Weak middle

Film starts great with a very strong pre-title, then we have the cool, surreal, atmospheric scene of a clown being chased through the woods by knife throwers. The Fabergé Egg auction stuff is great, and some nice rickshaw action in India.

Then the film really slows down for about an hour. It’s not bad, there’s just nothing inventive and it meanders along, with a pretty ropey jungle escape sequence with that unforgivable Tarzan yell (far worse than the oft-berated Beach Boys snowboard sequence in AVTAK). The villains are a bit meh and their plan is… unclear.

Then once the bomb comes into play the film picks up again. The train action is great, diffusing the bomb is tense, and the final scene on (or outside) the plane is phenomenal. It doesn’t get nearly enough praise, these crazy dudes were hanging on to a flying aircraft well before Tom Cruise tried it, and had a fight to the death on top of it. Brilliant.

I’m giving Octopussy 7/10. It’s probably Rodge’s weakest, but that’s not an insult because all of his are ace.