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The Man With The Golden Gun (Special Edition)

The Man With The Golden Gun (Special Edition)

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good second Bond film for Moore
Review: Roger Moore returns to the role of 007 in this excellent follow up to Live and Let Die. The film is certainly dependant on 007's evil counterpart, the hitman Francisco Scaramanga, played by Christopher Lee. He is the perfect match for Bond, which adds more excitement than any to the film. Bond finds himself racing to recover the Solex Agitator, which converts solar power to energy and has fallen into the hands of Scaramanga. There are very well done fight sequences and boat-car chases in hong kong and thailand. the redneck sherriff J.W. Pepper returns from Live and Let Die, but fails to provide the same humor as before. The film did try a little too hard to be funny like its preceding movie, thus it comes off a little cooky at some points. The Man with the Golden Gun Leads to an awesome climax in Scaramanga's island lair, where he and Bond face off in a "duel between titans", which also includes Scaramanga's servant Nick-Nack, a pint sized character who also tries to fool and beat Scaramanga in his deadly games of cat and mouse. With suspense, some humor, and exciting twists and turns, The Man with the Golden Gun is one Bond you won't want to miss!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: FLAT LOOKING TRANSFER: A SO/SO DVD
Review: More was expected from Roger Moore after his initial outting as James Bond in "Live and Let Die". In "The Man With The Golden Gun", Bond is hunting a paid assassin, Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) who is being set up by his mistress (Maude Adams). There's a lot to recommend this film, now many years removed from all the hype that preceeded it. But it should be noted that this is the first Bond movie in the series to heavily rely on gadgets and stunts to carry the plot. The chase sequences are improbable, the one liners, biting and hilarious and the over-all effect, cartoonish at best. Still, the formula proves irresistable.
The same can't be said for MGM's lack luster DVD presentation. The anamorphically enhanced movie suffers from faded colors, soft focus, orangy flesh tones and a considerable amount of film grain. Exterior colors often register a muddy haze of brownish gray while interior scenes tend to be generally better balanced. Contrast levels are, at times, too low. The over all visual presentation is digitally harsh, suffering from pixelization and edge enhancement throughout. The audio is stereo surround, but just barely - sounding strident, forced and front channel directed.
Once again, MGM gets top marks for its menu design and extra features on this Bond movie. Two documentaries that are extensive, an audio commentary, trailers, t.v. spots and promotional stills and art round out the extras. Still, it's the visual presentation of the movie that should be top priority.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Shades Of Gold
Review: The Man With The Golden Gun, Roger Moore's second time out as British superspy James Bond, is notable for several reasons. Chief among them, is the fact that, this was the last film in the series based on the work of creator Ian Flemming. It also boasts a strong villian, his memorable henchman, and two more Bond beauties.

Bond (Moore) learns that the lethal assassin, known as Scaramanga (Christoher Lee), is out to kill our hero. Bond teams with agent Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland) to track him down. Their travels bring them face to face with Nick Nack (Fantasy Island's Hervé Villechaize), Scaramanga's faithful servant and Andrea (Maud Adams), Scaramanga's tough but haunted lover and assistant (Adams returns to the series a second time as the title character in Octopussy). And speaking of returns, Clifton James, the southern sheriff J.W. Pepper from Live and Let Die, pops up out of nowhere on vacation. As It turns out, Scaramanga is holding the world's energy hostage, when he commendeers The Solex Agitator and only wants to face Bond in a duel

Made at the height of the 70's energy crisis, this film has all of the Bond trademarks, and director Guy Hamilton knows what he's doing for a fun ride. I have to say though, this time, the villian saves the film--Lee and Moore have a great time battling each other and a plot that loses its way at times. As fun as a Clifton James return may have been back then--it's totally wasted here and now seems quite inappropriate today.

The extras on the special edition DVD are pretty good. They are set up the same way as on most other discs in the series. The audio commentary from Hamilton, the Cast and Crew, is culled together from various sources, taken for what it is, the track is solid. Far better though are the two documentaries on the disc. Inside The Man With The Golden Gun, takes a look behind the scenes from development to release, with solid interviews from stars and production folk. While Double-0 Stuntmen is an in depth look at how all of the movie's derring do came together. You can also see a stills gallery, theatrical trailers, original TV Ads, and radio spots to top off the DVD bonus material. Last but not least though is MGM's standard "collectible" trivia booklet.

