For Your Eyes Only (PG, 1981)

A NATO spy vessel in the Mediterranean is struck by an old, derelict sea-mine and sinks with no survivors off the coast of the chilly Communist dictatorship of Albania. A high-tech surveillance-communication console on board the wreck would be a prize for the Soviet Union, so the superpowers race to recover it, via their assorted agents and hired stooges and gunmen. A Greek archaeologist and his wife who saw the wreck are quickly killed by a Cuban agent. James Bond is on the case, but he sees the assassin in turn slain by Melina (French actress-model Carole Bouquet), the victims' pretty daughter, who favors crossbows as her weapon in exterminating all those responsible for her parents' deaths. Next in line on her list is a smuggler (Julian Glover) in league with the Russian KGB.

Propelled by a hit Sheena Easton song as an especially popular main theme, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was the 12th entry in MGM's "official" series of James Bond movie adventures. The tone is consistently lighthearted and comedic. When a talking parrot provides a vital clue, viewers know not much of this can be taken seriously. For Your Eyes Only indeed gets by as undemanding entertainment for the fans, with some particularly excellent underwater cinematography and action sequences. There's a little moral lesson in Bond chastising the fierce Melina about seeking vengeance, but these words seem a little hollow coming from a spy who has just killed, what, 20, 200, 2,000 bad guys?

Viewers can insinuate a little Greek-myth lesson in there by emphasizing how Melina compares herself to the avenging heroine Elektra, of ancient drama (the name and vibe was later hijacked for a comic-book heroine and movie Elektra ). And you can amaze kids with your 007 I.Q. by telling them that the late actress Cassandra Harris, playing a phony countess who has a romantic fling with Bond, was in real life the wife of an actor who would later play Bond -- Pierce Brosnan.