Moonraker
(United Artists, 1979)
Made for the unheard of price in this series of $34M, this Bond adventure was one of the most visually stunning in the series, and at the same time inarguably one of the plot-goofiest. Essentially merely an attempt to poach material from every recent sci fi flick in the wake of the success of Star Wars, it provides a seemingly endless series of locales and stunts, and finally when it can't top itself on earth anymore, blasts off into orbit and completely jumps the shark. Audiences loved the comedy both intentional and unintentionally provided, and amidst the tongue-in-cheek screwing around, Michael Lonsdale's superbly understated villain Hugo Drax provided one of the most subtly menacing villains in the series in just two lines:
"Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him."
This installment was the highest-grossing episode in the series until Goldeneye in 1995.
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