Best movie of this year hands down!

Such a frustrating disappointment

One of my all time favorites.

As Good As It Gets

Movie Review: "Live And Let Die" (1973)Director Guy Hamilton (1922-2016) exceeds himself with the third James Bond movie under his direction by cutting back on the overloaded special effects spectacle from 1971 with "Diamonds Are Forever". Film producers Albert R. Broccoli (1909-1996) and Harry Saltzman (1915-1994) manage to keep the production budget steady at 7 Million U.S. Dollar, when introductions with 45-year-old actor Roger Moore (1927-2017) as the "New Bond" takes place at the main character's private London apartment. MI6 headmaster "M", performed with wit, humor and focus by actor Bernard Lee (1908-1981) arrives with secretary Moneypenny for a morning coffee, while "007" hides a short-lived love interest in the closet. The mission briefing by "M" sends "007" on a trail of a new menace after "Blofeld", out-going from the one and only "James Bond" appearance on the streets of New York City to this very day, finding narcotics-trading underworld boss Kananaga aka Mr. Big, given face by actor Yaphet Kotto in an highly motivated performance as Bond nemesis in the realm of shifting restaurant walls, gun-disabling metal claws by the antagonist's sidekick and an ambience of mystical themes surrounding the art of tarot and dark forest voodoo celebrations to finish with the 2nd interior moving train action scene that makes "Live And Let Die" already one of the best "Bond" pictures out of total seven appearances for an very British and elegant-looking actor Roger Moore as "007".The title song nominated by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science (AMPAS) composed by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed with the band "Wings" brings high emotions with classic credit titles embedded in feminine faces, dance, skulls and fire, when the character of James Bond once again keeps his footing down to earth with a minimum usage of gadgets by "Q" branch."Live And Let Die" becomes the first James Bond movie to be released on U.S. domestic market in the Summer of 1973 on June 27th, a week before the official European premiere to count another increase of 8.5% in worldwide revenues for Eon productions and their successfully-transcended new face of "007" for the next 12 years to come. © 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

"Live and Let Die" is one of the more deceiving "James Bond" films. The face of the franchise may have changed with Roger Moore assuming the mantle of 007, but everything below the neck is fairly familiar. So what seems like a reboot is more like a facelift, albeit a needed one.Moore comes to the role of Bond with an energy that Connery clearly lacked by the end of his tenure, despite Moore being in his forties (and three years older than Connery period) when beginning what would become a seven-film run. He definitely feels like an "elder statesman" Bond, with his charm and cunning his greatest assets. Nevertheless, he seems excited to slide into the familiar "Bond" scenarios and dialogue and make them his own.These "Bond" elements are familiar because of the return of "Diamonds are Forever" writer Tom Mankiewicz and director Guy Hamilton. That film was a disaster in many respects, so the fact that "Live and Let Die" is an improvement is no small feat. (Then again, Hamilton did helm "Goldfinger," so who knows?) Like "Diamonds," the story keeps Bond predominantly on American soil after a few British agents are compromised in New York City, New Orleans and the fictional island of San Monique. The connection between them all is the superstitious crime syndicate leader and heroine kingpin Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) and his lackeys Tee Hee (Julius Harris), Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) and tarot card reader Solitaire (Jane Seymour).The film's release during the era of Blaxploitation films in cinema makes the black villain and various other black characters particularly interesting to say the absolute least. On the one hand, the film features black actors in key roles in an action franchise that in many ways couldn't be whiter. On the other, almost all the black characters are sinister, and Bond heads off into the sunset with the doe-eyed fair-skinned British lady who is clearly out of place, even if she's engaging to watch. At least Bond doesn't go blackface, i.e. this film avoids the social misfire of "You Only Live Twice."Regardless of how the black cultural and voodoo cultural elements were handled, they certainly make "Live and Let Die" a more memorable "Bond." The jazz funeral/second line sequences are unforgettably brilliant, the night club trick tables are pretty clever too and Bond's crocodile escape is surprisingly harrowing given the legitimate stuntwork. And while Q may be absent, the magnet watch features prominently and creatively throughout the film. These touches are truly what make "Bond" films memorable and fun and there's more hits than misses, unlike Mankiewicz's work on "Diamonds.""Live and Let Die" is probably a masterpiece compared to "Diamonds," but objectively, it's merely a good "Bond" entry and a necessary course-correction. The film relies way too much on formula, with predictable chase sequences involving unusual vehicles and a last-second plot to kill James in the epilogue, to name examples. "LALD" has Bond operating a propeller plane, double-decker bus and a speedboat (one of the lengthiest and most tiresome "Bond" chases with barely enough payoff). Hamilton continues his preferred style of filming all these sequences with slapstick in mind rather than making them feel dangerous or suspenseful. Then there's the film's J.W. Pepper problem — the unnecessary caricature of a Louisiana sheriff is worth knocking the whole film down a peg.Anchoring "Live and Let Die" is Paul and Linda McCartney's title track, which one-off "Bond" composer George Martin wisely builds into the film's score at some needed moments. A mostly uptempo rock song, it's uniqueness helps accent the many ways in which "Live and Let Die" stands out among the "Bond" canon, in spite the many ways it still heeds to formula and shares qualities with some of its lesser "Bond" peers.~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

