• ⇤
• ⇽
• ≡
• ⇾
• ⇥

movie review - The Spy Who Loved Me

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is the third Bond movie that my son and I watched together. It features Roger Moore as a smirking, womanizing bond in a story that's a bit sillier than our two previous viewings ("Goldfinger" and "In Her Majesty's Secret Service"). Bond is paired with a Russian counterpart to resolve a crisis in which a nuclear submarine has vanished from both the fleets of the UK and the USSR. It's pure Bond madness that the villain's idea is to make the surface of Earth uninhabitable in preference of living under the sea (cue Simpsons musical number to that effect). Working together during the height of he Cold War? Is it crazy enough that it just might work?

Um, no. The womanizing is preposterous and distracting. But most of the plot works, and the fireball of a finale with sailors from the UK, USSR, and US all collaborating to overcome a seemingly endless supply of mooks manages to land a level of gunplay-and-explosions spectacle that doesn't quite jibe with the nautical/under-water setting. One thing that drives this home is how all the US and American brass have crowded onto a platform to greet Bond and his Russian counterpart as their ship overtakes the escape pod in which the two spies are, ah, waiting. Things are cramped on boats and especially submarines.

As with "Goldfinger" I think this is dated and not really required viewing at this point. Not recommended.