Moonraker (1979)

Moonraker is one of the most tired Bond movies I've seen. This one claims to have been shot on location in Venice, Rio, the Amazon, and outer space, but I think they might be stretching the truth a bit. I have my doubts that Roger Moore and Lois Chiles went to space. The thing is, Moonraker has a boring villain, and the entire thing seems sort of a retread of the previous Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me. Moonraker's 1979 villain is very similar to the 1977 villain, and they even bring back the most interesting goon from the previous movie, Jaws, who bites through industrial cables and kills people by biting their necks. Most of all, I think Roger Moore was just a bit too long in the tooth for this – a crazy statement, I know, since he would make keep playing the spy for another six years and three more Bond movies.

The Spy Who Loved Me

If Barbara Bach had been a better actress, this movie would have worked much better. The chief villain, too, leaves a bit to be desired (he's not very scary), but his number one henchman is very strange, and so he is quite interesting, and The Spy Who Loved Me turns out to be a fun Bond movie, with a great Bond girl (as scripted), a killer theme song (but then, we already knew that) and plenty of fun travel.