007 – the Roger Moore years 5: For Your Eyes Only

Before we begin, this is one of the two remaining Bond movie’s I’ve never seen before. I’I previously watched the first half or so (up to the skiing action scene) years ago on TV, and had virtually no memory of it. All I remembered was a general idea of what happened in the opening, and the slow, romantic tone of the opening song. It was also the first Bond movie I saw back then that didn’t leave much of an impression either way. Until now, I never felt any desire to watch this movie in full.

For Your Eyes Only, Roger Moore’s fifth outing as James Bond and the twelfth movie overall, is the first movie in the franchise to get released in the 1080’s. It was originally intended to be the next movie after The Spy Who Loved Me, but Star Wars’ release convinced Albert R. Broccoli to move forward with the sci-fi heavy Moonraker instead. And just like Moonraker, opinions on this movie are very mixed. This time though, opinions are mixed for completely different reasons.

Advertisements

Summing up my summer of swim workouts

Today is the last day that the outdoor pool I’ve got a season pass for is open. Good thing the weather is good today, because I wanted to make my last outdoor swim workout of the year worth it. This post will be a hybrid of a reflection over the general physical progress I’ve made so far this year, and hopefully a motivating post for others.

Why am I posting this on my blog that normally focuses on movies and comics? Well, not only can I noticeably see my improvement over the summer, but since I started exercising more regularly, I feel better in general. I’m enjoying life more. I’m not saying that swimming will work for you, but if you’re less than 40 and you’re not handicapped in any way, what’s your excuse? Any normal person less than 40 years old can easily improve at least one aspect of their physical fitness if they put even a little effort into it. Find something physical that you enjoy and stick with it. Improve your fitness and you’ll feel more energetic, you’ll feel happier and your brain will even function better. For example, I tend to do my best writing after an intense workout of some kind. It really gets the blood pumping.

Also I’ve seen the next Bond movie for my James Bond blogathon – I’ll probably be writing that post later tonight and posting it tomorrow.

007 – the Roger Moore Years 4: Moonraker

The general opinion of Roger Moore’s fourth outing as James Bond is quite mixed. Either you hate it, or you find it very entertaining despite its … oddities. There doesn’t seem to be too many people in-between those vastly different points of view. Instead of focusing on this movie’s massive use of camp humour and self-parody, I’m going to try and look at this movie from a quality standpoint apart from those things. There are filmmaking aspects of this movie that are worth looking at beyond this movie’s very strange tone.

As I mentioned in my The Spy Who Loved Me post, For Your Eyes Only was originally intended to be the next Bond movie, yet 1977 saw the release of Star Wars. Seeing how each of the previous Roger Moore Bond movies latched onto some sort of craze (Live and Let Die is Blaxploitation with Bond, Man With The Golden Gun heavily features martial arts, and TSWLM has disco themes in its music), it doesn’t take much thought to figure out where they decided to go with this one. The film’s climax takes place in space, with laser guns, simulated gravity going on and off, a large battle, and villain Hugo Drax’s plot to destroy the world.

X-23 4 review

Previously in X-23’s new solo series written by Mariko Tamaki, the Stepford Cuckoos brought back their long deceased sisters. While the five in one initially enjoyed their reunion, it didn’t take long for Esme and Sophie’s new bodies to start rotting. In a desperate attempt to save their sisters, they sought out another family of clones to transfer their minds into – ones whose bodies could regenerate themselves. Laura and Gabby to be specific. However, Mindee clearly has doubts about this plan.

Comics of September 12, 2018

It’s another week where I doubt I’ll be able to write any full reviews. I’ve got several things going on this week, like getting my own car instead of always driving my parents’ cars, appointments related to potentially buying a house in the new year, and of course the outdoor pool I’ve got a season’s pass for is closing after this week. I want to use it as much as I can.

Anyway, the comics I picked up today include Fantastic Four 2, X-23 4, Amazing Spider-Man 5 and Supergirl 22. Here are my first impressions, and if I find the time to write a review later, it will be linked below.

X-23 4 review

007 – the Roger Moore years 3: The Spy Who Loved Me

Unlike Man With The Golden Gun, in which I skipped the production cycle of the movie, there’s so much to talk about with The Spy Who Loved Me’s production that this post will mostly be talking about that. For one, since the Bond film franchise began, all of the official Eon Production movies were produced equally by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. This movie is where that changes. Due to personal financial troubles, his wife’s terminal cancer and suffering from clinical depression, Saltzman sold his half of the franchise shortly after Man With The Golden Gun’s release. That’s only where this movie’s production struggles began.

Broccoli found it difficult to find a director for this movie. They first approached Steven Spielberg, who was in the middle of post-production with Jaws. I’m sure Spielberg could have made a great James Bond movie, but they ultimately decided against him. They also approached Guy Hamilton, who had directed the previous three Bond movies as well as Goldfinger, but he left the project when he was offered to direct the first Christopher Reeves Superman movie. Funny enough, Richard Donner later took over Superman. Eventually, Lewis Gilbert landed the directing job, having previously directed You Only Live Twice.

007 – the Roger Moore years 2: The Man With The Golden Gun

I don’t remember exactly what order I saw the James Bond movies in after the first few I watched, but today’s blogathon entry is about the first full Roger Moore movie I ever saw. It was probably the third or fourth full Bond movie I ever saw, and even before it started, I was excited to know what the movie was about. Why? Because I enjoyed the game mode in Goldeneye 007 on the N64 named after this movie. I’m sure I’d still enjoy it.

Before we get into this, I won’t be looking at the background for this movie like I normally do for these posts. Not because there’s nothing to say about the production, but there’s actually a lot to talk about with the movie itself.