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The Man With The Golden Gun (Special Edition)

The Man With The Golden Gun (Special Edition)

List Price: $19.98
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fix for DVD Problem!
Review: Call 1-800-MGM4YOU to find out how to get this DVD replaced if it doesn't work for you. Apparently MGM has had a lot of problems. They just asked for my name and address, emailed me a prepaid UPS shipping label in PDF format, and said that my replacement disk would be here in 4-6 weeks.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better Movie Than It Gets Credit For - But A Problematic DVD
Review: Like a couple of the reviewers here, I also had problems with this DVD. My player is not an RCA, it is an Oritron (cheap, but good value for the money) and it won't make the layer change either (but this is the only DVD that I've had any problems with on it) - and neither will my DVD rom in my computer. My DVD player also could not access the "Inside The Man With The Golden Gun" documentary, ruining the disc for me. That's too bad, because I've never seen this movie look better. The Man With The Golden Gun is NOT a BAD movie, like so many people have stated, but it is a little bland. Bond by the numbers, but that is still better than most action movies. I actually liked TMWTGG more than Diamonds Are Forever, and much more than Live And Let Die. Christopher Lee is excellent as Scaramanga - one of the better Bond villains, and Herve Villechaize adds some humor as Nick Nack, Scaramanga's personal assistant. There are some excellent action sequences (including the greatest car jump of all time) in TMWTGG, and some beautiful scenery, giving this Bond film a unique look. But it is all let down by a DVD that SOME players can't play all the way through! Hopefully MGM will re-master the DVD and correct the problem, because, like most Bond Special Edition DVD's, this is an excellent package! (UPDATE - MGM did subsequently fix the problem, and the new DVD works perfectly.)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This One Should Be Call The Man With The Gold-painted Gun
Review: "The Man With The Golden Gun", released in 1974, is the ninth James Bond film produce by Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and it is very loosely based on the Ian Fleming novel of the same title. Roger Moore returned for his second outing as James Bond, as well as director Guy Hamilton. Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, and Desmond Llewelyn reprised their roles of "M", Miss Moneypenny, and "Q", respectively. This film was the last that Saltzman would make with Broccoli. Afterwards, Broccoli would would produce the Bond series alone.

We meet Bond's main adversery at the beginning of the film, Francisco Scaramanga, a master assasin who commands a fee a one million dollars a hit. Scaramanga keeps in practice by luring hitmen to to his private island and killing them. In the meanwhile, James Bond is searching for a missing solar energy scientist when he is pulled off the case by M. Apparently, someone has put a contract out on Bond and Scaramanga has been hired to make the hit. Bond decides he must take the offensive and flies to Beirut than Hong Kong to track down his would-be killer. By trackng down Andrea, Scaramanga's mistress, it appears that the confrontation between Bond and Scaramanga is imminent, but all is not as it seems. Aided by Lt. Hip and the beautiful but incredibly inept agent Mary Goodnight, Bond races toward a showdown with Scaramanga where only one man will survive.

"The Man With The Golden Gun" is a film with great potential but poor follow-through. Christopher Lee, who plays the assasin Scaramanga, gives the strongest and most frightening performance of any Bond villian. Nick Nack, the pint-sized henchman played by Herve Villechaize, is an excellent character, always plotting to kill his own master which keeps Scaramanga on his toes. Andrea, Scaramanga's long suffering mistress is played by Maud Adams, whose distinction is that she is the only actor to play a Bond girl in two movies. Clifton James makes a return appearance as Sheriff J. W. Pepper, this time on vacation in Thailand.

The main problem in the film is the poor script. Despite Bond having a strong adversary, his evil opposite number as it were, the whole premise is ruined by a plodding storyline. The final showdown between Bond and Scaramanga should have been the final climax of the film, instead another fifteen minutes passes until the final sequence. Even the obligatory chase scenes are lackluster by earlier standards. Even worse, several plot elements and scenes were lifted wholesale from earlier Bond films. For example, Mary Goodnight, played by Brett Ekland, is captured by Scaramanga by being shoved into a car and later is made to parade around in a bikini at his island hideout. If it sounds familiar, that because the same thing happened to Bond girl Tiffany Case in "Diamonds Are Forever". Bond's meeting of Andrea at the kick-boxing match is almost like the meeting at the sumo wrestling match in "You Only Live Twice". Bond blows up a solar power plant in this film that looks similar to the atomic power plant in "DR NO". Despite the great potential of the material, the screenwriters seem as inept as Mary Goodnight in turning out a decent storyline.

