Octopussy in Review

After 009 is assassinated while carrying a rare Faberge egg, 007 is sent to investigate. He discovers a smuggling operation that leads to a renegade Soviet general aiming to instigate World War III.

While this oft-forgotten Bond movie certainly suffers from an evidently ageing Roger Moore, a surfeit of daft gags and a lack of focus for the villainy, there’s still a good plot at work here. Bond is fully occupied tracking the origins of the Faberge Egg to Maud Adams’ Octopussy (half villain, half Bond girl, great name) who is tied up with Kamal Khan (slick Louis Jordan) and General Orlov (Steven Berkoff) who are plotting world domination.

Director John Glen has it well-organised, building up a fair head of tension with all the familiar Bond ploys: disarming a ticking atomic bomb, knife throwing twins, a scowling henchman with a kind of razor-edged Frisbee thing. The ending sags, with too much silly Q business, but makes up for it with an army of acrobatic babes in skin-tight lyrca. The saving grace here is a knowing sense of humour so lacking in its predecessor, For Your Eyes Only.

(Ian Nathan)

Octopussy, the most risque title, though what about its contents? Post your review here.

Caught the second half of OP on the telly tonight - I'd forgotten just how damn enjoyable it always was. Terrific fun. This, along with FYEO, has been, to me, the only time the Bond team have truly got it right twice in a row since the 60s.

I want to like Octopussy as it was written by the late George MacDonald Fraser, the man behind the terrific Flashman novels. I like some aspects - the usual sumptuous Barry score, the superfluous tits - but overall it's pretty thin stuff.

It's one of my favorite Bond films to watch. It had the best plot since OHMSS at the time, I think. It's nothing earthshattering, but as a post-60's Bond movie I think it's a hit.

And it's an adventure film. I said many times on oldMI6 that Bond has become an action movie when it should be an adventure film. I'd say CR should have been a thriller.

As for OP, I like how it uses several short stories and ties them together. Overall I think it's fun and, for post-60's Bond, inventive.

I have always tried to like OP and it's quite enjoyable until Bond goes to India after which the film never picks up for me.

009's assassination is an outstanding scene and most of the scenes with Orlov are quite delectable.

I very much enjoy Octopussy. It's one of the best stories (up there with DN, FRWL, FYEO and TWINE) to ever appear in a Bond film. The action is gripping, the acting is mostly good (save Gobinda, Vijay and Magda, who are rather mediocre) and Barry provides a lovely score (though not my favourite). However, if it was shot with the lushness of the 60s/70s Bond film, as well as tone down some of the humour (Gorilla suit, Tarzan yell, Tuk Tuk chase stuff predominantly), it could have been one of the best Bond films.

Octopussy (1983) - 7/10
Yet another surprise to me comes with Octopussy; a film I thought I vehemently disliked ended up being better than I remembered. Many things in this film work; Roger Moore, despite being noticeably old gives one of his better performances as Bond. It was smart for the producers to go with a slightly older Bond girl in Maud Adams; not only is she good in the role, but she is more believable being attracted to a 55 year old Moore. The villains are worthy and contrast each other well, with General Orlov being slightly over the top and Kamal Khan being much more subtle. What holds Octopussy back is the outright cheesiness and silliness which is, forgive the pun, at an all time high. The very first thing that comes to mind is the inexcusable inappropriate George of the Jungle wail when Bond vine swings through a jungle. (The hot air balloon was pretty dumb, too.) Yet while the rest of Octopussy continues to be more light hearted, most of the film is very solid. And a special mention needs to go to the scene where Bond (fully dressed in clown gear) defuses a nuclear bomb with seconds to spare. Crazily enough, that scene is one of the tensest in a Bond film. Not long ago, I would’ve thought anyone crazy putting Octopussy over For Your Eyes Only, but Octopussy ends up winning for having more of a personality, if anything. Octopussy is silly, but is somehow still enjoyable. My guilty pleasure.

...and the review thread for A View to a Kill is missing!!!!

SJK91 wrote:

...and the review thread for A View to a Kill is missing!!!!

Here ya go: https://bondandbeyond.forumotion.com/t265-a-view-to-a-kill-in-review?sid=ef5c05af8d7894004bb8b46c0ca50765

Please can anyone post up the James Brolin screentests that are present in either the SE DVD of this or A View To A Kill? I know it'd be better if I bought it myself, but I'd be happy if someone could do that. Cheers.

