{"id":3821,"date":"2024-09-04T20:14:16","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T20:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3821"},"modified":"2024-10-13T19:12:43","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T23:12:43","slug":"the-man-with-the-golden-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/04\/the-man-with-the-golden-gun\/","title":{"rendered":"The Man with the Golden Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Man with the Golden Gun <\/strong>(1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Guy Hamilton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Barry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ted Moore and Oswald Morris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 20, 1974 (US & UK)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Clifton James, Richard Loo, Soon-Tek Oh, Marc Lawrence, Lois Maxwell, Marne Maitland, Desmond Llewelyn, James Cossins, Chan Yiu Lam, Bernard Lee.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Opening Song: \u201cThe Man with the Golden Gun\u201d by Lulu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $20.9M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> *** <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0I wasn’t looking forward to rewatching The Man with the Golden Gun <\/strong>because I remember not liking it the last time I watched it. Much to my surprise, I found myself enjoying 007\u2019s ninth adventure this time around. It’s good but it\u2019s not one of his best. The plot is fairly slim, but the action scenes and vehicular chases compensate for the lack of substance. PLUS, the bad guy is played by horror legend Christopher Lee who played Count Dracula in several Hammer films as well as the Mummy and Frankenstein\u2019s Monster. He was AWESOME!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lee plays Scaramanga, a former KGB agent turned assassin for hire who charges a cool $1M for his services. His weapon of choice is a golden gun that fires solid gold bullets, one of which is sent to James Bond (Moore) with the number 007 engraved on it. Perceived as a threat on the agent\u2019s life, M (Lee) orders him to stand down temporarily until they find Scaramanga which won\u2019t be easy because nobody knows what he looks like outside of having a third nipple on his chest. Being who he is, Bond takes it on himself to locate the elusive baddie who might be involved in the disappearance of a solar energy scientist.<\/p>\n

\u00a0His investigation leads him to Andrea Anders (Adams, Rollerball), the mistress of Scaramanga. The suave spy uses his charms to persuade her to lead him to his target. What she actually does is lead him right into a trap set for the missing scientist who has in his possession a device called a \u201cSolex Agitator\u201d. It\u2019s what the rest of us call a \u201cMcGuffin\u201d. It doesn\u2019t really matter what it is or what it does. Its true function is to set the plot in motion. Everybody wants to get their hands on it as it will potentially solve the world\u2019s energy crisis. Bond\u2019s job, of course, is to retrieve it before Scaramanga can put it to use for something nefarious.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The previous Bond film Live and Let Die added blaxploitation to the formula and it worked beautifully. This time, director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger) adds kung fu to the mix. Yes, The Man with the Golden Gun<\/strong> is, in part, a martial arts flick. At one point, Bond is captured and held in a martial arts academy where he\u2019s expected to fight somebody to the death. It\u2019s obviously a nod to the Bruce Lee classic Enter the Dragon (1973). Fortunately, he\u2019s saved in the nick of time by Hong Kong cop Lt. Hip (Oh, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning) and his two teenage nieces, all of them black belts of course.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 As usual for the series, the action scenes are right on point. The centerpiece, this time, is a chase through the streets of Bangkok with Bond chasing Scaramanga and his diminutive flunky Nick Nack (Villechaize, Fantasy Island) who have his lovely MI6 assistant Mary Goodnight (Ekland, The Wicker Man) in the boot of their car. Bond \u201cborrows\u201d a car from a dealership to pursue them. That\u2019s not all; he a familiar passenger. Remember J.W. Pepper (James, Superman II), the big-bellied redneck sheriff from Live and Let Die? He\u2019s there on vacation with his wife when who should he run into but the secret agent from England. He\u2019s only too glad to assist in the chase much to Bond\u2019s mild annoyance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In his second outing as the main character, Moore does great work. He\u2019s getting more comfortable in the role, but why shouldn\u2019t he be? He was born to play James Bond. He brings some welcome levity to the proceedings, not that the Bond movies are serious to begin with. Ekland is HOT as Goodnight, the lady agent always the victim of foreplay interruptus. She and Bond barely get started before something happens that forces them to hit pause. Adams is good as the mistress who might or might not be loyal to her man. Villechaize has some funny moments as the evil little sidekick.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As I already stated, Lee is great as the villain. Would you expect otherwise? He\u2019s one of the more interesting Bond baddies who isn\u2019t Blofeld. He lives on a private island in a mansion that\u2019s more like a deadly carnival funhouse with the hall of mirrors and life-size wax dummies, one of them a likeness of 007. Then there\u2019s that golden gun. What a cool weapon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Man with the Golden Gun<\/strong> is good James Bond, not great James Bond. It\u2019s fast-paced and funny. It has plenty of action and a goofy plot right out of a comic book. It has a few pacing issues here and there, but nothing that can\u2019t be fixed by Moore\u2019s playful attitude.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 125 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence, sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Guy Hamilton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Barry\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ted Moore and Oswald Morris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 20, 1974 (US & UK)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-bond-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Man-with-the-Golden-Gun.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3821"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5485,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3821\/revisions\/5485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}