The Spy Who Loved Me

I don't know why I always thought this was the first Bond movie of the 80s, the soundtrack clearly states otherwise.

Roger Moore's best outing as 007? More likely than not. After the less than positive reception of the last movie, the producers took a 3 year hiatus to create the best Bond movie of them all. Did they succeed? Well I can safely say this is the best film of Roger's era so far, and it does indeed rank up there with Goldfinger so yeah. Roger Moore returns in top form, as Bond is looking for any leads on both soviet and british submarines as he encounters a severe marine obsessive man by the name of Stromberg bent on creating a world war so he can rebuild human society from his underwater lair. It's the perfect blend of realistic spy thriller, and entertaining tongue in cheek cinema. I will say the pre-title sequence is one of the best in the entire series ending on one hell of a high note. All elements of the series have been executed wonderfully in this installment, with damn good action, memorable characters, an interesting story, and the highest production values we've seen to date. Roger Moore is wonderful as always, being the cheeky secret agent many have said to be the best Bond (and I'm so far agreeing with them). Barbara Bach is one of the most unique Bond girls, being an opposing secret agent from Russia that has to work with Bond, and while their chemistry and different characters work very well, her acting is incredibly wooden. Is this what people saw with George Lazenby? Cause this, this is not good. Though I have seen far far worse in my time so I can't be that rough on her. Stromberg is a surprisingly dull villain despite an amazing lair, and while the performance is by no means bad at all there just really isn't that much to work with, he's just an evil capitalistic crazy person. Gee, what a new and inspired character for the James Bond series. I heard it was originally meant to be Blofeld, now that would have been interesting to see! However with the disappointing villain of Stromberg, we gain the most recognizable henchman in the whole series, Richard Kiel as the metal mouthed killer Jaws. He is one of my most favorite characters in these movies, and whether he down right scared the living daylights out of me or made me have a good laugh in this movie, I can't express in words how awesome he is. Richard Kiel, you are the man and I cannot wait to see more of him in the next movie! This is one of the better films for sure, and it was a favorite among the producers, Bond actors old and young, and the public even today. 3 stars, 8/10 from me, and we will join Bond in a very underrated adventure next time with Moonraker.