007: For Your Eyes Only

James Bond has spent almost fifty years at her Majesty's secret service, that's a long time, in where the world has seen many changes, unfortunatly the true Bond spirit did not survive the fall of Berlin's wall, now becoming a mere copy paste of Jason Bourne, yes it's making a lot of money, but the last few ones were actually a waste of celluloid.

But back when "For Your Eyes Only" was released, the greatest James Bond was still on duty, Roger Moore that is, and his mission this time is to recover or destroy the ATAC system, some kind of a fancy satellite guiding system for strategic messiles, which was lost in the Adriatic Sea, with the help of a very cool British/Greek bond girl Milena (Carole Bouquet) and the whole tools Q provides him with.

The Power of a James Bond movie is to combine everything we like, want and aspire to be, in this installment, it's a subtle mixture of Italian winter sports resorts, Greek mythology and Hospitality, the blue of the Mideteranean Sea, Archeology and Scuba Diving.

To make his mission a success James Bond enlists the help of Kristatos (Julian Glover) a Greek smuggler with an admiration for British lifestyle, and he is a victim of the plotting of Columbo (Chaim Topol) the former associate of Kristatos, but in this double edged plot, loyalty changes with the breeze of the Miditeranean sea, and since ATAC is a serious business, the Russians are not far, but since the movie was made in the detente times, they are kinder then usual, and their attitude is more businesslike.

These are the Bond movies we like, beautiful bond girls with smarts, fast cars, exotic locations, a solid plot, and even the classic Casino scene where bond always wins, the action scenes are great and inventive, and the underwater scenes with a glimpse on the Greek civilisation are breathtaking, even Bond's Archnemesis SPECTRE makes an appereance along with the Iron Lady herself Mrs Thatcher, it was a brilliant way to enter the eighties for the Bond Franchise

I remember watching it a decade and a half ago, and it's still relevant now, a great place to start your Bond experience if you are new (don't be turned off by the Daniel Craig crap, he ain't a true Bond), or to add to your 007 Filmography if you are a veteran, in both cases, Roger Moore remains the best Bond ever, and we 007 fans really hope that the franchise will manage to get back to this state of brilliance, let's hope the Broccollis will be able to listen to this request or are they too busy counting their millions and licensing the 007 seal to video games

Year: 1981
Director: John Glenn
Starring: Roger Moore, Carole Bouquet, Julian Glover, Topol