Octopussy

"Mr. Bond is indeed a very rare breed... soon to be made extinct"

After MI-6 agent 009 is murdered while investigating a jewelry smuggling ring, James Bond (Moore) is sent to protect a Faberge egg.  009 was carrying the fake egg when his body was found.  At the auction he bids against exiled Afghan prince Kamal Khan (Jourdan).  Bond replaces the egg with a fake and lets Khan win.  He follows Khan to India to uncover the rest of the ring.

In India, he immediately clashes with Khan and his bodyguard Gobinda (Bedi).  Khan is working with Russian General Orlov (Berkoff), who has nuclear weapons and a hatred for Nato and Western Europe.  They are also working with the infamous Octopussy (Adams).  Octopussy runs an island of women who are international smugglers.  Can Bond find the stolen items and save the world from a nuclear attack?


This is the 13th James Bond film and Roger Moore's sixth time in the role.  It was also one of the first films that turned Bond into a joke.  Moore's Bond was always a little more ridiculous than his predecessors, but his last few Bond films veered more toward camp than serious action film.  Everything about this film is ridiculous and heavy on the slapstick (not in a good way).

Moore was too old to play Bond.  There is a visible difference between him and the stuntmen.  He also wears a series of ridiculous costumes / disguises that are laughably bad.  Moore was cast as Bond to combat the rival Bond film Never Say Never Again which starred Sean Connery.  EON productions, who produced all of the other Bond films, wanted fans to have a familiar face as their Bond.

This is Maud Adams' second time as a Bond girl.  She also appeared in The Man with the Golden Gun, which starred Moore.  For being the title character, she is not that interesting...   The plot of the film is based on Ian Fleming's final Bond story "Octopussy and The Living Daylights."  However, the film only takes the title and the octopus from that story ("The Living Daylights" short story was also turned into a Bond film).

Louis Jourdan is good as the villain, but there are too many villains to keep track of.  There is Jourdan's Khan, his bodyguard Obinda, General Orlov... it's too much and doesn't let anyone shine.  Steven Berkoff is decent as Orlov.  Kabir Bedi is menancing as Obinda.  There is nothing wrong with the villains, but they aren't as memorable as other Bond villains.

The theme song is "All Time High", performed by Rita Coolidge.  The song was written by John Barry, with lyrics by Tim Rice.  It is not memorable, but also not terrible.

Overall, it is a ridiculous film, that led to another ridiculous / laughable entry in the Bond franchise (A View to a Kill).

Octopussy (1983) 131 minutes
Director: John Glen
Starring: Roger Moore as James Bond
Maud Adams as Octopussy
Louis Jourdan as Kamal Khan
Kristina Wayborn as Magda
Kabir Bedi as Gobinda
Steven Berkoff as General Orlov
David Meyer as Mischka
Tony Meyer as Grischka
Desmond Llewelyn as Q
Vijay Amritraj as Vijay