MOONRAKER (1979)
A film review by Andrew Hicks
Copyright 1996 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions
MOONRAKER (1979) ***
They were going to pit James Bond against an evil groundskeeper and call the movie LEAFRAKER, but then they realized if they put Bond on a space shuttle they could call it MOONRAKER instead. It's silly at times, but it is entertaining, and how could I give a bad review to the only movie in the series in which Bond has zero-gravity sex? Interestingly enough, the escapade is broadcast to the leaders of the free world (pay-per-view, of course). "What is he doing?!" The head of NASA shrieks, to Q's quick reply, "I believe he's attempting re-entry."
Bond gets not three but four women in the sack here, including a scientist from NASA he teams up with to investigate the disappearance of a space shuttle. He goes from Venice to Rio De Janeiro, with 7-foot-tall, indestructible metal-mouth villain Jaws (who also popped up in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME) following. They find in Rio that an evil businessman has been sending the shuttles into space to form a master race space colony (Adolf enters the space age). Satellites containing nerve gas are sent to destroy the earth's population. Not a bad idea, but I'd personally extinguish the human race by showing them life-sized nude pictures of Bea Arthur.
The planets are all aligned here, so to speak. The chases are edge-of-your-seat entertainment (pure movie magic!), including two boat chases, and the death traps are clever, with Jaws being at the helm of most of those. The climax on the space station is also good stuff. MOONRAKER is an all-around entertaining movie, with that zero-gravity sex thrown in to boot.
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