The First Omen

Carlita Sway

The First Omen
Directed by Arkasha Stevenson
USA/Italy/UK/Canada/Serbia 2024
20th Century Fox
UK Theatrical Cut

Warning: Spoilers from 6am on the 6th day of the 6th month.

I don’t know. Like a London Transport bus, you wait ages for a decent nuncentric exploitation/horror movie to play at your local cinema and then two come along at once. The First Omen is a prequel that, I’m pretty sure nobody was crying out for but, what took me by surprise is that it almost gives the slightly superior Immaculate from last month (reviewed here) a run for its money and, while not nearly as good as the original movie The Omen (reviewed along with the sequels and reboot here), it’s still pretty great and is certainly, as far as I’m concerned, far better than any of those sequels and the unneccessary remake, for sure.

Okay, the film starts weirdly as the 20th century Studios logo comes up (except we all know it’s really 20th Century Fox, right?) but it’s the extended version of their fanfare, composed in 1953 by Alfred Newman to indicate that a picture is in the Cinemascope aspect ratio. However, this film is released in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio so, yeah, that popped me out of things right away... I hate it when the music is used incorrectly like that.

However, after that slight misstep, we are introduced to Father Brennan, the character who we know must survive to be in the original film, The Omen. And we understand this is him for a couple of great visual reasons. First up, they’ve made Ralph Ineson, the actor playing the role, look very much like Patrick Troughton (who played the part in the original movie). This one is set in 1971, the same year as the prologue to that movie and a few years before the main action of the original starts so, yeah, they do this quite well. But even before you catch a proper glimpse of the actor, they’re looking down at him from a POV of high up from a church, reminding you of just what happens to that character in The Omen and visually echoing/foreshadowing that sequence in the original where he gets impaled by the metal rod falling from the church steeple.

And, regarding this scene, you certainly know you’re in Omen territory right away because, a precariously hoisted piece of religious art is being clumsily raised up the rickety scaffold of the church and, like the premise of Lemony Snicket’s series of unfortunate events, you know that various, unexpected ‘accidents’ will be dangled in front of you just before they happen and, this is no exception. He goes into the church to talk to a throw away character played by Charles Dance and, you just know that something bad is going to happen when they both go and stand outside, just under where the builders are working.

And then we begin the main action properly... and we’re very much in similar territory to Immaculate in that it involves a young American coming to Rome to become a nun. She is played, quite brilliantly, by Nell Tiger Free, welcomed to the country by a cardinal played by Bill Nighy and is befriended by her new, ‘hedonistic before she takes her vows’ room mate Luz, played by Maria Caballero. Add to this cast the wonderful Sonia Braga (so good in Aquarius, reviewed here) and we have a movie which sings along doing all the right things.

Now, it’s not perfect... there are some clunky things about it. For instance, there’s a red herring of a character called Carlita (played by... well I don’t know... okay IMDB, explain to me what the two actresses listed as Carlita Picture Double means please?) and, while this character certainly features the familiar mark of the beast in a great hiding place, it seemed pretty obvious to me from the start (and quite badly telegraphed, literally by the formulaic visual shorthand that modern American movies tend to fall back on) just who the real mother of Damian from the original trilogy would turn out to be.

The other clunky thing about the movie is the whole extended ending of the film, which I suspect might well have been revised after the original cut. A fake feeling ‘rescue scene’ is added with a typical modern movie ‘have your cake and eat it’ epilogue. And while it’s necessary to see that, ‘oh yeah, Father Brennan did survive after all’ moment (because you can’t lead into the original films without him, once his presence here is established), the film also manages to set up the possibility of a sequel to this one independent from the original trilogy. Which, I have to admit, I quite like the idea of because, well, I really didn’t expect this movie to be so good.

Oh, and about the final line of the movie... it’s really ‘cringe’ as the kids would say. You remember the truly appalling bit at the end of that last, Fantastic 4 movie (reviewed here), where the kids are coming up with a name and realise there are four of them and they are quite fantastic (yeah, I wince even as I type)... well, given the events that preceded this sequence and the fact that the birth of a certain antichrist is accompanied by the score leaning full-on into a souped up arrangement of Jerry Goldsmith’s original opening titles to The Omen... did we really need a final bit of business where Father Brennan says to someone, something along the lines of... “They’ve even given him a name. Damien.” Yeah, really... would never have twigged that one, mate!

