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The Man With The Golden Gun (Special Edition)

The Man With The Golden Gun (Special Edition)

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Does not work with xbox dvd playback kit
Review: Do not get this if all you got for a dvd player is an xbox dvd playback kit. Once it gets to scene 22 the picture turns green and blocky.It was a good movie but only buy it if you have a different dvd player than Xbox.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A low for 007
Review: Ian Fleming's last novel, "The Man With the Golden Gun," featured one of 007's most interesting adversaries, an assassin who kills with the title weapon for a fee of $1 million. It was a fine role for Christopher Lee who hung up his Dracula cape to face Roger Moore in this 1974 thriller, the ninth film in the long running series.

The critics may have been ambivalent concerning Moore's debut as James Bond in the previous year's "Live and Let Die," but the film was a box-office hit, earning more than Sean Connery's swan song, "Diamonds Are Forever." But "The Man With the Golden Gun" was a comparative failure, earning more than "Dr. No," "From Russia With Love," and George Lazenby's sole outing, but falling far short of expectations. Poster art that too closely resembled the advertising campaign for "Live and Let Die" may have made this entry look like a re-issue, but the film itself was stale and unimaginative, failing to capitalize on the effective casting of the charismatic Lee.

Fleming's simple story was unnecessarily padded out with ambitious nonsense concerning a plot to monopolize solar energy, and, worst of all, the bumbling redneck sheriff who made an inappropriate appearance in "Live and Let Die" is revived in an unfunny sequence. Moore is fine as 007, as is Herve Villacheze as Knick-Knack, Scaramanga's Oddjob, but Britt Ekland is one of the dullest Bondgirls of all.

John Barry's score is okay, but the title song, belted out by Lulu of "To Sir With Love" fame, is a disaster, an obnoxious bombast that brings to mind the theme for "The Liquidator," one of the many spy films that emerged in the wake of 007's phenomenal success in the Sixties.

"The Man With the Golden Gun" is a satisfactory time-killer, and Lee is impressive, but this is one of the Bond's dreariest adventures.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Solid Spy Story with Ill-Advised Comedy
Review: The most spy like of James Bond movies seem to get the lowest ratings. Thus Roger Lazenby's portrayal of Bond as pure spy and this movie were poorly received. It's too bad because the original Ian Fleming stories focused on James Bond the spy and not James Bond the man with all the gadgets, as does this movie.

James Bond finds himself against one of his worthiest adversaries, Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga. Scaramanga is a technically ignorant hit man who sees Bond as a worthy opponent. Early in the movie are hints that Scaramanga would like to face off against James Bond one on one. While Scaramanga may lack a technical background, he is intelligent and extremely accurate with a gun, a single shot gun that fires gold bullets. Lee does so well as Scaramanga that he pretty much makes this movie, and in the process makes Roger Moore's performance seem wooden in comparison. While Lee and Moore's performances may overbalance an excessively humorous script, it's as though this movie had a comedy and a drama overlapping, and the incongruities sometimes make the movie difficult to watch.

Bond is chasing after the Solex, a device for converting solar energy to electrical energy in 1974 when it appeared that oil was going to run out within a decade. Businessman Hai Fat (Richard Loo) wants the Solex to obtain a profitable monopoly on solar energy technology, and he will have Scaramanga eliminate anyone who gets in his way. However, Scaramanga decides to eliminate Hai Fat and takes the Solex for himself.

In the chess game between Hai Fat and Bond is another boat chase scene in Thailand where the character of Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James), introduced in "Live and Let Die," appears once more. The boat chase scene through the canals of Bangkok (I think) is interesting, though I would not want to have ended up in one of those canals as Clifton James did. The introduction of Clifton James may have provided some humor, but the humor distracts from the serious nature of the conflict between Bond and Scaramanga. The Sheriff Pepper character comes across as needless filler and a distraction.

In terms of sidekicks Scaramanga wins out. Herve Villechaize as Nick Nack was an interesting character. Maud Adams as Andrea Anders is a tortured soul looking for some sort of absolution. Bond on the other hand gets beautiful but way too ditzy and klutzy Mary Goodnight (Britt Eklund). While she looks good in a bikini she offers little to a man-of-the-world such as Bond.

