Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) Film Review

I reckon this was probably the first or second Bond film I saw, and I think that Pierce Brosnan is one of my favourite Bonds. Him and Sean Connery. Daniel Craig’s pretty rocking as well. I could go on like this for a while bunch more names and probably end up naming all of the Bond actors, but perhaps I should get back to the film.

This is an excellent Bond film – running, shoot, parachuting, scuba outfits, raunchy moments with beautiful women, car chases. All of that.  How marvellous. See, a British boat has been sunk, supposedly in Chinese waters. When Bond goes to investigate, he discovers that a missile has been stolen, and sets out to find out by whom and how. Along the way, he meets a couple of beautiful women, one of them ends up not so much alive and he needs to avenge her death which conveniently also allows him to wrap up all the other stuff.

Perfect.

 

Moonraker (1979) Film Review

After shaking off the invincible Jaws (Richard Kiel) in a very exciting mid-skydiving fight, James Bond (Roger Moore) is sent to Venice to track down a satellite which went missing during delivery. Eventually winning over the magnificently named Dr. Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles), Bond goes via Rio into space to discover that Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) has created an amazing space station where he intends to breed the perfect humans to start a new world in the air.

What I found odd about this plot was, having watched The Spy Who Loved Me immediately before Moonraker, both films were about an evil villain who was going to start a new world. Below the sea, then in space. A little more originality, please? Plus, both films had one of those shots where something unbelievable happens and a bystander who is having a drink looks at the bottle as though the drink is causing them to hallucinate. To be fair, it made me chuckle both times.

Moonraker has everything you want in a Bond. Ridiculous scenarios, awesome costumes (especially the ski outfit Bond puts on in the opening sequence. Oh, so yellow), terribly corny dialogue and, as a bonus, this has lots of lasers. Awesome.

Moonraker was nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects.