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I have been reviewing all the James Bond films and I came to this one and it didn't exist on the SR database- so I had to put it here.
Feel free to comment.
The Roger Moore Bonds could be fitted into one of two camps: they were either good, solid action movies, with a great plot, spectacular stunts and a subtle alluring mix of humor and style. Examples of this would include The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only and live and Let Die.
Or they were ridiculous. Way over the top humor, Moore raising his eyebrows more times than breathing, facile humor usually of the double-entendre variety, and baddies that were so ridiculous you wondered how on earth they could tie their own shoelaces, let alone hold the world to ransom. And I'm afraid Moonraker falls in the second category.
Nevertheless, just to set the scene, I shall overview the plot which can neatly be summarized as follows. Hugo Drax (wonderfully restrained performance by Michael Lonsdale, featuring all the best lines in the film) is a megalomaniac industrialist stealing his own space shuttle rockets so that he can get into space, where he has built a space-station to hold his own race of specially chosen perfect-people, who will repopulate the world once he has destroyed all life on it by releasing deadly toxins from space. Jaws is hired by Drax to provide the usual bouncer-duties, though he gets distracted with a dozy girlfriend and ends up turning into a good guy. Holly Goodhead provides the kissy-kissy bit as an American astronaut. There, that wasn't too implausible was it?
The disc is the usual Bond affair, and those who have read my previous reviews will know the sorts of things to expect. Insert the disc and you will be greeted by a blue-themed menu screen with the inane Moonraker-theme playing in the background.
As always, the Special Features section should be your first port of call. Here you will find an option to turn on the audio commentary accompanying the film. This is by director Lewis Gilbert, and is one of the more interesting commentaries of the series, due in no small part to the over-the-top stunt and gadget laden film providing plenty to talk about.
You can find a stills gallery, that includes loads of still photos on various parts of the film, most of which are behind-the-scenes. I've never been taken with these, but I'm sure some people must like looking at them. Most of them are black-and-white, and lots of them show Moore puffing away on his cigars! Still, whatever takes your fancy!
As well as this documentarty, there is a further documentary called 'The Men Behind the Mayhem' which looks at the special effects crew and their work. This is very enjoyable indeed, and basically spends no more than a minute on each of the Bond films, picking out a couple of stunt effects and showing you how they were arranged. It goes along at a cracking pace, but is great fun to watch!
And that's it for the special features section.
Hang on? That's it? I hear you ask. 'Fraid so, while the extras are brilliant quality, and put most non-Bond DVDs to shame, I'm afraid this is one of the poorest selection of extras on the Bond disks, no music videos, no TV or radio spots, only the one trailer, no extra commentary - a shame given the enjoyment value of the film.
The picture is also as sharp as you can expect, and in particular the many dark scenes (night time, space) do not lack detail or contrast, making it easy to see what is actually going on. The film is also divided into an impressive 32 chapters, making navigation a breeze.
Despite being a rather slapstick affair, this is certainly an enjoyable Bond flick, and the picture and sound quality are up to the impeccable standard of the others in the series. But I can't help feeling short changed on the extras - there must have been more than this available!
IB
Feel free to comment.
The Roger Moore Bonds could be fitted into one of two camps: they were either good, solid action movies, with a great plot, spectacular stunts and a subtle alluring mix of humor and style. Examples of this would include The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only and live and Let Die.
Or they were ridiculous. Way over the top humor, Moore raising his eyebrows more times than breathing, facile humor usually of the double-entendre variety, and baddies that were so ridiculous you wondered how on earth they could tie their own shoelaces, let alone hold the world to ransom. And I'm afraid Moonraker falls in the second category.
Nevertheless, just to set the scene, I shall overview the plot which can neatly be summarized as follows. Hugo Drax (wonderfully restrained performance by Michael Lonsdale, featuring all the best lines in the film) is a megalomaniac industrialist stealing his own space shuttle rockets so that he can get into space, where he has built a space-station to hold his own race of specially chosen perfect-people, who will repopulate the world once he has destroyed all life on it by releasing deadly toxins from space. Jaws is hired by Drax to provide the usual bouncer-duties, though he gets distracted with a dozy girlfriend and ends up turning into a good guy. Holly Goodhead provides the kissy-kissy bit as an American astronaut. There, that wasn't too implausible was it?
