Roger Moore returns for the ninth film in the series. Bond gets a golden bullet in the mail with his name on it and takes it to be a threat from Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), an assassin who has a golden gun. Bonds sets off to find him and take him out before Scaramanga does the same to him.

This is a decent premise. Bond is anything but a secret agent at this point so it makes sense that someone would know who he is and want him dead. A battle of wits wouldn’t hurt after eight films following the same basic template.

How, then, does this end up being one of the worst films we’ve seen so far?

Whilst the light hearted tone sort-of worked in Live and Let Die, here things go way over the line. They give the villain three nipples, and we see them. There’s an entire scene with the clutzy sheriff from the last film. Bond gives someone a monster wedgie. The list goes on. None of this is funny at all. Not even in the “so bad it’s good” sense. It is boring, sloppy film making.

One scene sums up the whole film nicely. Towards the end Bond gets into a car chase and they pull off a very impressive 360 flip in a car. It’s an incredibly difficult stunt to do, but here it’s flawless. Why then, did they play a swanee whistle over the top? They had ONE good scene, and they pissed all over it.

The performances are lacklustre. Moore has dropped the charm and carefree attitude of the last film and instead tries to channel Sean Connery’s brute-ish persona. This does not work for him and gives Bond a slightly unpleasant tone.

Christopher Lee does manage to generate some interest in his wealthy hitman character, but he’s a bit of a ham. In a different setting he would have been a good villain but here he’s carrying the film, and it stands out too much.

Nobody wants to watch two old men floundering about yet Hamilton seems only too happy to provide this.

Britt Ekland plays the female lead, MI6 agent Mary Goodnight. She has striking good looks that stand out on-screen however she gets royally screwed by the writers who have her play a moronic, clumsy, dim-witted blonde. It makes her unappealing and makes it difficult for Moore to act alongside her; unlike Connery he’s better when he charms women that are smarter than him into doing things, rather than just slapping them about like part of the furniture.

Once again they are ignoring the fact that the most entertaining & compelling women in these films are those who can stand alone.

It wasn’t just Ekland who lost out, The Man with the Golden Gun is so sadistically boring we are lulled to sleep as an audience.

Much like how they tried to mimic the popular blaxploitation genre last time round, here they are going after Kung-Fu movies. It’s a shit-show of epic proportions. It’s hard to tell if this is parody or just a shameless knock-off, but it doesn’t matter; there are 30 minutes of dreary fight scenes that could have been cut straight out of the film.

It doesn’t help that the whole thing revolves around a solar death cannon, again. This time it’s “harnessing solar power” and the laser is on the ground rather than in space, but it’s still sun-based shit that makes other shit explode.

Even the MacGuffin looks like a cassette tape, the same device used in Diamonds are Forever.

The only difference is that Scaramanga killed the inventor of the machine, and now doesn’t know how it works or how to operate it. Bond seems to be an expert on the subject however. This is a sort-of funny idea but it doesn’t exactly make for a thrilling climax…

Nothing works in this film. The music (worst theme tune so far by quite some way), the direction, the editing - it’s all second-rate work made in too much of a hurry.

At this point it would not have been surprising if they had pulled the plug on the whole thing. The franchise showed promise with Moore’s new Bond, but it’s taken a real nose-dive here. The Man with the Golden Gun is forgettable dross; not fun, not clever and not entertaining in the slightest.

http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/06/10/themanwiththegoldengun/

Sometimes a film is more than just what you see on the screen. I will always recall this fondly as it was the first film I ever saw in a cinema that wasn't a cartoon - and I really enjoyed it. This time "007" receives a rather intriguing golden bullet through the post. After some detective work he concludes that he is a target of he eponymous character - "Scaramanger" (Christopher Lee) who charges $1m per hit. Why, though? Off to Hong Kong he goes, and soon his own dangers are intertwined with a perilous search for a "solex" - a revolutionary gadget that can convert solar energy into electricity. Of course the ending is never in doubt, but Guy Hamilton makes the most of an on-form Roger Moore with plenty of action. There is also enough light-heartedness - not least the canal urchin with his teak elephant and "bloody tourist" and some engaging - if very of their time - interventions from Clifton James returning in his role as the imbecilic sheriff "J.W. Pepper". We have two "Bond" girls - Britt Ekland as the light and fluffy "Goodnight" with Maud Adams ("Miss Anders") the unloved and unhappy girlfriend of the gunman who tries to help "Bond" stay alive, and of course there is the legend that is "Nick Nack" (Hervé Villechaize) who at three foot tall, provides much of the menace and a fair degree of the humour throughout. The scenarios give the photography a chance to shine - beautiful Thai locations, some kick boxing and a fun river boat chase before an suitably pyrotechnic denouement. One of my favourite Bond films - well paced and with a strong baddie. Under-rated, I think - well worth a watch.

