"Live and Let Die" Review
JamesBondJunior
Posts: 67MI6 Agent
I watched this film billions of times as a boy. I have to say it hasn't aged well, but is still a pretty easy watch.
GOOD: "Live and Let Die" is one of my all time favorite titles and has a great theme song, the first rock song in the series. In many ways, its the most radical Bond film: its Roger Moore's first film (a man who has nothing in common with Sean Connery), Bond goes to NY (Harlem of all place), it has a mostly black cast, Q is missing yet we get one of our first real gadgets in the series, I'm pretty sure this was the first film not scored by John Barry and this is the only film to actually deal with the supernatural. The fact that its so unusual is its biggest strength.
I really enjoy the villains though they have very little screen time. Kananga is played brilliantly by Yaphet Kotto and all of his henchmen are very charismatic and likable. In many ways he reminds me of Goldfinger (also directed by Guy Hamilton) in that he has nothing to do with SPECTRE, is sort of a realistic criminal just undertaking a grand scheme and is a very personable, even likable enemy. And he has surreal goons working for him : ) I even enjoy the actor who played JW Pepper. His character has nothing to do with anything and he's sort of annoying, but the actor really played him well.
BAD: This film continues in the vein established by Guy Hamilton's prior films GF and DAF: Bond is working mostly with Americans and in America, Bond is painfully witty at all times and the girl is a bad girl who needs some correcting. The formula only worked in GF and TSWLM and sort of fails here and in TMWTGG.
The script isn't much. One problem with LALD is that its humor isn't as sharp as DAF's. Some humor and attempts to be hip while dealing with the race dynamic just fall flat. Another problem is that nothing is really at stake here for Bond. He seems to only want to lay Solitaire and get back to Britain. He doesn't follow any clues or do any spying or act heroically or show interest in anything. He pretty much goes from one action scene to the next. Kananga and his gang don't do enough besides sell drugs off-screen and kill some agents. There's no sense of adventure in this one for some reason.
The action is very inspired, but it suffers from pretty half-assed direction. The famous boat scene for instance keeps losing momentum when we cut away to pretty slow, comedic scenes involving Southern lawmen. Bond has his big climactic fight with Baron Samedi and it lasts 2 seconds with a weak punch-kick combo. Bond has 3 brief encounters with Kananga and the last is just too short and unbelievable.
Moore isn't too charming or believably deadly here. He never was, but he was more likable in later films. Jane Seymour's acting is pretty bad in some parts. I hate that M and Moneypenny has such a brief scene and there's no Q whatsoever. It is annoying that some black actors have their voices dubbed over by obviously white actors. Very cheesy.
Really mediocre Bond film that's comparable with a cheesy novel thats an easy, brisk read and then you forget most of it. Its a shame because maybe with Connery in one last appearance, a script rewrite and another director, this could have been at least as fun as DAF's best bits.
GOOD: "Live and Let Die" is one of my all time favorite titles and has a great theme song, the first rock song in the series. In many ways, its the most radical Bond film: its Roger Moore's first film (a man who has nothing in common with Sean Connery), Bond goes to NY (Harlem of all place), it has a mostly black cast, Q is missing yet we get one of our first real gadgets in the series, I'm pretty sure this was the first film not scored by John Barry and this is the only film to actually deal with the supernatural. The fact that its so unusual is its biggest strength.
I really enjoy the villains though they have very little screen time. Kananga is played brilliantly by Yaphet Kotto and all of his henchmen are very charismatic and likable. In many ways he reminds me of Goldfinger (also directed by Guy Hamilton) in that he has nothing to do with SPECTRE, is sort of a realistic criminal just undertaking a grand scheme and is a very personable, even likable enemy. And he has surreal goons working for him : ) I even enjoy the actor who played JW Pepper. His character has nothing to do with anything and he's sort of annoying, but the actor really played him well.
BAD: This film continues in the vein established by Guy Hamilton's prior films GF and DAF: Bond is working mostly with Americans and in America, Bond is painfully witty at all times and the girl is a bad girl who needs some correcting. The formula only worked in GF and TSWLM and sort of fails here and in TMWTGG.
The script isn't much. One problem with LALD is that its humor isn't as sharp as DAF's. Some humor and attempts to be hip while dealing with the race dynamic just fall flat. Another problem is that nothing is really at stake here for Bond. He seems to only want to lay Solitaire and get back to Britain. He doesn't follow any clues or do any spying or act heroically or show interest in anything. He pretty much goes from one action scene to the next. Kananga and his gang don't do enough besides sell drugs off-screen and kill some agents. There's no sense of adventure in this one for some reason.
The action is very inspired, but it suffers from pretty half-assed direction. The famous boat scene for instance keeps losing momentum when we cut away to pretty slow, comedic scenes involving Southern lawmen. Bond has his big climactic fight with Baron Samedi and it lasts 2 seconds with a weak punch-kick combo. Bond has 3 brief encounters with Kananga and the last is just too short and unbelievable.
Moore isn't too charming or believably deadly here. He never was, but he was more likable in later films. Jane Seymour's acting is pretty bad in some parts. I hate that M and Moneypenny has such a brief scene and there's no Q whatsoever. It is annoying that some black actors have their voices dubbed over by obviously white actors. Very cheesy.
Really mediocre Bond film that's comparable with a cheesy novel thats an easy, brisk read and then you forget most of it. Its a shame because maybe with Connery in one last appearance, a script rewrite and another director, this could have been at least as fun as DAF's best bits.
Comments
Yaphet Kotto, is brilliant a classy villain. I have strong feelings of affection for LALD as it was the first Bond I was able to talk my older Bro in to taking me to see in the cinema.
I always like to point out to people judging older Bonds to compare then to the other action/thriller movies of the time, IMHO you'll find the Bonds will have more action and stunt sequences and move along with a faster pace then their rivals.Bearing in mind the producers never wanted to be too violent ( as alot of 70's movies were ) as making money is always very important, Look at LTK which didn't get the normal family friendly cert and suffered at the boxoffice for it. where as LALD made a small fortune .
http://apbateman.com
Because as a very young kid I sooooooooooooooooo wanted to be Jason King ( the origional Austin Powers) I used to cut out Moustashes I'd coloured in and stick them to my Upper Lip.
It's a Sunday afternoon at the flicks movie, not an all action rollercoaster intense drug like today's films, so it suffers in that sense. Got to say, it helps to see it thru kid's eyes, it's all a bit Six Million Dollar Man in its feel.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Now that is scary. I bet your friends loved playing that with you.
I wanted to be Steve Austin (6 million dollar man) and had to go to hospital when some electrical fuse wire acting as makeshift bionics got inserted into an artery upon landing a bionic jump off the sofa...
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