But despite these stupid sequences, the movie is absolutely riveting and, yeah, let’s talk about that score for a minute... and that sound design. Mark Korven’s score for the movie is absolutely brilliant, just what the film needs and certainly has a foothold in the 1971 setting of the story... and when he finally brings Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic melody... that works pretty well like it goes hand in hand with what else is going on with the music. And the sound design is really impressive too, with some nice ‘sound standing in for other sounds’ kinds of moments, a little similar to the music replaces scream scene I talked about in my review of Immaculate. Alas, as far as the score goes, there’s no proper CD release once again (the only Omen film not to have one, to date... I have the other five) and some wiley company needs to rectify that sorry state of affairs soon because I would love to give this one a listen.

So, yeah, The First Omen is really well made, has some great acting performances (spoiler... Nell Tiger Free’s breaking waters sequence rivals Claire Sweeney’s birth scene in Immaculate), brings the horror and is just genuinely, despite the clunky bits, a pretty cool film. And now I know what someone on Twitter meant when they said there’s a full on Isabelle Adjani Possession moment in this (reviewed by me here). This one’s an immediate Blu Ray pick up for me when it gets released and, yeah, I think most fans of the original series of movies (it kinda ignores the uncalled for reboot) should embrace this one. 

Godzilla - King Of The Monsters

Ghidorah, Mon Amour

Godzilla - King Of The Monsters
USA/Japan 2019 Directed by Michael DoughertyUK cinema release print.

Okay, so Godzilla - King Of The Monsters is the third in an predominantly American made series of new ‘Monsterverse’ films based on the various Toho Kaiju Eiga such as the Godzilla films. The first of these was Godzilla (reviewed by me here) and the second being the much better Kong - Skull Island (reviewed by me here). Now the fourth entry in this series, due next year, will be Godzilla Versus King Kong which brings me to ask... why have so many of these films got titles ripped from older movies utilising the same characters.

This film is particularly problematic in this aspect since Godzilla - King Of The Monsters was the title for the American release print of the 1954 film, Godzilla (aka Gojira) which started it all. You know, the one where a lot of it was cut, Raymond Burr was added into the linking scenes and Akira Ifikube’s masterful score was mostly replaced with old Universal monster movie cues tracked in. So, yeah, this particular title evokes some bad memories and associations at best.

However, while I can see exactly why many of the critics are giving this one fairly negative reviews, it’s actually far superior to the 2014 Godzilla movie and I enjoyed this one a lot.

There are four main monster characters in this one plus, or so we are told, some new ones. There is The Big G himself, of course, in what I suspect is a slight redesign that does the character absolute no favours. He pretty much looks like a mean thug in this... just the kind of giant, fire breathing reptile monster you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alleyway on your way home from work one night (as opposed to the more friendly and convivial giant reptiles you might wish to pass on the street). Which could have worked really well for the character if he was, as he was in a few of the early Toho films, being portrayed as a villainous force of nature that needed to be stopped. However, it’s made abundantly clear from the story here that he is definitely being seen as the heroic saviour of mankind so the extra mean look didn’t really work all that well for me, it has to be said. Just a pair of googly eyes would have done the trick.

We also have three more ‘fan favourites’...

We have Rodan, who starred in his own films as well as crossing over with the Gojira movies back in the 1970s and probably later. We also have everybody’s favourite larva turns giant moth creature Mothra, who is also seen as one of the ‘hero kaiju’ in this (as she pretty much always is whenever she’s in the movies, it has to be said). Lastly we have the kaiju who I always think of as Godzilla’s arch enemy, the three headed dragon-like creature Ghidorah (or King Ghidorah as he used to be known). It’s actually the best of the Ghidorah’s I’ve seen in the way the various heads of the creature interact with each other and, as far as I’m concerned, even though he’s the lead non-human villain of the piece, he’s also the best of the monsters in the movie. In a nice touch, the less clued in audience members (as far as the history of the genre goes) don’t find out Ghidorah’s name until much later in the movie. Instead, the humans have designated him Monster Zero, in a nice touch to the history of the character and his designation in his second appearance back in Invasion Of The Astro Monster (aka Godzilla Vs Monster Zero).

