Certainly an improvement from Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only also turns out to be one of the best performances by the aging Roger Moore as super spy James Bond.The film is also another back-to-basics installment for the series, seeing 007 using far fewer gadgets and much less camp. There are double-crossings and revenge plots, all of which surround the recovery of a device that could make the Cold War go hot in a heartbeat. Kristatos, an ex-KGB agent is trying to recover this device, which enables the user to target virtually all enemy craft, but his accomplice ends up joining James Bond in thwarting him, after learning that Kristatos means to use him as a fall guy.
Bond is also joined by a young woman intent on killing Kristatos in revenge for his murdering of her father. All of this may seem a bit overwhelming, but it heightens the stakes for putting an end to this installment’s bad guy. The final battle is more or less well done, with Bond’s band of warriors ascending a nearly sheer rock formation to reach the enemies hideout at the top.
The only things that keep For Your Eyes Only from getting a higher rating are: 1) A completely out of place re-emergence of Ernst Blofeld in the beginning, in which Bond seems to vanquish the man responsible for his wife’s death (which audiences had all but forgot about by this point); 2) A completely annoying and unnecessary character named Bibi, (who somehow creates an alibi hiding all the badness that chief bad guy keeps doing) who tries unsuccessfully to prove to Bond via sex that she’s not so innocent as everyone thinks she is; and 3) A completely out of place ending sequence, featuring Bond receiving a thank you call from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Subtract these elements, and you’d have a pretty good Bond film.
It’s assuring, however, to know that James Bond is willing to draw the line at having sex with minors. Cheers for that one.
RATING: 3 out of 5
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