Tonight's Saturday Night Special is Roger Moore's fourth appearance as James Bond in the 1979 film
"MOONRAKER!"
My upfront and honest opinion of "Moonraker" is that it's not even close to being my favourite James Bond movie, but then I think they should have stopped making James Bond movies after Sean Connery!
Roger Moore was absolutely great as "The Saint," but as James Bond, I just never did get it!
In fact, the only thing that makes "Moonraker" worth watching is there's lots of footage of Dungeon Superstar Hero "Richard (EEGAH!!) Kiel as the very large bad guy Jaws!
"Moonraker" is so far-fetched, I'm pretty sure it could be classified as a comedy!
Lois "Hot" Chiles is the lovely Holy Goodhead! Lois is very classy in the role even with a name like that!
This absurd tale meanders from Venice to Rio just for starters!
The Carnival in Rio has been used as a backdrop in many, many films, most notably in my book, "Black Orpheus!"
OF COURSE, it was the menacing 7' 2" Richard Kiel in that big clown outfit!
Probably one of the best things in this film is to see Roger Moore give a big grin back to Jaws! He does it a couple of times!
I think this might be my first experience with musicians in animal costumes since "The Banana Splits!"
Just to prove how serious Jaws is, he bites through some one inch aircraft cable!
And that sets up the whole ludicrous 'Gondolas Gone Wild' scene!
Which in turn, sets up the whole Jaws crash and fall in love scene!
Meanwhile, Roger Moore takes a turn at looking like Clint Eastwood!
IF it hadn't already been done in 1975, I'll bet the Producers would have loved to have called this movie "JAWS!"
Now James Bond finds himself in a huge jungle cave populated by beautiful young women! Pretty lucky guy except for the monstrous snake in that pond!
And guess who else is there too!!
They've been everywhere on earth, so now for the "Moonraker" ending, it's time to blast off into space!
My brain is not secured, so I'll stop right here.
Tabonga's next post will be in October and the first of our annual contributions to the Halloween Countdown, so get ready, and be wary of the scary, Larry!
7 comments:
This was always my favorite Bond flick! I meet Kiel a few years back super nice guy!
Just because I never thought about it, I was ashamed when I found out Kiel didn't live that far from here only after he passed away. My understanding was that he was a great guy! But I still thought the ending of "Moonraker" was uninteresting, if not boring.
Talked to him on the phone once. I musta caught him on a bad day or something... :(
Maybe it was a wrong number!! Ask Tabonga, I get a little moody myself sometimes!
I was calling him to ask about a couple of films he worked on in the 1960s, and his wife was very sweet, but yeah, he was not in the greatest of moods when he got on the phone. I do think he perked up when I mentioned having seen him doing a stand-up routine on the old TV series, Norm Crosby's Comedy Shop. In the show, he came out on stage, said "I do impressions," then he mussed up his hair, put on a pair of glasses, and said "Woody Allen!" I told him I thought he was hilarious (and a surprise!), so his next comment to me over the phone was "I was one of the first Elvis impersonators." I wasn't sure what to say next, long silence, then that voice boomed out at me in an angry, scolding tone, "THAT WAS A JOKE!" And so the conversation went downhill from there...
I don't really have a strong preference for one Bond or another. I was OK with Moore as Bond.
The series got kind of repetitive and formulaic by the early 1970s, and, artistically, maybe they should have called it quits when Sean left. But they were out to make money, not Fine Art. If I owned that production company, I would keep making Bond films as long as they kept making a profit.
The series also got sillier and campier, and some critics blamed Moore, saying it was because he could do comedy, but not action or drama.
They were wrong, though. The series was heading in that direction already, even before Connery left. It was not about who was playing Bond, it was about each movie needing to outdo the one before.
BTW, James Coburn may have been the first movie superspy to go into outer space, in 1967's In Like Flint.
Thanx Fellahs! Great phone story! Cool information!
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