Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Purely Joyful Movie!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

After the last slow James Bond entry in 1981 ("For Your Eyes Only"), it was a pleasant surprise to find out that Agent 007 wasn't dying. Roger Moore in the Bond role in "Octopussy" comes back to life in grand style. This film has all of the trademark aspects of the Bond franchise, and then some. It has a new main playwright since the last outing. Usually there's one specific hair-raising scenario when Bond might fall to his death, become chopped liver, or float off into space. Here, Bond has three harrowing and nail biting escapades. The first is dodging a missile in a special jet plane made for him by Q's shop back at MI6 labs. The second is clinging to the side and then roof of a rail car on a fast moving train. And, the third is holding onto the top of a prop plane as the pilot tries to shake him off. In between these, Bond has some scrapes with assassins, other bad guys and is hunted and has encounters with tigers and crocodiles. This is one fast-paced thriller, and Bond returns to form, winning all of his fights but one. Of course, that one leads to his next escape. Bond gets some new gadgets from Q, besides the compact jet plane that doubles as a car. And, a double plot adds more intrigue and interest. Part of this story involves the Soviet Union, and a rebel general within the Soviet military who has a dastardly plan to cause a nuclear explosion in West Germany. Even though it's a far-out piece of the story, I enjoy the Bond thrillers more when they take place within the aspects of the Cold War. That was a very real time in the lives of people around the world after World War II and until 1990. This film has more unique and hair-raising scenes than usual, to the point that the plot bounces around a great deal. But, it is interesting and keeps one awake and glued to his or her seat. The story is set mostly in India and Germany, which at that time was divided into East and West. In a scene where M sends Bond into East Berlin, Bond goes from the American zone to East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. That probably was the most famous and well known of all the Berlin crossings during the Cold War. This film is somewhat different in that it doesn't have a woman agent as a nemesis to Bond. Instead, a network of women have been trained by the daughter of a former Secret Agent in physical skills as well as business and professional fields. Toward the end, Octopussy, played by Maud Adams, leads her ladies in a raid on the evil Kamal. It's a far-fetched battle, but it's a fun spectacle to see how it was staged. Louis Jordan plays Kamal. This is a very enjoyable Bond thriller with lots of action and far-out scenes. It's the best Bond played by Roger Moore, and one of the best of the entire series. Not only does it have trains, planes and automobiles, but it also has boats, horses, elephants, and a hot air balloon toward the end. There's much fun in this film. One very strange thing occurs in the opening scenario. Two armed guards are watching Bond in the back of a moving truck. When a woman agent distracts them, Bond hits releases on their chests and parachutes open and they float out of the truck. These were freefall chutes used in sky diving, not regular Army parachutes. But, even then, no one would ever be wearing a parachute until just before they boarded a plane for a jump. Here are some favorite lines from this film. Bond and an MI6 art expert attend an art auction in London at which an original Faberge egg from the Russian royalty is put on the auction block. Bond, "How much should it fetch?" Jim Fanning, "Oh, 250,000... 300,000 pounds. Anything more would be crazy."When Bond arrives in India, he finds his contact to be snake charmer. Vijay, "This was the wrong cover. I hate snakes." Vijay tells Bond that he plays cricket. Vijay, "As a matter of fact, I've got a part time job as a pro at Kamal's club." James Bond, "What have you learned so far?" Vijay, "Well, my backhand's improving."

British agents including Roger Moore in clown make-up? How inane. It mimics and looks like it could have been filmed inside "Circus Circus" in Las Vegas but apparently it was not. Unintentionally funny, especially with an exaggerated "side show", again similar to Circus Circus. There is a cheapness about the whole production. The best part of the movie is the title theme song by John Barry. A nuclear bomb inside a circus cannon? Almost an act of terrorism, unheard of in those days. The only saving grace is two bombastic Bond Girls. People who like this entry must be watching a different movie than me. I guess a provocative title goes a long way? That's one reason that "The Mexican" and "John Carter" were "duds" at the box office.

Directed by John Glen and produced by Albert Broccoli, it has script by Richard Maibaum and George MacDonald Fraser and is the thirteenth film in the franchise. In this film, James Bond investigates the death of another British spy. The trail leads to India, where he allies with Octopussy, a daughter of a former enemy who want to save her own skin. The action takes place in the context of "détente", a policy of appeasement between the USA and the USSR.Personally, I consider this film as one of the worst in the entire franchise. I appreciate the scenery and the exoticism of the scenes in India, where part of the film took place, or the trip train to West Berlin. All these scenes help, in fact, to make this a very nice film. The script is also good: the theft of Soviet artworks, a nuclear attack on West Berlin are strong themes. The great sin of this film are some scenes that ridiculed the main character. Its sad to see James Bond disguised as clown or gorilla, but even that could be understandable depending on the context. But see 007 to panic, start screaming and running from one side to the other in the middle of a circus tent... I wasn't able to recognize Bond, nor understand how Roger Moore allowed his character was the target of that laughingstock!In this film, besides the central cast inherited from the previous films and the continuation of Roger Moore in the role of 007, it participated Maud Adams in the role of Octopussy; Louis Jourdan gave life to the villain, Kamal Khan; Kabir Bedi played Gobinda and Robert Brown assumed the role of M, left vacant by the death of Bernard Lee.

Of course, I wrote in my For Your Eyes Only review that I appreciated the tongue and cheek being toned down a bit, only to be overwhelmed with goofiness with Osctopussy. There's a lot of entertainment to be had with this film, but sadly I felt a ton of opportunities were wasted.It seemed as though the plot was going to shift the motivations of the lead villain from craving world domination down to simply a jewel thief. To me, that was intriguing. Bringing the stories to a more realistic focus would have been compelling for this film. But instead we got a mess of a film. I'm just very tired of the use of nuclear weapon's for the lead villain. It's been used over and over again. Not every bad guy has nukes. I also felt they took the setting of India and abused it a bit. I'm sorry but how many different animals were used as spectacles or traps for Bond? Bond literally tells a wild tiger to sit down, and it listens. It got a bit ridiculous, especially knowing how noticeably fake most of them were. Certainly some of the sequences can be entertaining, but when a professional tennis player's cameo turns into him beating villains over the head with a tennis racket overpowering machine guns, you know you've taken it too far.But it's disappointing that this film didn't take advantage at having a female antagonist. The series thus far hasn't had a lead female villain, and I thought for awhile it would be the first. She was hidden from the audience for a good portion of the film similar to Blofeld which made for an interesting proposition. Sadly, 'Octopussy' turns out to be just like most other Bond girls. On the flip side, Q gets to play a bigger role which was a good change up from being back at MI6 all the time. There's no denying this film's entertainment, but there's just too many missed opportunities.+Q is a bigger part+Very good first half-Missed opportunities-Yet another nuclear obsessed villain5.5/10