User reviews

And none the worse for it, since every Bond film needs a fresh spin on the same old formula. Roger Moore's first outing as JB is, in equal measures, comical and action-packed. You'll never get bored. But it's definitely the weirdest Bond ever with loads of utterly bizarre moments.

It begins with M turning up at JB's house in the early hours while he's pumping some Italian agent for information (don't you just love his initialled dressing gown). Before sending him to America to investigate a Harlem pimp known as Mister Big he delivers some gadgets from Q-Branch, including a very useful watch. Q himself, or Major Boothroyd if you want to call him by his proper name, doesn't make any appearance in this one.

Standing out like a Muslim in an airport, almost every single black person JB encounters in Harlem is on Mister Big's payroll. And they've got a seemingly endless bag of tricks to play on him. The funny thing about Moore is that he's very proper and British and doesn't think anything of walking into a tough Harlem bar while dressed up like the Duke of Edinburgh. His stunned reactions when they mess with his head are seriously funny.

The action then moves to Lousiana and a savage Caribbean island as JB uncovers a massive heroin plot. There's a particularly long speedboat chase across a bayou where JB encounters Sheriff J.W. Pepper, the most stereotypical southern redneck ever. Think of Texas Businessman from The Simpsons and you get the idea. JB also gets to dodge a hundred hungry Gators and do, many times over, Solitaire, Mister Big's Tarot card reader.

I'm not sure what kind of formidable villain uses a Tarot card reader to help him do business but when you also surround yourself with a hook-handed maniac called Tee-Hee, a quiet fat guy called Whisper and a seemingly unkillable voodoo high priest called Baron Samedi then you really do become a serious baddie. Right? He even goes on a big speech about how his master plan works before attempting to kill JB slowly. Obviously this makes much more sense than just shooting him right away. When will they learn?

Despite being the oldest actor to debut as Bond (at 46), Moore does look younger than Connery. And while Sean was gruff and Scottish, Moore is perpetually calm and refined, even in the face of danger (fingers being chopped-off, snake in the bath, being eaten by gators/sharks). Everything that the British once thought they were. He has a certain sarcastic edge that the other Bond actors lacked. While some of his films may have been the sillier of the franchise, Moore has always been my favorite. And the massive revolver and holster he uses at the end is so much more masculine than the usual, wimpy as hell, Walther PPK.

And, as much as I am no fan of Paul McCartney, you gotta love that theme song! Exciting and iconic at the same time. And also yet another juxtaposition in the weirdest Bond movie ever.

MI6, Harlem, Pimps, Paul McCartney, Gators, Heroin, Voodoo, Snakes, Sharks, Clairvoyance, Rednecks, Afros, Fake Afros, Fillet of Soul, Human Scarifice, Scarecrows and a small-headed man in a Top-Hat who lost a fight with chickens. Is this a Bond film or did the whole world just go insane?

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs. Revisited it recently. This is the eighth film in the Bond series and the first to star Roger Moore as James Bond. Here 007 is sent to New York to investigate the deaths of three British agents, leading him to Kananga n Mr. Big, thereby trapping him in a world of gangsters, dictator, drug traffickers and voodoo occultists.

Here Bond faces Dr. Kananga, Baron Samedi (a paranormal entity), ferocious crocodiles, a venomous snake, Tee Hee, a henchman who has a pincer for a hand, Dambala, a henchman with a penchant for snakes and wears a goat pelt on his head, Whisper, a fatty who cannot speak properly and various henchmen in red tshirts and blue pants.

Bond gets to cool off with Madeline Smith, Jane Seymour and Gloria Hendry, a babe with an amazing toned obliques n rectus abdominis.

The film has a lovely boat chase which is amazingly well photographed in Louisiana around the Irish Bayou. I am a big fan of movies shot in the marshy areas n the bayou of Louisiana.

In the novel, Tee Hee is a henchman without the metal claw and he breaks the little finger of Bond's left hand.

In the novel, Whisper's quiet voice is attributed to a bout of tuberculosis during infancy.

Was Roger Moore channeling Austin Powers in 1973? There's a scene in this, his first go-round as 007, where Bond is tied up and his arm is cut to draw blood and attract some hungry sharks swimming below. Moore twitches his eyebrow and asks: "Perhaps we can try something in a simpler vein."

Those sharks don't need any frickin' laser beams on their heads to get you to smell the Austin. Moore gets a lot of blame for turning the Bond movies into weakly-plotted farces, ignoring that the series had been moving in that direction since "Goldfinger" and that the previous installment, Sean Connery's final EON bow "Diamonds Are Forever," was every bit as goofy. Also, Moore could deliver a more serious Bond when the script allowed, and two of the finest Bonds ever, "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "For Your Eyes Only," were his.

