Inside 'Moonraker' (2000)

Excellent but underrated film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

. . . as 24 witnesses to the making of MOONRAKER make full or partial confessions to varying degrees here. On the one hand, archival interview footage with primary producer Albert R. Broccoli implies that the James Bond franchise has become such a "Golden Goose" financially by 1979 that no expense will be spared in making MOONRAKER. A few Broccoli loyalists seem to back this up in their own cross-exams. However, evidence of the sort of "penny-wise, pound-foolish" tuppence-pinching that could account for the near absence of Oscars on James Bond's mantelpiece abounds. First, the MOONRAKER crew fled England for France to skimp on possible taxes. Second, they turned down experienced American help to improve MOONRAKER's ludicrous "laser battle in space" climactic scene, and instead used 1890s French filming techniques requiring that the same piece of coagulated film be passed through the camera 96 times, all to save a few sous! Third, every time they ran into a life-sized live action filming snag lasting more than a few minutes, they simply decided to substitute TEAM AMER1CA: WORLD POLICE-type studio shots with models for the Real Thing. Lastly, they hired a French actor to play the American bad guy because it would have proved more costly to hire a REAL U.S. citizen. Case closed.

This is a Byzantium film, a movie that burns with amber fire - a powerful tale of the making of James Bond. I have never been so moved by a film - this is better than CITIZEN KANE, THE RULES OF THE GAME, and AU HAZARD BALTHAZAR. Roger Moore has never been so human. Cork has made a masterpiece. It's a shame that this wasn't included on the AFI 100 greatest films list. The best scene has increasingly human stuntmen explaining the classic Monorail scene - the frailty of life is juxtaposed with the sering power of fantasy, myth, and adventure. We are touched by our desire to seek the afterlife, to know the unknowable, and the touch the skies. It is like the song: "Just like the Moonrakers soars, away to the soaring wind . . ."