The Man With The Golden Gun has it's share of distractions...Still thanks to a few memorable villians and other assets it's still recommended for any 007-phile.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of my favorite Bond movies
Review: I found all of the Roger Moore ones the best. LALD, TMWTGG, TSWLM, Moonraker, FYEO, Octopussy, and AVTAK. I know many people think this is the worst out of the Bond series, but I found The Man With The Golden Gun a fun movie to watch. Frankly I enjoyed every minute of it. I think the reason why people don't like it is because there is very little action in this one which in my opinion is a poor reason to dislike it. The acting was great and the scenery was very pretty. My favorite charactor (although he is sort of a bad guy) is Nick Nack, (performed by Herve Villechaize) Scaramanga's butler. Scaramanga is the main villan (performed by Christopher Lee). Scaramanga has his own private little island complete with a shelter, of course, a funhouse and a solar power plant. Scaramanga is obviosly the man with the golden gun. His golden gun fires out these very expensive golden bullets. When these golden bullets are fired the instantly go right through whatever they are fired at. Unless you're looking for a Bond movie with a lot of action, buy this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Intensely Groovy Theatre of The Bizzare
Review: Folks, listen to me: This is the best Bond movie ever made, and Roger Moore is the best Bond. You can argue, but chew on this, Admiral Skeptic: Name one movie that Sean Connery made that had a midget, a flying car, a giant laser, and Bond threatening to blow a man's genitals off with a rifle. That's right; there aren't any. Checkmate, Connery.

This film is a brilliantly surreal entry into the Bond series. It's a clear departure from Connery's films, where he had to stop the KGB from destroying the world. Moore is called in to stop an overpaid hitman and his midget from selling solar power to the UN (or something similar.) Adapted as I am for describing awesomeness, I can't begin to describe this film's grovvy factor, but I can tell you it's somewhere between ChocoTacos and regular tacos.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My Golden Gun against your Walther PPK, 50/50 chance each!
Review: The 9th James Bond movie. This was a project in the wakes of production immediately following LIVE AND LET DIE, and also marking the end of the partnership between producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Fortunately their last effort in this film combines the essential cutting-edge gadgetry, beautiful women, and astonishing action sequences beautifully mixing intrigue and excitement in the story. This also brought relevance to the Cold War-era in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE with the Solex Agitator weapon, and a unique theme in 007's duel with a mesmerizing villain in contract hitman Francisco Scaramanga, as portrayed by Christopher Lee. After a decade of appearances as Hammer Films' Count Dracula, and a close partnership with Roger Moore, Lee brings the usual deadly authority to the role he has perfected over and over again. The real treat is two gorgeous Bond girls in Britt Ekland and Maud Adams, who later appeared in OCTOPUSSY.

THE ASSIGNMENT: Bond's search for a missing solar-energy scientist is placed on hold when a golden bullet engraved with the initials 007 arrives at headquarters. M takes this as indication that Francisco Scaramanga, the highest paid assassin in the business, has Bond's number. Bond is ordered to either resign or hunt Scaramanga. His only lead is the death of Agent 002. His search begins in Beirut, with contacts ranging from a belly dancer to a gun maker to Scaramanga's mistress Andrea Anders. Things gradually become more complicated as Scaramanga is watching Bond's every move. When Bond makes contact with M in the Hong Kong harbor, he learns the scientist developed a small solar agitator into pure energy, and is planning to defect to the East. He met his death at Scaramanga's hands, and now the solex is for Scaramanga's own deadly purposes.

