The Spy Who Loved Me Film Review

There is a great many a debate over which film is the best James Bond film with some claiming that it's Goldfinger and others claiming that it's Skyfall. However the one thing that cannot be denied is that the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today is one of the more important James Bond films due to the fact that it saved the franchise as without this film we wouldn't have Skyfall in the first place and so then join me as I review the film that has one of the more weaker villains in it with the film in question being called simply just "The Spy Who Loved Me" enjoy

The plot of this film is when nuclear submarines belonging to both Britain and the Soviet are taken it's up to James Bond to find them and stop a mad man from wanting to start his own underwater civilization. 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 really good with this films plot being ne of the more better early Sir Roger Moore James Bond plots as this films plot does allow him to be more of his charming self with the plot of the film also adding in a new element that does play out all through out the film as well with the only thing that lets the films plot down a little bit being the fact that it's not the strongest plot out there as this does feel more like a plot for an episode of a TV show and not the plot of a movie but credit where it is due the makers of the film do try to make this films plot really exciting but at the same time tho they just can't do that as there are alot of things that happen in this film that whilst they do have an impact on the films plot in someway shape or form do also feel like filler as we don't need to see Bond fighting Jaws alot of the time as great as those scenes are as they convey the same information that Jaws is pretty much invincible and we don't need as many scenes with Bond talking to Anya about there working relationship for the same reasons either with the plot of the film being really rather entertaining ad as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Of course starring in this film is Sir Roger Moore as James Bond and Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny. Also starring in this film is Desmond Llewelyn as Q , Bernard Lee as M and Geoffrey Keen as Sir Frederick Gray. 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 this films actors turning in some really good performances which is something that does make alot of sense as alot of them are either reprising their roles from the other James Bond films or are just good actors in there own right with it being made clear as day that Sir Roger Moore is the best actor from the point of view of the MI6 regulars as he is just alot more cooler and alot more confident as James Bond both of which are key things to make this character work with him being allowed to be alot of more of his charming self with this being something that does come through in the final film with all of the rest of the main MI6 regulars just doing there usual schtick which to be fair to this film film is something that does work really well as while we do get more screen time with Q as he does go out in the field in this film there really aren't more scenes with M or Moneypenny and therefor there's not that much time for there respective actors to show us just what it is that they can do as actors and to be fair the film really doesn't need them in that much of the film this is despite the fact that both Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell are really good actors in their own right and Spectre showed us that having alot of the the MI6 regulars can hurt the film more then help it in the first place.

Also starring in this film is Barbara Bach as Anya Amasova , Curt Jurgens as Karl Stromberg and Richard Kiel as Jaws. Also starring in this film is Caroline Munro as Naomi , Barbara Jefford as the voice of Naomi , Edward de Souza as Sheikh Hosein , George Baker as Captain Benson , Walter Gotell as General Gogol , Vernon Dobtcheff as Max Kalba , Eva Rueber-Staier as Rubelvitch , Nadim Sawalha as Aziz Fekkesh , Shane Rimmer as Commander Carter and Robert Brown as Admiral Hargraves. 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. As much like with the performances from the main MI6 regulars the performances from the rest of the films actors was also really good as they all just got there characters down perfectly so much so that it was hard to picture quite literally anybody else playing these characters as that's just how good alot of them are in this film and while Sir Roger Moore might have been the best actor from the MI6 regulars perspective from the perspective of the rest of the films actors the best actor of the film is Curt Jurgens as even tho the character of Karl Stromberg is really dull and boring and is easily the worst villain in all of the James Bond films he is still committed to the the role and he does try to make him a threatening character with the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

