"Moonraker," the eleventh Bond and the fourth to star Roger Moore, released in 1979, is one of the silliest and weaker ones in the franchise. Dennis Schwartz stated in his review, "The
best things it has going for it are its special effects, the impressive
stunt work, the imaginative big chrome high-tech interior sets designed
by Ken Adam and the usual exotic locations (in this one we globe-trot
from Los Angeles to Venice to Rio de Janeiro and to the upper Amazon).
Otherwise it's familiar 'save the world' plotline and repetitive set
piece action sequences have become tiresome, the smutty double entendres
have worn out their welcome, Moore makes for a lousy wisecracking Bond
and the series is now firmly planted in the cartoon world." The theme
song was done by Shirley Bassey. Director Lewis Gilbert and writer
Christopher Wood don't invent any new ideas in here. The producers
should have done more work to the weak plot than in the amazing
production values (the cost was as much as the previous Bond films put
together).
The Moonraker,
a U.S. space shuttle, is stolen in a midair kidnapping and disappears
while the RAF plane, which was transporting it over to Britain, crash
lands in the Yukon. James Bond's mission is to go to Los Angeles to
visit the Moonraker's creator,
the sophisticated evil genius magnate Hugo Drax, played by Michael
Lonsdale, who lives in a castle fashioned after Versailles and is crazy
about travelling into space. Drax's assistant Corinne, played by Corinne
Clery, helps the curious Bond break into Drax's safe in his office,
where he finds blueprints for special glassware from Venini Glass in Venice. Bond also meets former NASA astronaut Dr. Holly Goodhead, played by Lois Chiles,
who acts fine to him. Drax displays he is the antagonist right away,
but fails after a few tries in killing Bond in his space lab and on a
bird hunt. However, Drax succeeds in killing Corinne by unleashing his trained killer Dobermans chase after her in the woods on his residence.
Bond reunites with Goodhead in Venice where she tells him she's with the CIA. The two partner
up to try and ruin Drax's plans to rule the world when they find out
that the special glass containers he orders are being built for a nerve
gas that kills people but not animals.
When
they go to Rio, Bond faces Drax's indestructible steel-toothed giant
henchman Jaws, reprised by Richard Kiel, and finds out that a rare black
orchid found in the upper Amazon is used to create the nerve gas.
When he goes to the Amazon to confirm this, Bond follows a beautiful
woman, played by Irka Bochenko, into an ancient temple, that is apparently Drax's headquarters.
Bond finds out that Drax wants to release the nerve gas toxins in space
around the
world to annihilate the human population, and then he plans to
repopulate the Earth with genetically perfect creatures to make a super
race.
Bond is put behind bars with Goodhead in the blast chamber of Moonraker 5, but they escape and take over Moonraker 6. When everything seems like it's over, they get Jaws's help, who is mad at Drax for not finding a place for him and his new girlfriend, played by Blanche Ravalec, in his recreation of Earth.
Schwartz ended his review by saying, "The
weak space-age plot has seen its better days. Things have gotten so out
of hand in the Bond series, that I don't think Ian Fleming would now
recognize his creation."
In the end, I don't really recommend this movie. If you want to check it out, do so, but it is an underwhelming entry.
Look out tomorrow for more "James Bond Month."
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