But there's no getting around this, "Live And Let Die" is a dumb movie. The gadgets are silly, the villain's scheme is ill-defined, the storyline is frenetic and unengaging, the action is plodding and overlong. Moore starts out not quite know how to play Bond here, while the movie requires him to play the fool sauntering through Harlem in a double-breasted suit like the Prince of Wales waiting for some natives to show him around.

But this film makes me smile, in part because I'm young enough to remember what it was all about when it came out. If this was Bond for the cheap seats, it at least delivered the goods, with some vivid supporting characters, a knockout visual style, amazing title music from Paul McCartney, and most importantly for Moore's future in the series, drop-dead quips. My favorite is when the nasty Tee Hee twists his pistol muzzle out of shape with a metal pincer arm, then giggles when he hands it back: "Funny how the least little thing amuses him."

Julius Harris is menacing but charming as Tee Hee, mostly mute except when he sticks Bond in a gator pond and suggests the best way to disarm the beasts is to try and pull out their teeth. Chief villain Yaphet Kotto has his moments, too, but with odd shifts of character. In the beginning, he's stone-cold Ron O'Neal in "Superfly," and at the end, he's plummy Charles Gray in "Diamonds Are Forever." Jane Seymour is Bond's love interest, and why she goes off with him is another of those things best not thought about long.

There are two great characters in this movie, though, bigger than just about anything seen in a Bond movie before who kind of work in tandem in overhauling any objections about this film being too "cartoony." Clifton James is redneck sheriff J.W. Pepper, who throws off one madman line after another while Bond is off on one of his long silly chase scenes. James mugs through every scene he's in, rolling his tongue around, playing off everyone and everything, and delivering every hackneyed Southern stereotype to such righteous perfection it's enough to make cotton sprout out of his ears. Bond purists who whine should just take their vodka martinis shaken not stirred and let the rest of us enjoy the craziness. The series is supposed to be fun; if you want serious espionage go watch "Smiley's People." (I grant you Pepper shouldn't have returned in the next Bond film; that was a mistake.)

The other great outsized character is Geoffrey Holder as perhaps the most mysterious figure in the whole series, Baron Samedi. Is he supernatural? Is he just crazy from the heat? He's certainly different, a guy who sides with the bad guys without quite being one of them. The always-eerie quality of his appearances, either dancing in a big hotel production number or quietly sitting in a cemetery playing a flute, make you question whether there ain't something to that voodoo after all.

It's silly bashing Pepper but praising Samedi, they are both equally so unreal, in a way that's in tune with the rest of the movie. The best thing to do is enjoy the different kinds of fun on offer. Frankly, not having these guys around might push this film on the bad side of Spinal Tap's "fine line between stupid and clever," the side where "A View To A Kill" and "Moonraker" are on.

But "Live And Let Die" is a winner. It's a fun movie that brings me back to younger days, when my heart was an open book. It's a nice transitional film for the series in that Moore managed a mostly smooth entrance to the role of Bond. And it has one of the best final shots in movie history. That's all I'll say there; you know it if you saw it.

After all the physical stuff with Sean Connery, Roger Moore will always be the true James Bond to me. Understated humour and a lot of Britishness. I love it. And, needless to say, Jane Seymour is positively enchanting.

Various agents MI6 have dead . M (Bernard Lee) sends 007 (Roger Moore , he was forty-five when he made this his debut as Bond) with license for kill to investigate it . Suspicion lead to Doctor Kananga (Yaphet Kotto at 33 as Big/Dr. Kananga is the youngest actor to play a main Bond villain) whose public image is a humanitarian person who defends his country in the United Nations . He governs tyrannically the island of San Monique . There lives Solitaire (Jane Seymour) , being totally submitted from infancy by Kananga. She is a tarot-cards reading psychic and doesn't know about life and acts as a marionette , craving her own way of life. His tutor (Kotto) believes that her virginal state originates to her a sixth sense and he trusts this quality as an expert guesser to dodge the law enforcement . Others characters appear in the film are the followings : Baron Samedi (Geoffrey Holder) . He's a Voodoo's chaman who controls the San Monique people for executing the Kananga's orders . He takes his name of death's Voodoo God . The villainous Tee Hee (Julius Harris) , a giant killer , posteriorly copied in other Bond films (Richard Kiel in ¨Spy who loved me¨) . He deeply enjoys murdering with his steel arm that hooks the victims . Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry) is an explosive and sexy CIA agent who brings to Bond towards the lush jungle of the perilous island. James Bond will confront numerous dangers , odds ,risks , as the taking on starving crocodiles located on a breeding place where there's a poster captioning : ¨Trespassers will be eaten¨. Besides, a breathtaking speedboat pursuit by leaps and bounds , developed on everglades (in New Orleans , Louisiana) , including intervention a headstrong sheriff (Clifton James) who pursues them by a police car . As always , 007 will use several gadgets delivered by ¨Q¨ (Desmond Llewelyn) , such as : a prodigious as well as magnetic wristwatch , Roger Moore's personal favorite , and air bombing cartridges, both objects with special importance in the film.

