11 Things You Learn Rewatching Octopussy
8. The Villains Are Cartoonish Yet Boring
Just as with its female characters, Octopussy's villains have plenty of promise and capable actors in tow, but they just don't quite come together compellingly enough.
First up is Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan), an exiled Afghan prince played with delicious glee by Louis Jourdan, who's good for a few pithy one-liners ("Spend the money quickly, Mr. Bond"), but ultimately doesn't do much outside the well-worn wealthy a**hole archetypes the series had done to death.
Then there's the main antagonist, Orlov (Steven Berkoff), a Soviet general and weapons-grade nutjob whose plan involves detonating a nuke at a West German circus show to trick Europe into disarming, allowing the Soviets to effortlessly invade.
It's an amusingly demented plan and Berkoff's hammy performance is fun for a time - his piercing eyes are especially delightful - but the actual character himself isn't terribly interesting outside of the theatrics: he's just another suited-up maniac.