Audio Commentary featuring Sir Roger Moore, Audio Commentary featuring director Lewis Gilbert and members of the Cast and Crew, Declassified M16 VAULT: 007 Mission Control, Women, Allies, Villains, Mission Combat Manual, Q Branch, Exotic Locations, Mission Dossier, Ministry of Propaganda, Image Database, BD Live Bootstrap

Note: This film is available separately, and as one of the films in the James Bond Vol. 3 Blu-Ray set (which contains Goldfinger, Moonraker, and The World is Not Enough.)

Moonraker (1979) is the eleventh film in the James Bond series. It is directed by Lewis Gilbert and stars Roger More, Desmond Llewelyn, Bernard Lee, Richard Kiel, and Michael Lonsdale. The musical score is performed by John Barry, and the title song is performed by Shirley Bassey.

James Bond (Moore) is hot on the trail of Hugo Drax (Lonsdale), a pioneer in the space program who has ulterior motives. Building a space station, Drax is plotting to nerve gas the planet, killing all its inhabitants, so that he can repopulate the world with his own truly-perfect master race. It’s up to Bond to prove the guilt of the evil industrialist, and to do so, he’ll have to confront Drax – in space. To make things even worse for bond, Carl Stromberg’s old employee Jaws (Kiel), one of the deadliest foes Bond ever faced, is now in Drax’s hire. ***

In the 1970s, with the release of Star Wars, there was a massive space craze. Needless to say, the James Bond producers had to get in on it. Moonraker was the Bond franchise’s attempt at this. To put it bluntly, the film has aged horribly. It’s one of the cheesiest entries in the Bond canon, and apart from some good action scenes on Earth, there’s not much that makes this one worthwhile. ***

Perhaps the biggest shock is that this film was directed by Lewis Gilbert, who previously directed You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me, two of the series’ most memorable films. But considering he probably had no control over the script and the material (the producers wanted to get in on the space craze), he can’t be blamed for the atrocity that came to be. ***

There are some good moments in the film, including a memorable opening teaser sequence, and a duel between Jaws and Bond atop a cable car. This was also Bernard Lee’s final performance as M, a role he’d held since the beginning of the series. But come the third act of Moonraker, when the action goes to space, the film loses any and all credibility it may have had. Cheesy and campy can’t begin to describe the climax. Even Jaws, formerly a threatening character, loses some of his edge. ***

It’s also worth noting that this film has NOTHING in common with the Ian Fleming novel of the same name. Apart from the main villain being named Hugo Drax, THERE ARE NO SIMILARITIES. In my experiences with James Bond, the best films in the series are the ones that stay fairly close to the source material (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, etc.) The further the movie is from the novel that supposedly inspired it, the worse it us ually turns out. Moonraker is proof. ***

Moonraker is for James Bond completists only. EON couldn’t keep a hot streak of Bond films going when the sixties ended, and Moonraker is further proof of that. Are there good moments here? Yes, but they don’t prevent this from being a campy, unmemorable entry in the franchise. 2 stars out of 5. ---

Image and Sound:

Several years ago, the James Bond movies (which had seen a ton of home video releases already) underwent an extensive, frame-by-frame restoration. A good deal of print damage and dirt were removed in an effort that took several years to complete. ***

The end result is, to put it simply, well worth it. ***

Lowry Digital Images knows how to restore movies. Their restoration of the James Bond back catalogue is, hands down, the greatest restoration job this reviewer has EVER seen. This film is no exception. They have taken movies, that are in some cases, nearly half a century old, and made them look as good as they day when they premiered in theatres, if not better. The image is clear throughout, without any sort of issue. From what I can tell, no DNR was used in these transfers, and there is a staggering amount of detain not noticeable in any standard-def release of the movie. Lowry did one hell of a job restoring this franchise. ***

As if the image restoration wasn’t enough, the films now have lossless audio tracks. If you’ve got a speaker set, you’ll be able to experience these films (both audio and visual-wise) like you never have before.

When MGM put out the Ultimate Edition DVDs in late 2006, they contained not only excellent transfers for the movies, but a good wealth of bonus material as well. All of the bonus features from that excellent Ultimate Edition DVD package have been ported over to this release. Unfortunately, they are presented in standard definition. ***

Moonraker is no different than other entries in the Bond Blu-Ray series, featuring a ton of supplements. We get two commentaries, one with Roger Moore and the other with other members of the cast and crew, as well as a good deal of behind-the-scenes footage, all of which is essential to anyone who has even the slightest interest in James Bond. I may not like Moonraker, but I did enjoy these featured.

Final Words: