is still going.

Overall Rating: A

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