Fellmans Movie Reviews

Red = Spoilers 

Live and Let Die is the first Bond film with Roger Moore as James Bond. Now, there are six more movies with Roger Moore as 007, so you know he did alright. And also, this is the movie with the theme song that literally everybody knows. People who were born in this century know this song for some reason. That’s how famous James Bond is. The theme song to one of his movies can become one of the most famous songs of all time.  

What’s it about? We start with three agents being killed in succession under suspicious circumstances. This leads to Bond being sent to New York to investigate the situation. When he gets there, somebody tries to kill him and he has to drive his car from the backseat to prevent it from crashing. The killer’s license plate leads Bond to Harlem where he meets Mr. Big, a mob boss, and his personal tarot reader Solitaire. Mr. Big tells his henchmen to kill Bond, but Bond escapes thanks to agent Strutter of the CIA. Bond then flies to San Monique where he meets another CIA agent, Rosie Carver, and they go and meet Quarrel jr. Quarrel of “Dr. No” fame, obviously… Bond accuses Rosie of being a double agent, and she tries to escape, but gets shot in the back by a scarecrow. Bond makes his way up to Solitaire and ends up seducing her with her tarot cards and she loses her “ability” to see into the future. Later, it turns out that Mr. Big is Dr. Kananga, the dictator of San Monique. And he’s growing poppy fields in San Monique with a huge scheme to distribute heroin for free in the US to create addicts and then sell the drug for an inflated price when he has a monopoly. And he wants to use Mr. Big as a way to distribute things without attracting any attention. Angry at Solitaire, Kananga turns her over to Samadi to be sacrificed. Meanwhile, Bond is led into a crocodile pit and left to be eaten by crocodiles. Bond gets away by running across their backs like a Looney Tunes cartoon. Then he heads to San Monique to rescue Solitaire. They’re captured by Kananga and about to be fed to sharks when Bond escapes and kills Kananga and his henchman. 

What’s good? It’s a great script. The Roger Moore version of James Bond is definitely one of the greats. It’s probably why he had so many. He just makes a really good James Bond.  

What’s bad? We’re getting into the 70s now. The literal era of overacting. So, needless to say, not all of the acting is the greatest. It’s not horrible. They’re not bad actors. They’re just giving it more than they need to sometimes. 

The acting? A little too much on the facial expressions there, sheriff. It’s kind of crazy looking when you’re looking all over the place like that and smiling all wide… 

The effects? The effects are starting to get better, too. You can notice things just generally improving. A lot more explosions in this movie than the last one, too. I’d say there were a whole lot more stunts in this film than there were last time. And they’re done better, too. 

W is unimpressed by Bond’s coffee machine. Bond has this fancy cappuccino machine in his kitchen, and W is wholly unimpressed by it, and he goes “Is that all it does?” in this snide, British way.  

Live and Let Die theme song. Everybody knows this song. Everybody you know knows this song. Everybody they know knows this song. Everybody everywhere ever has heard this song. And it came from a Bond film. That’s kind of ridiculous. 

You got a honky on your tail. If this movie was made today, I wonder if people would be saying it aged badly because they keep saying “you got a honky on your tail” and “It’s like following a cue ball”. 

The death card. People in tarot readings are always asking if it’s the Death Card right away. Like, if it was, do you really want to know? I mean, does that really make it any better?  

Double decker bus. Bond is handling that double decker bus like it’s the Fast and the Furious. Doing spins and whatnot. Spinning around while the other cars are running off the road because they can’t even keep up with the double-decker bus.  

Low bridge. By the time Bond saw the low bridge, there was pretty much nothing he could do about it, so he made the split decision and chose the least-worst option and just rammed it and hopefully blocked guys chasing him. And it worked.  

Funeral procession. Where do all those people go to? Are they just kind of walking around with a body in a coffin, playing jazz music and dancing? 

Crocodile running. Bond running across the crocodiles is one of the silliest things I’ve seen. I even said he was gonna do it when he got stuck in the middle of the lake with the crocodiles. I said “I bet he runs out on the crocodiles…” And then BOOM! James Bond, crocodile runner… 

Dukes of Hazard. The middle of the movie turns into a Dukes of Hazard episode real fast. Complete with Boss Hogg and everything. It’s just, all of the sudden, things are going fast, and hitting ramps, and exploding, and a big fat guy with a thick southern accent and a mouth full of chew is commandeering vehicles.  

Coffin full of snakes. There’s some big voodoo ceremony going on in San Monique and they bring out a coffin full of snakes. Now, I don’t know what’s worse in the middle of a ceremony, somebody bringing out a coffin, or somebody bringing out a coffin full of snakes. They can put you in the coffin, but they can take snakes out of a coffin full of snakes. Or, they can put you IN the coffin full of snakes… Double whammy… 

Secret underground bunker. All these villains have secret underground bunkers. Where are all these people getting their secret underground bunkers from? Is there some club you can join, where they can hook you up with your own secret underground bunker? Because it seems like they’re pretty easy to get. Everybody seems to have one. 

Bond one-liner. Bond’s one-liner for this movie is after he kills Kananga. He uses a compressed gas pellet to make Kananga literally explode. And afterwards Bond gives the line “He always did have an inflated opinion of himself.” Classic Bond… 

So, yeah. Go and see Live and Let Die. Roger Moore is a great James Bond. And overall, it’s just a generally good Bond film. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…