The disc is the usual Bond affair, and those who have read my previous reviews will know the sorts of things to expect. Insert the disc and you will be greeted by a blue-themed menu screen with the inane Moonraker-theme playing in the background.
As always, the Special Features section should be your first port of call. Here you will find an option to turn on the audio commentary accompanying the film. This is by director Lewis Gilbert, and is one of the more interesting commentaries of the series, due in no small part to the over-the-top stunt and gadget laden film providing plenty to talk about.
You can find a stills gallery, that includes loads of still photos on various parts of the film, most of which are behind-the-scenes. I've never been taken with these, but I'm sure some people must like looking at them. Most of them are black-and-white, and lots of them show Moore puffing away on his cigars! Still, whatever takes your fancy!
As well as this documentarty, there is a further documentary called 'The Men Behind the Mayhem' which looks at the special effects crew and their work. This is very enjoyable indeed, and basically spends no more than a minute on each of the Bond films, picking out a couple of stunt effects and showing you how they were arranged. It goes along at a cracking pace, but is great fun to watch!
And that's it for the special features section.
Hang on? That's it? I hear you ask. 'Fraid so, while the extras are brilliant quality, and put most non-Bond DVDs to shame, I'm afraid this is one of the poorest selection of extras on the Bond disks, no music videos, no TV or radio spots, only the one trailer, no extra commentary - a shame given the enjoyment value of the film.
The picture is also as sharp as you can expect, and in particular the many dark scenes (night time, space) do not lack detail or contrast, making it easy to see what is actually going on. The film is also divided into an impressive 32 chapters, making navigation a breeze.
Despite being a rather slapstick affair, this is certainly an enjoyable Bond flick, and the picture and sound quality are up to the impeccable standard of the others in the series. But I can't help feeling short changed on the extras - there must have been more than this available!
IB
I have been reviewing all the James Bond films and I came to this one and it didn't exist on the SR database- so I had to put it here.
Feel free to comment.
The Roger Moore Bonds could be fitted into one of two camps: they were either good, solid action movies, with a great plot, spectacular stunts and a subtle alluring mix of humor and style. Examples of this would include The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only and live and Let Die.
Or they were ridiculous. Way over the top humor, Moore raising his eyebrows more times than breathing, facile humor usually of the double-entendre variety, and baddies that were so ridiculous you wondered how on earth they could tie their own shoelaces, let alone hold the world to ransom. And I'm afraid Moonraker falls in the second category.
Nevertheless, just to set the scene, I shall overview the plot which can neatly be summarized as follows. Hugo Drax (wonderfully restrained performance by Michael Lonsdale, featuring all the best lines in the film) is a megalomaniac industrialist stealing his own space shuttle rockets so that he can get into space, where he has built a space-station to hold his own race of specially chosen perfect-people, who will repopulate the world once he has destroyed all life on it by releasing deadly toxins from space. Jaws is hired by Drax to provide the usual bouncer-duties, though he gets distracted with a dozy girlfriend and ends up turning into a good guy. Holly Goodhead provides the kissy-kissy bit as an American astronaut. There, that wasn't too implausible was it?
The disc is the usual Bond affair, and those who have read my previous reviews will know the sorts of things to expect. Insert the disc and you will be greeted by a blue-themed menu screen with the inane Moonraker-theme playing in the background.
As always, the Special Features section should be your first port of call. Here you will find an option to turn on the audio commentary accompanying the film. This is by director Lewis Gilbert, and is one of the more interesting commentaries of the series, due in no small part to the over-the-top stunt and gadget laden film providing plenty to talk about.
You can find a stills gallery, that includes loads of still photos on various parts of the film, most of which are behind-the-scenes. I've never been taken with these, but I'm sure some people must like looking at them. Most of them are black-and-white, and lots of them show Moore puffing away on his cigars! Still, whatever takes your fancy!
