When Agent 009 turns up dead at the British Embassy in Berlin holding a Russian Faberge egg, 007 is called in to investigate. He soon finds out that the egg is being sought by a collector named Kamal Khan (Jordan), who is in league with a psychopathic Soviet general, Orlov (Steven Berkhoff) who is hell-bent on Soviet domination despite reprimands from his superiors. Orlov's plan involves smuggling an atomic bomb into a U.S. Air Force Base in England, in the hopes of crippling the country and leaving it an easy target for Soviet conquest. Bond's investigation of Khan leads him to India, where he meets a mysterious woman named 'Octopussy' who is connected to Khan. The bomb is smuggled aboard a circus train, and one of the men helping Kamal & Orlov is the man responsible for killing 009! Bond must race against time to stop the bomb from exploding & killing thousands, then running down Kamal Khan before he escapes!
AMAZON.COM REVIEWS FOR OCTOPUSSY (1983): Sean Connery casts a long shadow over the James Bond legacy. He created the movie persona and starred in six of the first seven features, all but establishing the cool cold warrior as the world's most suave secret agent. The six titles in MGM's third collection celebrate the Connery Bond with three of his classics, including From Russia with Love, 007's second and perhaps finest outing. A blond, buff Robert Shaw plays Bond's most ruthless nemesis, and Lotte Lenya and the great Pedro Armindáriz costar in this sleek, high-energy trip through the Iron Curtain. Connery travels to the Far East in You Only Live Twice, which introduces the international criminal conspiracy SPECTRE and its cat-loving mastermind, Blofeld (Donald Pleasence). After a brief retirement, Connery returned for Diamonds Are Forever, his final "official" appearance in the Bond series (15 years later he played Bond for a rival studio's Never Say Never Again). This more tongue-in-cheek adventure takes 007 to Las Vegas, where he battles Blofeld (this time played by Charles Gray) and his minions--namely, a pair of fey, sardonic henchmen and a team of bikini-clad karate killers.
Octopussy, a colorful cold war thriller and one of Roger Moore's better Bond outings, stars Louis Jourdan as a corrupt Afghan prince and Maud Adams (making her second Bond appearance) as the ringmaster of an all-babe traveling circus team that unknowingly carries a nuclear bomb. Christopher Walken hams it up under a platinum-blond hairdo while his Amazon bodyguard, Grace Jones, growls through A View to a Kill, a silly but often visually impressive adventure that made it obvious Moore was too old and stiff to carry on the Bond legacy. The torch was passed to Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights, an attempt to clear away the camp elements of Moore's portrayal and return to a lean, hard-edged spy thriller for the post-cold war era. It lacks the larger-than-life characters and spectacle of previous Bond pictures, but Dalton was a tough, ruthless 007 and a worthy inheritor of the legacy, which was then passed on to Pierce Brosnan.
The DVD editions of the films each feature audio commentary by the director and key members of the crew, "making of" documentaries, and a host of stills, TV spots, trailers, and other supplements. --Sean AxmakerOctopussy (vhs):
Amazon.com video review:Roger Moore was nearing the end of his reign as James Bondwhen he made Octopussy, and he looks a little worn out. But themovie itself infuses some new blood into the old franchise, with afrisky pace and a pair of sturdy villains. Maud Adams--who'd also beenin the Bond outing TheMan with the Golden Gun--plays the improbably namedOctopussy, while old smoothie Louis Jourdan is her crafty partner incrime. There's an island populated only by women, plus a fantasticsequence with a hand-to-hand fight that happens on a plane--and ontop of a plane. The film even has an extra emotional punch,since this time out 007 is not only following the orders of HerMajesty's Secret Service, but he is also exacting a personal revenge:a fellow double-0 agent has been killed. Two Bond films were actuallyreleased in 1983 within a few months of each other, asOctopussy was followed by Sean Connery's comeback in Never Say NeverAgain. The success of both pictures proved that there wasstill plenty of mileage left in the old license to kill, though Moorehad one more workout--AView to a Kill--before hanging it up. And that title? Thefranchise had already used up the titles to Ian Fleming's novels, soOctopussy was taken from a lesser-known Fleming shortstory. --Robert Horton
AWARDS FOR OCTOPUSSY (1983):
- Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
1984
Nominated
Saturn Award
Best Fantasy Film
Best Supporting Actress
Maud Adams
- Golden Screen, Germany
1984
Won
Golden Screen
- Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA
1984
Won
Golden Reel Award
Best Sound Editing - Foreign Feature - Sound Effects
unknown
- Satellite Awards
2004
Nominated
Golden Satellite Award
Best Classic DVD Release
Also for From Russia with Love (1963), You Only Live Twice (1967), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), The Living Daylights (1987) and The World Is Not Enough (1999) [Vol. 2].Also for Thunderball (1965), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Live and Let Die (1973), A View to a Kill (1985) and Die Another Day (2002). [Vol. 3]For "The James Bond DVD Collection", volumes 2 & 3.