Review of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) by Jason J — 31 May 2008

The Man with the Golden Gun is Roger Moore's second outing as the charming and wise James Bond, and Moore makes it look effortless. Here, he gives Sean Connery the first of a few runs for his money.

This movie starts out as a fantastic detective mystery but then sours after about 35 minutes (very much thanks to the return of the hick sheriff from You Only Live Twice) and though it honestly tries, it cannot fully recover. It has the darkest of Roger Moore's Bond portrayals pitted against a man with a third nipple. It features Chew Mee, the revealingly naked Asian in a swimming pool, and Nick Nack, the sadistic dwarf. At the beginning and end, we are treated to zany confrontations in a twisty puzzle of light and mirrors.

Enjoy Bond trying to fit work and pleasure into the same moment as two women show up in his hotel room on the same night. Watch a car turn into a jet and another car make a ridiculous leap across a stream. For the first of two times in Bond films, immerse yourself in the stone giants of Phang Nga Bay in Thailand. There is more Asian boxing and martial arts than really belonged in the movie -- considering the villain's initial mechanism of death for Bond is to send him to kung fu classes (??) -- and the English Secret Service seemed to be using a strange, slanted hideout while away from home in China. This is a fantastic Q movie, with a lot more than usual for the beloved character to add to the story, but due to numerous awkward moments and a simple plot that's been heavily padded with nonsense to push it beyond the 2 hour mark, there are too many garbage sequences to call this a safe ticket.

The Man with the Golden Gun is an assassin. He will lure you in with a naked Asian swimmer and a perfect performance by Moore, but goofball frustration will be the bullet you take to the brain.