After the successful return to Fleming, the producers tried to replicate that feel again. Not quite as successful as "For Your Eyes Only", the unfortunately titles "Octopussy" is a fun film that strikes the balance between the seriousness of 'For Your Eyes Only" and the fun of "The Spy Who Loved Me" while avoiding the blandness of "Live and Let Die" and "The Man With The Golden Gun". Unfortunately, there's a touch too much of the silliness from "Moonraker" to keep this from being at the top of the Moore Bond pictures.
What works best for Moore is the supporting cast. From the slick villain Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan) and his Oddjob-like henchman (the giant, mostly silent Gobinda who can crush dice like Oddjob crushes golf balls) to the mysterious and sexy title character (played by Maude Adams returning to the series in a different role), everyone plays their parts well. We get a new M in Robert Brown, but he's just as dry as Bernard Lee if a bit more blustery. Q returns as usual and is on location for more time than he had been in the past (he even gets involved in the final battle -- which unfortunately is a bit silly). Lois Maxwell's Miss Moneypenny gets a younger assistant for Bond to flirt with in Penelope Smallbone (played by Michaelea Clavell who is never seen or heard of again after this film).
The film moves at a good pace and is rarely boring, but there is just enough silliness during some of the action scenes as to remove the viewer from the proceedings for a moment. Bond telling a tiger to "sit", a guy who sits on a bed of nails complains when Bond throws a bad guy on it, a Tarzan yell accompanying Bond swinging through the jungle...all seem out of place and detract from the proceedings (there are more examples). But on the whole, this is far and away better than the worst Moore Bonds, but not quite up to par with his best. We get one more like this before Moore finally quits as he's too old. He was showing his age in the previous film, it gets a bit worse here (especially when you notice his stunt doubles more obviously).
Roger Moore's tenure as James Bond ends with a film that's all over the place. One of the best villains seems completely out of place going up against Bond. Maybe it's Max Zorin's psychotic tendencies (the scene where he essentially guns down his own workers with glee comes to mind). Maybe it's the age difference (Walken looks way younger than Moore). Maybe it's the game of "spot the stunt double" that is way to easy to win. Maybe it's the worst Bond girl since Britt Ekland (one more "James" out of Tanya Roberts and you're hoping he leaves her behind in the burning building).
Moore's swan song is also the last appearance of Lois Maxwell as Moneypenny. She's made it this far, but she and Roger Moore are looking much older than they actually are here...and it's not a good thing. Robert Brown settles into the role of M nicely and Q gets a bit less to do than the last film, but a bit more to do than normally. Patrick Macnee is wasted as Bond's ally in the first half of the film. Grace Jones makes an imposing "henchwoman" but seems weird and out of place.
The film moves in fits and starts. Some of the action sequences feel like they are retreads of old Keystone Studios routines. John Barry's score is serviceable with the highlight being the Duran Duran theme song. Even Maurice Binder's title sequence seems old and dated. Fourteen films in and having moved away from Ian Fleming's material, the series (and it's star) were starting to show it's age. At the time, no one knew if Roger Moore would return yet again...thankfully he didn't...but what came next is probably the most controversial change the series had brought to date.
Be seeing you.
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