In addition to these, I’m pretty sure I spotted Kumonga a couple of times but it wasn’t shouted out to the audience like the others were.

And its a really fun film with some nice twists and turns to the characters and all the human story built around the monsters, in structure at least, is really well done and gives the film a certain lift absent from the previous US attempts to bring the Godzilla character to life. That being said, the human element of the story is also where the film fails in some regards. By that I mean...

Well, like the two predecessors, the film is cast with some major A list actors who always do a fantastic job with the material they are given to work with. I mean we have Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Ken Watanabe (reprising his role as the modern version of Dr. Ishiro Serizawa), Ziyi Zhang, Sally Hawkins (back as Dr. Vivienne Graham), Charles Dance as the human villain of the piece (or one of them... don’t want to get into spoiler territory here) and David Strathairn (back again as Admiral William Stenz). These are all fantastic actors and they all do a hell of a job with the dialogue they are given. Which is the main problem, I think, if any were to be found in such an entertaining confection as this. The dialogue is truly atrocious and the phrase ‘trying to get a silk purse from a sow’s ear’ comes to mind. Some of this dialogue is just embarrassing, even when it’s not trying to jargon the ears to death with its fictional, scientific gibberish.

Coupled with that is some unusually stylised acting from pretty much all the players. Every eyebrow twitch or look or head movement seems to be directed to the camera with the express intention of underlying and punctuating every dramatic moment to the nth degree. It’s like the director was saying... “More gravitas. More weight. Less subtle... give me moooore!” all the way through. Seriously, just between Chandler, Watanabe and Hawkins we have more chin and brow action than you’d get on an episode of Battle Of The Planets (aka Gatchaman). I was sitting there in the audience thinking I was stuck in some kind of artificial ‘gravitas well’. It might be that this style of acting is more appreciated in Japan, one of the primary targets for these films I suspect but... all I’m saying is that, as great as these performers are, they all looked like they were trying to get away with understating, as far as possible, some really broad strokes in terms of their physical presence and... well, it’s certainly something that stands out.

However, for all this, the film still manages to be immensely superior to some of the other Godzilla movies over the years and, frankly, there are some really nice references to the history of Kaiju Eiga productions for the ‘old school’ days... such as the use of the ‘oxygen destroyer’, featured in a few of the movies including Gojira’s 1954 debut. Heck, there’s even a revelation that one of the main characters is descended from the characters played by The Peanuts in the original Mothra movies... which is a really nice touch. There are also a fair few references to Skull Island and the history of the organisation Monarch, which is being established.

An inconsistency with the previous two movies is that this one doesn’t have a similar opening title sequence as those two, utilising real and fake news coverage. However, this one does use this device over the end credits to help set up the coming Godzilla Vs King Kong movie so at least there is some brand consistency here. And, by the way, you might want to stay until the end of the credits for another scene that might be important in a future movie in the franchise.

The cherry on top of this film is the new score by Bear McCreary. I’ve been saying how good this composer is for years now (since the modern Battlestar Galactica TV show which he scored) and he really delivers the goods here, utilising not just his own music which perfectly matches the mood of the film but also bringing in some new versions of the Ifikube scores with the two main themes you might associate with Godzilla plus the Mothra main theme (alas, the Mothra lyrics don’t make an appearance here). The score is brilliant and... mixed way too low during the action scenes so, yep, waiting for the double CD to turn up from Amazon any day now. Can’t wait to hear this one away from the visuals.

And there’s not much more ‘spoiler free’ stuff to say about Godzilla - King Of The Monsters, I think. Some good acting (despite the script obstacles to it), some great action, a nice story idea and, alas, the death of my two favourite human characters... one in the first third of the movie and another during the inevitable act of heroic redemption at the end. Definitely a film to watch if you liked the previous two and are a fan of the genre in general. Despite bad reviews for this, which are mostly unwarranted, I think we have a remarkably ‘on the right track for once’ American look at the title character and I am really looking forward, now, to next year’s monster smack down.

Dracula Untold

Taste The Vlad Of Dracula

Dracula Untold
USA/Japan
Directed by Gary Shore 
Universal Blu Ray Zone 2

Warning: I guess this is technically somewhat spoilery.

Okay so, after seeing the recent version of The Mummy (reviewed here) I was reminded that the new Universal Dark Universe* monster movies were originally to have begun with this one, Dracula Untold. However, I don’t think this one did very well at the box office and so, even though it would fit like a glove, hand in hand with the new version of The Mummy, Universal have stated that this is not part of that new cycle.

Now, this is a film I totally ignored at the cinema (like a fair few people, as it turns out) because the trailer looked truly dismal and more about Vlad The Impaler, the real life figure whom Bram Stoker’s Dracula was said to be inspired by, rather than actually treating him in his more common version of a contemporary, womanising vampire. And, strangely enough, that’s actually a fairly accurate portrayal of what this film is about, although the main character, played here by Luke Evans, does take possession of various vampiric and demonic powers fairly promptly in the course of the story. However, I’d noticed that, just lately, this film has been getting some good word of mouth from people on Twitter and so, when my local Computer Exchange had a Blu Ray of the movie going for only £3... I figured I’d give it a look.

Well... you have to give the cast and crew some brownie points for trying.

The acting is all pretty good from Luke Evan’s Vlad to his lover played by Sarah Gadon and, of course, Dominic Cooper as Mehmed. We even have Charles Dance on hand as a sort of ‘almost but not quite’ Nosferatu style, old vampire geezah who strikes a bargain with Vlad when he is in desperate trouble. Added to this is the really quite nice cinematography and for anything else negative you might want to lay at the feet of the movie makers here, you have to give it credit for being really nice to look at, at the very least.

However, while it’s certainly a ‘far from terrible’ movie, it’s hardly a great one and I personally believe that its chief problem is that the script and dialogue is just not that great and the fairly dull structure of the film is really not doing it any favours... especially when it comes to the sensibilities of a modern audience. To say it’s singular in its storytelling would be pretty accurate and the structure is like something out of an old Universal or Republic serial... just without the variance in locations and inventiveness which was often on hand in the best of those.

So the story structure is... Vlad comes back from his wars and discovers the source of the power he will use later in the film. Vlad is threatened with something horrible and, when he attempts to comply, his strong moral centre (seriously... this is Vlad The Impaler?) means he refuses and brings the full wrath of his enemies on him. So he strikes a deal for ‘supernatural vampire powers’ and fights the armies, moves his people somewhere else, fights the armies all over again... then loses both his motivating spirit and becomes a full fledged vampire... so he creates a vampire army to finish the war off once and for all. And.. that’s more or less it.

The film has some pretty major flaws other than the trite dialogue and singular structure, however. I mean the writers are on a losing battle trying to make Vlad Tepes somehow a bit of a family man who all his army and close friends love... without denying the fact that he went around impaling his enemies in truly horrible ways. Um... yeah, it doesn’t quite work does it? Especially when he continues to do that rubbish later in the film and everyone is still all... “Alright geezah! How’s it going? We all missed you.” Luke Evans, who is a pretty good actor (see him in Professor Marston And The Wonder Women as soon as possible, reviewed here), does his best with the material but it’s a seriously conflicted kind of script to be honest.

