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Moonraker Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 37 Reviews)

one of the worst Bond movies
Just as it was possible to find people in the early '40s who would jump up and declare how Hitler wasn't THAT bad, if the world would just give him a chance, there ARE -- unbelievably -- people who will tell you how "Moonraker" isn't really THAT bad a Bond movie . . . if only you give it a chance.

Well, the "Moonraker" apologists are wrong. It IS that bad. I just watched it last night, for the first time in probably fifteen years, and boy howdy, is it bad. I'm being incredibly generous and giving it two stars, and here's why it gets that much credit: (1) a generally great John Barry score, (2) some lovely locations, and (3) a genuinely terrific pre-credits skydiving stunt.

Now, on to the bad.

(1) Lois Chiles gives one of the most wooden performances of the entire series. She is AWFUL. Roger Moore is not at his finest, but he gives a performance worthy of a Nobel prize in comparison to Chiles.
(2) Michael Lonsdale, so great in "Munich" decades later, is almost as wooden a villain as Chiles is a heroine. ZERO charm, ZERO menace.
(3) Jaws. Jaws, Jaws, Jaws . . . what an awful henchman. I know people like him, but I don't care. He's silly. The subplot involving his girlfriend is one of the lamest things ever to appear in an A-list movie. He was bad in "The Spy Who Loved Me," but here, he's abominable.
(4) A completely nonsensical plot. So full of holes that the screenplay could be a colander.

Even more points off for the DVD, which includes another commentary by the evil trio of producer Michael Wilson, director Lewis Gilbert, and writer Christopher Wood, all of whom seem quite pleased with themselves.

It's for no good reason, I assure you.

EEGAH! Richard Kiel returns as "Jaws".
The end of THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) mentioned that James Bond would return in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. Well, that movie project was put on hold until 1981.
The next film really is MOONRAKER (1979).
This story is strickly fantasy of course, but while the Moonraker space shuttle was on piggy-back of the American Airlines airplane heading back to NASA, two hi-jackers were able to fly away with it right off the airplane while in flight.
The mission for James Bond (Roger Moore) is to go to California and track down Drax (Michael Lonsdale) who is the maker of the space shuttle.
Bond meets the beautiful lady, Dr. Goodhead (Lois Chiles) who takes Bond on a joyride he will never forget, and oh yes, the villian's helper from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977), Jaws" (Richard Kiel) returns and is out to kill James Bond.
Bernard Lee (in his last appearance as "M"), Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Keen return as well.
The tune heard from the security pad is from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977). originally the tune you were suppose to hear was "God Save The Queen".
James Bond returns in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981).

Never really takes off.
The general feeling that I get from watching Moonraker is that it never fully gets off the ground. As with all of the Bond films there are some redeeming qualities, such as: the opening sequence where the space shuttle is hijaked, the boat scene in which Q supplies Bond with a high powered and lethal boat, and the scenery in and around Rio De Janero. Unfortunately this is not Roger Moore's best performance as Bond, the film really suffers from a lack of energy in many of the scenes, Roger Moore is my favorite of the Bond's but in this one he appears to be on cruise control. Though this film did well at the box office, I would rate it in the lower echelon of the series. The outlandish story and action sequences in the end of the film were addressed in the follow up to this movie "For Your Eyes Only" which I consider to be one of the very best of the series, where the film was committed to credibility and more down to earth.

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