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United Kingdom, France · 1979
Rated PG · 2h 6m
Director Lewis Gilbert
Starring Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel
Genre Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Thriller
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During the transportation of a Space Shuttle, a Boeing 747 crashes in the Atlantic Ocean. But, when authorities go to look for the destroyed shuttle, it has disappeared. James Bond investigates the missing space shuttle and soon learns that the shuttle’s owner, Hugo Drax, has a nefarious plot to destroy the world.
Moonraker is mercifully much better than recent Bondage, with fantastic special effects, some excellent buffery (cracks at Star Wars, Close Encounters, Clint Eastwood, to name but a few), and the usual location-hopping style that makes Versailles feel like Disneyland.
Washington Post by Gary Arnold
Moonraker, the newest James Bond spectacle, is a cheerful, splashy entertainment. The curators of the Bond museum do not surpass themselves with this exhibition, the 11th in the series, but they haven't fallen down on the job either. Moonraker is a satisfying blend of familiar ingredients, from the highly polished to the barely adequate. [29 June 1979, p.C1]
Bond meets Star Wars in one of the series' sillier outings.
Moonraker's only real imaginative surge comes in a rousing pre-credit sequence in which Bond is pushed out of an airplane and survives by deftly sky-diving to a parachutist and swiping his chute. After this, a bizarre blandness takes over. [2 July 1979, p.68]
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
While parts of Moonraker are rather silly (a trend during Roger Moore's tenure), solid special effects, well-executed action sequences, and a strict reliance upon the "Bond Formula" keep this film among Moore's better entries as the British superspy.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Jay Scott
THE BOND by which to compare all other Bonds is Goldfinger and by that standard Moonraker, the 11th chapter in the exploits of Agent 007, is second-best. But, by the standards of most of the other candy served up as summer fare, Moonraker is marzipan - it's so insubstantial it melts in your mouth, but its flavor is distinctive and you can't get enough of it. [30 June 1979]
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Moonraker is a movie by gadgeteers, for gadgeteers, about gadgeteers. Our age may be losing its faith in technology, but James Bond sure hasn't.
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
Moonraker begins with one of the funniest and most dangerous (as well as most beautifully photographed and edited) sequences Bond has ever faced.
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