Rent James Bond: For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Average Bond Adventure - James Bond: For Your Eyes Only review by GI

There's little doubt that Roger Moore is really looking his age by the time he came to make this and it's not entirely a surprise that the script was written with the intention of a new Bond taking over (Pierce Brosnan was on the cards) but Moore agreed to stay in the role mainly because this was an attempt to move the franchise back towards the more serious style of film. The previous film, Moonraker (1979), had lurched the series into screwball comedy territory and whilst it was a big box office earner it marked the Bond label becoming more of a spoof spy series than action thrillers. In some parts For You Eyes Only succeeds in its attempt to be more gritty with some brutal killings including a cold blooded one by 007 himself but a silly prologue and and an even sillier epilogue marks the film as typical latter day Roger Moore in style. We even get a major plot clue revealed by a talking parrot!! But there are some good action set pieces including an early car chase, an underwater fight and a ski chase. Bond is sent to recover a British targeting computer which the Russians are after too. He teams up with the beautiful daughter of murdered parents who were working for MI6, and who is out for revenge with a crossbow! Bond manages to woo her into bed fairly easily as well as teaming up with a Greek gangster to fight the bad guy. Story wise it's all a mishmash of other Bond narratives and compared to others in the Roger Moore series it's entertaining and very watchable but it bears little comparison with Connery's first four films nor On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) and fans had to wait a few more years before the series went truly back to basics when Timothy Dalton came on board.