Another stupid thing is that, while I would never have predicted that the film was going to go off and do something interesting at some point, there’s a whole thing where the head vampire played by Charlie Dance strikes a bargain with Vlad. With great vampire power comes great vampire responsibility and Dance wants to lose his vampire powers forever and pas them onto somebody else (an outcome which is clearly contradicted in the final scene of the movie, by the way). So Vlad has the useful, army crushing vampire powers for only three days unless he gives into his unnatural thirst and drinks blood before then... in which case he’s cursed forever and is bound to walk the countryside only at night because sunlight is lethal to him (something else which is totally contradicted by the last scene, by the way). So I guess it’s a case of Vlad-u-added Tax in terms of his unearthly powers. And, since you know this is a Dracula origin story... you know he’s going to have to drink blood at some point before the end so, well, it’s not going to be that surprising is it?

Oh yeah... and about those vamped up, ramped up powers. After discovering that if he runs through the forest fast enough he can become a swarm of bats (there might be some unintentional humour in this scene... just saying), he starts doing it a lot more and that’s how he defeats thousands of men in an army single handedly... by becoming bats and, presumably, batting them to death. The fight scenes are not that great or clear, to be honest. Oh, and there’s a scene where he faces off against the villain of the piece, who worked out he’s a vampire (the bat swarming must have given it away) and somehow deduced he’s got a somewhat powerful allergy to silver. So, you know, he fights him in a tent standing in loads of silver coins and thus weakening Vlad in the final battle to, presumably, build up tension in the audience in case they think he somehow can’t win. Which is ridiculous because, you know, he’s Dracula now. And, yes, there is a bit where the villain throws silver coins at our hero in much the same way as somebody might throw sand in the face of an opponent. There might have been vague, smiling disbelief at the silliness of it all at this point... from this member of the audience, anyway.

Now, all the above taken into account, it really isn’t a terrible movie... just not a good one. The film features an epilogue scene set in the modern day featuring our vampish hero encountering Mina Harker for the first time and the presence of Charles Dance as a voyeuristic background figure... thus setting it up to possibly be the first past of that Dark Universe sequence. Now, all things being equal, I really wouldn’t mind if Luke Evans returns as Dracula in one of the new Universal Monster movies because, as completely ludicrous as this film gets in some places... it’s fine as a basis for a character which could be better written. So, yeah, bit of a wasted opportunity here but we’ll see how it goes.

In the meantime, I end this review by saying that, unless you have a lot more than just a casual investment in the Dracula character and his history, then Dracula Untold is probably not going to ring your bell very much. If you’re into historical horror, there might be some bright spots for you but, for the most part... I was certainly Vlad when it was all over.

*It looks like the Dark Universe franchise at Universal has, since the time the first draft of this review was written, stalled somewhat... possibly for good. I hope it comes back to our screens soon though.

For your Eyes Only

Eye Society

For your Eyes Only
1981 UK
Directed by John Glen
EON Blu Ray Region A/B/C

The 1981 cinema release of this film was kind of a big deal for 13 year old Bond fans like myself. I can’t remember why exactly, but I think the hype machine was in full swing on movie tie-ins by then... not even a hundredth of the merchandising available for most films these days, mind you, but I remember I had bought the For Your Eyes Only poster magazine, which was basically a thing which was very big for movie promotions in the wake of the first Star Wars movie especially (although I also have, among many, a Doc Savage poster magazine from 1975, so the phenomenon wasn’t entirely new when Lucas’ holy trilogy unleashed merchandising heaven). Poster magazines were basically just a big poster which was folded in half twice with the cover and promotional articles printed on the reverse page to accommodate the folds. For young film enthusiasts they were a big deal and I believe I still have all mine, there must be between 30 and 50 of them, tucked away in a box somewhere. My proudest possession when it comes to poster magazines, asides from the afore mentioned Doc Savage poster magazine, obviously, was the one dedicated to my favourite TV show of the time, Tales Of The Gold Monkey, which was promptly cancelled after one series and which, I believe, had already just stopped showing when that particular issue hit UK newsagents.

