Product Description

Two Disc Collector's Editon

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87019 in DVD
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: NTSC, Widescreen, Closed-captioned
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Running time: 131 minutes

Customer Reviews

One of Roger Moore's Best Bond Movies
This is one of Roger Moore's best Bond movies and ranks up there with his definitive THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. It certainly has its moments. It does contain the best scene from the entire series. Bond swings from a vine and gives this terrific Tarzan yell. Only Roger Moore's Bond could pull that one off. Bond uses some cool disguises like a gorilla suit and an alligator outfit that turns into a boat. The story is a little confusing and gets jumbled up in subplots involving lookalike jewelry and smuggled nuclear devices. You don't know who is good or who is bad. It depends on your point of view.

The score by John Barry is exceptional and harkens back to a more rich sounding score such as he used in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. He did do a good job scoring the scenes involving the Soviets, which has a rich eastern European flavor.

The film does use elements from the short stories "Octopussy" and "The Property of a Lady" by Ian Fleming as a jumping board. We had not seen that for some time. I think LIVE AND LET DIE was the last Bond film that resembled anything written by Fleming.

Louis Jourdan as Kamal is excellent and gives a performance that rivals Christopher Lee's Scaramanga. It was also good to see many of the regular cast members return for this one. Desmond Llewelyn as "Q," Walter Gotell as Gogol, Geoffrey Keen as the Minister of Defense, Eva Reuber-Staier as Rublevitch, Jeremy Bullock as Smithers and Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny all reprised their roles. Robert Brown replaced Bernard Lee as the beloved "M." We all missed Bernard.

Impressive and Underrated James Bond Film
This is probably Roger Moore's best Bond movie. It is a richly textured film beautifully photographed and full of rich and detailed production designs. It seems like a throwback to the 60s style of filmmaking. The pace is slower and deliberate and the dialogue seems to have subtler wit interspersed. It has an overall nostalgic feel about it. The opening is excellent as we see Bond the spy infiltrate a banana republic air base. Bond escapes via a Bede Acrostar mini jet aircraft with a guided missile in hot pursuit.

The score by John Barry is a little sparse and sporadic but still rich in structure and flavor. Barry utilized "The James Bond Theme" more for this Roger Moore outing than he did for his other scores for the Moore Bonds. He did do an outstanding job scoring the scenes involving the Soviets, which had that eastern block flavor similar to his score for THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM.

To its credit, the film uses elements from the short stories "Octopussy" and "The Property of a Lady" by Ian Fleming in a sentimental throwback to earlier Bonds. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY filmed just before this one, also used some of Fleming's original writings for inspiration. In that one Bond as the shark bate in-tow was taken directly from Fleming's novel "Live and Let Die."

Louis Jourdan as Kamal, in a very underrated performance, is excellent and is one of the best villains of the series. He is Bond's counterpart nemesis. It was also good to see many of the regular cast members return for this one. Desmond Llewelyn as "Q" seemed to return to his old self as he had established prior to DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. Walter Gotell as Gogol, Geoffrey Keen as the Minister of Defense, Eva Reuber-Staier as Rublevitch, Jeremy Bullock as Smithers and Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny all reprised their roles much more effectively and reminiscent to the style of the earlier Bonds. Robert Brown replaced Bernard Lee as the beloved "M." We all missed Bernard.

The film goes a little over-the-top near the end having Octopussy's troupe of beautiful amazons attack Kamal's Monsoon Palace. Then the film really goes over-the-top and under-the-top as Bond crawls all over Kamal's Beechcraft Model 18 Super H18 as it dives, loops and tailspins. I don't see anything wrong with that. This is one of the better James Bond films of the series.

The extras are very good. They are well thought out and prepared. Great screen test footage of James Brolin with his comments is a very good insight into the making s of these films. I like the re-design of the menu screens. The digital sound restoration is spectacular. The new digital sound restoration adds a new dimension to the film. The images are also much crisper, cleaner and brilliant. I also like the redesign of the cover graphics.

Strictly by the numbers Bond caper
Of course, all the Bond movies are entertaining on some level or other. However, it becomes difficult when a film is as...well, routine as this one, to pick a number from one to five summarising the effectiveness of the movie. As a work of substance it is in the bottom few Bond movies. However, does it fulfil its remit to entertain..? Yes, it does - even if the chuckles are sometimes for the wrong reasons.
So just how by the numbers is it? John Glen, veteran of the Bond movies as back, an effective if uninspiring director. John Barry delivers an adequate - but no more - score for the movie in conventional style.
How about the number 6? Moore is back for the 6th time, and while he looks good for his age, he is still in his mid 50's by this point, and definitely looking a little too old for the role. Especially when shown in counterpoint to hordes - and I mean hordes - of scantily clad athletic young women.
The number 2? The number of times the leading lady has starred in a Bond movie, Maud Adams having played in The Man With The Golden Gun. It surely says something about the lack of originality when they have to recycle their leading ladies.
The number zero - the amount of truly memorable scenes in the entire movie.
1? Is the number of rival Bond films that year - the looming threat of Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again seems to have prompted the producers to go back to a more jokey style playing to Moore's strengths, after the significantly superior and more serious For Your Eyes Only.
It's not all bad - Q finally gets a slightly larger role, Louis Jordan is a suitably slimy and cultured bad guy, there is a decent car chase as Bond races to the circus in Berlin - the only reasonably tense moment in the movie. However, this is offset by characterisation that is stereotyped and 2 dimensional even by Bond standards, and Steven Berkoff as the rogue Russian general is so hammy you expect someone to light up a barbeque.
All in all, this being the 13th Bond movie may well be the most pointed clue of all as to what to expect. Definitely unlucky for some.

Extras are probably the most generous in the Ultimate Edition series so far - as well as an immaculate print and dts sound, the Special Edition features are all there - but also some fascinating screen test footage with James Brolin. He was selected to be Bond up until Moore agreed to return, and it is fascinating / intriguing / scary (delete as appropriate) to see how he performed in the high quality screen tests. He also appears in interview to introduce the screen tests. Other items include a tribute to the air stunt crew, and outtakes from some of the stunts, behind the scenes Super-8 footage as well as a rather dull period featurette on Bond in India.
Great package of extras, for one of the most mediocre Bond outings.