We are now in a time were we have no official James Bond actor and no official James Bond films being made. However this is something that alot of us are used to as even dating back to the first official James Bond there was a time when he and George Lazenby left the role which meant that the franchise producers had to find another new James Bond and when they found him they found who was for a long time the most well known James Bond actor and so then join me as I review the film that was the first official James Bond film to feature Sir Roger Moore with the film in question being called simply just "Live And Let Die" enjoy.
The plot of this film is when three MI6 agents are killed in the field James Bond is tasked with finding out who killed them and with stopping a drug lord from flooding America with drugs. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about thew actual plot that's actually featured presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with the plot of the film being something that is suited for the early Roger Moore films as those films did take themselves very seriously and weren't as overly campy as his later films were but at the same time tho the plot of this film isn't as good as it really should have been with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Of course starring in this film is Sir Roger Moore as James Bond , Bernard Lee as M and Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with all of the MI6 regulars turning in some really good performances in this film with the same thing also being true for Sir Roger Moore who while he doesn't quite nail down his version of James Bond thats really more due to how he's directed and what he's being written to do and is not due the actors acting and while both Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell really only have one scene in the film there acting in the scene really help does make it a really good and a really funny scene in the film which just goes to show you just how good the acting from the whole MI6 regulars really is in this film.
Also starring in this film is Jane Seymour as Solitaire , Yaphet Kotto as Dr. Kananga and David Hedison as Felix Leiter. Also starring in this film is Clifton James as Sheriff J.W. Pepper , Julius W. Harris as Tee Hee Johnson , Geoffrey Holder as Baron Samedi , Gloria Hendry as Rosie Carver , Tommy Lane as Adam , Earl Jolly Brown as Whisper , Roy Stewart as Quarrel Jr. , Lon Satton as Harry Strutter and Madeline Smith as Miss Caruso. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with all of the films cast turning in some really good performances with the acting in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script was really good as it gives the actors a whole lot to work with interms of what it is that there characters personalities are even meant to be and as such all this films cast have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally.
This film does technically have two Bond Girls with the first of which also being our main Bond Girl Solitaire who is played by the seriously stunning Jane Seymour. With Solitaire being the better of the two Bond Girls that we got in this film as this character was really well written and wasn't annoying as while both she and Rosie are to some degree naive Solitaire has a reason to be naive as she's lived with Dr. Kananga for pretty much all of her life and as a result of that is she wouldn't really know all that much about how the rest of the world works however what makes her more interesting then Rosie is the fact that she starts out the film as a villain and becomes and alley over the course of the film and as a result of that is the fact that her life could quite literally be in danger every single time she goes out as Dr. Kananga could kill her at any moment and while the character could have been better in some ways like she could have been given some more flaws to overcome the overall basis for a really good character is there and present in this very film.
The films other Bond Girl in this film is Rosie Carver who is played by the seriously stunning Gloria Hendry. With this character being the worst Bond Girl out of the two characters as she's a painfully annoying character who is just really naive which in one case does make sense but in other cases really doesn't make alot of senses as there's no way that a villain who is as smart as Dr. Kananga is would fire somebody as naive as Rosie to work for him even if her being naive is all an act to make the people that she's trying to fool let there guard down it's not really something that works as she's paired with a character who is really smart ad who sees right through her act which only makes her come across as being more naive and there's really no excuse for her being a painfully annoying character as all this character does is spend a vast amount of her screen time screaming which is fine for her scene as it does make sense but at the same time it also doesn't leave her with a good first impression in the minds of the audience.
Out of the two character it's Solitaire that's the better of the two characters as not only is that the character that we send alt more time with. It's also because of the fact that she's the more likable character who you want to see succeed and who you want to want to see make it out of the film alive where as the opposite is true for Rosie as Rosie isn't a likable character and she's not someone that you to see succeed and while yes she might have been a better character if we had gotten the chance to spend alot time with her character and gotten to know as well as we'd gotten to know Solitaire as that wasn't the case Rosie just comes across as someone who is a really annoying character and who people can't stand to be around where as Solitaire comes across as being someone who you want to be around alot more as she is just that likable of a character who just wants to do what it is that she thinks is the right thing to do.
Believe it or not this film is both the first film not to feature the character of Q but is also the second James Bond film not to feature franchise star Desmond Llewelyn. As a result of this is the fact that we get Miss Moneypenny giving Bond his gadgets for the film and delivering all of the techno stuff that would have gone to Desmond Llewelyn which is a rather odd thing to see as we'd never seen Miss Moneypenny handling gadgets before now as the character is usually sat behind her desk and yet here she is handing what might be important equipment and not only that but also going into great detail about what it is that each gadget does and how best to use it which does her make her more well suited for any job in MI6 as she is just that likable of a character and given that thanks to the Welcome Japan Mr. Bond special we know for a fact that both she and Q are infact friends which does make you wonder if the two of them often get together after work and hang out as friends.
Doing the production design is Syd Cain with this film being his final time working on a James Bond film. With the sets that he created in this film being some really impressive looking sets which really isn't all that surprising as he was working on the films since Dr. No and provided the production design for two other James Bods films as well as this one and as a result of that is the fact that is the fact that we now get someone who really does know this world inside and out and knows that if you want to make an impressive James Bond set then you have to make it large as James Bond himself lives in a very exaggerated world where everything is always bigger and as a result of that is the fact that the James Bond films sets need to be bigger in order to make that world come to life and that's exactly what we got in this film as we got lots of sets that whilst they are grounded in realism to some degree are also very large sets.
