We are officially over the halfway mark of this project!
OCTOPUSSY finds Bond working to foil a complex Soviet plot to force Western disarmament so they can overrun much of the European continent with their military might.
I actually REALLY enjoyed this movie! I feel like most of these Moore-era movies have really leaned into the Bond formula, with just minor tweaks here and there, and Octopussy is more of the same, but for some reason it just really drew me in. Especially the whole first hour, the pacing was just very engaging - playing dice with high stakes, car chase, romantic dinner, Bond taken captive, suspenseful foot chase through the jungle, etc. There's nothing brand new here in any sense, but for some reason it all clicks for me. There are some weird choices in places of course (I'm looking at you, Bond-doing-the-Tarzan-scream-in-the-jungle) - but overall it works.
We lose some momentum in Act Two, the setup for the train sequence really dragged out and was at times downright confusing, but it was instantly redeemed by what I think is the first train fight scene in the franchise (well - outside the train, specifically, I guess we had an all indoor fight sequence in the train in From Russia With Love). This is new and fresh and I loved it, a real precursor to the staple "train sequence" that we've seen in so many action movies now. The whole circus angle/bit in Act Three with Bond as a clown feels maybe a little forced, but I was propelled by enough momentum that I wasn't really bothered by anything here. Overall I really enjoy the dynamic of characters in this movie - there's a nice equality of importance and yet variety between Bond, Khan the Afghan Prince, Octopussy, Orlov the Russian, and even all the henchmen/ally characters. I really enjoyed it.
Observations
- Not sure if the yo-yo buzzsaw is the most ingenious or the silliest weapon we've seen yet.
- Don't care for the theme song but the romantic violin music cue that comes in on the soundtrack is nice
- Great to see Q get some field action in the hot air balloon! Q gets better and better with each movie as he gets more and more loveably cantankerous.
- Between train fight scene, Bond holding on to the exterior of a plane while it takes off, and his recent skydiving exploits in previous movies - is Roger Moore the real precursor of all of Tom Cruise's big Mission Impossible stunts??
- BONK COUNTER - 3 Bonks with 2 Women - so here at the just-over-halfway mark that brings us to 38 bonks with 29 women.
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