From Amazon.com
The British superspy with a license to kill takes on his dark underworld double, a classy assassin who kills with golden bullets at $1 million a hit. Roger Moore, in his second outing as James Bond, meets Christopher Lee's Scaramanga, one of the most magnetic villains in the entire series, in this entertaining but rather wan entry in the 007 sweepstakes. Bond's globetrotting search takes him to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and finally China, where Scaramanga turns his island retreat into a twisted theme park for a deadly game of wits between the gunmen, moderated by Scaramanga's diminutive man Friday Nick Nack (
Fantasy Island's Hervé Villechaize). Britt Ekland does her best as the most embarrassingly inept Bond girl in 007 history, a clumsy, dim agent named Mary Goodnight who looks fetching in a bikini, while Maud Adams is Scaramanga's tough but haunted lover and assistant (she returns to the series as the title character in
Octopussy). Clifton James, the redneck sheriff from
Live and Let Die, makes an embarrassing and ill-advised appearance as a racist tourist who briefly teams up with 007 in what is otherwise the film's highlight, a high-energy chase through the crowded streets of Bangkok that climaxes with a breathtaking midair corkscrew jump. Bond and company are let down by a lazy script, but Moore balances the overplayed humor with a steely performance and Lee's charm and enthusiasm makes Scaramanga a cool, deadly, and thoroughly enchanting adversary.
--Sean Axmaker
Review
Roger Moore's second time in the role of James Bond is an improvement over Live and Let Die, but still suffers from a lot of the same problems. Like its predecessor, The Man With the Golden Gun is overlong, suffers from a rambling plotline, and chases the cinematic trends of the day in a too-obvious fashion (the kung fu set piece that occurs in the midsection is a now-dated concession to the mid-'70s martial arts film boom). However, its biggest problem is its overreliance on campy humor. Potentially exciting boat and car chases get weighed down with uninspired slapstick and Bond's relationship with Mary Goodnight plays like a bad subplot from a particularly tired British sex farce. Despite these key flaws, The Man With the Golden Gun has a few strong elements that make it worthwhile for the Bond aficionado; there is plenty of action, some dazzling sets (especially Scaramanga's funhouse-styled lair), and John Barry's lush musical score is exotic and alluring. Best of all, Christopher Lee makes an intelligent and genuinely menacing villain as Scaramanga. The scene where he meets James Bond and tells the story of how he became an assassin manages to be darkly witty and unsettling all at once thanks to Lee's subtly intense performance. In the end, The Man With the Golden Gun is probably a bit too leisurely paced and dated in its style for audiences raised on modern action fare, but it provides enough solid thrills to please the Bond fanatic. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
![License to Kill [Blu-ray]](http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/518oHTLBuPL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Man With the Golden Gun [Blu-ray]](http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/51YShmqfJML._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
