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Octopussy: a missed opportunity

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  • BAIN123BAIN123
    edited August 2012 Posts: 11,189
    bondsum wrote:
    JBFan626 wrote:
    For Your Eyes Only is far worse of an offender of ridiculous silliness: "Blofeld" offering Bond sandwiches in the PTS, the cow double take, hockey thugs and the goals alarm, Bibi Dahl, the talking parrot, Thatcher scene...
    Great post and I agree with you. I can't see how these scenes are continually overlooked when comparing FYEO favourably to a serious Bond. I hate the Thatcher scene and parrot more than I do the naff stuff in Octopussy!

    I actually agree too. Last time I rewatched FYEO I was literally wincing at the Thatcher scene. On it's own it would be quite funny (perhaps as a sketch at a charity gig like Children in Need or even the recent Olympic opening ceremony) but at the end of a more "serious" Bond film like FYEO it doesn't really work.

    For my money OP is the better film.
  • Samuel001Samuel001 Moderator
    edited August 2012 Posts: 13,350
    John Glen likes visual humour. His Bond films are riddled with it, when they don't need any. Arguably this is Glen's biggest drawback as a director.
  • BentleyBentley
    Posts: 267
    Fellow Agents,
    I never re - watch the Moore Bonds as, apart from a couple of great music scores, they have no redeeming features whatsoever and for sure, the ridiculous "Octopussy" was no exception.
    Ironically, it saddens me to say this because I'm a life long fan of both Moore and Bond but never together! I thought that Moore was fabulous as "The Saint" and would have been better advised to take that role to the big screen instead of screwing up Bond.
    Thank God for Daniel Craig, he is well on the way to saving the film Bond - let's just hope that William Boyd can do the same for literary Bond. We live in hope.
    Regards,
    Bentley
  • SandySandy Somewhere in Europe
    Posts: 4,012
    @Bentley, don't you think never re-watching the Moore Bonds is a bit extreme? I'm a fan of the more serious films, the book Bond, and I rate Connery and Craig at the very top of my Bond-actors list, but I re-watched even my most hated Bond film to be sure of my opinion about it!
  • doubleohdaddoubleohdad
    Posts: 1,146

    Roger Moore, John Glenn and whoever else' 'humor' drove the series into sophomoric depths that had the series in the same conversation with the Pink Panther films.

    UGH.

    Never Say Never again, despite its deficiencies, completely embarrasses this film.
  • doubleohdaddoubleohdad
    Posts: 1,146
    Bentley wrote:
    Fellow Agents,
    I never re - watch the Moore Bonds as, apart from a couple of great music scores, they have no redeeming features whatsoever and for sure, the ridiculous "Octopussy" was no exception.
    Ironically, it saddens me to say this because I'm a life long fan of both Moore and Bond but never together! I thought that Moore was fabulous as "The Saint" and would have been better advised to take that role to the big screen instead of screwing up Bond.
    Thank God for Daniel Craig, he is well on the way to saving the film Bond - let's just hope that William Boyd can do the same for literary Bond. We live in hope.
    Regards,
    Bentley

    I completely agree with all of this.
  • LeChiffreLeChiffre
    Posts: 1,548
    Moore should have quit after Eyes Only. His credibility would have been much higher as Bond if he'd done that and been replaced by another actor. The Tarzan yell, safari suit and clown gear are just cringworthy. Take those out and the film is pretty decent incorporating certain Fleming elements such as the Major Smythe and Property of a Lady references.
  • 007RogerMoore007RogerMoore
    Posts: 1,082
    LeChiffre wrote:
    Moore should have quit after Eyes Only.

    By no means IMO should he have quit before AVTAK. I would have liked to see more of him as Bond, but 7 movies were a fair share IMO.

  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    I never paid much attention to the late actress (Brown) who played Margaret Thatcher and her husband, but now that I think about it, yes, it was another unnecessary scene that should of been left on the cutting room floor in an otherwise mostly serious Bond adventure. I don't like the stupid 'Blofeld down chimney stack' for the PTS either, 'Keep your hair on' and 'Mister Booooooooond', damn silly is was it was 8-|

    There was a double taking cow, how did I miss that in 31 years of viewings?

    All said, it's a more straight faced adventure than Octopussy ever pretends to be I'm afraid
  • karatemanchan37karatemanchan37
    Posts: 584
    Let's be honest here: With a title like Octopussy you're probably not gonna have a serious tone throughout the film.
  • Jones_The_BondJones_The_Bond
    Posts: 344
    "No redeeming features", "NSNA...completely embarrasses this film."

    Gosh.

    There will be some who will nod in agreement with these statements. But I hope they are caught quickly and re-incarcerated for the safety of society. *tongue firmly in cheek*

    It's all about opinions, of course. I believe that Octopussy was a fine Bond movie, made by a team that knew how to do it properly. I'd back Cubby's crew over that motley band of McClory pirates (Sean excepted, of course) that churned out NSNA.

    It might be worth re-watching some of the Moore films after all.

  • tonytony
    Posts: 34
    the problem is unfortunatly that some films will stand the test of time and some will not. i have a fondness for OP but when i first saw the film we had a free day at school and we watched OP and NSNA in the same day. at the time OP was pure escapism as IMO all of Moore's film's are. they are very tounge in cheek and the world has moved on and now expects alot more from every outing to the cinema. at the time the cinema would of roared with laughter at a tarzan call but now older and wiser we cringe.
    put OP next to FRWL there is no comparison it may as well be a diffirent series but they represent a changing in time and values as the decades come and go and prehaps they needed to in order to survive 50 years. roll on the next 50 i say.
  • SharkBaitSharkBait
    Posts: 2,107
    Octopussy is , imo , one of the best and most entertaining Bond movies ever created.
    It doesn't take itself too seriously, and apart from some silliness (Tarzan yell and the ghost laugh) it is very fun movie to watch. Not too silly, not too serious. FYEO had that problem that it was trying to be serious, but still had a lots of silly moments like the scene with Thatcher and parrot and annoying Bibi Dahl.
  • identigraphidentigraph
    edited August 2012 Posts: 1,052
    the world has moved on and now expects alot more from every outing to the cinema

    I expect to be entertained when I go to the cinema, and OP delivers this more than most!
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