Bond. James Bond.

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974)

On my trek to watch all of the Bond films I haven't yet seen before the release of Spectre (which is to say, the good majority of them), the previous two entries, Diamonds Are Forever and Live And Let Die, weren't exactly impressive. So, naturally, I came into The Man With The Golden Gun with pretty tempered expectations.

Is The Man With The Golden Gun another misfire for the series? Well...yes and no. I'll come right out and say that I found this to be the most entertaining Bond film since On Her Majesty's Secret Service, as well as Guy Hamilton's best effort for the franchise since Goldfinger, but even then, I'm not quite sure I can say it worked enough for me to fully like it. On the plus side, the premise of this film is very solid and consequently, Christopher Lee makes for a pretty awesome villain as Scaramanga. Unlike Live and Let Die's villain, Scaramanga feels like a true menace and presence throughout, and seeing him interact with Bond makes for some good stuff. Yet again, I appreciate Guy Hamilton's more grounded approach to the franchise and it works a bit more here in comparison with the previous two films. The Man With The Golden Gun also sports some pretty fun action sequences and a relatively good pace, plus Roger Moore keeps up his solid work in the famous role.

However, at the top of the list of negatives: why the FUCK did they need to bring back that god-awful Sheriff character from Live and Let Die??? Why?! He's in here for a good 15-20 minutes or so, and every one of those minutes, I wanted him to get killed off. Kind of on the same subject, this movie has a few comedic touches to it that mostly stick out like a sore thumb and don't completely work. But most of all, this film continues what is obviously a trend that sticks out, the more Bond films you watch: they all seem dead-set on following the same exact formula every time, give or take. I understand how most fans would argue that this is okay because it's "tradition", but for someone like me who was never THAT big on the franchise's formula and appreciates the Daniel Craig era so much because those movies are offering a different approach to said formula, it's getting kind of tiring. So, now, for me, it's all about whether or not these Bond movies can take said formula and make it work well enough without falling into too much of an obligatory routine.

The Man With The Golden Gun kind of does that, but it still has a few problems that hold it back just enough. Even so, I'm willing to see what The Spy Who Loved Me has to offer.

**1/2 /****