The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
This was the longest break between movies up to this point, even longer than the break between any of the various Bond recastings, and I think that let the screenwriters actually take some time to take a few extra passes through the script to make it actually enjoyable, even if it's not as good as any of Connery's run. We got a bit of a shift back into a more Connery-like plot, starting with two nuclear submarines (English and Soviet) disappearing in the cold open, but then any hope of that tone was lost with the shift to a heavy-handed double entendre about pulling out and Bond green-screen skiing down a mountain (nowhere near the quality of Lazenby in OHMSS) before jumping off a cliff and the famous scene of him parachuting down in a Union Jack parachute. That transitions into some great opening credits, with lots of excellent gymnastic choreography superimposed onto Moore holding guns in various poses (although this is one of my least favorite songs). We do get a weird off-brand Blofeld (Stromberg) in this movie due to some legal issues with the screenwriter for
Thunderball (more on that later!), but we still get a shark tank and some fun henchmen, most notably the first appearance of Jaws! This movie reference Bond having been once married, and I think that might be the only reference any movie in the series makes to Lazenby's movie, but I could just be forgetting. It may just be my love of Egyptian architecture, but I really love the sets in this movie, and it has one of my favorite shots in the franchise:
As I said, the movie isn't quite up to quality of the earlier films, but it is a step up in Moore's run. If not for the overabundance of quips, I might even put this over
Diamonds Are Forever (my least favorite of his tenure), but as it stands it's just below. Other than my quibble with quips, and the disappointing theme song, the only other real letdown is the totally bland performance of Agent Triple X. I enjoyed Bond blowing of Q's explanation of the car's features for two reasons: first, I love Q and even more I love Bond's disregard for him, and second, it made the transition to submarine that much more exciting!