Rating: 
Summary: Moore off to a good start as brand new Bond
Review: Roger Moore nearly accomplished the impossible task of replacing the beloved Sean Connery. Connery is still THE James Bond in most fans' minds (mine included) but Moore deserves his own tremendous accolades for what he did with the role. He played the role 7 times, more than any other actor, as compared to 6 for Connery, 3 (so far) for Brosnan, 2 for Dalton and just one for George Lazenby. Moore got off to a slightly bumpy but perfectly acceptable first start with Live and Let Die. This is not the best Moore entry in the Bond series (both FYEO and TSWLM are better movies) but its my personal favorite. Very watchable and involving. Moore looks very comfortable and brings a certain light-heartedness to the role. He's amusing without being as silly as he was in TSWLM and Moonraker. The movie itself seems to be divided into two halves: the character, plot, style, and mood first half and the chases, explosions and stunts second half. The people who made the Bond movies are obviously trying to go in a different direction with the Moore era but aren't quite sure which direction, just yet. After all, 6 of the first 7 Bond movies had Bond battling Spectre and its various agents, assassins and henchmen. Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the head of Spectre, was a main character in 3 and a minor in 2 others. Never again. The Moore era films rarely mention Spectre; or any aspect of the Connery/Lazenby movies, for that matter. Moore's movies are mostly mano-a-mano showdowns between Bond and various wealthy psychos. Jane Seymour is a lovely and capable Bond Girl in her first role ever as Solitaire, fortune teller for the ruthless gangster/drug smuggler, Kananga. Yaphet Kotto strikes just the right note as the vicious and charming crime boss. His henchmen are some of the more entertaining in Bond series with Tee-Hee, Baron Samedi and Whisper providing muscle and laughs. The movie bounces back and forth between New York City, the Caribbean and New Orleans with one stop in the Louisiana Bayou so we can meet the Gators, the Crocs, Sherriff J.W. Pepper (racist and annoying stereotype of a chaw-chewing redneck) and enjoy a 15 minute speedboat chase scene. NYC looks cold and gritty. The the trees are bare and the sky is overcast. The NYC/Harlem parts of the movie are the most dated. Very 70's. New Orleans barely gets any air time at all. After this entry, Bond didn't set foot in the United States until Moonraker (briefly) and then AVTAK (San Francisco and Silicon Valley in the mid 80's). All in all, an enjoyable movie and an encouraging start to the Moore era.
Rating: 
Summary: A good debut by Roger Moore
Review: Although this is not one of the best 007 movies, I liked it for Roger Moore's debut and for the humor. I commend Roger Moore for making his own unique portrayal as James Bond. However, Moore is too nice and gentlemanly as 007. We don't really believe that Moore would get out of a bad situation by killing his enemies. However, he is able to handle the humor quite well. I also enjoyed Geoffrey Holder as Baron Samedi and Julius Harris as Tee-Hee. They were memorable henchmen. Yaphet Kotto could have been more menacing as the main villain, however. I felt that the beginning sequences were a bit slow and boring and the movie didn't get started until the middle of the film -- when the speed boat chases begin. The funniest scenes in the movie were the flying lessons scene with Bond posing as a flight instructor, and the speed boat chases and Sheriff Pepper, as the frustrated sheriff who tries to catch all those speed-boats. I also enjoyed the music by George Martin and the great title song by McCartney and Wings. I thought it was overall a good entry in the Bond series. If you like Roger Moore, I would highly recommend "The Spy Who Loved Me," "For Your Eyes Only," and "Octopussy."
Rating: 
Summary: Relax Baby, Mr. Big is going to take care of you!
Review: The 8th James Bond movie. Sean Connery departed from the role of Agent James Bond immediately after DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, leaving producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in an extensive search for a replacement actor. He would, of course, have to be suave, charming, humorous, and at times dangerous. Their replacement was an actor popular from television series' THE SAINT and THE NAKED FACE who was ironically considered for the role before - Roger Moore! With a refined sense of humor, clever one-liners, polished style, and feats of endurance and ingenuity, Roger Moore steps into the role of Agent 007 with charm and wit, beginning a new era of Bond films to come. Who can also forget lovely Jane Seymour as the tarot card reading heroine Solitaire?THE ASSIGNMENT: Three agents have been killed in the last 24 hours and Bond's task is to find out if they are connected. His search begins in Harlem - where a very white Bond sticks out like a soar thumb. He is kidnapped by Mr. Big when visiting the Fillet of Soul restaurant after half of Harlem has phoned in his whereabouts. From there he goes to San Monique where he discovers a certain Dr. Kananga growing fields of poppies under camouflaged nettings. Upon his arrival at New Orleans, he learns Mr. Big and Dr. Kananga are the same person. His intention? Distributing two tons of free heroin as a move to control the US market for his organization. THE VILLAINS: Yaphet Kotto as Mr. Big/Dr. Kananga, Julius Harris as the claw-armed Tee Hee, Earl Jolly Brown as Whisper, Geoffrey Holder as Baron Samedi, Tommy Lane as Adam, and Arnold Williams as the Cab Driver. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! BUY IT!
