For Your Eyes Only

Distributed by MGM/UA Home Video

Following his disappointing Outer Space experience in Moonraker, 007 comes back to Earth with his best outing for years. The opening pre-title sequence has Bond visiting his late wife Tracy's grave, his is interrupted by a 'blessed' vicar who sends him off over London in a remote controlled helicopter. When we see the controller of the flight, we ask is Blofeld back ? He is rightly 'dropped off' by Bond which leads to Sheena Easton becoming the first Bond singer to be seen in the opening titles singing one of 007's memorable songs arranged like the good score by Bill Conti.

The plot has a British surveillance ship sinking with an ATAC machine. This machine mustn't get into the wrong hands. Before Bond gets into action Melina ( the sultry Carole Bouquet ) arrives in Corfu to witness the murder of her parents The Havelocks and she wants revenge ( with a crossbow ! ).

Back in London, Bond is assigned his mission by the Chief of Staff ( credited as Tanner and played by James Villiers ) and Minister of Defence ( Spy's Geoffrey Keen again) as M is away - sadly actor Bernard Lee was ill and died after the movie's release. James is sent off to Madrid to track down the hitman Gonzales in a 'disposable' white Lotus Esprit. After capturing Bond, Gonzales is 'perforated' by Melina so James has to share her mode of transport due to the burglar alarm in his white Lotus. This leads to a great car chase down the mountains following the little yellow Citroen car with James commenting "Love a drive in the countryside, don't you ?".

After a telling-off from the Chief and an ID match with help from Q, 007 is off to Cortina, Italy in another Lotus - this time red. He meets up with the villain, Kristatos played by Julian Glover ( of Sean's Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade ). He is sponsoring a young and over-sexed ice skater Bibi ( played by a 'bubbly' Lynn Holly Johnson ) who has the 'hots' for our hero. Later Kristatos sends James in the direction of a Greek smuggler Columbo ( Topol of Fiddler on The Roof fame ) but he ends up aiding Bond.

Apart from Bouquet & Johnson, the other glamour is provided by Cassandra Harris ( late wife of future 007 Pierce Brosnan ) with a strange Liverpool accent as a fake Countess. The buggy chase/fight scene on the beach with her and Bond brings back memories of the opening of OHMSS. This is perhaps due to John Glen's direction and previous work on the Lazenby movie. Watch out for a young Charles Dance as one of the Locque's buggy drivers and henchmen.

This Bond adventure proves a good story doesn't need big sets. In this tale Bond uses his brains & guts and not gadgets in some beautiful locations. The best of the stunts is the variation of the ski chase down a bobsleigh run - excellent ! This is my favourite Moore outing as an older and wiser 007 - just ahead of Live ..

Humour is added at the end with a parrot conversation linked to a funny Janet Brown as British Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher. Enjoy !

First released in 2006 MGM Home Entertainment brought us James Bond Ultimate Edition 2-Disc DVD set of each of the 20 movies, now in 2008 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment repackage the same 2 MGM discs with a golden cardboard copy cover ( this one with Moore & Bouquet ) and minus the interesting eight page booklet. The format remains the same with disc one having the digitally restored movie and disc two with the extras - Declassified: MI6 Vault, 007 Mission Control, Mission Dossier, Ministry of Propaganda & Image Database. Each menu has a Bond lookalike silhouette, shooting girls, casino chips & cards and gun barrels incorporating photos & music from the movie. A regular feature tucked away in 007 Mission Control with movie snips is a section called Exotic Locations narrated by Maud Octopussy Adams about the filming locations & their history.

For the movie disc audio commentary now comes from 3 sources: director John Glen & actors, producer Michael G. Wilson & crew and lastly Roger Moore ( with the 'Sir' updated for the cover ) who calls his commentary a "one-sided conversation". Apart from the usual Inside .. doc narrated by Patrick Macnee and a set of ( really ) short films narrated by producer Wilson there's not much in extras - the long tv trailers appear to be the movie trailers and the theme song video appears to be same as the main titles without the captions. I expected an excerpt from the Maurice Binder documentary showing the filming of Easton's main title appearance.

So another for the Bond archives but in term of extras not the best.