This was an unfinished work by Ian Fleming.
So there was even more leeway than usual.
However, that matters little to a viewer.
This 007 film is very different than any others, because Bond doesn't battle a big organizaiton. He's battling basically one man, the man with the golden gun.
The "golden gun" of Christopher Lee is a specially made weapon, and Bond is told he is to be a victim of this assassin.
He later learns he wasn't intended to be the victim.
Meanwhile, he does venture into the Orient and gets into a fight with an entire karate school.
He runs away. Good man.
And he meets the red neck sheriff of a previous film, who provides great comic relief.
I said in the review of that prior film (Live and Let Die) that at the time, the red neck sheriff was a horribly trite cliche, but today it is a fresh bit of humor, and so this film has aged very well.
I don't think the scenery is quite as exotic or beautiful as in most Bond films, but it passes.
While this film pales in comparison with most 007 films from its era, it is still better than almost all of the 21sth century Bond movies. It just isn't as dull. There is a lot of action and adventure.

You get as much pleasure out of killing as I do, so why don't you admit it?

The Man with the Golden Gun is directed by Guy Hamilton and adapted to screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz from the Ian Fleming novel. It stars Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Soon-Taik-Oh, Richard Loo and Clifton James. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Ted Moore & Oswald Morris.

Bond 9 and 007 is distracted from his pursuit of the Solex Agitator when it appears he has been targeted for death by famous assassin Francisco Scaramanga.

This would be the last Bond movie to be produced by the partnership of Broccoli and Saltzman, the latter of which was the one to leave. Perhaps they fought about what direction Moore's Bond should be taking? Because The Man with the Golden Gun is not a fitting film for them to part on, their fall out most likely impacting on why this is a pretty unadventurous entry in the James Bond franchise. The film plays more as a slapstick comedy than an action adventure. The script is uninspired, with the characters of Mary Goodnight (Ekland) and Sheriff Pepper (James) reaching new lows for Bond allies, while some of the situations that arise are just bizarre and lazy. The latter statement of which applies big time to the weak finale.

However, even average Bond films have value somewhere in the mix. Here there's some grit in Moore's performance and Lee's Scaramanga is one of the series' most interesting villains. Maud Adams is given a good character to work from, her Andrea Anders is intriguing and very much a live wire in the plot, it's a good performance that would see Adams rewarded with the lead lady role in Octopussy (1983). Villechaize's Nick Nack, Scaramanga's right hand man/helper is a unique villain, though this is spoilt somewhat by a daft final confrontation with Bond. There's a brilliant car stunt performed by Bumps Willard, done in one take, it alone deserved to be in a better film.

Elsewhere. Barry is back on musical score duties, providing an Oriental tinted arrangement. Sadly Lulu's title theme song is instantly forgettable and lyrically feels like it was written in 5 minutes. Locations are sumptuous, with Macau, Hong Kong and Thailand put to great use by the team, and the gadgetry is kept to minimum which allows us to enjoy the one or two inventive modes of transport used within the piece. The box office was $98 million, a considerable take for sure but still some $63 million down on the previous Bond adventure. With critics and fans considering the film a let down, questions were again raised as to if Bond was loosing his appeal? With Saltzman, Hamilton and Mankiewicz bowing out of the franchise, would there be a turnaround in Bond's fortunes? Would Moore finally get a script and film to test him? 6.5/10

Back in the day, I really enjoyed the James Bond movies, especially the ones starring Roger Moore. These days, however, they're getting more and more difficult for me to sit through (1) because they're such lengthy movies and don't hold my attention nearly as well and (2) they seem much more juvenile and silly nowadays. _The Man With the Golden Gun_ was no exception, in spite of Roger Moore and Christopher Lee (another favorite). Just completely silly at many times with seemingly no interest at all in being a true "espionage and intrigue" story. Maybe I missed it (wouldn't be the first time) but for some reason, I always thought the _James Bond 007_ stories were geared towards just that: espionage and intrigue, a little action, a little daring thrown in (and of course the perennial love scenes with the smitten females swooning at Bond's feet). But rewatching these recently, they seem to be almost juvenile, silly... Case in point here was the idiotic sheriff's reappearance from _Live and Let Die_ among other scenes. The "Evel Knievel" stunt (which also included a screaming sheriff) was incredibly ludicrous, and the "chase the midget" scene in the closing moments was something you would expect to see in a _Three Stooges_ or _Little Rascals_ episode…not a James Bond movie. I still have absolutely no idea what the plot was here (okay, there was a villain who owned a "golden gun", that much I got…but what was HIS story, and why was he out to kill James Bond? I still don't know…) I will continue watching them with the hope that they improve. I did miss Q and his gadgets in this particular movie (Q was here, but none of his unique gadgetry.) but I'm not sure anything would have improved this particular story. A solid "Meh" in my opinion.