Review - The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, as we inch closer and closer to the release of No Time to Die, it's time I talked about my personal favorite James Bond film of the Roger Moore era: The Man with the Golden Gun. 

          So, the movie focuses on James Bond as he has apparently entered into the cross hairs of Francisco Scaramanga, a lethal assassin who uses golden bullets, lives on a private island near Thailand, and has three nipples. Because of this, M takes Bond off of a mission involving a major energy crisis, and allows him to go after Scaramanga before Scaramanga can kill him. Bond then heads to Beirut, where he meets a local belly dancer who was a former flame of Agent 002, who was also killed by Scaramanga, and the dancer kept the bullet as a decorative charm in her belly button. Bond gets it, and has to fight off some goons in an infamous scene where the camera crew can be seen in a reflection in a mirror. 

          Bond takes the bullet to be analyzed by Q, who sends him to Macau, where the manufacturer is located. The manufacturer agrees to take Bond to the drop off location, and that's where Bond sees Scaramanga's girlfriend Andrea Anders, who takes the box of bullets and leaves. Bond is then picked up by some shady cops, who take him to a wrecked ship, where M, Q, and a few other higher-ups have set up a temporary base of operations. The cop who delivered Bond to the ship is a Hong Kong police lieutenant named Hip, who is Bond's ally for this mission. And Hip is a bit of a moron. Bond then arrives in Hong Kong, where he meets another MI6 agent, and this movie's main Bond girl, Mary Goodnight. Don't get me wrong, I like Goodnight fine, but sometimes she acts like a typical dumb blonde throughout the movie. Ugh. 

      So, Bond goes to meet with Scaramanga's associate Hai Fat in Thailand, but is attacked by some of his men, as well as Scaramanga's manservant Nick Nack, but Hai Fat has Bond sent to a local martial arts school, where Bond is able to beat one of the members of the school, but is overwhelmed. Luckily, Hip arrives with his two nieces, who are revealed to me marital arts experts themselves, and they four of them are able to fight back against the martial arts school students. Hip and his nieces take off, but accidentally leave Bond behind. Again, Hip is a moron. Bond does nab a motorized boat and heads down the canal past a familiar face: Sheriff J.W. Pepper, returning from his role in Live and Let Die. 

       Bond meets with Goodnight, and the two of them have dinner for the evening, but Andrea shows up later that night and reveals that she sent the golden bullet to MI6, hoping Bond would bring down Scaramanga, who has killed Hai Fat and taken over his solar energy project using a stolen Solex Agitator. The next day, however, Bond goes to meet Andrea at a kickboxing event, where it's revealed that she has been killed by Scaramanga and Nick Nack. Hip gets the Solex Agitator and gives it to Goodnight, who in an attempt to place a tracker into Scaramanga's car, ends up locked in the trunk with the keys to Bond's car. Damnit Goodnight! So, Bond nabs an AMC, with Sheriff Pepper in the passenger seat, and the two chase after Scaramanga, and end tat a broken bridge, where Bond pulls off an awesome car stunt, but the scene is made cartoonish with a slide whistle sound effect. 

       Anyway, Q is able to triangulate the location of Scaramanga's island, and Bond heads there. Upon arrival, Scaramanga shows him the island's solar power facility, which keeps the island completely self-sufficient. The two are them joined by Goodnight, who is now wandering around Scaramanga's island in a bikini, and the three have a nice lunch prepared by Nick Nack. Bond and Scaramanga agree to have a duel, and Bond confronts Scaramanga in his fun house, and kills him. Meanwhile, Goodnight knocks Scaramanga's solar plant technician into a vat of liquid helium, which begins to cause a meltdown. Damnit Goodnight! 

         Bond and Goodnight retrieve the Solex Agitator, head to Scaramanga's boat, and escape the island. Bond is attacked by Nick Nack, but gets the upper hand, and leaves him in a cage hanging from one of the boat's masts. Bond and Goodnight end up in bed, and I think you get how the movie ends. 

       Okay, so The Man with the Golden Gun did have some silly elements, like the slide whistle over the car stunt, Hip and Goodnight both being pretty damn stupid, but other than that, I like the baseline premise of the movie: Bond vs. Scaramanga. Britain's top spy vs. the world's most lethal assassin. And I gotta say, I really liked Christopher Lee as Scaramanga. Heck, the fact that it's Christopher Lee in the role is part of why Scaramanga is one of my favorite Bond villains. Roger Moore, in his second outing in the role, is great as Bond once again coming off of Live and Let Die, and he's definitely a lot of fun in this movie. Britt Ekland and Maud Adams are great as Goodnight and Andrea, and I really enjoyed Herve Villechaize as Nick Nack. Setting the film in various parts of Asia, including Macau, Hong Kong, and Thailand is, in my opinion, a stroke of genius, as martial arts films were just starting to become really popular at the time, and I think it's great that they capitalized on that. 

         Overall, while my favorite Roger Moore era Bond film, it's nowhere near perfect, so I'm giving The Man with the Golden Gun a rating of 4/5. This is Chuck signing off, and next time I'll be diving into one of my favorite Bond films of the Pierce Brosnan era: GoldenEye.