The Firelight Shocks DVD Review Section

Moonraker Distributor: MGM Region: 2 Ratio: : 2:35:1 (Enhanced for widescreen televisions) Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo

Yeah, okay, it's not horror - but how many of you weren't going to add at least one Bond DVD to your collection? Out of the entire 007 series, Moonraker fits into Firelight territory the most comfortably. It was, after all, one of the most ludicrous, 'what the fuck were the they thinking of?' - big budget, dumb as buggery films to be released by a major studio during the seventies. Yes indeed, for incredibly strange blockbusters that should probably never have received the green light, you just can't beat Moonraker. Made in 1979 as an attempt to cash in on the success of Star Wars and clocking in as number eleven in the Bond films, Moonraker sees Roger Moore return, for a fourth time, as everyone's favourite secret agent. The movie begins with the 'Moonraker' shuttle being stolen in outer space by an unknown spaceship. From there we get one of the best pre-credit sequences in the entire history of the Bond flicks (rivalled only by the parachute jump from The Spy Who Loved Me and the immortal, 'This never happened to the other fellow' from On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Bond finds himself booted out from an aeroplane by Jaws (returning from The Spy Who Loved Me), only without a parachute! What follows is a fight in mid air and an awesome free-fall drop. Then it all goes a little bit stupid as Jaws pulls too hard at his parachute cord and it fails to open - the big guy attempts to fly and promptly plummets back down to earth, breaking his fall in a circus tent! This should give you some idea of how Moonraker is going to evolve... Following Shirley Basset's largely forgotten about theme song ('Just like a Moonraker goes, in search of his dreams of gold' etc etc), we are taken on what at first looks to be fairly typical Bond fare as 007 investigates the puzzle of the missing Moonraker shuttle. Then the story begins to seriously spiral out of control and, very quickly, all sense of sensible plot, reason or even very basic attention to reality is thrown wayward in favour of increasingly ridiculous set pieces. Yes, in Moonraker you can sit in disbelief, as a gondola becomes a car and Bond wrestles with a man-eating rubber python! You can laugh heartily as Jaws bites a steel tramway cable in half and then falls in love with a woman half his size! You can even shudder in disbelief as Bond and his perennial female acquaintance, Holly Goodhead (yes, really) take to outer space for the most outrageously daft ending to any film ever. If that fails to amuse you, then you also get to see Roger Moore raise his eyebrow consistently in a vain attempt to express surprise, panic, affection and anger. Priceless! So what else is there to say? Moonraker has a formidable villain in Drax (Michael Lonsdale), a brilliant, noisy fight scene in which antique vases and more glass than you'd ever believe is shattered into little pieces and a suitably attractive, not to mention refreshingly sarcastic, Bond girl in Lois Chiles. It also has incredible special effects (Moonraker was Oscar nominated for this and its influence can hardly be understated) and some awesome interior sets (Drax's base is comparable with that of Donald Pleasance's pseudo-volcano in You Only Live Twice). Moore's Bond has varied between extremes of self-parody (this, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy and A View to a Kill) and surprisingly effective portrayals of a violent secret agent (For Your Eyes Only, The Man With the Golden Gun - Live and Let Die falls somewhere between these two 'extremes'). Bond purists generally dislike the former portrayal, but I must admit that I find old Roger quite appealing, even when he does have his tongue lodged firmly in his cheek. True, considering the character's 'license to kill', this probably isn't how Bond is supposed to be played, but when Timothy Dalton tried to restore some much-needed seriousness to the role, world wide audiences sniffed - obviously preferring Pierce Brosnan's current, outlandish 'never shaken, never stirred' persona. That said, Spy is definitely the best of the Moore films and if you're just starting your Bond collection then On Her Majesty's Secret Service is undoubtedly the cream of the crop, followed by Goldfinger. In closing, one cannot quite emphasise how ridiculous Moonraker actually is. Bond all of a sudden flying a spaceship, without any notable training, is merely the icing on the cake of this brain numbing adventure. Drax's actual plan for world domination is equally dumb, as is Jaws falling in love. Still, if you're on the look out for a film so over the top it simply boggles the mind - then Moonraker is highly recommended. For fans of 'so bad it's great' cinema, they just don't get much better than this, and as uncalled for as the outer space battle at the end may be... well, it certainly looks good!

EXTRAS: The Bond discs are amongst the best on the market and Moonraker is no exception. As usual, we are offered the original theatrical trailer (only one though... as opposed to the seemingly endless amount of trailers on offer in the other Bond discs) and an entertaining 'Making Of' booklet which helps to titillate you for the movie you've just bought. There is also the seemingly obligatory 'Making Of' documentary, which, as with all of the ones I've viewed on the Bond discs, is utterly enthralling. Here we get some great insight into the special effects with bond veteran, the late Derek Meddings. This runs for over forty minutes and even has some humorous outtakes (including a fantastic window washer gag... I'll just leave it at that). With Moonraker being the most visually bold Bond movie, it is perhaps fitting that we are given a 'Men Behind the Mayhem; documentary, which takes us behind the scenes of the special effects on every Bond film to date! Excellent stuff! On top of that, we are even given a huge amount of stills to look through and thoughtfully regular chapter stops throughout the film. Oh yes, and there's also an audio commentary. Now the Bond films go a wee bit overboard with these... I mean, the likes of Thunderball and For Your Eyes Only (to name just a couple) have not one but two commentary tracks! Now, this is just a bit too much: even for a Bond fanatic like myself. Especially since these films usually have a variety of comments from the 'cast and crew' all spliced together... making it really hard to follow (I gave up on For Your Eyes Only early on). Hell, on these discs, there is even a compere from the 'Ian Fleming foundation' dragged in to try and keep things sane. Thankfully, Moonraker has the director and a handful of selected film crew actually sitting in front of the screen watching the movie and commentating on it as it moves along. This makes the Moonraker audio commentary far more watchable than in the aforementioned films. Still, there is a little bit too much backslapping going on here as they all congratulate one another on a job well done. Still, the best comment is well worth waiting for, as the director Lewis Gilbert maintains 'You can't show humping in a Bond film', when one of the crew mentions the tame 'love scene' between Bond and Goodhead. As with all of these films, the picture and sound quality is fabulous. The anamorphic transfers really help the vast widescreen photography of these films and Moonraker is even offered in stereo. This is a great package, and even if you do only have a passing interest in these films, I'm sure you wouldn't be too disappointed by adding one of these great DVD offerings to your collection. If you're reading this page and like your movies bold, mad and cheesy as hell then Moonraker is not a bad place to start. What are you waiting for?