For Your Eyes Only

When a secret UK military spy ship (disguised as a fishing boat) is sunk in a Warsaw pact country's waters the Government fear that another power will recover their ATAC device and render their current submarine control system useless or allow others to order their weapons to be fired on the UK. Bond is dispatched to recover the device with the help of Havelock. However when Havelock is killed his daughter Melina is set on revenge and Bond must get the device before she kills those involved.

After all that messing around with special effects in space in Moonraker and too much comedy in The Spy Who Loved Me, Bond goes back to basics for the new decade. This sees the comedy added to by a nasty streak that sees Bond pushing people off cliffs – even the opening scene is very cruel when you think about it! It also means the film is a lot tighter and has plenty of good action scenes from start to finish.

However the back to basics thing has some downsides. The whole film is not as memorable as others because it doesn't have any BIG scenes or a BIG ending. Also the baddie is totally forgetable and doesn't make his mark at all. However this is still a good spy movie – even if it ranks low as a Bond.

Moore is actually good – he seems better now that his humour is toned down to allow him to be cruel. Bouquet is good but Topol is just an oddity. Glover is AWOL and the rest of the cast seem more down to earth than usual.

Overall it is a really good film but the normal nature of affairs mean it occasionally doesn't feel like a Bond. That said I still rate it as a step in the right direction as it saw Bond become a spy movie again and not just a spoof of itself.