As I re-watched Moonraker for this review, I tried really hard to keep an open mind as this entry in the Bond series was perennially on my worst of Bond lists. While I will admit it still falls somewhere on that list, it does have a certain so bad it's good quality. Originally, For Your Eyes Only was supposed to follow The Spy Who Loved Me, but after the success of Star Wars, the producers thought they should go with something more Space oriented and we wound up with this. Let's dig in and take a look at that one time Bond went full on Sci-Fi.
This time around, James Bond (played by Roger Moore) is tasked with looking into a missing Space Shuttle that was hijacked in mid-air. If this sounds familiar, it should. The movie basically recycles the plot to The Spy Who Loved Me and changes only a key few details. Anya is now Holly Goodhead (played by Lois Chiles), a CIA agent, Stomberg is now Strax (played by Michael Lonsdale), instead of an undersea kingdom, it's a giant space station orbiting Earth and Jaws (played by Richard Kiel) is still Jaws but is redeemed and becomes a good guy at the end, apparently because that's what young kids wanted at the time (as the story goes). Other than that, it's the same movie. Insane megalomaniac wants to wipe out humanity and build his own society in it's place, blah, blah, blah.
Things in this entry get truly ridiculous too. From the hovercraft gondola cruising through Venice to the various attempts by the actors to pretend to be in zero gravity (which is hysterical, by the way) to the climatic space laser fight between hordes of Strax goons and U.S astronauts, it is clear nothing was being taken seriously. There are also not one but two boat chases, as well as a nifty action sequence involving a cable car over Rio De Janeiro. The movie does move at a brisk pace and can never really be guilty of being boring, but at the same time everything involved is just so far over the top it gets really ridiculous.
Director Lewis Gilbert returned to direct this film, making it his third Bond film after You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me and manages to do a fairly decent job managing the action sequences, as absurd as they are. It's only when the action moves to space that things start getting a bit dodgy in the effects department, as detailed above. Roger Moore turns in an adequate, but somewhat bored performance. Lois Chiles, while playing a perfectly capable Bond girl, seems to match Moore's enthusiasm beat for beat. There's just not much life to either performance. It's almost as if both actor knew they were in a bit of a stinker. Michael Lonsdale at least makes for a decent Bond villain, giving Strax a sense of class and restraint that the movie needs. Richard Kiel also handles the character arc for Jaws well as he transitions from a bad guy to a Bond ally when he realizes that his Master Race obsessed boss wouldn't approve of his nerdy, pig-tailed, glasses wearing new girlfriend. This film also marks Bernard Lee's final perfomance as M, after having been with the series from the very beginning.
Still, Moonraker isn't a complete trainwreck. It really is terrible, but it's at least amusingly terrible with many unintentionally funny bits (it's almost worth watching just to see the likes of Roger Moore and Michael Lonsdale pretend to suddenly be in zero gravity when they very clearly are not, along with all the extras as well. Seriously, I haven't laughed that hard in awhile). In the right mindset, it's a perfectly watchable if nonsensical and at times very strange entry in the Bond series.
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