Ginnie

James has used the same little cigarette box in every movie, including this one. I hope he keeps it so we know who he is.

Bond quit, so he went rogue in this adventure. The plot didn’t reveal itself until halfway through, but it didn’t turn out to be too bad. Still not great. But I don’t think you can just switch off fertility in all organisms with one gene modifier…no, a - a virus? That affects every plant and animal? Why not just release a toxin? The villain scored low for being an idiot.

Most of the movie was based at a ski resort, which looked nice, but all the women there were just stupid and horny. However, the main bond girl (Tracy) was the first one with a friend - imagine that. She also could actually defend herself, wow! Her dad wanted to control her life at the beginning, which she felt like she didn’t allow but it happened anyway. But I dunno, it was cute that James Bum actually stayed with a girl and got to know her before sleeping with her, and the ending was sad and sweet and added something humanizing to Bum’s lore.

The ski chase scene was the best thing I’ve ever seen! Every good story has a ski chase scene, right Ruth Ware?

David

The opening stunt sequence was the definition of “what?”, I have no idea what happened but it seemed like the lady wanted to drown herself but was stopped? The opening title was cool as it showed clips from past movies. The song was alright. I mainly liked that Louis Armstrong sang it and nothing else. Villain was copied and spat back onto the set from last time just missing ear lobes in the copying process. Dude reminds me of Jeff bezos. The henchmen are top tier, olympic men and professional skiers chasing Mr. Bum down the mountain was impressive. Also that was quite the death, getting turnt to snow. That along with the avalanche, they are getting all the brutal deaths. The weapon is an interesting thought of ending strains of crops or agriculture. Seemed like bro only wants money though so there goes the potential of the plan. The lair was sick, the building itself is a real restaurant that is rotating. Love the mountain and ski setting. I wasn’t paying attention to the zingers except for the stiffy one and hitting the rush hour and it was alright. The bond girl is pretty self reliant and involved except at the mountain. Heck of a driver too, but dang that was quite the way to end the movie. The women agency is not the best as there was the harem setting, also what the heck was that food selection for the ladies. I loved the Christmas market setting and Mr. Bum was scared for his life when that polar bear mascot scared the crap out of him with a camera. The car was an alright Aston Martin but not as cool as the one before, it was lacking the required bullet proof glass that a spy car should have.

Neale

This is still one of my favorites. The opening stunt sequence had no stunts, it was just coyly revealing a new actor. And the opening title just felt lazy: have some sillouhettes of nipples and clips from prior movies!

James decides to quit, and Moneypenny alters his resignation letter to a request for vacation. James gets 2 weeks off, but discovers through his romantic interest that Blofeld has some dealings with a lawyer. Some cool safe-cracking / photocopier gadget gets him papers saying that Blofeld is trying to trace his ancestry to prove he’s royalty or something. I don’t know, that was a bit dumb, but it got us a reason for James to get up in his business again, disguised as a genealogist.

Once at Blofeld’s secret allergy clinic, he discovers that not only is he curing allergies through aversion therapy (exposing the chicken-intolerant lady to nothing but chicken, for instance), but he’s also brewing up some “vaccines”.

The whole plot was laid out in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment (ahem, Ginnie), when his identity is revealed while sneaking around trying to sex up all the horny clientele. Blofeld has created some pathogen that he can target at specific crops or species to eradicate them. I appreciated that they went with a biological threat instead of nukes again.

The evil lair was okay, I guess. The title song was great. The henchman actually made me jump when she was in the bed. The zingers were absolutely lousy. I don’t think there was an evil weapon, unless you count machine guns on skis, but the ski chase was so cool I’m giving evil weapon some points.

The bond girl was not only capable of self-preservation, but also wound up being crucial to Bond’s character until the end of time. I thought the women fared better in this one than they have in previous ones, despite the oversexed allergy clients being weirdly giggly.

The things that really stood out to me on this one were the stunts in the middle, the love story (which I thought was pretty well done) and its tragic ending, and the progression of the story. I found it a refreshing change of pace from the prior films, and I don’t think we’re going to see characters handled with this kind of tenderness again until Casino Royale, some 60 years later.

Amy

Fembots and lots and lots of ski and bobsled stunts! Also a wedding and not quite a funeral - this James Bum really packs it all in!

We get a new James Bond, played by the understudy, George Lazenby, for his one and only appearance as Bond. I wish I could say that women had completely improved roles in this movie, and they marginally do. I believe we got to see the first time two women speak a lines to each other at all.

I like the Bond villain. I’m counting the lair as the entire ski chalet in my rating. I would vacation there, except for the doors to the rooms locking on the outside. The evil plot is pretty great - the concept of allergies must have been a real thing in the late 60s.

James goes down the mountain twice - once on skis and the second time in a bobsled. Yes, there is an avalanche and also ice skating. Where’s my hot toddy?

All in all, this is probably my favorite as we go into the 1970s Bond movies.

It’s all downhill (skiing) from here.