JohnDrake wrote:

Please can anyone post up the James Brolin screentests that are present in either the SE DVD of this or A View To A Kill? I know it'd be better if I bought it myself, but I'd be happy if someone could do that. Cheers.

Brolin looks the part in those scenes. If they taught him to speak in a posh, but natural English accent, I am sure he would have made a good 007 and he wasn't bad in that fight scene, either. On the strength of that, he should have been in A View To A Kill. 8)

Now we know what Christian Bale as Bond could've been.

GeneralGogol wrote:

Now we know what Christian Bale as Bond could've been.

Holy crap

I don't dig it. Just too much silliness in the India segment. (Such! A! Waste!) And Berry turns in a by-the-numbers score that adds little of value. **cue Shark attack sirens**

And Moore was deep into his Grandpa Bond years by that time.

Stilicho Bias wrote:

And Berry turns in a by-the-numbers score that adds little of value.

What were they thinking when they hired Halle Berry to write the music?

I watched OP last night and had a ball. Sir Rog is such a nice gentleman that I forgive him the lot of antics, Tarzan yell included. I think he got constantly better with age.
Octopussy (the lady) is always nice to see. Despite not the most supreme acting, the role is one of the best females in the whole series, besides also reminding me of the way Fleming described some of his ladies.
One thing I enjoy especially in the Glen Bond films is that they have sequences that seem to be from completely other films. All of a sudden the mood completely changes and then goes back to normal. The way they did that is fantastic IMO.

Watched OCTOPUSSY over the weekend. It's still entertaining. Up to a point.

Love the score by Barry.

I was fortunate to have Octopussy as my introductory film in 1983. If I'd seen anything else (like FYEO or TMWTGG) we might not be having this conversation.

OP has it all. Interesting villains. Beautiful women wall-to-wall. Great score and theme song. Great use of location work. Big finale with beautiful women slapping men around (show this film to anyone today who trots out the tired meme "We need strong Bond Women"). Q getting in on the *fun*. And that it was: fun. Everybody was just out trying to have a good time. The movies weren't trying to make social commentary.

Looking back on it, it's not quite as I remember it, but still good enough. I remember seeing it in the summer of 1983 and at 12 years of age it was unlike anything I'd seen before...and I'd seen Raiders of the Lost Ark. But Octopussy felt like non-stop action from opening scene to closing scene. I was almost breathless. It felt like a movie that never stopped.

But after having watched it again, I do wonder:

Where did Mischa's body go? Bond put it in the cannon, but later Francisco the Fearless jumps in it at the circus and presumably does not find the body. I could've sworn there was a scene in the theatrical release where Bond fires Mischa's body out of the cannon while the train is in motion, but I may be mis-remembering that. Nobody seems to miss Mischa either. Did Grishca just assume he'd gotten left behind in East Germany?

Who exactly does Magda work for? She works for the circus, but she's also Kamal's mistress?

There were a few things I could have done without: the Tarzan yell, and Bond hiding in the gorilla suit. What bothers me about the gorilla suit is that even as a 12 year old I knew there's practically no way and no time for Bond to hide in it without being seen doing so. The scene could have been reworked and not lost its effectiveness, but I think Glen wanted to get the jokes out of it. Clown outfit doesn't bother me as much mostly because the scene it sets up pay off.

Octopussy had a jaw-dropping moment when the horse's ass raises and the Bede BD-5 Micro rolls out.

No such moments in Craig films, the wow factor has gone. He sounds like a horse's ass sometimes but it's not the same.

bitchcraft wrote:

Octopussy had a jaw-dropping moment when the horse's ass raises and the Bede BD-5 Micro rolls out.

No such moments in Craig films, the wow factor has gone. He sounds like a horse's ass sometimes but it's not the same.

Are you calling Cregg a horse's arse?

I'm saying what comes out of his mouth sometimes makes him sound like one.

Comments about slashing his wrists, doing it for the money, and now being done with the role instead of promoting the film....all pathetic.

Take a page out of Dalton's book, and the Rog, who remained positive Ambassadors for the role long after they departed the gig. Craig is sometimes just plain old embarassing.