Octopussy (1983)

From the sublime to the ridiculous... After the more serious For Your Eyes Only, we popped Octopussy in the DVD player tonight. It feels so different to FYEO, but in a good way. It's very funny, without being awful á la Moonraker, and it's never boring. 

Bond only manages to jet between two countries this time round (with the briefest of stops in London to say hello to Moneypenny), namely India and (East & West) Germany. The Indian scenes look beautiful, and feel like something new for the Bond series, after the Mediterranean feel of FYEO, and, um, space... I have to confess to confusing scenes from Octopussy with Indiana Jones' adventures - there's the fight in the market place, the circus-train fight, the distasteful meal, and the general 'Indianness' of it all remind me of Temple of Doom particularly. 

As with some of Bond's earlier adventures, sometimes the plot becomes a bit of a head scratcher - I'm still not a hundred percent sure I know what the fake Fabergé eggs had to do with some people in India and a rogue Soviet general, but I enjoyed it all the same! Naturally, Roger Moore hasn't got any younger since FYEO, and it shows here and there, although perhaps not as obviously as in the previous movie for some reason - I guess wearing clown make up can hide the years well! It was nice to see many strong female characters here, however much Bond (and the camera) ogles their breasts.

One of the delights of Octopussy is that Q (Desmond Llewelyn) is given much more to do than previously, and he's rewarded with a wonderful comic moment when he saves a gaggle of women from attack with his hot air balloon, and then succumbs to their charms. Maud Adams (previously seen in a different role in The Man With the Golden Gun) makes a wonderful Bond girl - well, woman really - it's good to see 007 being with a woman nearer his own age, particularly as that age is early 50's. 

The new M, Robert Brown, has become a more curmudgeonly type, and I like the recurring character of General Gogol, and the fact that the enemies here weren't the Soviets themselves, just a rogue General. Overall I think this is a very enjoyable entry into the series, with a good theme tune (All Time High, sung by Rita Coolidge), and a lot of amusing one-liners.