Rating: **
Director: John Glen
Cast: Roger Moore, Maud Adams, Louis Jourdan, Kristina Wayborn,
Kabir Bedi, Desmond Llewelyn, Robert Brown, Lois Maxwell
"Mr. Bond is indeed of a very rare breed... soon to be made extinct."
Another step backwards for the James Bond franchise after a string of three awesome films ("The Spy Who Loved Me" (1976), "Moonraker" (1979), and "For Your Eyes Only" (1981) ). Agent 007 (Roger Moore) uncovers a plot to detonate a nuclear bomb at an American Air Force base, and the perpetrators are a bunch of circus performers led by a jewel smuggler named Octopussy (Maud Adams). Ugh. The first ten minutes and the last ten minutes are very exciting, but the drivel in between is pretty tedious. The circus attack sequence and Q's hot air balloon are especially embarrassing, as is Bond dressing up in a gorilla suit, disguising himself as a clown, and using a Tarzan yell while swinging on jungle vines. The film is tonally inconsistent and the more serious bits are overshadowed by appallingly bad humor and extreme goofiness. A heavily dubbed Kristina Wayborn is also a constant irritant. It's frustrating and disappointing because much of the stunt work is quite good and Kabir Bedi makes a very dangerous and imposing villain.