After the critical disappointment of The Man With The Golden Gun, producers of the James Bond films attempted to produced a proper film in response to the various criticisms surrounding Golden Gun. This time they’ve decided to make the film under the title, The Spy Who Loved Me. Roger Moore reprises his role as Bond in his third entry as the character.
The Spy Who Loves Me, was released in 1977, (the exact year Star Wars came out) unlike Golden Gun, it received positive reviews from critics and fans alike. It was also a box office success.
With the passing of Roger Moore, I wanted to share my thoughts about his third film as 007, as a sign of respect to honor the late legend.
Like I said in my previous reviews involving Bond related films, this article contains SPOILERS, due to the fact that each Bond film, except for Daniel Craig’s interpretation of Bond, contains recycled elements from previous entries.
Positive: Roger Moore did an awesome job on his performance as James Bond. Roger himself claimed that The Spy Who Loved Me, is his favorite Bond movie.
Pre-Title Sequence shows Bond escaping his pursuers by skiing, then he falls a several feet into the air until he uses a parachute.
Carly Simon, contributed with a song called “Nobody Does It Better,” which is shown in The Opening Credits.
The movie’s title inspired Mike Myers to come up with a follow up to Austin Powers called, The Spy Who Shagged Me.
Action Sequences were decent, such as a car chase with Bond being pursued by Jaws along with a helicopter, an underwater scene with Bond’s car transforming into a part submarine part car hybrid, a big gun battle, don’t forget Bond’s interactions with Jaws.
Cinematography looks decent, no sign of any technical difficulties.
Jaws, (not the shark) makes his first appearance as one of Bond’s adversaries. Richard Kiel, later reprised his role in Moonraker.
Fun Fact: Fresh from the success of Jaws, Steven Spielberg, was considered to direct The Spy Who Loved Me, but he turned it down so he can work on Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. If Steven directed a Bond film, it would’ve been meta for him to direct a villain under the name of Jaws.
A David Vs. Goliath scenario involving Bond’s fight with Jaws.
The Main Villain’s evil plan to create an underwater utopia, went on to inspire main setting from Bioshock, a video game which takes place in an underwater city. Bioshock along with Bioshock Infinite, is one of my favorite video games. I strongly recommend them.
The Ending made me laughed out loud. I gotta love M & Q’s reaction on meeting Bond and his girlfriend making out.
Negative: A few shots of fake looking Blue Screen Effects. I’m gonna let this con slide, because C.G.I. wasn’t introduced by the time this movie was released in 1977.
Karl Stromberg, (the movie’s villain) felt like s rip-off of Blofeld, who is Bond’s archenemy.
Jaws is able to survive at the end of the film after The Bad Guy’s base was destroyed. Does he have the power to survive like Team Rocket from Pokémon in an unrealistic approach? In reality, he would’ve been crushed like an egg.
The Final Verdict: B, FOR BRIGHTER!
In my opinion, Roger’s third entry as 007, felt decent than Live & Let Die, and The Man With The Golden Gun. If you’re interested in honoring Roger’s memory, go give this one a watch, plus Moonraker, which is one of my guilty pleasures.
Nickthemoviecritic.com 