This films only Bond Girl was Anya Amasova who was of course played by the drop dead gorgeous Barbera Bach. With this character being quite literally a female version of James Bond with the only difference between the two being the fact that she's more open to love then he is and that's it and that's not a bad thing as now we get to see someone who is a strong character and who has flaws of her own like the fact that she is perhaps to stubborn for own good something which we see gets her into trouble alot of the time and yet over the course of the film has to over come that and become a better character because of it and while she's not the best written Bond Girl she's easily not the worst one either as this character does do alot to help advance the plot the film and heck it's even her boyfriend that gets killed off during the films pre-title sequence which is something that we've never seen before in a James Bond film as now she is forced to work with the man who killed her boyfriend that being none other then James Bond himself and seeing her have to suppress that anger and that rage in a way that Bond himself just failed to do when Tracy was killed in cold blood whilst also having to work with the man that killed him is something that does make for an interesting character as now we know that she's going to explode on him at any point during the film with the only thing that lets the character down being the films third act where the character is instead reduced to being someone for Bond rescue which whilst it does fit her character as she does need rescuing a few times in the film also feels at odds with the fact that she's meant to be one of Russia's top spies now this wouldn't be a huge issue if she was a new spy and this was a her first mission but it's the fact that she's meant to be one of Russia's top spies and she can barely handle herself against an old man that's the issue.

Doing the production design for this film was of course the great Sir Ken Adam who really does out do himself on this film. With him creating what can only be described as being gargantuan size sets as alot of the sets that he makes for this film are not only very visually stunning to look at but are also just straight up massive as well with this being something that will always be a plus for a James Bond film as Bond himself lives in a world where everything is bigger and more over the top then then they are in our world and therefor the sets for any James Bond film do need to reflect that change with the best example of this being the inside of the tanker that captures the USS Wayne as that set needs to big enough to fit an entire submarine inside it plus hundreds if not thousands of crewmen as well and to the films credit it does make the most of space with alot of the films third action taking place inside of this tanker with there not really being a dull set in sight in this film as even the set for General Gogol looks really impressive as it's just a dark empty room with a table and chair but that's meant to be the point of set as it's meant to reflect the fact that whilst M's main set is warm and welcoming his counterparts main set is meant to be dark , cold and unwelcoming and it does come across as being exactly that and yet even so it does make you wonder just what else is in that set that we the audience aren't seeing as there very easily could have been things like entire bookshelves in the far side of the room or even things like computers and another desk entirely all of which are things that could have been used to make that set all the more brighter and welcoming which to be fair to this film would have been going against the main idea of the set in the first place.

As was mentioned back at the vert start if this review this films main villain Karl Stromberg is quite easily the most boring villain in the James Bond films. As there's nothing to his character he doesn't act insane or over the top like Max Zorin and he's not as interesting as characters like Dr. No , Goldfinger or Blofeld as the only two things of note that he does in the whole film is kill off to his scientists and is sectary and kidnap Anya and that's it this guy is meant to be absolutely insane and yet in the film he comes across as being the most sane person on the planet with his main goal being to start an underwater civilization after he starts World War 3 by launching the stolen nuclear missiles at both Britain and Russia which would convince the other that well the other has just attacked them with his plan being the best part of his character as it's actually a pretty smart plan for the most part altho he has failed to take into account that people will be sailing as well as flying from both Britain and Russia for the war and are thus more then likely going to bump into his underwater civilization with the character not even being all that threatening as a character with the only thing that makes the character threatening being the fact that his henchman / bodyguard Jaws is pretty much invincible with Jaws being one of the more truly iconic things to come from this film and yet he can only do so much of the heavy lifting for the character as it would have Stromberg all the more better of a character is we actually got to see him do more things that kill three people and kidnap another as then we could get sense of fear and dread for when Anya is kidnapped and when he also kills Bond near the end of the film as that would have been something that would have made him a more threatening character but as the makers of the film were just more focused on giving us a lazy villain it means that that we get a villain that could have been great but instead ends up being laughably bad.

