Review of Live and Let Die (1973) by Chris W — 21 Dec 2012

Okay, so despite my preference for less overtly silly and campy directions in the Bond films, this ranks as one of my personal favorites, simply because, despite some supernatural elements, this entry has, pound for pound, one of the more solid, realistic, and engaging plots.

Making his series debut, Roger Moore is pretty good as Bond, this time tasked with stopping a crime lord from turning most of the western hemisphere into heroin addicts. Due to the time period, and factors like the use of racial epithets, African American characters in major roles (including the main villain), and locations like Harlem, it would be okay to call this entry a Bond Blaxploitation film. That's kinda cool, especially in my eyes, being a big fan of blaxploitation.

This does unfortunately date the film severely, one of its main flaws, but it at least showed some creativity and nice change of direction. So, besides not aging well, the film does drag in a number of places, namely the boat chase, but Kotto plays a great antagonist, Julius Harris and Geoffrey Holder make for fantastic henchmen, and the novelty of James Bond cruising Harlem is just endlessly funny and enjoyable.

Despite being good, Moore is a little stiff, but he did get more comfortable. And, despite it's flaws, this is a really good film, and a great way to start off the Moore era.