The other, and more exciting, tie in that I remember for the film was the For Your Eyes Only Marvel Super Special, single issue comic book... which retold the story in the usual Mighty Marvel Manner and which I didn’t realise until many years later was a UK reprint of the two issue American For Your Eyes Only comic. However, the UK edition is much, much nicer than the original US version in that, aside from having the whole thing printed in one thick issue, it was a slightly larger size and it was printed on a much better quality paper stock which really did justice to the colours used on the page. Marvel did a fair  few of these Super Specials towards the end of the 70s (as opposed to their Treasury Editions, which carried a special thrill all their own), the two sticking in a lot of children’s minds of the time would have been their reprint issues of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and Battlestar Galactica. And, yes, these comics were published, at least in the UK, a good while before the film had come out on general release... so it would be fair to say that a lot of the kids had read the new Bond film a few weeks ahead, at least, of when they eventually got to see it in the cinema (in those days, the concept of spoilers was really not an issue, the most exposure we’d had to that particular concept being an episode of The Likely Lads on TV... but that’s another story).

For Your Eyes Only was the first film to have John Glen as the director, who worked his way up from being a Bond editor into the eventual director’s chair just as Peter Hunt had done before him for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Now I have to say that I do find Glen’s directing style very work-a-day and professional... which is my way of saying that it usually serves the story very well. But which is also my way of saying that I find his films a bit hit and miss depending on the quality of the writing... at least that’s how I feel about it. I have nothing but respect for him as a director and what I sometimes feel he lacks in dynamic shot composition, he more than makes up for with coaxing great performances and the knowledge of how to shoot exactly what is needed for some good action editing.  He would direct this plus the next four Bond films in a row and I have to say that this is one of only two Roger Moore films which I admire enough to be able to watch a few times and which I think can credibly stand up there with the better Bond movies... Live And Let Die being the other Moore film I have a little more time for.

For Your Eyes Only has a really good stab at being a serious Bond film and, since it was written at a time when Roger Moore was not expected to return to the role, the Bond character is toughened back up a little to suit the stylings of another actor. To tie a link to the old movies, the film starts off with Bond, who turned out to be Roger Moore after all, visiting the grave of his dead wife Teresa Bond... who we saw killed just after the wedding reception at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, riddled with machine gun bullets courtesy of Blofeld and Irma Bunt. However, as promising as this opening is, it sets up one of the silliest and, for me, least watchable opening sequences in Bond history, ending with Bond dropping an unofficial, wheelchair bound Blofeld to his death down a tall chimney (the character name of Blofeld was with Kevin McLory at that time and so EON weren’t allowed to use it - see my review of Thunderball here for a little more info on McLory’s relationship with Ian Fleming and 007).

Fortunately, things get better right after this title sequence and we go into a credits sequence designed by the often imitated Maurice Binder which was the first one to actually incorporate footage of the title song’s singer into the titles - namely a gorgeous looking Sheena Easton in this particular case. And then, after this, the film gets rather good again and the writing is pretty cool. This is, perhaps, partially because the writers and producers actually went back to Ian Fleming’s original source material again (for the first time in a while) with a lot of the plot elements and characters coming from two of the short stories in Fleming’s For Your Eyes Only collection, namely the title story and one other called Risico. In addition, there is also a “coral drag” sequence where Bond and his leading lady (played her by famous French actress Carole Bouquet) are dragged behind a boat, underwater through coral in the hopes that they’ll either be cut to ribbons or attract sharks, which comes straight out of Fleming’s second Bond novel Live And Let Die... not the last time that novel would be further pillaged for the series, either.

This really is a great little Bond film (considering my dislike of Moore in this particular role) and the action sequences, tougher attitude of Bond (compared to the last two movies) and the decision to pare down Bond’s over reliance on Q branch gadgets for this one is greatly appreciated... just as it was by my thirteen year old self. In addition to this, there are some fine actors in the film. In addition to the leading lady we have ice skater Lynn-Holly Johnson playing a real “baby doll” jailbait character called Bibi Dahl (I can’t believe, after the number of times I’ve seen this movie, I only just got the Eli Kazan reference with that name) and iconic sci-fi horror villain Julian Glover (who played a bad guy in such famous fan favourites as Quatermass And The Pit, The Empire Strikes Back, Doctor Who and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade) adding another of his “best bad-guy” routines to the cast.

