There is something strangely low-key about Octopussy. In fact, it's the Bond film I've seen the fewest times and the first two times I tried to watch it I actually wound up sleeping through it. While it's not terrible in any sort of obvious way, it is rather by the numbers and at times unnecessarily goofy. But on the plus side, it does have a Bond girl cool enough, they named the movie after her.
James Bond (played by Roger Moore) is tasked with looking into fake Faberge Eggs in an effort to track down the killer of fellow Agent 009, who turned up at the British Embassy in East Germany, crashing through a window dressed as a clown with a knife in his back. With the replica egg in hand, Bond attends a local auction where another Egg is being auctioned off and gets into a bidding war with exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan (played by Louis Jourdan). While inspecting the Egg, Bond is able to swap the real one with the fake. Bond follows Khan back to India, where he winds up being seduced by one of Khan's associate's, Magda (played by Kristina Wayborn), who he notices has a blue ringed octopus tattoo. Magda steals the real Faberge egg, now fitted with a listening device courtesy of Q (played by Desmond Llewellyn). While listening to the bug, he discovers Khan is working with a Soviet General Orlov (played by Steven Berkoff), who is seeking to expand Soviet control further into Central Europe. Investigating further, he finds himself crossing paths with the titular Octopussy (played by Maud Adams), who resides in a floating palace occupied solely by women, all part of Octopussy's traveling circus. She had been working with Khan to assist with smuggling priceless jewels and treasures from East Germany into Europe. Bond infiltrates the Circus and discovers Orlov has replaced the jewels with a nuclear warhead he intends to detonate during a performance on a US Air Base in West Germany.
Octopussy is a mixed bag. Roger Moore seems to be starting to get bored of playing Bond and had in fact planned to hang up the Walther PPK for good after the previous film, For Your Eyes Only, but was wooed back when the producers found out that Connery was reprising his role as James Bond in a rival production, Never Say Never Again. Maud Adams does a bit better as Octopussy, leader of a whole group of bad ass girls. She is a strong, independent and fierce woman, certainly a memorable character in the line up of great Bond girls. She just has the misfortune of being in a rather dull Bond movie. The villains are rather unimpressive, neither making much of an impact and the film only has a couple moments where it was genuinely thrilling, namely the scene of Bond chasing after Octopussy's train in a Mercedes with the tire rims riding the rails. The climatic assault on Khan's palace by Octopussy's group of ladies was suitably thrilling as well. They of course get an assist from Bond, with assistance from Q, who it was nice to see taking a more active role this time out. I also appreciated the fourth wall break with Bond's Indian contact Vijay (played by Vijay Amritraj) playing the Bond theme on his recorder to get Bond's attention.
Aside from the story problems and the fact that it's basically a Bond movie by the numbers is the radical tonal shifts. For the most part, the movie is playing it safe, but yet there are other moments, such as Bond dressing up as a clown to avoid pursuers or dressing up in a gorilla costume to try and avoid detection that seem needlessly silly. There is also the painfully awkward moment of Bond swinging on vines through the jungle, doing the Tarzan cry no less, that seems woefully out of place. Also seeing Bond come into the climatic assault in a giant Union Jack decorated hot air balloon was a bit of a facepalm moment for me. It was cute when it was the parachute in The Spy Who Loved Me, but this is a bit much.
Overall, there is little that is noteworthy about Octopussy aside from perhaps it's title character. I liked her and I liked her as a Bond girl, but the movie around her is just so bland it's a disappointment. This would definitely be one of the lesser Bond movies for me.
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