A few scenes do shine through the morass. The opening sequence and the showdown with Scaramanga in and of themselves are well done as are the scenes in Beirut with the bellydancer who was the girlfriend of an agent killed five years before by Scaramanga. There are even good moments in the scenes at the karate school. But these few gems are far too little to keep this film afloat.

The Special Edition DVD has the best print this reviewer has seen on video of "The Man With The Golden Gun". The DVD has only the widescreen version and like the other special editions has an audio commentary track, documentary material, still photos, and lots of ads and trailers. If one must have this Bond outing, it is the best product to have. However, unless you are a collector of Bond films, it is recommended that you stay away from this one. In the opinion of this reviewer, it is one of the two worst Bond films ever made (A View To A Kill is the other). The shame of it all is that it was a waste of some great acting talent and of a great Ian Fleming novel.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: HAD PROBLEMS WITH DVD ON MY RCA
Review: Like Jeff (the reviewer who had problems with this DVD). I also had problems with this DVD on my RCA DVD player and my PC DVD player. A friend who borrowed also had problems on his Apex DVD player. Unlike him I went through four different discs hoping it was a disc. The only reason that I am writing this is I wanted to let Jeff know that he is right about the disc. Thank you.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Pretty Lousy. Not as bad as View to A Kill or Moonraker
Review: Tired and old, and it was only Roger Moore's second outing as Bond. Exotic locations and the gorgeous Britt Ekland can't make up for a lackluster story and two rather poorly drawn villains (though Christopher Lee is a great actor). This movie ranks third as the most awful in the series, behind View to a Kill and Moonraker.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bad encoding - problems with at least some RCA players
Review: I have tried two different copies of this DVD. Both my PC DVD player and my RCA home DVD player presented disasterous results about 1:19:20 into the movie. The screen turned into big green blocks. I contacted MGM and they said it was a problem with compatibility between the DVD and some RCA models. Doesn't explain why my PC wouldn't run it correctly, but does explain why it was fine in a friend's Panasonic unit that I tried it in while troubleshooting. You would think that MGM online tech support would give a better answer than "it doesn't work with some RCA players. Update your PC DVD drivers and use it in that player." I will keep it because it is a Bond, but am warning fellow RCA users to be wary until MGM decides to give a better answer why this is not working correctly.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bond. James Bond
Review: The only James Bond movie where 007 drives a cool car. Or maybe I'm just biased because I used to have one just like it. The only movie I can think of with an all AMC car chase. There is a Rockford turn in this chase scene that is pure art!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Whats so bad about this movie.
Review: Why does everybody think its such a bad movie. I thought it was funny and enjoyable. a liked the story the action scenes and the bad guys. The one thing idont like was the Bonds girl Goodnight she was annoying. But i did like Maud Adams she was nice. The thing i liked about it the most was Nick Nack the little midget hes my favorite Bond bad guy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: An Assassin Second to Some...
Review: By no means a strong entry to the series, more or less another bomb of a Roger Moore outing, The Man with the Golden Gun had two things going for it: John Barry's score and Christopher Lee's performance as the villain. One of the two things was ruined, and that was John Barry's score. It was good for the most part, but the music faltered in a few scenes, for example the alley-oop on the car flip in the chase scene. The song was amazingly good, though, another plus I'll add to the film. The movie also had two other things that were somewhat good: Britt Ekland and Maud Adams as the sultry Bond Girls. It's a good thing Adams had a chance to redeem herself in Octopussy because this film doesn't require a woman of her beauty to waste her time.

This movie actually come to think of it had a lot more than two things going for it. There was so many twists and turns that it could have played out so much better, especially the seemingly laughable physical characteristic of Lee having a third nipple. The idea sounds funny but for sure it was something different in the Bond movies that they didn't play out well enough. The finale could have been so much better also, I mean c'mon-Bond against one guy and a midget? Where's the mob of baddies who he kills as easily as tying his shoe?

A weak entry to a great series as I said, but the film has terrific special features, featuring good-as-always documentaries that include the information you didn't really need to know but now that you do it's fun to know it. Although generally entertaining, buy it for the extras, not for the film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: worth a thousand bucks!
Review: this is one of the Best bond movies of the seris.it has great action like for example the boat chase down the river and the back to back fight in scaramanga's island hideaway.and bringing back J.W peper was great. this movie is great buy it.


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