Octopussy Film Review

The James Bond franchise has been in the news again recently and not for the right reasons but it's not the first time that this franchise has had all eyes looking at it. As back in 1983 we were getting not one but TWO James Bond films with one of them being the unofficial remake of Thunderball and the other being the film that i'm going to be revieing for you all today and so then join me as I review the film that sees the debut of a new M and an old Bond Girl actress return with the film in question being called simply just "Octopussy" enjoy.

The plot off this film is when another double O agent is killed it's up to James Bond to find out who killed him and stop them once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad but at the same time tho this films plot wasn't all that particularly good either as it just comes of as being the typical Sir Roger Moore James Bond film plot only with none of the charm and to it which does make it feel like it's a bland plot and given that the Sir Roger Moore James Bond films where starting to loose whatever it was that made them so special in the first place it does make sense that that would carry on over to his films plot as well but at the same time tho this is still a fun and easy to watch plot so much so that it would be easy to recommend this film to none James Bond fans as a way for them to dip there toes into this franchise with the option to then continue with a much more harder plotted Sir Roger Moore or James Bond film should they then like this films plot but that still doesn't make the plot of this all that good as plot wise the film does have a lot of issues and those are issues that really should have been fixed at the writing stage with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Of course starring in this film is of course Sir Roger Moore as James Bond , Robert Brown as M and Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny. Also starring in this film is Desmond Llewelyn as Q , Geoffrey Keen as Sir Frederick Gray and Walter Gotell as General Anatoly Gogol. Now then interms of what i personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with all of the MI6 regulars playing their roles really and well even Robert Brown who is making his debut as M in this film does more then a good job when acting against the more established franchise stars with the only thing that lets the films acting down for the MI6 regulars being the fact that we don't get to see much of what this new version of M is like as he's only in a very small amount of scenes and that's really it where as if you compare this film to Bernard Lee's first film as M in Dr. No we get to see that this version of the character despite acting cold and distant to Bond does sort of act like a father figure to him and is only acting cold because of the nature of the business that there in where as none of that comes across with this version of the character and that is something that really does let this films acting down by quite alot with the rest of the MI6 regulars doing there usual schtick which is something that really does work well enough in this films favour.

Also starring in this film is Louis Jourdan as Kamal Khan , Kristina Wayborn as Magda and Maud Adams as Octopussy. Also starring in this film is Kabir Bedi as Gobinda , Steven Berkoff as General Orlov , Vijay Amritraj as Vijay , David Meyer as Mischka , Anthony Meyer as Grischka , Michaela Clavell as Penelope Smallbone , Albert Moses as Sadruddin and Bruce Boa as U.S. Air Force General Peterson. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with it being very clear as day that all of this films actors are at the very least trying to turn in a good performance but for one reason or another be it the fact that this films director John Glenn was always an editor rather then a director and there for really doesn't know how to get a good performance out of his actors or the fact that this films script just isn't that good the acting that's in this film just isn't as good as it really could have been this is despite the fact that this films does have some truly wonderful actors in it with the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to lower the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

It could very well be argued that this film does in fact have two Bond girls with the first one being Magda who is of course played by the seriously stunning Kristina Wayborn. With her character bein the weaker of the two which is something that does make sense as she's not meant to be the main Bond Girl for this film but at the same time tho there really should have been some effort into creating a good character as just by the share fact that having this character work for both Octopussy and Kamal Khan that is something that would open itself up to having some character driven moments with her character as she has to come to terms with the fact that one of her bosses is about to betray the other one and yet when she finds this out there's nothing that changes about her character other then the fact that she goes to solely working for Octopussy and that's rally it and that's not enough as there should have been either a moment or even just a look that shows the characters inner struggle as she works out just what it is that she's going to do next as that would add some dimension to her character and while the character does have unique look to her she other wise just blends in with all of the Bond Girls that aren't that interesting in the first place when having her work for two characters at the same time is more then enough to make her interesting if they idea would have been more fully developed then what it ultimately ended up being and that is something that does also have the add on effect of making her a forgettable character as well. 

