Review of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) by Chris W — 21 Dec 2012

Roger Moore's second outing as 007 sees him dealing with a plot that connects the then-current energy crisis to the titular character-a hitman whose fee is $1 million a shot...with his sights set on Bond.

This one often gets looked down upon as being a lesser Bond, often one of the lowest, but honestly, it's not THAT bad. Yeah, it's goofy and silly, and the plotting could have been handled somewhat better, but despite all that, this is still a mostly fun and enjoyable romp.

Just as the previous movie Live and Let Die tapped into the popular trend of blaxploitation, this one goes for the kung-fu craze, with a handful of martial arts fights and a predominately Far East setting. I also dug the film's references to The Lady From Shanghai and Cape Fear, though the latter one is really random (and I'm questioning why they did it). It's still kinda cool, though.

The Roger Moore era is known for being heavy on jokes, and this one's no exception. Some of them do work, but unfortunately, there's moments here that not only fail, they stop the movie dead in its tracks. The blame can be given to the return of side character J. W. Pepper from the previous film. He's painfully unfunny, obnoxious, and his racist tendencies really get under my skin. He was kind of a weaker point in his earlier appearance, but I don't recall him being quite this awful. I'm hoping he wasn't, since I love that one, and would hate for it to be so undercut because of him.

Moore is fine here, and getting a bit better. Britt Ekland is nice, but not really useful. Maud Adams fares a bit better, though. What ultimately saves this film, and proves the highlight are Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga (the title character) and Herve Villechaize as his diminutive servant and collaborator Nick Nack.

Bottom line: definitely flawed, but still mildly fun.