Review of Live and Let Die (1973) by Matthew D — 26 May 2017

A bizarre film memorable for many strange elements, the series continues its comedic turn, but this works better with Moore stepping into the role. The slapstick and comic relief characters are still out of place (although these are mercifully small roles, unlike in later films).

Moore shows promise in his first appearance, as long as you can accept this different style of Bond, but he's not really given much to do beyond the one-liners. Jane Seymour is also under-utilised, suffering from being written as one of the weakest ever Bond girls and fuels a side plot that is not just weird, but downright creepy.

The villain isn't bad, Yaphet Kotto's performance is good, but like Connery's last film he seems too small fry for Bond to be dealing with and he's mostly upstaged by several henchmen, who may be the film's real highlight.

The plot is unfocused, constantly dropping threads along the way, and while the series is often far-fetched the reliance on mysticism and tarot predictions make it fanastical in a completely different way to the other films.

Ultimately, the scale and the vibe feel more Starsky and Hutch than international super spy; it's not clear why we should care about... whatever it is that's at stake, nor does it feel like Bond does, and there's little drama at all for the audience to get invested in.