To be bluntly this is a film that wouldn't be made today for one simple reason and that is the fact that all of the films main villains are black. It's an issue that plagued the original book as well as this film as well as how do you get around that fact and the simple answer is you don't you just have to face it head on and that right there is why the film wouldn't be made today as you'd get alot of people wanting to make changes to the villains alot of which would include the change of there skin color without taking into account that there skin color does somewhat play apart in the films story and you'd get a group of other people wanting to keep things exactly the same without realizing that this film could now he seen as being incredibly racist in this case neither is wrong but neither is right either as yes changing things to remove certain aspects of the story could be seen as a good thing it can also be seen as a bad and keeping the more incredibly racist elements the same does indeed give us a chance to learn from them but at the same there still incredibly racist moments as well.
For some reason the makers of this film chose to have the Dr. Kananga character wear some really obvious make up when he's out dressed up as Mr. Big. Which not only looks ridiculous but it's also obvious who it is as he's the only one not in the room whenever Mr. Big shows up and as a result of that is the fact that the big reveal that Dr. Kananga and Mr. Big are one in the same is obvious and it makes the big reveal near the end of the film all the more pointless as we the audience already know who it is and as a result of that is the fact that we're now waiting for Bond to play catch up with us when we should be fining out this bit of information at the exact same time and if the film makers wanted to make this a truly shocking surprise then they should have hired a different actor to play Mr. Big and have his voice be dubbed over in post-production as that will make the big reveal all the more shocking as we wouldn't have any bad make up giving it all away from the very first time that we see the character on screen.
The opening titles for this film were of course done by regular James Bond titles creator Maurice Binder. With the titles that he created for this film being both really creepy looking , really creative and at certain also really seventies as well with the opening titles for this film being really creepy and creative in that they both deal in themes of death and resurrection and also really seventies as there's a girl just randomly looking infront of what may or may not be a multicolored light like object which not only makes the opening titles of this film seem really dated but at the same time it also really makes the titles for this film seem less cool and less creative as it's something that comes out of nowhere and all it does is make you wonder what the heck that girl is meant to be waving at in the first place but the rest of this films opening titles were really cool and match the tone of this films title song really well as well.
This films villain Dr. Kananga is perhaps the most well known villain of the Sir Roger Moore era of James Bond films. As he is someone who is quite smart with him more often then not thinking three steps ahead of everyone else and to help with his plan of flooding America with drugs and to allow himself to walk down the street in America he came up with a whole different personality complete with a change in voice to make it seem more believable that the two really are different people and while the makeup effects do let the disguise down quite alot the very idea of him having a disguise does go along way to showing you just how smart this villain is but at the same time tho his plan doesn't really work as since he's a prime minister if the plan was to work out then surely everything that he's done would be called in question as he was already being looked at by both the American and the British governments.
This films theme song is also called "Live And Let Die" and is sung by the band Paul McCartney And Wings. This version of the song isn't the best version of the song as that honor goes to Guns N' Roses but at the same time tho this is still a really good it's just a song that fits neither the band nor Paul McCartney this is despite this song being the kind of theme song that the James Bond films really did need as this film is nothing more then pure rock and roll that's really rebellious and is the anti James Bond theme and is something that the franchise needed at this point as the films theme songs had started to sound very samey and then this song comes along and it's completely different and it's something that works for this film with the film song itself being not only very well written but also very well sung as well it's just not something that fits Paul McCartney as he has the voice that;s more fitting for soft rock where as this song is more hard rock and should there for have a voice that's more fitting for a hard rock and roll type of song.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life me remember whatever this films grand total running time even was I do know that this film has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly one hour and fifty six minuets. Which is a solid running time for this film to have as the film really does gave more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that large amount of running time and to this films credit it really does take full advantage of this running time as the film does develop all of it's characters as best as it could have done given the running time but at the same time tho I would have liked it if this film was a little bit longer just so that they can show Bond being more of a spy like they would have done in the Sir Sean Connery films as James Bond is after all a spy and yet the Sir Roger Moore era of James Bond films very rarely if every show him being a spy which is something that they could have done if this film was a tad bit longer but on the flip side of that is the fact that if this film really was longer then it would run the risk of stretching the films admittedly thin plot even thinner but I will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action film that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action thats actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the film having some really fun and at times fairly over the top action that has alot of really cool moments in them and it's in those action scenes that we get some great uses of the films opening title song as it's used to make those moments even more exciting then what they already are and when you add in the fact that this films action has alot of really great stunts in them all of which would be done using CGI just makes them all the more better as in this film there done for real and that is something that will always look better then any stunt that's done in a computer in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this film is a solid debut for Sir Roger Moore as we get a good example just how his version of James Bond would react in any given situation and while alot of it would get improved upon by the time we get to The Spy Who Loved Me it's groundwork was started in this film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film n this very review and as such that means that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official James Bond fandom wiki page , Wikipedia and Google Images. With my personal favorite website to use to get the images that I used in this very review being the official James Bond fandom wiki page just simply due to the fact that pretty much all of the images that are featured / presented to us and are currently up and also on the official James Bond fandom wiki page are all fairly high quality and as well as being fairly high definition and well then boys and girls just freaking like James Bond I will return.
Comments
Post a Comment