A combination of a 1930's serial mentality mixed in with deliciously silly comedy, this entry (the first of 7 with Roger Moore) goes back to the ideas first seen in "Dr. No". It has no limit to the outrageousness, having an opening where three agents are killed in nefarious ways, making Bond the next target. The world of black magic is explored, but there's much more to it than that. Bond faces some nefarious foes, including snakes, sharks and distantly related crocodiles and alligators, always in the most hysterical of ways.Joining Moore here is the beautiful Jane Seymour as a tarot card reader named Solitaire and Yaphet Kotto as a particularly sinister bad guy with some diabolical ways of dispatching his enemies. From the FDR Drive in Manhattan to the streets of New Orleans to the bayou (for a most delightful boat chase involving hick sheriff Clifton James), this will have you both laughing and on the edge of your seat. This is a crowd pleaser for sure, with the scene stealing Geoffrey Holder literally getting the last laugh.

Directed by Guy Hamilton and with a script by Tom Mankiewicz, this is the eighth film in the franchise and keeps Harry Saltzman and Albert Broccoli as producers. In this film, the first in which Roger Moore embodies the British spy, franchise tries to survive at two powerful factors of danger: the departure of Sean Connery after several years giving life to 007, and the unstoppable evolution of the world, with the seventies bringing a radical change in the audience. Thus, producers and screenwriter tried to attract new audiences, in particular the black public, attracted not only by black actors but also for some locations. Another subject that the film will address, and that was on the agenda during these times, are drugs and trafficking.In this film, the British agent will fight an American drug baron but gets lost in the black neighborhood of Harlem, where he cannot pass unnoticed and almost finds himself in danger. The track eventually leads Bond to Louisiana, where the persecution of bandits brings us the hilarious Sheriff J. W. Pepper, who worked not only as a film comic element but also as a severe criticism against the conservatism of white society in the southern states. We must remind ourselves that this movie was released at a time when American society was in deep transformation, largely thanks to the struggle of black society for respect, equality and civil rights, which were denied until then, particularly, in the South. The film then heads to the Caribbean, to an island that was probably inspired by Haiti and where the audience is faced with superstitions and beliefs as voodoo or magic.In these film, Roger Moore proved that could hold his role, and the agent could survive Sean Connery. In fact, he even manages to be much more English, while maintaining the habit of never losing his composure whatever the situation. The villains were in charge of Yaphet Kotto and Julius Harris, the latter in the role of Tee Hee, the man with the metal arm. Geoffrey Holder embodies the Baron Samedi, Haitian voodoo character who enters this film. The bond-girl was Jane Seymour, the role of the tarot reader Solitaire.For many people, "Live and Let Die" is one of the oddest films in the franchise because of the amount of unusual elements featuring: "blaxploitation", magic, voodoo, superstition, drugs. And these people aren't without reason. Today, this film is strange and doesn't leave many memories, like many films of the seventies. There are even those who think that is the worst movie of the franchise. Perhaps. But it helped to keep Bond alive and adapted him to a new era. For posterity stays the good performance of the elegant and humorous Roger Moore and the introduction song, written by Paul McCartney and who would receive, years later, a new life through the cover of Guns N'Roses.