Live and Let Die

Roger Moores fun and colorful debut as 007

Agent 007 (Roger Moore) travels from Harlem to the Caribbean to Louisiana to stop a black heroin mogul (Yaphet Kotto) fortified with a multifarious organization and a lovely tarot card reader (Jane Seymour).

This was Moores dynamic debut as Bond. He did 7 films for the franchise in 13 years from 1973-1985. The tone of Live and Let Die is similar to Sean Connerys final canon Bond flick, Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Moores stint is my favorite run in the series with all seven films being kinetic, amusing, scenic and just all-around entertaining. Theres not one stinker in the bunch and they were all profitable at the box office.

Aside from the picturesque globetrotting, Live and Let Die fea...

By my clock, this era started with Diamonds are Forever... the era of the Silly Bond.

But Diamonds are Forever was a Connery Bond and it kind of sucked because of it.

So... Live and Let Die is the first of the GOOD silly Bond movies.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm on team Connery. Team Connery all the way... but Live and Let Die is still a GREAT 007 film despite the total change in mood and persona.

It moved away from the heartless assassin to pick up a more comedic and Fx driven fair that worked better for Moore.

And because it is a new 007, the fish out of water setting works to drive it home. It's not the first time 007 set foot in the United States, but it is Harlem in 1973 and it is The Big Easy, and these are places that a...

This 007 film aged very well. 007 follows in the footsteps of three prior agents who were assassinated. There's a lot of "jive" in this one, since this is the one where the villain is black, and he uses mostly black helpers, so the white James Bond really sticks out. And thus we get a lot more comedy here. There's a bit of a condescending attitude towards Harlem here, and too much respect for the few who are the criminals of Harlem, but this is a "comedy" 007 adventure. The beautiful Solitaire is the love interest, and there's a lot of belief in the supernatural here. That's part of the "condescending" part. This movie was very bad in 1973, but it aged well, because in 1973 the "red neck sheriff" was such a trite cliche that one had t...

When I first watched this opening outing for Roger Moore in the "007" role, I wasn't very impressed. Now, when I watch it though, I appreciate more the sophisticated and subtle approach that the star brought to the role. Gone is much of the chauvinism of the Connery days, replaced by a more subtle, humorous, playful style whilst still delivering a good adventure film. This time, following the deaths of three other agents, "Bond" finds himself investigating a dodgy Caribbean ruler "Katanga" (Yaphet Kotto) who is using the prophetic skills of his tarot reader "Solitaire" (a rather beautiful but simpering, charmless, Jane Seymour) and a great deal of heroin to dominate the global narcotics market. It's got it's fair share of gadgets and one of...