The saga continues. After a false fresh start, it’s Roger Moore’s turn to step into Bond’s shoes with Live and Let Die. 007 is tasked with solving the mystery of three murders across the globe, all MI6 agents. As ever this takes him all over the world and he meets bad guys, women, shoots guns etc etc. This is the eighth film in the series and we’ve learned by now that it’s not about what he does, it’s about how he does it. Despite being superficially the same as the others, this is a genuine change of direction for the franchise. The camp tone that was so irritating in Diamonds are Forever actually works in Moore’s hands. He’s the definition of nonchalant. While Connery was always ready, clenched fist and hand on gun, Moore gets out of danger with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. It sounds silly but he’s so good at it one can’t help but be charmed. The other changes they make are more hit and miss. There’s no crazy villain trying to take over the world, just a gangster running a drug business. However, even with the apparent simplicity of the story it still manages to be overly convoluted. Trying to ‘get real’ hurts the film too. The villains simply aren’t that threatening. Not that everyone should be Dr. No but it’s hard to imagine why they send Bond on a errand that frankly should be a matter for the local police. The producers also clearly attempted a shameless cash grab by imitating the then popular Blaxploitation theme. Bondsploitation. It can be fun to watch at times for the fish-out-of-water value but mostly it makes the film feel too much of its time. No one really wants to see Bond tackling the ‘issues’. There’s a lot of good though. Jane Seymour stands out as the ‘Bond girl’. She’s only 20 years old here and it really shows. She manages to lend a genuine vulnerable air to the role without hamming it up. However, it is slightly unsettling to watch Bond shamelessly try to screw a teenager using some rigged tarot cards. He’s only one step away from slipping a pill into her drink… Also good is the theme tune. It’s the first break from a big band style song and it’s a true classic. McCartney still plays it live on stage. There are some very slick action sequences in Live and Let Die. It’s a shame they are often swamped by really boring ones or just wind up being overly long and losing our interest. The boat chase is the best example of this. It feels like it’s never going to end, we don’t really know why there even is a boat chase, never mind where it’s actually supposed to be happening (the Bayou I presume?). A shame, because it is punctuated by moments of true greatness. One of the boat jumps broke a Guinness world record. It’s ambitious footage spoiled by a very poor edit. Live and Let Die has not aged well. It’s confusing and keeps trying to bring race into the plot for no reason. However, one can’t help but enjoy Moore’s performance and if this film does anything, it makes us want to see where he goes with the character. http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/06/05/liveandletdie/

When you rate a Bond movie, so much of it depends on who you prefer in the lead role. I grew up with Roger Moore, but I prefer Connery. Moore's bond is a little too smooth and a little too old most of the time. "Live and Let Die" features a lot of good things, including a killer boat chase, an alligator bridge, and the best theme song of any Bond movie. Nothing's wrong with Moore as Bond, it's just that his presence always makes things lighter, which is out of place when you're dealing with Kananga's (Yaphet Kotto) ruthless gang.

Roger Moore is surprisingly adept in his first run as legendary super-spy James Bond. While failed replacement George Lazenby may have better looked the part, Moore's understanding of the nuances and intangibles that define the character are dead-on. He feels cocksure, smooth and cunning, albeit not quite as deadpan as Sean Connery, and that makes him quite easy to swallow as the new leading man. Unfortunately, his first outing is not among the character's best. Overwhelmed with trendy stereotypes from the blaxploitation era, those connections seem mismatched and strained, as if the series is trying too hard to be fresh and contemporary at its own expense. Far too many outlandish characters crowd the screen, too, from the body-painted voodoo lord Baron Samedi to the gimmicky, iron-clawed henchman Tee Hee Johnson (who, naturally, giggles in every single scene). We've got a tarot card-reading virgin dubbed Solitaire, a soft-spoken behemoth named Whisper, an overzealous hayseed sheriff plucked straight from The Dukes of Hazzard and a villainous mastermind who specializes in Mission: Impossible-styled makeup effects. It's too much, a wash of color so rich that the picture turns grey. Bond's gizmos are sadly downplayed (poor Q doesn't even get to show his face), while the plot seemingly exists only to transition Moore from one drawn-out chase to the next. I'm still not entirely sure where Mr. Big's endgame was meant to carry him. Even the classic McCartney theme song, which I love on its own merit, is a bad fit for the series. An effective opening statement for Roger Moore's validity in the role, it's otherwise a groan-worthy batch of bad ideas and missed connections.

> ,,125th—you got a honkey on your tail." ... > ,,Get me a make on a white pimpmobile." There's no point in reiterating everything @drqshadow said, as I agree with every word. My pros are the cool white "pimpmobile", the profusion of stupid puns in the first quarter (Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell play off Moore and the antics of the opening scene to high humor.) And, of course, Roger Moore and Jane Seymour. Good lord, twenty-two-year-old Jane Seymour; I'm convinced she was the most beautiful woman on the planet in the seventies. She also happens to play her role perfectly, her regal manner and accent more than commensurate with Moore's own savoir faire and refinement. Brit Ekland is a hilariously feckless and girlishly helpless Bond girl in the next film—a tart. But Seymour is like a put upon fairytail princess in an adventure story. She gets a rather dazzling array of stylish costumes, but the camera never seems to spend enough time on her. She's also got the best cleavage I've ever seen. It's so easy to get wrong, but they really knew how to do it in the seventies. Alas, that's about it as far as good things I have to say about the film. It should have been 30 to 40 minutes shorter. The belabored chase sequences of earlier Bonds (the only thing I remember disliking about Lazenby's installment) are egregious here. Seriously, just skip the entire boat chase sequence, and the stupid sheriff. The Blacksploitation stuff is something that I don't really have a frame of reference for, aside from seeing the wheeze-inducing _Black Dynamite_. Suffice to say it could make for some uncomfortable viewing. There's also some uneven and right out awful attempts at acting. I have no idea where they got Hendry from, but she's clearly not an actress, and it's bewildering how much screen time she has. There's some decent photography to be found, but that depends upon the tone to have the intended effect. Unfortunately, the scoring is plain terrible. When the film really needs it it's nowhere to be found, and the way the title theme is used is just poor. The opening naked lady sequence is likewise one of the worst of the franchise. The last shot with the woman waving at... the clouds? It just looks like they found a naked drunk white college girl who was swaying to music in her head. You can tell in the good ones that they got dancers for those shots. Not so here. My evergreen pet peeve with the 'classic' Bonds is the trope of Bond getting captured and *not* killed, often after being reckless. I lost count of how many times he gets caught in the voodoo web in this film. He's constantly getting captured. They thankfully lampshade the hell out of it in the most hilarious way possible in _Man With The Golden Gun_. Really, though, the whole thing just never once begins to approach "cool" until the final showdown in the villain's lair. But even that turns out lame and goofy. But by god is Jane Seymour gorgeous and making all kinds of delightful expressions and sounds the whole time.