Review of Live and Let Die (1973) by Jeff B — 19 Nov 2015

Powered by the best of James Bond theme songs, Roger Moore makes an impressive and entertaining debut in this, a decently paced but often kooky and dated adaptation of Ian Fleming's second novel. Diamonds are Forever charted an overly campy course for the series, but Live and Let Die course corrects a bit, the humor and storytelling coming closer to a bullseye. The film still falls short of the center target but the new lead deftly fills some impossible shoes. Boasting far less macho swagger but far more comedic debonair, his Bond fits in perfectly with the authority-bucking times, even if much of the '70s-rooted goings-on now seems dated.

In this PG-rated spy adventure, 007 (Moore) gets sent to stop a diabolically brilliant heroin magnate (Kotto) armed with a complex organization and a reliable psychic tarot card reader.

Like the tuxedo-wearing men's only clique known as the Rat Pack, Bond's custom suit-wearing, club-card carrying playboy had become uncool or even passé by this juncture. So, rather than make him hip, they just make him cheekier with a devil-may-care attitude toward the changing mores. Though this would cause the franchise to almost become a spoof unto itself later on its run, it allows the franchise to re-establish itself and live and let live as of this outing. Despite its charismatic lead and some winning villains, however, the voodoo of the plot amounts to some bad juju. In this equation, espionage plus supernatural often equals some hokey suspense. Still, the boat chase and crocodile hopping make for some killer action sequences.

Bottom line: Lives to Tell.