Webomatica - Latest Comments in Movie Notes: The Man With The Golden Gun

Re: Movie Notes: The Man With The Golden Gun

Slammerworm — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:18:34 -0000

Oh dear. This really is where everything went undeniably pear-shaped for the Bond movie franchise. Ham-fisted direction (that cutesy pennywhistle soundtrack for the bridge jump, for instance), two oddly unappealing Bond Girls, and a badly miscast villain (Christopher Lee just wanders around on 'looming menace' autopilot, phoning it in all the way. He plays his makeout clinch/grope-scenes like a bored physician conducting an examination). Moreover, the entire production boasted a cast with a conspicuous lack of chemistry, and the over-familiar 'mad scientist with secret hideout and super weapon' plot was strictly 1966 bond parody. Scaramanga's 'psychedelic shooting range' was pure Batman, and Herve Villechaize (behold, a strange, mysterious dwarf! Lazy casting shorthand since whenever for an automatically 'exotic, weird, slightly sinister' henchman) with his annoyingly affected 'wind-up toy' walk was a whacky swingin' Sixties trope too far (wasn't there a guy like that in Patrick McGoohan's 1967 TV show 'The Prisoner'?). The Eastern locale is squandered by a stupidly racist script (oh yeah, big, white Bond can beat up any and all trained martial arts types), and the Southern baccy-chawin' Good 'Ol Boy light relief was similarly overplayed and odious. In short, this was actually a mid-1960s Bond parody movie made half a decade too late. By the release of The Man With The Golden Gun, James Bond had gone from inspiring Derek Flint to becoming him.

Re: Movie Notes: The Man With The Golden Gun

webomatica — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:38:26 -0000

True, the Thailand scenery is very appealing. I think is now a tourist attraction?

I can understand why having been to the location makes you like a film better. I found A View To A Kill more interesting because it partly takes place in San Francisco, where I work. And then a lot of people think that is one of the worst Bond films ever.

Thanks for visiting and commenting!

Re: Movie Notes: The Man With The Golden Gun

Ben — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:49:03 -0000

The Man with the Golden Gun was one of my favorite Roger Moore's because it was filmed in Thailand and I've been to Thailand. I also liked Christopher Lee being the bond villian. The third nipple, that was stupid. The movie was great, the scenery was great, the plot was a bit off at some points.