A British spy ship has sunk off the coast of Greece. On board is the highly sensitive ATAC system. It is capable of sending and retrieving information to British ships. It is up to OO7 to find and recover the ATAC before it falls into Russian hands.

After the 'over-the-top' antics of Moonraker, Cubby Broccoli brought OO7 back down to earth. In this film, Roger Moore plays OO7 for the fifth time and with less silliness than the former films. The story is from Ian Fleming's book of the same title which is a collection of five short stories. Broccoli incorparated two of the stories - For Your Eyes Only and Risico. John Glen, who edited On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker takes his place as the film's director following in the same shoes as his predecessor Peter Hunt. Mr. Glen is the only person to have directed five consecutive OO7 films, all of them made during the 1980s. His work is outstanding on this film and probably would not be surpassed until 1987's The Living Daylights. in the first two-thirds of the film, Glen keeps the camera moving and the characters interesting. Unfortunately, the film loses it's fast pace momentum in the last third when Bond attempts to rock climb to the villain's hideout. Mr. Glen does his best to keep this scene exciting but, like the underwater scenes in Thunderball, it's painfully too slow.

Over all, the film is excellent with only a few parts that either don't work or is completely outdated. The pre-credit scene is spectacular to watch but ends poorly. Bond is trapped inside a pilotless helicopter while Ernst Stavro Blofeld (controlling the helicopter from a rooftop) takes him for a final, fiery ride. Bond finally gets control of the helicopter and swoops up the wheelchaired Blofeld and drops him down an industrial chimney. Blofeld earns the award for uttering the worse parting line in a OO7 film. "I'll buy you a delicatessen, in stainless steel". Other parts of the film that I consider outdated is the music. Bill Conti is a talented composer and conductor and I personally loved his Rocky theme, but he is the wrong choice for a Bond movie. His music is too disco and although he composed a beautiful title song, sung by Sheena Easton, it is not one of my favorite soundtracks. This film marked the absence of Bernard Lee, who passed away several months earlier before they filmed his scene. Cubby Broccoli, in respect, chose not to replace Lee's part but have Chief of Staff Tanner fill in for a vacationing 'M'.

Most Memorable Dialogue:

After kicking a teatering automobile off a cliff and eliminating one of the film's assassins, Bond quips:

BOND: "He had no head for heights."

Dr. Shatterhand's Scale from 1 to 10

"7"

CAST

Roger Moore . . . . . . . . . . James Bond OO7

Carole Bouquet . . . . . . . . . . Melina Havelock

Topol . . . . . . . . . . Milos Columbo

Lynn Holly Johnson . . . . . . . . . . Bibi Dahl

Julian Glover . . . . . . . . . . Kristatos

Cassandra Harris . . . . . . . . . . Lisl

Geoffrey Keen . . . . . . . . . . Frederick Grey

James Villiers . . . . . . . . . . Tanner

Lois Maxwell . . . . . . . . . . Miss Moneypenny

Desmond Llewelyn . . . . . . . . . . Q

Jill Bennett . . . . . . . . . . Brink

Michael Gothard . . . . . . . . . . Emile Leopold Locke

Walter Gotell . . . . . . . . . . General Anatol Gogol

John Moreno . . . . . . . . . . Luigi Ferrara

Charles Dance . . . . . . . . . . Claus

Toby Robins . . . . . . . . . . Iona Havelock

Jack Hedley . . . . . . . . . . Havelock

Stefan Kalipha . . . . . . . . . . Hector Gonzales

Jack Klaff . . . . . . . . . . Apostis

Paul Brooke . . . . . . . . . . Bunky