Review of Live and Let Die (1973) by Jingbo W — 08 Oct 2010

Quite a crude Bond film, which was seemingly trying to cash in on the popularity of Blaxploitation movies at that time but feels a little jarring and mishmashed as a result. It's probably only really Paul and Linda McCartney's iconic theme tune for the film that has given Live and Let Die a reasonably high standing in the Bond canon, as in terms of action, plot, characters and dialogue it isn't actually that memorable.

The speedboat chase is quite impressive but still overlong; I'd rank Dr Kananga/Mr Big as one of my least favourite Bond villains; and Clifton James's racist southern sheriff was not a welcome addition to the series.

But Jane Seymour's Solitaire is among the best Bond girls and new 007 Roger Moore did about as good a job as could be done in this rather un-Bond-like effort.