For Your Eyes Only W/S [VHS]

AKA, the one where Moore's Bond kills in cold blood.

After the daft Moonraker there was a distinct effort to make this film more gritty. Moore's game of brinkmanship with the producers had started here (never committing to a new Bond flim until the last moment) which leaves the opening scenes (Bond visits his dead wife's grave) originally intended to introduce a new Bond. He also finally kills off Blofeld (though his name is never mentioned).

There are more chases and stunts in this Bond than most of the other films, or so it seems, and almost all are tense and exciting. Pick of the bunch are the exciting bobsled run and climbing sequences.

Moore IS starting to show his age here, and I could have done without the superfluous storyline of Bibi Dahl seducing Bond (thankfully he respectfully declines her advances) but I would still say that this is perhaps Moore's most impressive individual performance as Bond.

The real negative in the film is Julian Glover's Kristatos. A fine actor he may be, but he lacks the nasty over-the-top villainy of the best Bond bad guys. Still Carole Bouquet and Topol make memorable Bond allies and all in all the film is a thrill-a-minute wonder.

For Your Eyes Only is showing its age a bit now. At the time a hugely welcome return to basics after the leaden FX spectacle of Moonraker (the second remake of You Only Live Twice in a row for the series), it still holds up as one of the best of Roger Moore's Bonds, but its faults are much more apparent than they once were. Among them is the tendency to undercut everything with unfunny little jokes (a scoreboard keeping count of thugs Bond knocks out, Bond giving a bemused royal wave to pursuing thugs, and a horrendous cameo from a Maggie Thatcher lookalike in the end), some flat studio work (no disguising the fact that the mountaintop Greek monastery is just a Pinewood set), a dated Bill Conti score and a comic relief nympho nymphet Lynn Holly Johnson constantly throwing herself at a disinterested Bond. Luckily, the pluses more than compensate - a stronger plot than usual for the Moore efforts, at least one cold-blooded murder, and a very welcome absence of gadgets until the postscript that ensures that Bond has to extricate himself with his own wits in some pretty good setpieces. Best among them is a mountaineering sequence where he uses his bootlaces - not steel bootlaces, just common bootlaces - to save himself in an old mountaineers trick.

Incidentally, with Blofeld still sporting the neck brace he wore at the end of OHMSS, and with the film beginning at Tracey Bond's graveside it's tempting to think of the pre-title sequence as a way of making amends for the jokey way Bond's nemesis was disposed of in Diamonds Are Forever were the following sequence not the proud possessor of the most surreal line in the entire Bond series, the infamous "I'll buy you a delicatessen - in stainless steel!" So, while this may be one of the Moore serious of Roge's outings, it's not exactly Bergman territory.

Although the original DVD wasn't the most fully loaded disc on the market, there's less of an upgrade in terms of extras than meets the eye on this repackaged 2-disc 'ultimate edition.' Alongside Roger Moore's new audio commentary there are two deleted scenes, one of them a welcome addition that brings a bit of tension to Bond and Melina's relationship as she chastises him over his nocturnal activities, but the three new featurettes are little more than fairly raw behind the scenes footage while the multi-angle alternate versions of Bond's cold-blooded killing of Loque are particularly badly laid out. The menu also lists the 3 slight variations on the theatrical trailer carried over from the previous edition as TV spots!

This film has to be one of my personal favourites. Roger Moore is on top form in this, his fifth outing as 007. The plot is more realistic than the previous offerings, and the humour is superb. the acting is great and the settings and storyline are one of the best yet. An excellent addition to the series and one which I would wholeheartedly recommend.

Roger Moore is Bond.