I think it’s more about the entertainment value … of course ‘Moonraker’ is ridiculous, but it’s simply a fun romp … strangely I have never warmed to ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, which was the first Bond I saw at the cinema … I was disappointed by it, because it didn’t have the feeling of a Bond movie, too jokey and the disco funk part of the soundtrack was a big mistake … Bond sets trends, it doesn’t follow them.
At least Moonraker has John Barry back again, which is a big part of the enjoyment and overall feel of these movies.
I gave up on the series completely after seeing, ‘Octopussy’ at the cinema, which I thought was rubbish … but now I quite enjoy all the Roger Moore efforts. I think you have to be in the right mood for 007
Roger Moore’s Bond outings have infinite re-watchability for me so to speak. I view these all the time and never get bored with them even if they aren’t that good objectively speaking. For instance, I think Octopussy is badly paced, has a bad villain, poor focus, meh theme song… and yet I can’t help liking it in spite of its flaws.
I have watched a lot of these installments dozens if not hundreds of times over the years and they’re always fun to revisit. They are classy and campy in equal measure, but above all, they are really well put together and make no bones about what they are in essence.
But if a film is boring, and Moonraker if for the greater parts of its runtime a pretty boring film, there is no entertainment value.
A bit silly or ridiculous are all the Moore Bonds, and they are also very formulaic films, the question is if they are still capable to fill the Bond formula with ideas. And for that the Roger Bonds are all over the whole spectrum, for me Roger made 2 of the best Bonds, and i think that The Spy Who Loved Me and Live and Let die are better than every Connery Bond, but he also made the 2 worst with Moonraker and A View to a Kill. In these 2 the formula becomes so mechanical, and the directing is so forgettable, that all the fun is gone (same for You Only live Twice and Tomorrow Never Dies).
Of the other Roger Bonds Octopussy and For You Eyes Only are that what you call fun romp, both are good middle field Bonds, and The Man with the Golden Gun is at least not boring, despite also wasting most of the plot’s possibilities.
My Roger ranking:
The Spy Whol Loved Me
Live and Let Die
Octopussy
For Your Eyes Only
The Man with the Golden Gun
A View to a Kill
Moonraker
The only thing that makes A View to a Kill not the worst Bond is the enthusiastic performance by Christopher Walken. He would have deserved to appear in a much better Bond.
I have to disagree. Octopussy has a good villain team and is well paced. What do you mean with “poor focus”?
And as above written the Bonds are imo not all put well together, there are sometimes astonishing difference in films made in the same time span and basically by the same team. In my examples above it is still surprising how idealess The Man with the Golden Gun is between the 2 best Rogers, and that the same director, writer, producer team made The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.
I think it is a bit too slow and stagnant in the middle and the narrative appears rambling at some points, YMMV.
And I believe Jourdan is completely miscast, he looks like a rickshaw driver or an accountant, no charisma whatsoever. His henchman Gobinda would have made for a much better villain.
I like both.
They are obviously build on earlier films, Gobinda is a more conventional Odd Job variation, they don’t belong to the really memorable villains, but they do their job very well. Especially as the Russian villain belongs also to the team.
The Green Mile… as brilliant as it is, I don’t think I have any desire to watch it again. I sold my VHS and have watched it once since then on a streaming service.
