The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

We were planning on going to the cinema tonight, but the miserable weather made us think twice. Instead we opted to continue our mission to watch the complete Bond, with Roger Moore's 3rd outing, The Spy Who Loved Me. 

I've seen this one before, yet I couldn't remember anything about it beyond the fact that Jaws was in it. After watching it again, I can see why I didn't remember much. It's not that The Spy Who Loved Me is a bad Bond, it's actually a very solid production, but there's not much that hasn't been done before, more memorably.

The underwater scenes are reminiscent of Thunderball and the stealing-warheads plot was done (in space) in You Only Live Twice. The story itself didn't bring much new to the Bond franchise, but it added some new locations for the action, mainly Cairo. Stromberg, the villian, is perhaps the least interesting/convincing baddie so far - he gets little screen time and has no particular personality, and Bond simply shoots him come the final head-to-head.

Moore continues to impress, offering wisecracks with panache, while also finding room to show Bond's vulnerable side, both physically (in the train cabin fight with Jaws) and emotionally (when Anya brings up James' dead wife [see OHMSS]). Jaws is a memorable villain, if only he'd been restricted to the one movie (but more on that when we've suffered through Moonraker...), although he's a lot more 'super-human' than Bond's foes have been in the past.

Barbara Bach as Agent XXX / Major Anya Amasova mixed things up in the Bond girl stakes. Not merely a blond bimbo or sexual plaything, Amasova is one of those rare Bond girls who can match Bond in espionage and wit. She's cleverly introduced in a scene that is set up to make you believe that the male character in bed is the secret agent, until we learn that Agent XXX is actually a woman, and Russia's top spy. As I understand it, the Spy Who Loved Me refers to the Spy killed by Bond in the teaser, who loved Anya. This gives Anya's character an extra dimension but, for a woman who's love was killed 3 weeks earlier, she falls awfully easily for Bond's charms. That niggle aside, it's good to see Bond kept on his toes by another agent, especially a female agent.

The climactic battle aboard Stromberg's ship where red-boiler suited henchmen engage in a gun battle with US navy-men again echoes the end of You Only Live Twice, however it's an impressive (although long) showdown. My favourite scenes of Spy are those with the Lotus Esprit (it seems a while since Bond got some really good gadgets to play with) that works underwater, especially when our hero drives out of the sea on to a crowded beach and non-chalantly tosses a fish out of his window. And the teaser with Bond's death-defying ski jump off a mountain ledge doesn't fail to impress. The absence of music between the jump and the Union Jack parachute opening works wonderfully, and segues brilliantly into Carly Simon's title song, Nobody Does It Better. A really good Bond, but not a memorable one.