Sir Roger Moore as a new James Bond is cool , lacked coldness and toughness characterized by Sir Sean Connery ; however , earning in irony , suavity and smoothness . Sean Connery turned down the then astronomical sum of five and a half million dollars to perform James Bond. Sean Connery gave Sir Roger Moore his personal seal of approval for inheriting his character , calling him "an ideal Bond¨ and making him the oldest actor to do so. The youngest was George Lazenby , who was twenty-nine in 007 On Majestic's secret service (1969). It contains spectacular and exciting final confrontation between Bond and enemies in the underground cave that was paced in moving and stimulating manner . Agreeable and catching title song sung by Paul McCartney and his band Wings , and sensational musical score by George Martin. Colorful and brilliant cinematography by Ted Moore. The movie was well directed by Guy Hamilton who also made other James Bond films.

Roger Moore's debut as 007 was a bit wan but, in retrospect, probably his best outing. He looked pretty lean and mean for a 45 year-old. For a British audience, Moore (The Saint, The Persuaders) was the natural successor to Sean Connery.

Director Guy Hamilton makes this an expertly staged but somehow lacklustre affair. While the background voodoo theme is suitably bizarre, the main McGuffin about drugs smuggling is rather under-whelming for a Bond movie. Yaphet Kotto is a potentially strong baddie but has too little to do amid the familiar carnage and boat chases. And the introduction of the series' first out-rightly comic character in Sheriff JW Pepper presaged the self-defeating lapse into self-spoofing the films would increasingly take.

Nor does a heavy-handed score by Beatles producer George Martin help. Unlike regular Bond composer John Barry's music, Martin's is ponderous, overlaid onto the action rather than organic to it.

Still, Paul McCartney's blistering title-song really jolts Bond into the 70s. And Live and Let Die does have one of the best jokes in the entire series, in the opening sequence when a CIA agent, watching a New Orleans jazz funeral, innocently asks a nondescript fellow bystander: "Who's funeral is it…?"

It has it all. Most stunning actress (Jane Seymour), a totally carefree and composed Bond (Roger Moore), an incredible array of supporting actors and characters, the best chase scene (boats), moments that have me laughing in hysterics "secret agent... on whose side?"... I could go on and on, but it's one of my favourite films of all time!

This Bond outing is one of the very best in the franchise. Bedides having one of the best Bond theme songs in the franchise written and performed by Paul McCartney and Wings, Live and Let Die boasts an array of interesting characters, played by some of the famous actors of the Era (Yaphet Koto, Jane Seymour, David Hedison, Jeffrey Holder and of course in the role he made his own, Roger Moore) . I enjoyed seeing New York City in the gritty early 70s. For a Bond movie, this one had an interesting story which is easy to follow and wildly entertaining. The best is that you need to be a bond fan to enjoy Live and Let Die.

As a whole, "Live and Let Die" is a pretty peculiar Bond film. Its characters and settings are rather unusual for a James Bond movie, not to mention the trifling with voodoo culture. However, the result is not bad.

Spiced with the awful 70s fashion, "Live and Let Die" is fun to watch. Of course the film has also intentional stylishness that shows particularly in the clever pre-credit sequence, which contains the murders of three British agents.

Yaphet Kotto gives a strong performance as the infamous main villain, Dr. Kananga. Kananga has many colorful henchmen, like the grinning Tee Hee, who does a very handy job opening a tin. Jane Seymour's Solitaire is a truly graceful Bond girl, but the useless role of Rosie Carver should have been deleted, or recast, at least. And where's Q?

"Live and Let Die" isn't Roger Moore's best Bond outing, but not his worst, either. It's definitely better than his next one, the thoroughly tiresome "The Man with the Golden Gun".

The best thing about this film, sadly, is the theme music: Paul McCartney's legendary 'Live and Let Die' song. In this film, James Bond meets up with some drug dealers from the Caribbean, and romance and action endures in the form of motorboat chases, crocodiles, and mysticism. Generally, this film has everything that you would expect out of a James Bond film, but it lacks in the creativity and good storyline. I sat through a lot of the film thinking that it was dull and hoping that it would get better, which it never did. I would not necessarily recommend this film. It's not bad, but it's not good either. I give it a 4/10, and the best thing about the film is the opening song.