The films opening titles were of course done by Maurice Binder and the films title song is called "Nobody Does It Better" and is sung by Carly Simon. With the films opening titles being just as great as you'd expect from Maurice at this point in the James Bond franchise with his titles matching the songs more relaxing almost romantic tone and feel with them being a visual treat to watch from start to finish and while many will say "Goldfinger" or "Skyfall" are the best James Bond theme songs and they are some really good theme songs they both fail in comparison to "Nobody Does It Better" as this song even tho going by the lyrics is more of a love song then the more traditional action heavy James Bond songs is still a really good theme song in it's own right with the fact that it is alot more relaxing and in it's own way alot more romantic as well being the very thing that sets it apart from all of the other James Bond theme songs out there as it would have been very easy for the makers of this film to make this song be a rock heavy song akin to the likes of "Live And Let Die" for example and yet it's the fact that they took the chance on this more relaxing song that does make this film stand out all the more then what it already does i the first place with the song itself being perfectly well sung by Carly Simon and being really well written by Carole Bayer Sager who only asked Carly to sing the song as she thought that the lyrics to this song sounded incredibly vane which was a reference to Carly's major hit song "You're So Vain" and to the films credit you can see why this is a good song as it's really catchy and is one where the writing , composition an singing all together beautifully to create something that's truly magical with then films opening title being just as good as the song itself is as well.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and five minuets and forty seconds. Which to be to this film is pretty much the exact grand total running time that you'd expect a James Bond film to have in the first place with this film just about having the right amount of plot there to cover this amount of running time in the first place as the only thing that does get this films plot up to that running time is the stuff with Bond and Anya early on in the film with them trying to outwit each other for this role of film as without that padding this film could very easily have been one hour and forty five minuets at best with the film using it's running time very wisely as the film does fully develop it's plot just by adding in the ticking time bomb of Anya finding out that Bond was the one that killed her boyfriend at the start of the film something which Bond himself does work out quite early on but can't quite let on as they have to work together to stop Stromberg from starting World War 3 and while that could have been seen as taking from the plot given the fact that the films plot isn't that strong to begin with this is something that does help to make it all the more stronger and feel all the more developed because of it with this even having the adverse affect of fully developing the films characters as while James Bond doesn't get any character development that's more due to the fact that he's meant to be a male power fantasy character and that's really it and so of course he won't get character development in the films but Anya gets loads of character development as we do see her learn and grow from her mistakes and become a stronger character because of it with this being something that wasn't needed to make the character work as she was already working as well as she was ever going to be but it was nice to see in the film itself and it could be argued that Jaws gets some character development as he does learn from all of his defeats by Bond in this film just what kind of ground to meet him on if he's to have a chance of beating him in a fight but I really will admit that this film really does have some 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 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 action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With this film having alot of really fun action scenes in it alot of which do make up for the short cummings in the films plot as the action in this film is really fun and entertaining to watch and yet even tho the film has an action scene every few minuets it does mean that there's very little room for us the audience to catch our breathes with the best action scene in the whole entire film being the films third act as it's a really tense as Bond has to disarm one of the nuclear bombs before it goes off all the while trying to deal with several of Stromberg's employees and then he has to rescue Anya from Stromberg which is something that does lead to some really thrilling scenes as the two of them have to escape from Strombergs headquarters as it floods something which actually did scare Barbera Bach for real as when when the water hit her back it was more harder then what she expected it to be with even the final fight between Jaws and Bond being a really good addition to the film as we get to see Bond having to use his wits something that we also get to see all throughout the films third act as we get to see lots of really good action in it all of which feels right at home in a James Bond film and all of which works really well in this film as well with that being what helps to make the third act in this film really action packed in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall it really easy to see why this film helped to save the James Bond franchise as it does have alot of iconic things in it like Bond opening parachute to reveal it's parachute with Union Jack flag on it to anything done by the character of Naomi bottom line this film is fun and is well worth watching 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 7.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as of where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and 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 , Wikipedia and Google Images. With my personal favorite website to use to get the images that I used in this very review being Google Images 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 Google Images 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.