Question for Fans: What are the BEST Episodes?

Yes, both villains are killed by Bond. However, Stromberg is shot multiple times (in the d*ck no less) with a pistol. Bond's line is, "You've had your bolt Stromberg, here's mine". Stromberg convulses as he dies. However, Drax is shot in the chest with a poison dart, moans a bit, and then is sent out an airlock with Bond joking, "take a giant leap for mankind".

I honestly don't see Stromberg's death as particularly harsh or gritty as presented on screen. In fact it's a bit funny for me - what with Stromberg basically burying his face in his plate of food after getting shot.

As for Drax yes it's also a bit funny (especially with Bond's quip about taking a giant step for mankind - great line BTW!) but getting sucked out into space is a pretty nasty way to go. More nasty than getting shot I think.

I know you are referring more to the tone than the actual death but I seriously don't see too much in terms of tonal differences between the 2 scenes. Stromberg sends his elevator for Bond and once the elevator arrives to the top the doors open and we see Bond standing on the edges (Stromberg had opened the trap floor in the elevator to feed Bond to the sharks below) and Bond quips "You did want me to drop in?". Bond didn't appear particularly angry or revenge-driven against Stromberg there. Let's face it - it's a very quip-heavy film, as are basically all of Roger's films.

In TSWLM Jaws is scary - several characters are visibly terrified of him. In "Moonraker" he improbably romances a short girl blonde girl in pigtails and then becomes a good guy. Yes, there are some jokes about Jaws in TSWLM, but it's a running joke about him being indestructible - he remains a menacing figure. In "Moonraker", he's just a goofball.

I agree. To a point. In some of his early scenes in TSWLM (especially the scene at the pyramids where a flash of green light illuminates his face as some creepy music plays) he is very scary and it's very effective. But once he begins tearing that van apart (with Bond and Anya inside) it becomes pretty comical. But the real turning point is a few seconds after that when he picks up a giant boulder over his head and then inexplicably drops it on his toes like a total dummy, with a goofy pain face appearing. Obviously this was done for a laugh but it's complete MOONRAKER territory! We see the exact same expression on his face in MOONRAKER when he accidentally rips out the steering wheel in the boat and is about to go over the waterfall. Same expression. Anyway, from the boulder moment forward Jaws never really becomes scary again in TSWLM, not even when he attacks Anya and Bond on the train.

Finally, in several scenes, "Moonraker" goes out of its way to draw attention to the fact it's not taking itself seriously. Close Encounters' five notes as a door code? A gondola that rises out of the canal in Venice, turns into a car, and then drives through the square while pigeons do double-takes?!? Are you f#(%ing kidding me?

Well, that's all part of the film's charm for me. Don't forget the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN theme in MOONRAKER as Bond is riding across the pampas in Clint Eastwood's Spaghetti Western garb. But it really doesn't bother me. It just doesn't. No more than hearing the LAWRENCE OF ARABIA theme playing in TSWLM as Bond and Anya walk across the desert. In FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (a supposedly more serious film) we hear the "Nobody Does It Better" theme from TSWLM on the keypad that Q and Bond press to open a door. To me this is all part of the charm of Roger's films. Pigeon doing a double-take? Ridiculous! And I love it! In TSWLM we have the guy with the alcohol bottle doing the double-take when Bond's submarine car comes out of the water. Then Bond opens the car window and tosses out a fish (Roger's idea!). But how did the fish get inside? It's campy/cheesy stuff but I love it.

I agree that MR raised the level of campiness (instead of a guy doing a double-take it's a pigeon) but there is just too much great stuff going on that it can't possibly do much to hurt the film. Not for me anyway.

And I would say "silly, campy, stupid" applies to J.W. Pepper more so than anything in "Diamonds".

I guess we'll just have to disagree on this one. But I'm biased - I love Jay-Dubya! DIAMONDS just feels really flat and some of the jokes and scenes (especially at the Circus, Cirus in Vegas) totally don't work. What's up with that gorilla turning into a woman or vice versa? And what's with the bratty kid squirting water to blow up the balloon? He looked like he just stepped off the BRADY BUNCH set. What's with Jill St. John's line to that kid "Oh, blow up your pants!!" Huh??? What the heck does that even mean?? A lot of it just has that type of 70s TV sitcom goofiness to it. Totally out of place in a Bond film. At least LIVE AND LET DIE has a sense of the exotic and mysterious with the whole voodoo angle. Many say that Bond films work best when they are set outside the U.S. Huge chunks of LALD are set in the states but somehow it all works. In DAF it doesn't really work. Feels bland and uninteresting. I do like the nighttime scenes of Bond infiltrating the Whyte House. As well as the scenes out in the desert when Bond infiltrates the underground facility ("Klaus Hergersheimer, G-section, checking radiation shields" is a hilarious scene! ). John Barry's score certainly helps in those scenes where Bond has to do some nifty detective work. But on the whole the film just has this lethargic lounge-y feel to it. Very American 70s TV feel to it.

And I need to go back to Drax vs. Stromberg. Say what you will about MR but you gotta admit that Drax is one of the best villains in the entire series - he runs circles around Stromberg! Heck, he's more memorable to me than Auric Goldfinger. He has the best lines of any Bond villain. Period!

"Look after Mister Bond. See that some harm comes to him"
"You appear with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season"
"Even in death my munificence is boundless"
"May I press you to a cucumber sandwich?"

And so on and so forth....

Connery, Moore, and Brosnan! Accept NO substitutes!

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