Our main girl for this film is of course the titular Octopussy who is played the seriously stunning Maud Adams. With this film being not only marking her return to the franchise but also her final James Bond film role as well and while her character in this film isn't as good as her Andrea Anders character from The Man With The Golden Gun Octopussy is still an interesting character in her own right as she's a busisness women who is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job not because of it being the right thing to do but because of the fact that people have always underestimated her her whole life due to the fact that she's a woman and so yet because of that she now runs not only a semi-successful circus but her jewel smuggling operation because of it with Khan even in this film refusing to take her seriously something that she does continuously prove is not the smartest move to make even with out James Bond there to back her up if there's anything that lets her down it's the fact that she's not that interesting of a character as for a Bond Girl there should be that sense of "this character could well and truly be killed if there so much as seen with Bond" and that's not something that comes across with this character and with the character having her own bodyguards there to project her it means that there never will be a threat to her life when because of how rich and powerful that she is realistically she would be in danger every single time she went out of the house to go down to the shops as that is something that would add an element of danger to her character and would also go a really long way into making her a really interesting character as well.

With it being pretty obvious that out of the two character it's Octopussy that's the better written character. As even tho we technically get to spend more time with Magda due to the fact that we're introduced to her first it's Octopussy that gets more of the screen time and developed meant that makes her the better written character and while both characters are pretty forgettable characters in the grand scheme of things as neither character either says or does anything all that interesting or does anything that affects the main plot of the film in any meaningful way with the character of Octopussy there was at the very least an attempt to try to recapture the magic of what worked before but do so in a way that feels modern and something that the audience of the nineteen eighties might have enjoyed but for that work tho the character still needs to be an actually good character and that is something that really does let the character as she isn't just all that interesting of a character with the only thing about her character that makes her at the very least somewhat interesting is the fact that she owns and runs her own circus and that's really it which isn't really enough to make her an interesting character and with Magda it's her unique look that makes her interesting as the character does have these rather piercing eyes that are just stunning to look at but due to the fact that both characters aren't written all that well then they both come across as being really forgettable characters in the long term of things with this film being sign that the old way of creating Bond Girls just isn't starting to work anymore as the audience was staring to demand better female characters from these films. 

For some stranger reason the makers of this film thought that the truly iconic Miss Moneypenny really needed an assistant and so in this film we got Miss Penelope Smallbone. With the character being played by Michaela Clavell with the character really only being introduced just so that they can have another female fawn over Bond with this being made worse when you take into account that the character not only gets zero lines of dialog but is only one scene at the start of the movie and never appears in literally any other James Bond movie after this film this is being despite the fact that the clear intention was to replace Lois Maxwell with her the character of Penelope Smallbone for future Bond films and yet this plan quite clearly failed as the character isn't even mentioned in A View To A Kill which makes her appearance in this film all the more odd as the film does nothing with her character to set up what her personality could be like in future films nor do they set up what her relationship with Bond himself is going to be like as all she does is accept some flowers of him at that's really it and that does nothing for her as a character as all it does is make her look like a love sick puppy which granted might very well have been the point of character but given the fact Lois Maxwell insisted that her character and Bond would never be in that kind of relationship with each other it makes it all the more weird that the makers of this film would come up with a characters whose sole purpose in life seems to be to do exactly that.

One of the many things that this film got alot of criticism for was it's use of humor as while the James Bond films have always had alot of humor in them they never really undercut the tension of the scene that they are in. With this being something that happens quite alot in this film especially in the scenes set in India as we get alot of stupid like James Bond telling a tiger to sit when it's about to attack him to the crowd acting like the crowd at a tennis match just because of the fact that the actor playing Vijay was a big tennis star and there all jokes that do undercut the tension of the scene that there in quite a bit as while the Bond films have had jokes appear in action scenes before now they were usually done at the end of the scene and meant to send the audience home happy as it where and yet here there happening during the middle of some deeply serious scenes and all that does is rob the scene and the film for that matter of having any tension with this coming about because of the fact that the Bond films at this time were being scene as something for little boys to go and watch with there dads and that's really it and as a result of that is the fact that we do get alot of jokes in this film that stop what could have been a really cool scene on it's own from being as could as it really could have ben because of the fact that the film has to stop to tell a really bad joke when having the film make a joke at the end scene would not only work just as well but it would also allow the film to keep and build any tension that it had been brewing up until that point in time.

Doing the production design for this film is of course Peter Lamont who does usually have a very hit and miss trach record when it comes to the James Bond films. With this film being one of his hits as alot of the sets that he's created for this film while they could have looked alot better then what they already do look really good in there own right with all of this sets for this film not only embracing Indian culture but also looking like that they fit in with the world of James Bond and the world that these films takes place in as they are huge and outlandish sets which is something that would normally be seen as being a bad thing as you want your sets to look as realistic as possible and yet for the James Bond films you have to take the opposite approach as these are very big and landish films where being over the top is the norm and there for having sets that are big and over the top really do fit in with the world that these films take place in with the best example of that being the Russian meeting room which is this big white space with a revolving table in the middle and huge board where as each member of the meeting can use to help to illustrate the points that they need to make which is something that wouldn't work in any other film series and yet because of the fact that it's in a James Bond film where everything including the films characters act in these really over the tope ways it is something that does work really well enough to this films advantage with there being alot more sets that all like this in this very film and they all look really good because of how big and outlandish that they are.

To put it rather kindly this film is pretty much a the kind of bond film that you can just have on in the background and still follow along with. Regardless of if you scene before or not as that's the kind of film that this film is and that is something that does work well enough to this films advantage as not every film needs to be a 2006 Casino Royal sometimes just being a Tomorrow Never Dies type of Bond film is more then good enough and that's very much the case with this film as you can still follow along with what's going on with this film all the while your off doing something else as that's the type of Bond film that this is is and while alot of the other Sir Roger Moore James Bond films would never even try to be anything like that by the time that we got to this film that's all the type of James Bond film that the makers of these films where perfectly willing to make as they knew right away that these films where going to make them a boatload of money at the box office and so they just put in the bare amount of effort as is humanly possible and still somehow managed to turn in a film that is miles better then the other Bond film that came out in 1983 Never Say Never Again and alot of that does come down to the fact that this film is a very easy film to watch and doesn't require much thinking when your watching think of this film as like the entire Fast And Furious saga but for spy films and apart of a much more better and well respected franchise as you can very easily follow along with the plot of any Fast And Furious movie just like you can very easily follow along with the plot of this film as well.

This films opening titles are of course done by the then regular James Bond opening title maker Maurice Binder. While the titles that he made for this film are indeed really good as it something that's to be expected from Maurice Binder you do get the feeling that just like everyone else involved with the making of this film that he's just running out of steam as this films opening titles aren't as good as the ones that he made for the previous James Bond films with them feeling more like the bland and soulless ones that we would create for his final James Bond films as there trying to hard to hip , cool and edgy where as all of the his opening titles where exactly all of those things as well as being genuinely pleasing to look at where here while they are indeed very visually impressive to look at no one's going to ever say that there not nice to look at but at the same time tho there lacking that extra special something that makes all of his opening titles for these films stand out and because of that this films opening titles do feel like that there bland and boring to watch when infact it's the opposite that's true as there very clearly is alot of effort put into them but to give this films opening titles at the very least some form of credit they have aged really well and they do a good job of getting you ready for the film that your about to see and are easily one of the films very few highlights as these opening titles aren't like the rest of the film in that there not all that forgettable but are still pretty forgettable in there own right tho.

The title song for this film is "All Time High" and is sung by Rita Coolidge and was written by Sir Tim Rice. With that pedigree behind it and the fact that it was produced by thus films composer John Barry you'd expect this song to be pretty memorable and yet sadly this isn't the case at all as this film opening title song is just as bland and forgettable as the song itself which is something that really should have been the case given the fact that's written by the one of the people that wrote alot of the best songs for alot of the best Disney animated films in the nineties and is composed by the man who worked on alot of the James Bond films as well and yet this films song just just comes across as being a stereotypical James Bond love theme song with nothing new added to it and heck it's not even made clear just who exactly is giving Rita Coolidge this all time high either as or all we know the person that she's singing about in the song could have been Q and heck this films song is so forgettable that i've even forgotten how the songs goes and I just rewatched this film today for this review the song itself isn't written badly and it isn't sung all that badly either it just needed that extra special something to not not only make it memorable but to also make it a song that you won't be able to get out of your head anytime since as things are this song is a really forgettable song that won't and most likely hasn't gotten stuck in anyone's head for quite sometime now as it's just all of that forgettable and bland of a song that really doesn't get you excited for the film that your about to be watching.

Villain wise it we do have two villains in this film with the first one being Steven Berkoff as General Orlov and the second and main villain for this film is Louis Jourdan as Kamal Khan. With Orlov pretty much being the side villain for this film which is something that doesn't work as he's the more entertaining of the two characters purely because of the fact that his actor Steven Berkoff choose to SHOUTS every OTHER line OF dialog that he has and that is something that really does make him more of an intense villain with him having plans to take over the world by using military might whilst Kamal Khan is an exiled Afghan prince who really has no plan and is only acting the way that he's acting because of the fact that the plot of the film demands that he act that way at that point in the film when it would have made alot more interesting of a character if he had goals of his own like maybe he wanted to take over Octopussy's busisness and use the money that he gets from doing that to take over the world yeah that's a pretty lame plan but it's at least something that would give the character some actual motivation instead of having him team up with Orlov for no reason whatsoever where as here because of the fact there both so insane anyways they could be allowed to team up with each other and heck the big final fight should have been with Orlov as that was the character who could have had Bond killed at any point during the film and not by Khan who is more of a secondary villain type of character.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and ten minuets and forty eight seconds. Which is pretty much the exact grand total running time that these films where getting at this point in time and to the films credit it really does have more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that amount of running time but at the same time tho this film really does take as full advantage of its longer running time as it really could have done as the film really doesn't expand upon any of the new characters that it introduces in this film even those that where quite clearly meant to be in more James Bond films moving forward and is instead more focused on giving Q more scenes out in the field when that character would be in the field at all let alone in the middle of India and because of that while we do get some pretty entertaining sequences with Bond and Q out in the field it comes at the expense of giving memorable or even good characters and if that's the exchange then surely it would have been better to have Q appear in the role that he always plays in these films rather then have him appear in the field for no given reason as if you have good characters then that is something that would not only make your film alot more better to watch but also more memorable as well as then people would be able to remember all of the fun new characters that this film took the time that it needed to in order to make them actually good characters but I really will admit that this film really does have sone really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action thats actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With this film action being one of the more entertaining aspects of the film and while yes granted this films action is very much like the rest of this film in that it to is also really forgettable that doesn't mean that it's not also fairly entertaining as that's exactly what the action in this film with a prime example of this being the scene where Bond has to escape a bunch of hunters while again granted that scene can be a little bit silly with the Tarzan yell and Bond telling a tiger to sit it is still a good example of just entertaining that this film can be when the makers of this film are actually trying to be make an entertaining with the best action scene in the whole film being the pre-titles scene as that's where we get see alot of really cool move with Bond trying to fight his way to a certain device to blow it up all while trying to outwit a bunch of European soldiers and when you in the fact that when bond gets into a singer seat plane that he then has to fly to out maneuver a missile when then also get a really close call with Bond only just managing to escape out of barn when it's doors are closing on him and the plan all of which does make the pre-titles sequence in this film the best action scene in this film as a whole in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall this film is nothing more then your stereotypical James Bond film and really nothing more then that as this film has themes and ideas that are done better in other James Bond films with this film having very few things about it that actually make it standout in a really more positive light in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images hat I personally used in this very review well then boys an girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , the official James Bond fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personal favorite website to use to get the images that I used in this very review being the official James Bond fandom wiki page just simply due to the fact that pretty much all of the images that are featured / presented to us and are currently up and also on the official James Bond fandom wiki page are all fairly high quality and as well as being fairly high definition and well then boys and girls just freaking like James Bond I will return.