A British nuclear submarine disappears under mysterious circumstances, so Bond is pulled out of a mission in Austria to investigate. After evading KGB assassins in an awesome ski chase, he is sent to Cairo to try and acquire blueprints for a submarine tracking system which has emerged on the black market. Soon, he is facing competition from the girl of the week, Barbara Bach as KGB agent Major Anya Amasova. Also searching for the plans is the metal-toothed giant known only as Jaws, played by Richard Kiel. Soon enough, the two agents find themselves working together after their respective agencies opt to pool their resources to investigate the real culprit: Kurd Jurgens as the shipping magnate Karl Stromberg, who wants to create a world beneath the sea.
They certainly did retain the goofiness of the previous film, but it's done better here, in my opinion. Stromberg is as stereotypical a Bond villain as you can get: He's a megalomaniac, he has boiler-suited minions, he has two villainous lairs, he gloats, he feeds people to sharks, the list goes on. I have no problem with that though. What I do have a problem with is Major Amasova. There is some interesting tension between the agents at first, but once they work together she becomes a useless damsel.
But the best part of the film is the Lotus that Bond drives, with the ability to turn into a submarine. Jaws is also a pretty threatening henchman, but does seem a bit too indestructable. He survives collapsing scaffolding, falling off a train and going off a cliff but only dusts himself off. To be honest though, I think were playing that for laughs.
Overall, I think this was a very silly film, but an enjoyably silly one. The director of You Only Live Twice might have something to do with that.
James Bond will return in For Your Eyes Only.
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