The more recent additions to the Bond franchise - from later Roger Moore efforts to the final Pierce Brosnan film Die Another Day - haven't been taken as seriously as early Bond, and, in many instances, for good reason. But these films share many traits with the "classics," and have much to offer for both Bond completists and action fans.

Moonraker (1979)

Carole Bouquet and Moore in For Your Eyes Only

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Next to The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only has generally been considered Moore's second-best film, although judgment may have been a little clouded as the film followed the excesses of Moonraker. But benefiting from an engaging, and blessedly simple, plot For Your Eyes Only is a very agreeable effort with Moore proving to be not at all down for the count.

Director John Glen, who had been a second unit director as well as an editor on several previous Bond films, returned the franchise to planet Earth in more ways than one. The film opens with two references to the series' history: Bond leaving flowers at his wife's grave (the wife who died in On Her Majesty's Secret Service ) and Bond then tangling with and disposing of old enemy Blofeld (whose cat seems to escape unscathed, for anyone concerned about such things), who dies after a series of clichéd one lines, falling into a smokestack in of the funnier death scenes. Oddly enough, Blofeld is actually not named due to issues with the owner of the Thunderball copyright, which included Blofeld. This was an easy way to not have to worry about such matters again.

Reacting to Moonraker's negative reviews, perhaps, Glen admirably toned down the fantastical elements for the follow-up, amping up the characterizations just enough while focusing on more (relatively) realistic, streamlined action. Interestingly, too, the film was adapted from a Fleming short story but the main location was changed from Jamaica to Greece - with the Havelock family given the same change in nationality. Playing the vengeance-seeking, crossbow-wielding Malina Havelock was the striking Carole Bouquet, who's subsequently had a lengthy, successful film career in France. (Oddly, her voice appears dubbed in the film, though few seem to be watching her lips.)

A better skater than actress, the likable real life professional figure skater and Ice Castles star Lynn-Holly Johnson plays Bibi Dahl (very close to "baby doll," but this isn't Tennessee Williams ) the ingénue skater who throws herself at an uncomfortable Bond. The expression on Moore's face when she says, "He still thinks I'm a virgin" is priceless. The great Israeli actor Topol plays Colombo, a Greek smuggler who Bond first thinks is on the wrong side, but quickly learns who the real enemy is.

All in all, while For Your Eyes Only has some dated elements and is probably a bit overrated due to its proximity to Moonraker, it remains one of the strongest Roger Moore films.

Shaken, stirring tidbit: This was the only Bond film in which "M" does not make an appearance, as actor Bernard Lee passed away before filming and out of respect for Lee the role was not filled.

Octopussy (1983)

Maud Adams plays the titular head of a ring of jewel thieves who has her own island, in a part that seems disappointingly non-ambitious compared to some of the subsequent female characters. Her name, by the way, is certainly… titillating, but it's also a reference from a poker hand: a pair of eights is called an "octopussy." While the story is ostensibly based on a short story by Fleming , that story is summed up in its entirety in a monologue Octopussy gives about Bond's experience with her father. Another woman in the film, Magda, played by the statuesque Kristina Wayborn, is actually a more interesting character, and certainly makes more headway with Bond than does her boss. The real villain of the story is Louis Jordan's elegantly evil Kamal Kahn, an exiled Afghan prince who uses Octopussy in his plot to help a power-mad Russian general blow up Western Europe.

Armitraj, Vijay Armitraj: Former tennis star Vijay Armitraj plays - to avoid confusion in his acting debut - a character named Vijay, who assists Bond in India.

Best lines: Q: "Double-0 seven on an island populated exclusively by women? We won't see him till dawn!"

Worst lines: Bond: "We've got company." Vijay: "No problem, this is a company car."

Best worst line: " Having trouble getting it up, Q?" (Bond to Q after the latter can't get a rope trick to work)

A View to a Kill (1985)

Roger Moore's commentary on the DVD is charming, however, and worth a listen - in it he admits to looking rather long in the tooth and expresses concern for the film's violence.

Moore was undeniably charming in the role, quick with a quip, more light-hearted than the other actors - so much so that many feel he's easily the farthest removed from how Fleming imagined the character. But he had a good run, and in 1985, that run was done.

The Living Daylights (1987)

The project that would jump-start Bond into the "Dalton era": The Living Daylights, which was the last film to be based on a Fleming story (until the new Casino Royale, that is.)

I might be in the minority here, but I'd argue that Living Daylights is generally one of the better of the recent era Bond films, even if it lacks a certain amount of humor and even if the villains - played by fine Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbe and husky (and oily - see: Mitchell) American Joe Don Baker, as well as the seemingly ageless John Rhys-Davies as a - wait for it - power-hungry Russian General - don't have enough to do nor do they give it the necessary air of menace. But the supporting cast of characters is above average, as is Bond girl Maryam d'Abo, a rather chaste cellist, and, compared to some of the other one-dimensional women in the series, intelligent. D'Abo provides 007 with one of his few actual love interests, a rare case of a Bond film with essentially a singular female romantic lead, likely a side effect of producing this during the height of the AIDS era.

And the action - including an excellent car chase scene in Gibraltar, featuring the triumphant revival of the Aston Martin (the V8 Vantage in this case, for those of you scoring at home), and a chase across the rooftops in Morocco - is quite well done. The plot itself is an overly complicated mishmash and not particularly cohesive but it has enough good set pieces and engaging characters to carry it through - and mostly what it has is Timothy Dalton, who, even if still finding his way through the part, is quite charismatic, the perfect combination of icy cool, dark and confident - without Moore's glibness.

He would, unfortunately, not be given much of a chance to fully make the character his own.

Best line: "Well, you've had your 8, now I'll have my 80!" - Baker's General Whitaker, trying to kill Bond with a machine gun after the 007's puny gun runs out of ammo.

Worst line: Q, after demonstrating a boom-box rocket launcher to Bond: "Something we're making for the Americans. It's called a 'Ghetto Blaster'."

Licence to Kill (1989)

Licence to Kill would be a step back from the previous in some ways - a few more obligatory scenes, a slow beginning in which Bond is best man at his colleague Felix Leiter's wedding (his bride is Three's Company's Priscilla Barnes), less humor (though not devoid of it), and, certainly, more violence - Roger Moore would not have appreciated the last point. But the ensuing revenge plot was a particularly notable change from the usual Cold War (and post-Cold War) Bond scenario of previous efforts. It also gives us a very charismatic villain in the pockmarked Robert Davi's sadistic drug lord (with then unknown Benicio Del Toro as his henchman).

The women - Talisa Soto as Davi's pouty, unhappy mistress (i.e., slave) and Carey Lowell as Bond's tough "executive secretary" - are not simply sex objects here - though they do get into a silly cat fight over James at one point and there's already a Very 80s pallor to their characterizations. The film should also be credited for offering us Wayne Newton, amusingly slimy - typecasting? - as an evangelist whose meditation institute serves as a front for Davi's drug operation.

And finally, the last, extended action sequence is one of the series' best, with three gasoline trucks whipping around curving mountain roads - not Wages of Fear, perhaps, but explosive nonetheless.

Dalton was more comfortable in Bond's skin in Licence to Kill, and his tense, tough, contemporary presence made the character interesting again, but he also never seemed to fully enjoy playing him and his interpretation was probably too edgy for mainstream audiences to embrace. Like the previous installment, the film takes some risks with the character, is less gadget-filled and light than the typical Bond picture, and it may be for these reasons more than Dalton that the film was a disappointment at the box office. This probably doesn't foretell the same fate for the new Casino Royale, but both do share an interest in revealing the character's inner workings over gadgetry.

The perceived box office disappointment was due in part to a weaker than usual marketing campaign, as MGM/UA was in the midst of a slew of legal and financial troubles. "Cubby" Broccoli is on record as being enormously disappointed with the film's marketing, and the title, too - he preferred the original, "Licence Revoked." (Perhaps the British spelling didn't help box office in the States either.) But it was Dalton who was ultimately blamed by many in the studio for whatever was ailing it.

Nonetheless, he was set to return for his third Bond picture, Goldeneye, before constant script delays, a number of directors signing on and then signing off, and the studio's aforementioned legal (harangues) ultimately forced Dalton to see the writing on the wall and drop out after his contract expired.

It would be more than five years before the next Bond film, the longest delay in the series history.

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