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre but alluring...
Review: Ian Fleming wrote the original novel of "Live and Let Die"--the second James Bond adventure--in the mid-50s. 2 decades later, the producers of the Bond movies turned it into a movie. The book is better of course. By the early '70s the Bond films were in a quandary. Connery had left for good, and when the series attempted to create a well-crafted film that captured the letter and spirit of Fleming's works ("On Her Majesty's Secret Service," the finest 007 flick) its box office returns convinced them to crank out self-parodies instead. And if any man was suited to poke fun at himself and walk through an entire movie tongue in his cheek, it was surely Roger Moore. This is Moore's first outing as 007, and the producers attempted to differentiate this Bond film from the rest. Gone are the tuxedos, Vodka martinis or cigarettes. Gone are Ken Adams' huge, magnificent sets. Gone is John Barry's luxurious, rousing music. Gone is Peter Hunt's whip-smart editing. Most importantly, gone is the input of Richard Maibaum, the scriptwriter who had a hand in all the best Bond films (Name your favorite--he wrote it.)Instead the script was written by an American, Tom Manckiewicz, who'd helped out on the previous Bond, "Diamonds are Forever," the worst Connery film. The cartoonish, larger-than-life approach of DAF was carried through to "Live and Let Die." Instead of a clever, flamboyant thriller, we got a confused and drab action flick. Guy Hamilton, who'd directed "Goldfinger," was brought back on board, presumably as a good luck charm. No dice. His direction is slow-wittedly uninspired and so is the art direction and cinematography. As for the screenplay, it has no forward momentum or suspense, and the villain's grand scheme--some muddled hokum about a heroin giveaway--is rather ho-hum and forgettable. It's a weak fumble of a story with very little excitement in it. So, the film's sets, photography and story all lack the epic, lavish feel you've come to expect from the Bond series. This is a low-budget Bond and it shows. What's even more embarrassing are the racial attitudes at the heart of the film. It's basically about Bond rescuing a pretty white girl from conspiratorial hordes of all-black villains who either talk jive or perform voodoo ceremonies.
Some of the blame for this should go to Ian Fleming, whose novel bore a patronizing attitude toward race issues, especially regarding voodoo and a supposed Communist influence on African Americans. But Fleming ultimately respected African Americans far more than the film makers, who've filled their film up with cartoonish blaxpoiltation types. Fleming's ultimate message was that blacks had just as much intelligence and ability as anybody else, so the emergence of black supercriminals and enormous crime schemes were not only expected, but a sign of progress. But the film luridly exploits its black characters (all but one of whom are villains). Those villains are up against the whitest-bread Bond you can imagine. The sight of Roger Moore stiffly strolling into a Harlem bar and trying not to raise his mock-aristocratic eyebrows is one of the weirdest images in the Bond series. Despite his lack of in-depth acting skills, his meager physical abilities, and his reluctance to act anything like a government assassin, it's impossible to really dislike Roger Moore. He doesn't have any pretenses about himself. He's got the charm of self-assurance, though in LALD he's still feeling his way into the role. "Live and Let Die" has several elements worth the price of a rental. First is George Martin's score, the first Bond soundtrack not written by John Barry. It's got a harder edge than Barry's work, and incorporates funk/soul elements that never again found their way into Bond music. It's very pleasantly dated, and the guitars and horns have a definite early '70s feel.