I enjoyed the British base on the partially sunken Queen Elizabeth, which had been removed from Hong Kong harbor by the time of the release of the movie. I also enjoyed the transition of the car to airplane by Scaramanga in his getaway from Bond with the Solex. I also thought Scaramanga's island home in The People's Republic of China was cool, but the room with liquid helium tanks for superconductive storage of electricity was another version of Dr. No's reactor room and was technically too implausible to be truly interesting.

This movie has a lot going for it, with a solid spy plot and minimal reliance by Bond on gadgets. Lee and Moore have a lot of acting potential, as do Villechaize and Adams along with many of the Bond regulars, but the addition of Eklund and Pepper and excessive, unnecessary jokes distract from the plot. Much of this humor comes across as filler. Disregarding the unnecessary humor, this movie could readily have been a 4 or 5 star movie. However, with the uneven plot and poorly conceived humor, I have to give this Bond movie 3 stars.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Another crappy Bond.
Review: Rodger Moore hasn't gotten a very good start to the series. His second of many bombs wasn't all that bad but had alot of dumb jokes. The cool part was the car chase in downtown Bancock, Thailand where Bond and J.W. Pepper (returning from Live and Let Die) were chasing Scaramanga and Nick Nack in a red AMC. The end was cool where...I'm not giving that away (hee hee:).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Christopher Lee saves the day
Review: While Connery, Moore, Dalton, and Brosnan each play bond from a unique perspective, I think this keeps the character fresh. You can't really compare apples and Oranges. Lazenby only tries to copy Connery. I feel that Roger Moore's second film as Bond is greatly underated. I like the humor of the Bond series and enjoyed Sheriff Pepper's return. Christopher Lee plays the ultimate Bond villian and true equal to 007. The only one that comes in a close second in the series is Goldfinger. I think that the plot is not as thrilling as some in the series, but Lee's performance saves the day. Many people are not aware that Moore and Lee knew each other since the early 1950's and they have good on screen chemistry. Lee was also a first cousin of Ian Fleming. It is worth watching.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not as bad as you have heard
Review: This film is not as bad as you may have heard. It does have some black eyes, namely The re-appearance of Sherriff Pepper. The film does ave a great blend of humor/action/drama. Christopher Lee makes a great villain, Roger Moore seems more like Bond. The Bond Girl, Goodnight is not as bad as some other reviewers make her out to be, watch A View To a Kill and The World is not Enough if you want to see worse Bond girls. She is at least competent despite getting in Bond's way thru out most of the film. This movie will keep your attention thru the whole film and when it is done you too will also think it was one of the better ones in the series.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Bond....James Bond!
Review: Christopher Lee is the Madman....Tatoo is the midget madman assistant....cool film....but not the best in the series.....nice locals.....Rodger Moore looks bored in this movie.....Christopher Lee is fantastic.....love that golden gun!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: GREAT FILM, But it is kinda wierd....
Review: Bond acted as would be expected in the prediciments that face him, but still, the movie just has a odd plot. It is deffinately worth seeing, though, and expecially if you watch Bond films for the explosion stuff. Nick-nack makes the movie fun, while the villian, who is supposed to be really terrible, is actually rather unconvincing.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not to bad.Not near as bad as people would make it look like
Review: THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN is a great STORY bond. There is some action parts, but there watered down. Roger is great once again, and the bond ladies are hott and sexy, but the ONLY reason this movie gets more than 2 stars is CHRISTOPHER LEE. WOW!! He is in the top 3 greatest villins of all time. I beleave it the director would have just let Bond and Scaramanga duke it out all over the world, and let the "finding the Solex" [stuff] go out the window, this movie would own even more. Also the part with the sherrif comin back into the movie from Live and Let Die was also unessicary. But one of the better bonds to say the least.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better than average action movie.
Review: Rank 21 of 23. This is still a better than average action movie with no swearing or nudity but as a bond, about 3.5 stars for me. But as a bond movie it only beats out the 2 casino royale movies to rank 21st. There is a lot to like, but some things I didn't like. I found myself fast forwarding through several parts of the movie, something I rarely do in a bond movie.


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