Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent upgrade for Roger Moore's entertaining Bond debut, 3 Nov 2008
Fondly remembered by many as Moore's best effort, you have to be in the right mood to see this today and willing to make a mental trip back in time to the early 70s when it was made. It's probably dated more than almost any other Bond film - even bearing in mind that the seventies was the decade that fashion forgot, the sideburns and flares on display here are pretty vicious and, as the first film since Dr No to enter Bond's flat, it is deeply distressing to note that he is a slave to Formica and has chicken-shaped pate moulds on the wall. As swell as being the first Bond film since Goldfinger not to be shot in 2.35:1 widescreen, more significantly it also marks the point at which the series started imitating other trends rather than setting them - in this case blaxploitation pictures, which is quite an achievement you're your hero is white. Beyond its voodoo trappings little of the plot of Ian Fleming's novel survives as Shaft - sorry, Bond - takes on the drug-pushing president of a small island in Jamaica, but it's certainly one of the most action-packed of the series and never outstays its welcome the way some later efforts would.
Taking barely 11 minutes to get into some serious raised eyebrow action, there is perhaps a bit too much of Simon Templar in Moore's performance, but there is also a harder edge to his Bond that was soon smoothed away. He has a very cynical attitude towards Jane Seymour's virginal Solitaire), using her callously as bait. In a way it's a blessing that the film was not tailored specifically for Moore as later efforts would be, relying more on his rarely tapped abilities as an actor than his star persona. It doesn't hurt that director Guy Hamilton visibly raises his game from his lazy helming of Diamonds Are Forever.
This also shows the first sign of breaking up set pieces to add throwaway visual gags. This frequently detracts from the nifty and still very impressive speedboat chase, possibly the best sustained action sequence in the series until the free-running chase in Casino Royale, as Clifton James does his Deputy Dawg impersonation while the odd bit of slapstick comedy removes much of the threat. At times it is hard to tell which lines are meant to be funny and which ones aren't. "Great disguise, Bond - white face in Harlem" is pretty obviously the former, but surely the unintentional dialogue high point has to be Tony Award-winning Shakespearian actor Yaphet Kotto - curiously seeming to give three performances, starting out as Marlon Brando before easing into the genial villainy - uttering the immortal "Names is for tombstones, baby. Take him out and waste him."
The extras from the original single-disc DVD release are all retained for this repackaged Ultimate Edition 2-disc set - including the documentary with amazing outtakes of the alligator stunt going wrong that prove that the filmmakers used real gators - as well as some welcome new additions. The 1964 extract from Millicent Martin's TV show with a young Moore sending up James Bond is fun, and there's an intriguing 1973 documentary shot on the set. The print may be a damaged mixture of faded color and black and white footage, but the content more than compensates, from Moore quipping "If Guy Hamilton thinks I'm doing that again, he can get the other feller back, I'm telling you" to the depressing sign of the times that even then the film industry was still partially segregated, with the Black Stuntmen's Association having to prove that you didn't need blacked-up white stuntmen to double for black actors. The trailers are among the best of the series, promising 'More excitement, more action, more danger and more - much more - Roger Moore.' Better still, the legendary Milk Marketing Board commercial that was so cruelly undermined by Moore's entertaining account of filming Roger Moore as James Bond, is also included, featuring much manufactured footage of the cast downing pints of milk after dangerous stunts!
Highly recommended
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE! Best Bond Ever., 14 Dec 2008
I would just like to say that Live And Let Die is in my mind the best of the entire series. It has all the ingredients of a bond movie great bond girls (solitare) action and stunts (the crocodile island stuff) and in my eyes the best bond in R. Moore. All in all a great movie to be seen time and time again.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Premium Bond No. 5, 28 Jun 2009
Roger Moore's debut in the role of James Bond is a pleasingly dated blaxploitation pastiche, which, though it has not aged well, still endures as an entertainingly oddball 1970s' crime thriller. The great Yaphet Kotto makes a terrific villain, Jane Seymour is gorgeous as Solitaire, and the alligator farm sequence and resulting speedboat chase are two of the series' most famous scenes. Also, Paul McCartney's theme song is possibly the series' very best.
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