THE VILLAINS: Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga, Herve Villechaize as midget assistant Nick Nack, Richard Loo as Hai Fat, and Chan Yiu Lam as Chula the ninja.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! BUY IT!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: So help me God, I liked this movie.
Review: The Man With The Golden Gun is, in my opinion, one of the most,if not the most underated Bond film in the entire James Bond series. It is definitly the most underrated of the Moore Bonds. I believe that Live And Let Die deserves the harsh critism which TMWTGG receives. I think that LALD is one of the worst Bond films. Note: I give LALD two stars and TMWTGG three and a half stars. This film has great locations ( Hong Kong, and a cool island chain in the South China Sea) , a GREAT villian ( Fransisco Scaramanga -the incredable Christopher Lee- , The Man With The Golden Gun himself ), and a cool story ( which would have been much more interesting if the filmmakers would have taken it more seriously). Also, the title song, "The Man With The Golden Gun" is actually pretty cool. The lyrics are OK, but the tune is great. However, it's not the best Bond song; that honor goes to "Nobody Does It Better" from The Spy Who Loved Me. On the other hand, this film does have it's drawbacks. Like Live And Let Die, it is an action Bond. Unlike LALD, it actually has a plot. LALD is nothing but a two-hour chase scene. The two Bond girls, Andrea Anders ( Maud Adams ) and the ditzy Miss Goodnight ( the nausiating Brit Ekland) are somewhat bland. At the end I hoping that Nick Nack would kill Goodnight, but leaving James alone on a boat with an evil midget is how you end a Bond movie, if you know what I mean.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Last but not Least of Ian Fleming's Bonds...
Review: This Bond, shot at a time when youthful science-fiction hadn't yet turned into narrow "science-faction" remains dreamy, elegant, distant, stylish, subjective, outlandish, an intelligent and romantic island of fantasy... The scenes are a pleasure for the eye, and the gadgets are still mind-tickling, as we haven't yet reached that depraved era of pseudo-scientific vulgar objectivity (as in the latter Bond series, for example)... nor do we have a cop-Bond, as with Timothy Dalton... neither a little tough-guy with piercing eyes, as in the Brosnan series... This Bond remains somehow between the Connery and Lazenby/Moore episodes, in that it has definitively a lot of style and class, yet includes some (controlled, soft-spun) action, a reasonable panoply of gadgetry, and a fair amount of cold-blooded British humour. In the end, the gently out-of-time atmosphere appears to be almost as much James West as it is James Bond.

In this almost Hamiltonian eerie, James appears pretty adventurous and humorous, yet moral, distinguished, self-detached, while he faces a spooky sophisticated darker-self in the person of three-nippled Scaramanga (Christopher Lee, alias Dracula), in a movie where even the villains appear to be somehow more gentleman-minded than the heroes of the latter Bond series (where ugly realism alas only too often ends up stealing the show). There's also a plenty of great exotic and scenic shots in Thailand and the Far-East, which somehow propel you in a world of dreams and fantasy. I especially liked the oblique sunken Queen Mary decorum, which seemed almost surrealistic, and the villain's den artifact-decorum somehow reminded me of the Wild Wild West TV-series, starring Robert Conrad.

It is a commonly acknowledged opinion that Gentlemen Prefer Bonds such as Goldfinger, Dr No and Thunderball, but Golden Gun could, with all reasonable fairness, also be included in some of those early and memorable old Bonds (vintage Connery or Lazenby). Note that this was actually the last Bond to feature the (by-now cherished) Harry Saltzman - Albert Broccoli collaboration, and this is today quite heavily felt, as the then following Bonds somehow all lacked the elegant, essential, gentlemanly, romantic and quirky sparks of those early Bonds (and matters seem to be getting only worse, if not clearly out of hand) (James Bond as another victim of the modern-age?).

The Man With A Golden Gun was also the last Bond movie to be based on a true and authentic Ian Fleming novel. Well, maybe those die-hard Bond-movie-makers will one day (tomorrow? another day?) realize that the Fleming reservoir has been tapped unto the last droplet, instead of just killing time with more and more flawed episodes... Goodnight boys and girls (Britt Ekland was, by the way, one of the most memorable and gently-subtle Bond-girl), that was it for Ian Fleming's Bond... which was to be followed by the Hun's invasion of Vin Diesel and consort, fast, furious and brutal (to say the least)...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Golden Dud
Review: The 007 series continued its downhill slide in "Man With the Golden Gun." Once again, Roger Moore sleepwalks through the proceedings, which gives Christopher Lee carte blanche in terms of scene stealing. The film starts promisingly, then plummets to absurd depths. Not as bad as "View to a Kill," but pretty close.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Hamilton was the worst 007 director....
Review: I can not talk for Guy Hamilton, but he clearly saw the James Bond films in a much different way then any other director did, because he did the least suucessful films in the series. Golden Gun really suffers from both a poor script and some poor casting choices. It was clear from the start that Maud Adams should have been cast as the main romantic interest. She should have been the agent that helps oo7 while the other one could have been the one that meets her demise with a golden bulliet, but that did not happen.
John Barry score is also poor, the models and effects work look a bit fake, done on a cheaper budget, and we yawn by the time 007 and the Christopher Lee character have their duel at the end. Very poor movie.


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