We also have the wonderful actor Topol (aka Chaim Topol), who made an excellent Dr. Zarkov opposite Sam J. Jones’ Flash Gordon in a performance to give even Frank Shannon’s 1930s recreations of the character a run for their money. Here he is playing the role of Milos Columbo, who turns out to be a friendly ally to Bond, after he’s won his trust and shown Bond the truth about Kristatos, the character that Glover plays. His performance is truly joyous to behold and one wonders why he wasn’t asked back to be in more Bond films... his scenes really bring the film to life.

Another casting oddity is an early role for noted British actor Charles Dance who has no lines in the film and plays a determined “third villainous thug on the left” kind of role for a couple of scenes in the movie. Perhaps the less I say about this one the better.

An important future Bond link comes in the form of the late actress Cassandra Harris, taking on the role of Lisl. She would be dead from cancer ten years later but she was the wife of future Bond and Remminton Steel actor Pierce Brosnan, who was first introduced to the people behind the scenes of the Bond movie phenomenon such as Cubby Brocolli by Harris while she was making this film. Four years after Harris’ death, Brosnan made his debut as James Bond in the 1995 film Goldeneye... and helped get the franchise back on track again by being an absolutely wonderful version of the character.

One of the actresses brought her own problems and this resulted in some amazing “work round” sequences by the cast and crew. Carole Bouquet, it turned out, had sinus problems, so she just couldn’t film any scenes underwater, which is where a few of the key scenes of the movie with her character in them take place. As a solution, whenever you see a close up shot of Bouquet under water, or indeed anything that looks recognisably like her, those specific shots were recreated on a dry studio set. Yes, really! Actors were suspended to make them look like they were swimming and combined with high speed photography (later slowed down in playback) with wind machines to make the hair look like it’s floating in water. Coupled with underwater lighting effects and snorkel bubbles which are literally superimposed onto the screen this works surprisingly well and I defy anyone who watches this movie, who doesn’t already know about this technical solution, to actually realise that all these shots were taken without any water being present. It’s a truly superb feat of “movie magic” and you have to really keep an eye on it if you want to catch the visual clues. I never found out about this until decades later and I still find some of the shots hard to spot. Seriously good work here.

Bernard Lee, was supposed to be playing his long standing role as M again for this movie but, although he did make it to set, he was just to ill to do the job and died soon after. So this is the first Bond film not to have the M character in it... Bond being instead briefed by the minister character and actor who appeared in a few Bond films before this one and with the rest of M’s role being rewritten for Desmond Llewellyn’s Q character, Major Boothroyd.

The only other thing I want to mention is Bill Conti’s score. Barry was not available, once again, to score this movie and Conti landed the gig. While some of the score is quite classically dramatic adventure movie underscoring which can hit the right kind of emotional notes that Barry could do effortlessly (although you would never have guessed this from the original, unexpanded edition of the soundtrack album), the other half of the score is... well... there’s no two ways about it... it’s Disco Bond. Synthesiser pop scoring which, while exciting, really helps to date the film for modern viewers and it’s interesting that when Barry used synthesiser to augment the orchestra himself in a more transparent manner, in stretches of the scores for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and The Living Daylights, those scores still hold onto a certain timeless quality which Bill Conti doesn’t seem to be able to do on this one. But still, even if they are “of their time”, Conti’s synthesiser scoring for this is still pretty high energy and fun and, certainly at the time, they seemed to make sense and help the film out well.

For Your Eyes Only is a fairly good Bond film and I think most fans of the character would have a reasonable time with this adventure... unfortunately, one of the very worst Bond films ever was soon to follow.

EON James Bond Movie Reviews on NUTS4R2

Dr. No

From Russia With Love

Goldfinger

Thunderball

You Only Live Twice  

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Diamonds Are Forever

Live And Let Die

The Man With The Golden Gun  

The Spy Who Loved Me

Moonraker

For Your Eyes Only

Octopussy

A View To A Kill 

The LIving Daylights 

Licence To Kill  

GoldenEye

Tomorrow Never Dies

The World Is Not Enough  

Die Another Day 

Casino Royale

Quantum Of Solace

Skyfall
S.P.E.C.T.R.E