FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, 1981
Movie Review

The opening sequence finds Bond in his final match with Blofeld. From there A beautiful Melina Havelock is out seeking revenge for the murders of her parents. Bond and her cross paths and

a relationship ensues. Bond gets himself into a lot of Olympic type stunts on an Olympic training ground in Italy, where he is seduced by a young 15 year old girl! The bad guys and Bond fight for the ATAC (Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator), which is used by the British Ministry of defense to communicate with their submarines. The bad guys want to sell it to the Russians, which cannot happen to the British. The battle continues to the huge mountaintop of St. Cyrils (actually the Monastery of Holy Trinity atop the Meteora in Greece) to the end. The very end finds Bond in a wacky situation with Margaret Thatcher and her husband.

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REVIEW:

For Your Eyes Only is a breath of fresh air. It makes bond a bit more real and launches into the 80's with a pretty strong start to continue the franchise. New director John Glen, who I find pushed the boundaries with the Bond films in the 80's making them a bit more violent getting away with a few semi graphically violent instances in the films and still maintaining a PG rating. He took For Your Eyes Only back to roots after an insane Moonraker threw what logic Bond had completely out the window. Now we are back with a bit of logic. Not much, but just enough to keep it semi believable.

It is a revenge story with a beautiful Bond girl rightfully going after the men that killed her parents. It is her story that is most appreciative about this film, which juxtaposes the opening sequence where Bond is standing over his wife's grave and then ending a long battle with Blofeld. The understanding of these two stories make the connection between Melina (Carole Bouquet) and Bond that much more believable and stronger and make this film one of the best of the Moore era.

There is really nothing to most of the villains in the film. They are all pretty standard Bond villains, but not as memorable except for Locque played by Michael Gothard who scared the crap out of me when I was a kid up until now. His performance was so menacing and scary that its a shame he didn't last until the end of the film.

The Olympic sport stunts are fun with Bond skiing off a ski jump down and through a bobsled track is exciting and different. The filmmakers were having fun trying to figure out what to do with Bond next that has something to do with the Olympics. Fun stuff all around and not too over the top. My favorite stunt in the film is when Bond is climbing up the Meteora to the monastery where the arch villain Kristatos is residing waiting to sell the ATAC to the Russians. It is so nerve wracking with Bond so high up with no hope having his rope dislodged bit by bit.

The film ends with the most out there endings of any of the Bond films. It is so wacky!! It feels like a British sitcom meets spy movie. Margaret Thatcher wants to personally thank Bond for his success. Janet Brown portrays Margaret Thatcher as a complete caricature and she eventually starts talking to a parrot thinking it is Bond!! It is really bad funny and does not fit with the kind of film Glen was going for with For Your Eyes Only. Why they did this boggles me, but I am glad they did, because it leaves me joyously confused.

With all that said For Your Eyes Only is the second best of the Moore Bond films. It is a great start to the 80's bond and sends Bond in a new and interesting direction, with it being a little more dark playing into a more realistic world. It's interesting to see where director John Glen goes from here, because he directs the next 4 films and they get incredibly darker. A good director pushing the formula in an interesting way. You'll love the Thatcher ending if you let yourself.

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For Your eyes only,