Octopussy (1983)

Octopussy is the thirteenth bond film and is the sixth one to feature Roger Moor e as James Bond. It was a relief that For Your Eyes Only was a return to form because Moonraker had been such a comical film and For Your Eyes Only was more like older Bond. Sadly it seems like the franchise has taken a step back in Octopussy. First of all let’s address the title, if it weren’t a Bond film you would say it was an Austin Powers movie. The theme song is also something that is important in a bond film and here it’s not as impressive as the last one. The plot itself isn’t as interesting because For Your Eyes Only had a plot and also an underlying tone about revenge whereas in Octopussy the film centres on Bond following a Russian general who is stealing jewels and relics from his own government and is trying to effectively start a new war.

Roger Moore seems to be liking going back to being the ladies man bond as opposed to the 100% series one that we had in the last film. It wasn’t his best performance. It was good to have a lot more Desmond Llewelyn in this movie than we have for quite some time. Q is a very enjoyable character that doesn’t get enough screen time and this seemed to be put right. Robert Brown does well as the new M. It was always going to be hard to replace to replace Bernard Lee as he was so believable in the role but Brown does a good job. Steven Berkoff is the main baddie as General Orlov and I must be honest but I didn’t find him 100% believable. He was good but it just didn’t work for me. As the titled Octopussy, I thought that Maud Adams was a good ‘Bond Girl’ she was someone who seemed to be shrouded in mystery and it was only when it was clear that she was being cheated that she really stood up to the action.

The decision to move the story to India was quite a good one as the story as it meant we got some really nice location footage. It seemed to be quite a contract to move the story from India to East Germany but it did seem to flow quite well.  When the story moved to Germany it seemed to step up a gear and I found the story more enjoyable which is surprising when we have Roger Moore dressed up as a clown trying to convince some American about the impending bomb exploding.

Octopussy isn’t the terrible film that I remember. It’s not as good as For Your Eyes Only but there is a lot to like about this film and I think that it does a perfectly decent job in the franchise.