Second is the title sequence, created by the amazing Maurice Binder. Designed to accompany Paul McCartney's weird, rousing title song, it's a surreal little tone poem. Utilizing such commonplace items as matches and sparklers, Binder created a compelling, ominous minifilm that captures the vibe and thrill of voodoo far better than anything in the actual film. The moment when McCartney sings "Live and let . . . DIE!" a close-up of a woman's dark face turns into a flaming skull--it's a wonderful moment. Finally, "Live and Let Die" is the one Bond film that flirts with the idea of the supernatural. These are in fact the most interesting, surreal moments in the film. LALD might have been one of the truly interesting Bond films if such touches were expanded upon to give the entire film a surreal atmosphere of the bizarre. The prevalence of skulls and dart-shooting scarecrows, the continual shots of tarot cards and of Solitaire predicting the future with them (her powers seems genuine), along with images like an effigy of Baron Samedi rolling his eyes to look at the immense chunk Bond's just shot off of his head, or the Baron's triumphant appearance in the final shot, all seem to playfully suggest that the world of the supernatural may actually exist. But the actual film lets this fascinating aspect down with its tired direction and otherwise dull, down-to-earth screenplay. "Live and Let Die" might have been truly memorable if it had combined a compelling epic plot, with the usual suave Bondian antics and a surreal atmosphere wittily suggestive of the supernatural power of voodoo rather than exploitive of it. As it is, it's a mediocre film with memorable moments.
Rating:
Summary: great entertainment
Review: roger moore playing james bond,. well to a lot of folks he was a great james bind, but after getting blasted with him from atv series " the saint" i was kinda sick of seeing him.
how ever watch the racial overtones and how harlem was in
nyc during the 70's, seems a lotta 1973 chevy impala's
made it to the screen. also we see sheriff j.w. pepper
playing a red neck cop. good entertainment only to be taken for face value, not a serious movie.
Rating:
Summary: Live and Let Die
Review: After Sean Connery left the role of OO7 UA chose Roger Moore to take the role of Bond and his debut is fairly impressive, yet it can't compare to Conery's debut in Dr.No at all. Roger Moore is good but wouldn't actually grow completely into the role until 1977's The Spy who Loved Me. Yaphet Kotto is a good villain as island diplomat Kananga aka Mr. Big. Julius Harris and Geoffrey Holder are great and very memorable as steel-armed Tee-Hee and voodoo man Baron Samedi. The plot is that Kananga will release tons of heroin worth millions of dollars into the streets sold through a chain of Fillet of Soul restaurants to greatly increase the number of users. Bond must travel back and fourth from the San Monique to New Orleans. As in Dr.No, the Caribbean settings are very beautiful. Paul McCartney and Wings perform one of the best OO7 songs ever and George Martin's score is great. The action includes a car chase through the countryside roads of San Monique, a gunfight in a plane garage, a terrific boat chase (my personal favorite in the series) through the rivers of southern Louisiana, and hand-to-hand fghts around a shark train and on a train where OO7 defeats Kananga and Tee-Hee. Jane Seymour is great as Solitaire.
Rating:
Summary: moore's twist
Review: each of the first three major bonds had their own little twist as 007.
connery was suave with an edge.
moore was tongue in cheek suave.
dalton's was a lethal edge cop .
no, not counting lazenby because his one shot was simply too brief to grasp, and as far as brosnan goes; he is certainly a competant bond but as far as adding his twist; nope. he dissapointingly is a mere variation of those first 3.
but, despite the jabs that moore has so often got he actually did the best thing to do in light of the bond films becoming a
super sized franchise; he refused to take it too seriousely.
yes, his bond is plastic, but so is the film. this is not fleming's bond. but moore's bond is a bond that says 'hey this stuff is just pulp, let's treat it that way' and for a few years at least it was unique and fun
Rating:
Summary: great entertainment
Review: roger moore playing james bond,. well to a lot of folks he was a great james bind, but after getting blasted with him from atv series " the saint" i was kinda sick of seeing him.
how ever watch the racial overtones and how harlem was in
nyc during the 70's, seems a lotta 1973 chevy impala's
made it to the screen. also we see sheriff j.w. pepper
playing a red neck cop. good entertainment only to be taken for face value, not a serious movie.
Rating:
Summary: Best Bond, Best Movie
Review: Personally I think that Roger Moore not only filled Sean Connery's boots, but ran a mile in them. He didn't have the British accent of Sean, but he did have the acting and the action to back him up. Live and Let Die had an interesting plot, and Bond-villan (Baron Samedi) who was much better than Dr. No or Goldfinger and his "slow-moving laser." Also we can all agree that Live and Let Die was the only good Bond theme song.
Rating:
Summary: A INCREDEBLE FIRST ROGER MOORE
Review: This was one of the first Bond films I have ever seen and it is GREAT!!! It has lots of twists and turns and the seen with the crocks it is great if you are reading this review don't read the rest just go to used and new and buy this NEW becase it
is one of the best!!!!!! And belive me I know James Bond...007!
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