Hacker Cinema
Octopussy
1983 · Film · 131 min
Part of James Bond Collection
Directed by John Glen
James Bond is sent to investigate after a fellow “00” agent is found dead with a priceless Fabergé egg. Bond follows the mystery and uncovers a smuggling scandal and a Russian General who wants to provoke a new World War.
1 positive2 negative1 mixed5 neutralfrom 9 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
9 comments on Hacker News
V'ger-- NASA is probing a hot bald alien chick at 15b miles, yes!
//Persis Khambatta was born on 2 October 1948 in Bombay, India. When aged 16, as Femina Miss India, she entered Miss Universe 1965, dressed in off-the-rack clothes she bought at the last minute. Khambatta became a model for companies such as Revlon. Her biggest acting break was getting the role of Lieutenant Ilia, the bald Deltan alien in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). This led to roles in Nighthawks (1981), Megaforce (1982), and Warrior of the Lost World (1983). She was considered for the title role in the James Bond film Octopussy (1983), but was passed over in favor of Maud Adams. Khambatta became the first citizen of India to present an Academy Award in 1980. She was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress for her Star Trek role. Khambatta also made guest appearances in many popular American television series. In the early 1980s, she was seriously injured in a car crash in Germany and had to have heart bypass surgery.
A year before her death, she wrote and published a coffee table book titled "Pride of India", which featured former Miss Indias; it was dedicated to Mother Teresa, and part of the royalties went to the Missionaries of Charity. On 17 August 1998, Persis was taken to the Marine Hospital in South Mumbai, complaining of chest pains. She died of a heart attack the next day at the age of 49; her funeral was held in Mumbai. - IMDb mini biography by: John Atkin//
I've never really been a bond fan, but of course the craig era eschews much of the almost 100% of the camp of previous generations. Except (and you'll need to pardon me, i've seen each of these movies at most once and they don't really stick in my brain at all) maybe the villan who's face had been eaten by acid or something, it's not jawz or oddjob levels of camp but it's getting there.
Earlier bonds i've seen a few here and there but missed many. Like I've seen moonraker, but never thunderball, view to a kill but not goldeneye, octopussy but not never say never again. I couldn't tell you what any of the plots were (other than i'm pretty sure they go to a moon base in moonraker) or which villan goes with which film. Bond, to me, has always been kind of a mystery to me, how do these terrible films keep getting made?
I will also say that 'yes' to thor rangnarok, no to 'love and thunder' which i thought got mired in too many plots and had too many inappropriately timed jokes. Like do the Jane arc or do the Gor arc, but if you do either right they don't both fit in the film. So instead they opted to do a half assed version of each.
I think you forgot the only Bond movies who dealt with direct Soviet threats were :
- From Russia With Love (Rosa Klebb secretly works for SPECTRE but is a KGB operative so let's count it)
- Octopussy (vilain's a defector)
- The Living Daylights (defector also)
It's in Goldeneye that is created the idea that James Bond constantly fought the Soviets. I don't fault you for thinking that it's an easy thing to illustrate your point, but I like my James Bond and I like him because he's always fighting weirdo rich assholes, not the Soviets.
sigh
Let me guess: you were born in the 70s to 80s, and the 80s/90s were a formative time for you? That is because you don't remember all the shit that played in whatever golden time period you're imagining. You only remember the hits. You're not accurately remembering the broad distribution of what was on the radio and in theaters in the past, which also contained a lot of crap that you likely never would have wasted your money on. Terrible movies got dumped to TV specials or direct-to-video (today they get dumped to streaming platforms), so even if we filter to what was released in theaters, we're missing a lot of crap.
But how about we look at the top grossing films of 1983 [1], 30 years ago? Some of these hold up and are the classics you remember, like #1 Star Wars Return of the Jedi (still a franchise though), #2 Terms of Endearment, #4 Trading Places, #5 WarGames, #10 Risky Business, #11 National Lampoon's Vacation, #13 The Big Chill, #16 Scarface. Bonafide classics, no question there.
But go even a little down the list and you get middling sequels and formulaic franchise films: #6 Octopussy (formulaic Bond film, which was the Marvel of its time), #7 Sudden Impact (Dirty Harry sequel, not great), #8 Staying Alive (Saturday Night Fever sequel, not great), #12 Superman III (one of the worst Superman films of all time, but ahead of Superman IV), #14 Never Say Never Again (another Bond film, better than Octopussy, but still two in one year), #15 Jaws 3-D (one of the worst action films of all time), #20 Psycho II (another meh sequel).
And these are the top 20 movies ranked on how many people paid to see them in the theaters. There are hundreds of others that were regularly shown in theaters that I'm sure you can't recall. Some are classics now (Videodrome, Monty Python's Meaning of Life), but most are not.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/list/ls051080169/
>Octopussy
Ok I’m not very versed about Bond movies but wtf. Not even trying to be subtle about being sexist.
I haven't read James Fleming's book but would like to. I'm glad that the review does not explicitly claim that James Bond fights the Communists, something so often asserted by people who don't know what they're talking about. Ian Fleming created SPECTRE because he thought that the Cold War might end soon, and so wanted a nonpolitical opponent for Bond.
In the films, the USSR is Bond's opponent only in For Your Eyes Only. Red China is the silent backer in Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice, but Auric Goldfinger and SPECTRE are the real enemies, and Thunderball establishes that SPECTRE is willing to work for anyone (including Western powers). Max Zorin in A View to a Kill, General Orlov in Octopussy, and Gustav Graves in Die Another Day are explicitly rogue agents.
There is an argument for seeing them in order, but I have always loved Octopussy.
James Bond is best when there is a clear bad guy, so when the Soviet Union went away the movies went a little weird.
Very interesting historical example! (I did not know this about the film industry.)
But when I think of the 80's, I think of awesome concepts for films. When I think of the early 2000's I remember...nothing outstanding?
Compare for yourself:
http://www.imdb.com/search/title/?release_date=1980,1989&title_type=feature
(Many of which I had in mind as I wrote the first paragraph.)
And:
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls057556971/
I've seen many of those films: I couldn't remember a single one. Also throwaway films like Bond films are in the list.
There were between 5 and 9 Bond films in the 80s depending on how you count (for example License to Kill, For your eyes only, The living daylights, Octopussy, A view to Kill, Never say never again, The Naked Face, Bonds are Forever) not one of which made it to the first cited list above, edged out by better and more memorable stories and films.
Who is going to remember "Up in the air" in ten years?
The fact is, although there are twice as many (my first link shows 50, my second list 100), there is hardly a concept among them.
So the interesting fact you've stated about the eighties can be seen very, very clearly. The concepts from the 2000s...simply suck. Your additional information about the market history of concepts is most interesting.
--
EDIT: in response to ajmurmann's reply below:
So I consider those worse concepts than the concepts embodied in the first list, movies from the 80s. Really look at the two lists (really) and see the strength of the concept behind them. They're worlds apart (to me.)
I realize this will be a subjective judgment. Look at the overall impression, not just one or two films.
What a fun and educational quiz! Thank you.
And the answers are:
- a word from the 10 commandments
ass, of course. An easy start.
- a great jazz album from Herbie Hancock
Today I learned that Herbie Hancock is a jazz musician who made an album called Mr Hands. I also learned that there is a video of a man being buggered by a horse called Mr Hands.
Thank you for enriching my life.
- a James Bond film
And at this point I lose all respect for the compiler of this list. Octopussy is a James Bond film. That is all. Any other usages are just silly.
- the surname of a US presidential candidate for the 2012 republican nomination
Santorum! Santorum! Do people actually use that word, or is it just a running joke?