The 007 Project: Octopussy

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

An ambitious Soviet general and a wealthy Afghan prince lead a plot to detonate a nuclear bomb on a US Air Force base in Germany. Bond picks up the trail in India, where he crosses paths with Octopussy, a jewelry smuggler and the leader of a traveling circus. 

Memorable Quote:
I need refilling.  ~Magda

Of course you do.  ~Bond

Highlight:

India is the star of the show -- just a great locale for a Bond movie, and the producers do it up right with some great sets and locations. 

Lowlight:

While I'm not looking for realism in Bond movies, the plane scene at the end is a bridge too far. He jumps on the back of the plane as it's taking off and hangs on through its ascent -- for one thing I believe that he would be asphyxiated due to the change in air pressure. Then when the plane starts doing barrel rolls, he still manages to hang on. I would have rather just cut the plane scene and have them capture Kamal a different way. 

Most interesting piece of IMDB trivia:

In his book, "As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride," Cary Elwes states that before he was an actor, he worked as a production assistant on this movie. One of his jobs was to drive Sir Roger Moore to work on the set of the movie. He further goes on to say that he was "a nervous wreck" being constantly afraid of getting in a car accident and accidentally killing Sir Roger Moore. On one occasion, Mr. Moore looked up from the newspaper he was reading while being driven to work by Elwes and stated calmly, "You can speed up a little if you want to."

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• Kristina Wayborn (Magda) appears in MacGyver episode The Escape as Sara Ashford. 
• We also get the return of Maud Adams (Octopussy), who we saw in The Man with the Golden Gun. 
• Here's Adams appearing in a screen test with James Brolin, who was offered this movie as Bond before Roger Moore changed his mind and came back. Not sure what they were thinking by planning on a Bond with an American accent. 
• Octopussy says she got her nickname from her father, but that's not a nickname a father should give a daughter. 
• The yo-yo blade is a creative and bad-ass weapon. 
• The actor playing Gobinda does a great job -- very menacing. 
• 1:31:34 -- No way Bond would fit into the costume of the little knife-throwing twin. 
• 1:59:50 -- A bit of a Gauntlet-style hot air balloon -- no risk of it getting shot down, apparently.  
• What a great photo of Christopher Reeve visiting Roger Moore on set while Reeve was in the studio filming Superman III. I've actually been rewatching the Superman movies lately (just finished III) -- Chris Reeve was the man. 

Final Analysis:

Great movie -- lots of fun. I didn't have too many comments, but I didn't know what else to say other than "I liked the opening, I liked the auction scene, I liked the casino scene, I liked the jungle scene," etc. Ranking it 2 out of 13.