Moonraker
Moonraker
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Producers: Albert R. Broccoli; William P. Cartlidge (associate); Michael G. Wilson (executive)
Writers: Ian Fleming (novel); Christopher Wood
Title Song: Lyrics by Hal David and Sung by Shirley Bassey
Opening Action Sequence: A "Moonraker" space shuttle, being transported by a larger American shuttle, is stolen in outer space. In the process, the American shuttle explodes in a ball of flames. Meanwhile, 007 is finishing up a mission aboard an airliner. After seducing yet another woman, Bond is shoved out of the jet by Jaws and battles for a parachute in a mid-air tussle.
Bond Visits: United States (California); Venice, Italy; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Outer Space
Film Gross: $62,723,559--United States; $202,700,000--Worldwide
At Drax's California estates, Bond meets NASA scientist Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles), who has been sent by the CIA to investigate the Drax operation and stop it. Eventually, the obstinate scientist is wooed by Bond's charms and teams up with him to fight Drax in the far reaches of space.
Working with Drax is a samurai warrior and the enormous Jaws (Richard
Kiel), whom Bond battled on a previous occasion. With these kind of
obstacles, 007 must work to his full potential in order to stop Drax's plan
from succeeding, a plan which would cause the people of Earth to perish.
Review: Hoping to cash in on the recent success of Star
Wars, the producers of the Bond series took a gamble and spent more money
on Moonraker than they had on the first eight Bond movies combined.
The film was a financial success, but that doesn't hide the fact that
it's absolutely awful as a Bond adventure.
For the sake of kindness, let's start with good stuff. There are some effective suspense scenes in this film (mostly due to the nearly always enjoyable Jaws) and also a neat scene in a centrifuge, which shows a rare glimpse of 007 at his most helpless. I also enjoyed the concept of Bond's "wrist gun", which I would have liked to have seen more of in subsequent films.
Now, on to the bad
stuff.
In this film, Roger Moore has abandoned all of his natural charisma and replaced it with terribly forced one-liners and a transparent version of a role which he used to play with more gusto. It seems as if Moore just phoned this one in, but I don't blame him, because this is a horribly boring movie throughout, special effects or not. Moonraker is for Roger Moore what You Only Live Twice was for Sean Connery: dull and tedious.
In many cases, the villain makes the Bond film work. Here, however, Hugo Drax is as uninteresting as they come. He's not particularly scary, manipulative, or physically agile. Basically, the man is all talk and no action (the dog chase scene is the only contradiction to that statement). Plus, his final confrontation with Bond is too brief and to the point (no pun intended).
Bond gets three women into bed with him this time (maybe he bores them to sleep), none of which are very interesting. Holly Goodhead, especially, is wooden and banal, lacking any trace of personality or spunk. She toys with 007, knows her space stuff, and beats up a couple of guys, but we've seen that before.
The space angle doesn't really kick in until the last fourth of the movie and is horribly uninspired. You'd think that, with such a large amount of money, Lewis Gilbert could have created a space fight that doesn't look like it came from an Atari game.
The story, while it has the potential to be entertaining, is a two-hour and seven minute bore-fest, with cheesy humor spoiling the moments that could have been fun (for instance, a pigeon does a double-take when it catches a glimpse of 007's gadget-filled gondola. Hello?). Not only was the theme of "rebuilding the human race" already played out two years earlier in The Spy Who Loved Me, but in Moonraker it manages to ruin the great Jaws character by turning him into a softie.
One would expect a lot more from a film like this, which could have used the realm of outer space to its advantage. Instead the whole thing becomes not only boring, but a waste of a lot of money. If you decide to stop watching Moonraker after its thrilling opening scene, trust me, you won't miss much.
Grade: D