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CBn Reviews 'Octopussy'
Forum members review the thirteenth James Bond film

I´m always surprised how well "Octopussy" fared with the fans on this site. When I saw it in a theater on first release I thought it was decent but not as good as the predecessor FYEO. But the more I see it the more I like it. Right now, I rank it before FYEO and also think it is Moore´s best Bond after TSWLM and LALD.

Not to be negative here, but I would have liked to have seen a little wider range of reviews, only because I know Octopussy isn't that well recieved. Not that big of a deal and I guess it'll balance out next round when A View to a Kill comes up.

I've always had a soft spot for Octopussy.

*thinks about rephrasing sentence, decides is too lazy*

It's fun. It's glamorous. It's a Saturday matinee type of movie. If you want grittiness in your Bond movies, look elsewhere. Descending via a swathe of silk? That's old-fashioned and unrealistic movie glamour straight out of a Douglas Fairbanks film. Shooting the pineapple off the banister? Bond racing to defuse a nuclear bomb and dressing as a clown to do so? Take a youngster to see it on the big screen and you'll have a Bond fan for life.

At times, it looks a bit rickety. But the action sequences are consistently entertaining and inventive. And Roger Moore's safari suit is so bad it's good. Cheesiness par excellence.

P.S. Qwerty - sign up Double-Oh Agent to review the rest, would you?

K1, I took all the substantial reviews of Octopussy reviewed in my Countdown threads - there were not many reviews for this film, and what you see up there is them.

He already has.

Gotta love Octopussy.

Hey all. Octopussy is a better than average Bond movie. The best part of this movie can be summed up in two words, however: Ms. Magda. Wow. It maybe sad (for some) but it is true that this gal stole the show. She is one of the most exotic and erotic bond girls in the history of the series. She is a legend and I suspect there is a cult following out their (no pun intended).

The second highlight of this film is the double-0-climax. The chaos under the big top as the bomb ticks down to near zero and the mayheim blocks Bond from stopping it is one of the best emotional climax's of the whole bond series. The second climax, the dizzing fight on the twin-engine plane, is also edge of your seat action.

I do miss these great climax's. The GREAT double-climax here is the penultimate one. The Brosan-era ones were a lot more subtle.

I ranked it ion the bottom 5 of Bond movies when I reviewed it for Qwerty's countdown threads. Although its a Roger Moore Bond movie I think it went too far into fantasy territory.

ABC always promoted it as "the best Bond ever".

I missed it in theaters in '83 but I did catch NSNA. I like it but not as much as FYEO.Still good fun.

India and Alan Hume's cinematography make this film. As a storyline it is uninteresting and protracted, especially the scenes in and around the circus and build to the fight on the train. Better than average dialogue, Wayborn is classy and Jordan makes for a very appealing villian. As with A View To A Kill, Glen needed to be kept out of the edit suite. The pace is too slow and Lamont's sets look like an amateur theatre production. But the film is very atmospheric and frequently comes across as NOT a Bond film. ***

Agreed on these points. Alan Hume surpassed himself. The scene that always makes me smile, for sooo many reasons, is Magda spinning down from the balcony post coitus. There's something in that sequence that reminds me, visually, of From Russia With Love. There's a real elegance to it.

John Barry's soundtrack is, IMHO, his best. Beautiful and energetic. He isn't ripping himself off at any point. In fact, his instrumental of "All Time High" ranks with Ennio Morricone's "Gabriel's Oboe," and from me that's saying a lot. I think they're both geniuses.

I enjoy the story in Octopussy as well. I think it holds together quite well and may even be the high water mark for the Maibaum/Wilson colaboration. It's got a couple klunkers, but it's Shakespeare compared to anything Purvis and Wade have churned out.

The women are wonderful too.

All in all, Octopussy may well be my favorite of the Moore entries. Even better than TSWLM.

Let the thrashing begin.

Let's see...Moore did LALD, MWTGG, Moonraker, FYEO, Octopussy, AVTAK,TSWLM...

I really liked Octopussy. I was glad to see Maud Adams back, getting a chance to do a more interesting role than MWTGG (I doubt Octopussy would sit still for being slapped around, by anyone, in fact, he didn't in Octopussy). It kept my attention, I liked the dialog, the villians were great (yes Oluff was pretty funny to listen to). I enjoyed the setting (especially the East German train ride). Music was great (wonderful main theme).

I think it's a tie between Octopussy & FYEO, as far as my favorite Moore film.

The problem I had with Octopussy is that the plot is inane. Orlov is making copies of Romanov art treasures and selling the copies for money to pay Soviet agents. Apparently he is doing this against the wishes of the Politburo. Why do they oppose it?.
And why exactly doesn't Bond just go to Berlin to investigate? This sort of inane plotting also wrecked LALD for me. Basically the plot is an excuse for Bond to go to various locations even though he doesn't bother to figure out anything while there.
The big problem of this movie (and The Living Daylights as well) is they had to extrapolate an event from a short story into a typical Bond plot. Hence the inanity.