So after the colossal mistake that was Moonraker with it's bizarre Jaws love story, ridiculous laser gun fights, it's amphibious gondola and, you know, Bond in space, the Bond producers wanted to bring the hero back down to earth. Which is something they do, I think, on average once every 5 movies after For Your Eyes Only.
It's anyone's guess then why they decided to A) have a ridiculous scene at the beginning where Bond disposes of Blofeld down a tall factory chimney in a very poorly executed opening action piece and B) include the image of Sheena Easton singing her moderately bland theme tune during the iconic titles. This is the first and last time this has happened, thank goodness as it makes the whole thing look like an irritating music video.
Luckily after these two misfires the film picks up quite a lot. Roger Moore relishing the chance to basically swan about some exotic locales, stand back while the stunt men do a lot of the hard work and chat up an array of women. Although even he was the first to admit that the ridiculously young and impressionable blonde skater character was too young and looked too creepy next to Moore who was, by the time this film rolled around, pushing 54.

The rest of the film is basically a good old romp with an evil mastermind, who has a craggy mountainous lair, a Bond woman with purpose who is trying to avenge her parents death, (just one of the scenes, along with Bond kicking a villain off the edge of a cliff in a car, that heralded a new, more realistic, harder Bond) and Topol joining in the fun at some point in traditional nasal flamboyant fashion.

The underwater scenes are excellent, beautiful and full of tension in some parts but the whole scene with the villain strapping Bond to the back of his boat and dragging him and the woman round and round in shark infested waters is utterly preposterous when anyone else would have just shot Bond in the face and as much as I am aware this is a cliche of the series, this doesn't come close or compare with Goldfinger's laser table.

For my money there are better Bond films out there but considering this is wedged between Moonraker and Octopussy, notoriously two of the worst of the series, it is the last seriously good film that Moore would do as the character (although I love View to a Kill but that is definitely more of a ridiculous comic, flabby, toupe wearing 'Carry On Bond' film.) This is, however, one of my wife's favourites because of the Greek locale and also because she saw it as a kid not knowing there was a series of films with this character and so it holds a special place in her heart.

007 out of 10
Points from the Wife - 10 out of 10 raised eyebrows