As well as this documentarty, there is a further documentary called 'The Men Behind the Mayhem' which looks at the special effects crew and their work. This is very enjoyable indeed, and basically spends no more than a minute on each of the Bond films, picking out a couple of stunt effects and showing you how they were arranged. It goes along at a cracking pace, but is great fun to watch!
And that's it for the special features section.
Hang on? That's it? I hear you ask. 'Fraid so, while the extras are brilliant quality, and put most non-Bond DVDs to shame, I'm afraid this is one of the poorest selection of extras on the Bond disks, no music videos, no TV or radio spots, only the one trailer, no extra commentary - a shame given the enjoyment value of the film.
The picture is also as sharp as you can expect, and in particular the many dark scenes (night time, space) do not lack detail or contrast, making it easy to see what is actually going on. The film is also divided into an impressive 32 chapters, making navigation a breeze.
Despite being a rather slapstick affair, this is certainly an enjoyable Bond flick, and the picture and sound quality are up to the impeccable standard of the others in the series. But I can't help feeling short changed on the extras - there must have been more than this available!
IB
Feel free to comment.
The Roger Moore Bonds could be fitted into one of two camps: they were either good, solid action movies, with a great plot, spectacular stunts and a subtle alluring mix of humor and style. Examples of this would include The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only and live and Let Die.
Or they were ridiculous. Way over the top humor, Moore raising his eyebrows more times than breathing, facile humor usually of the double-entendre variety, and baddies that were so ridiculous you wondered how on earth they could tie their own shoelaces, let alone hold the world to ransom. And I'm afraid Moonraker falls in the second category.
Nevertheless, just to set the scene, I shall overview the plot which can neatly be summarized as follows. Hugo Drax (wonderfully restrained performance by Michael Lonsdale, featuring all the best lines in the film) is a megalomaniac industrialist stealing his own space shuttle rockets so that he can get into space, where he has built a space-station to hold his own race of specially chosen perfect-people, who will repopulate the world once he has destroyed all life on it by releasing deadly toxins from space. Jaws is hired by Drax to provide the usual bouncer-duties, though he gets distracted with a dozy girlfriend and ends up turning into a good guy. Holly Goodhead provides the kissy-kissy bit as an American astronaut. There, that wasn't too implausible was it?
The disc is the usual Bond affair, and those who have read my previous reviews will know the sorts of things to expect. Insert the disc and you will be greeted by a blue-themed menu screen with the inane Moonraker-theme playing in the background.
As always, the Special Features section should be your first port of call. Here you will find an option to turn on the audio commentary accompanying the film. This is by director Lewis Gilbert, and is one of the more interesting commentaries of the series, due in no small part to the over-the-top stunt and gadget laden film providing plenty to talk about.
You can find a stills gallery, that includes loads of still photos on various parts of the film, most of which are behind-the-scenes. I've never been taken with these, but I'm sure some people must like looking at them. Most of them are black-and-white, and lots of them show Moore puffing away on his cigars! Still, whatever takes your fancy!
As well as this documentarty, there is a further documentary called 'The Men Behind the Mayhem' which looks at the special effects crew and their work. This is very enjoyable indeed, and basically spends no more than a minute on each of the Bond films, picking out a couple of stunt effects and showing you how they were arranged. It goes along at a cracking pace, but is great fun to watch!
And that's it for the special features section.
Hang on? That's it? I hear you ask. 'Fraid so, while the extras are brilliant quality, and put most non-Bond DVDs to shame, I'm afraid this is one of the poorest selection of extras on the Bond disks, no music videos, no TV or radio spots, only the one trailer, no extra commentary - a shame given the enjoyment value of the film.
The picture is also as sharp as you can expect, and in particular the many dark scenes (night time, space) do not lack detail or contrast, making it easy to see what is actually going on. The film is also divided into an impressive 32 chapters, making navigation a breeze.
Despite being a rather slapstick affair, this is certainly an enjoyable Bond flick, and the picture and sound quality are up to the impeccable standard of the others in the series. But I can't help feeling short changed on the extras - there must have been more than this available!
IB
Great post IB. Well done Chris!
yeah that was a nice post Ice really good
Good post IB. Moonraker is not one of my favourite Bond films. There are certain parts which are good though.
You only live twice is the best James Bond film.