Octopussy (1983)

  At last!  We've finally reached Bond films that were made in my lifetime!  Plus, I think this may have been the only pre-Brosnan Bond film I've ever seen previous to me Netflixing them.  Is that even possible?  I'm pretty sure I've seen this a half dozen times over the years and yet watching the others were like seeing brand new movies.  Somehow that strikes me as almost sad.

Bond (Roger Moore), showing a bit worse for wear this go-around, is put on the trail of a fake Faberge egg that had made its way out of East Germany.  Kids, Germany used to be two countries.  Wiki that later.  He plants a trace on the fake at an auction in Sotheby's and follows the buyer, a Mr. Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan), to India.  There he learns Kamal is in business with Octopussy (Maud Adams) who uses her traveling circus to move Russian Imperial jewels out of the country.  The jewels are supervised by General Orlov (Steven Berkoff), but he's not really interested in a bunch of Romanov trinkets.  He wants to provoke a full-out nuclear war between the Americans and the Soviets (that's what they called Russians in the 80's, kids) in order to prove communist superiority.  Kamal and Orlov double-cross Octopussy and switch the jewels with a nuclear warhead.  Then it's up to Bond to save the day.

It's a very pretty film, with some beautiful shots of India.  Louis Jourdan made a surprisingly decent Bond villain.  I guess I've never seen him in anything other than Can-Can or Gigi, though, so it wouldn't be hard.  There's also a ton of eye candy in this, as Octopussy's floating island is staffed exclusively by hot women.  There are a few moments of all-out silliness, such as when Roger Moore goes full clown-face, but it's mostly a straightforward Bond adventure.

On a sadder note, this is the movie where they introduced Moneypenny's (Lois Maxwell) replacement, Miss Penelope Smallbone (Michaela Clavell), signalling an end to the plucky faithful-handmaiden's run.  Lois Maxwell had been in every single Bond movie up to this point, but after 20 years in the same part she was starting to get a little long in the tooth.  IMDb says she has one more run at it in the next one so we'll have to see if she goes out with a bang.  Honestly, it's the least Bond can do after stringing her along for two freakin' decades.