I guess Marvin Hamlisch wrote the theme song and it sounds as if it's sung by Carly Simon. "Nobody Does It Better." I rather liked it and its slightly racy lyrics. It must be tough to write a good song or even a bearable one. Sound is infinitely variable. We hear notes from about 20 cycles per second to close to twenty thousand cycles per second -- and everything in between, with no natural cut-off points. Out of that vast array of sounds a composer has to pick thousands and fit them together in a way that pleases the listener. It must be like filling in a crossword puzzle in hundreds of dimensions.
The song may be the best thing about the movie. Of course it's always reassuring to see Roger Moore wandering around the pyramids so spiffily dressed. Barbara Bach is a beautiful KGB agent and, like all the Bond girls, is easy to look at, even though she can't act. But she doesn't have to. BOND BEDS BACH, BEARDS BOLSHIES.
As the evil, filthy-rich mastermind, Curt Jurgens is suitably wicked and makes appropriate wisecracks as he feeds his enemies to the sharks, but his heart isn't in it. Well, he was never a very expressive actor to begin with. Richard Kiel, the behemoth of a henchman with the steel teeth, is amusing in a comic-book sort of way. That's probably why they reintroduced his character in another ongoing episode of this franchise.
Yet the entire string of James Bond movies -- up to and including the most recent -- puzzles the mind. Back in the early 60s, Sean Connery was perfect as the icon of 1950s values. He was like Hugh Hefner. He oozed charm and easily seduced women after trading a few double-entendres. Ian Fleming described his Saville Row wardrobe in exquisite detail, the way Hugh Hefner advised "Playboy" readers about the merits of various expensive pipes and neckties. The enemy was always SMERSH. The early films, and the novels they came from, were entertaining. John F. Kennedy read Ian Fleming, who had been a genuine spy.
But everything has changed in the last fifty years. I doubt that many people read Ian Fleming's spy novels much. They were never more than divertimento's. And still the cinematic Bond soldiers on. And in movies with colossal budgets too. The producers may or may not be stirred but they're certainly not shaken by the changing times.
The song may be the best thing about the movie. Of course it's always reassuring to see Roger Moore wandering around the pyramids so spiffily dressed. Barbara Bach is a beautiful KGB agent and, like all the Bond girls, is easy to look at, even though she can't act. But she doesn't have to. BOND BEDS BACH, BEARDS BOLSHIES.
As the evil, filthy-rich mastermind, Curt Jurgens is suitably wicked and makes appropriate wisecracks as he feeds his enemies to the sharks, but his heart isn't in it. Well, he was never a very expressive actor to begin with. Richard Kiel, the behemoth of a henchman with the steel teeth, is amusing in a comic-book sort of way. That's probably why they reintroduced his character in another ongoing episode of this franchise.
Yet the entire string of James Bond movies -- up to and including the most recent -- puzzles the mind. Back in the early 60s, Sean Connery was perfect as the icon of 1950s values. He was like Hugh Hefner. He oozed charm and easily seduced women after trading a few double-entendres. Ian Fleming described his Saville Row wardrobe in exquisite detail, the way Hugh Hefner advised "Playboy" readers about the merits of various expensive pipes and neckties. The enemy was always SMERSH. The early films, and the novels they came from, were entertaining. John F. Kennedy read Ian Fleming, who had been a genuine spy.
But everything has changed in the last fifty years. I doubt that many people read Ian Fleming's spy novels much. They were never more than divertimento's. And still the cinematic Bond soldiers on. And in movies with colossal budgets too. The producers may or may not be stirred but they're certainly not shaken by the changing times.