Ignoring a Roger Moore who presents a bit of a distraction for viewers watching the series in order, Live And Let Die is an excellent example of how pop culture helps the Bond series survive throughout the decades. The growing concern of a drug-using society at the time is featured, and an immensely popular Paul McCartney does the title theme - indicating that the Bond series need not be rooted solidly in the three-piece suit days of 1962. Jane Seymour gives an excellent performance in her "introductory" role (although it was her fourth film). A bit of black magic and voodoo intertwined with gadgetry and high-tech machinery will have the viewer wondering if, indeed, there was magic in the movie after all - indeed, the cards WERE always right under Solitaire's power. Magical or not, Live and Let Die provides an interesting doorway to the other five Moore pictures - J.W. Pepper returns and Tee Hee seems to be Jaws' forerunner.

Live and Let Die was Roger Moore's debut as 007 in 1973.

As a whole, it's not a bad movie. Moore is okay in his first outing as James Bond, but the role was still written with Connery in mind. It would take two more films before Moore really settled in the role.

The storyline isn't that good and the villain isn't very convincing, nor is the Bond-girl Seymour.

But the great stunts make up for something and the fun that Moore brings to the role, makes that Live and Let Die is way better than Diamonds Are Forever.

It's fun to note that though Moore was in '73 already 5 years older than Connery was in '71. Still, Moore looks younger. A new era has begun.

After Sean Connery permanently left EON upon completing Diamonds Are Forever, Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli decided to replace him this time with a known actor as opposed to a complete unknown like George Lazenby. So they got Roger Moore, who had just completed his only season of "The Persuaders", as the new James Bond. His version of 007 is assigned to find out who's behind the killing of his fellow agents in New York, New Orleans, and an island in the Caribbean. So in Harlem, he encounters Dr Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) with his henchman Tee Hee (Julius Harris) and virginal tarot card fortune teller Solitaire (Jane Seymour). I'll just now say that Moore is quite charming and funny in his first Bond film. Director Guy Hamilton, with this his third Bond film, stages many exciting chase scenes with cars and boats that adds to the funny tone of much of the narrative. Ms. Seymour, in her early '20s here, was quite a looker here and today still has it, that's for sure! I'm sure anyone watching this now, and even maybe then, might have been a little uncomfortable with some stereotypes concerning the Black race of the time as well as that of a Southern redneck police sheriff called J. W. Pepper played here by Clifton James though he still gets some laughs from me. I did like one cultural sequence unique to New Orleans in my home state of Louisiana: the funeral procession which starts with a slow-jam version of "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" before segueing to the more upbeat "New Second Line" (a.k.a "Joe Avery's Piece") which was composed by Milton Batiste, a relative of Jon Batiste who just left "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" recently. By the way, the knife-wielding assassin in that sequence was played by trumpeter Alvin Alcom of the Olympia Brass Band that also performed in this particular scene. Oh, and this marked the first time Bond kissed a woman of color in the series, a woman named Rosie Carver played by Gloria Hendry. Two more things worth noting: this was the only time in the series before the reboot in Casino Royale that Q was not depicted. In fact, Desmond Llewelyn was either not available or Saltzman and Broccoli wanted to lessen the dependence on gadgets so decided to not call him (though there are still some of that here). And the Felix Leiter here was played by David Hedison who would be the only one before CR to reprise the role in Licence to Kill 16 years later. In summary, Mom and I enjoyed rewatching this JB flick again so many years later! P. S. Loved both Paul McCartney and Wings version of the title song and as well as that of B. J. Arnau in the nightclub sequence. Also, Geoffrey Holder was awesome as Baron Samedi!

Although I have always regarded Sean Connery as the best of the actors to play Bond, I have never (unlike some Connery diehards) regarded the casting of Roger Moore as his successor as a mistake. Moore brought a different interpretation to the role, one which owed something to parts he had played in two adventure series on television, Simon Templar in "The Saint" and Brett Sinclair in "The Persuaders". Whereas Connery's tough, gritty Bond allowed something of the hard man below the surface to show through, Moore played the character much more as a suave, sophisticated English gentleman. (Connery's Bond, like the actor himself, was definitely Scottish).

The villain of "Live and Let Die" is Kananga, the leader of the small Caribbean island of San Monique. (Shouldn't that be Sainte Monique?) For a Bond villain, Kananga's ambitions are surprisingly limited, with no scheme for world domination. He has, however, close links to the New York underworld, and has hatched a plot to flood the American market with heroin. Kananga is deeply superstitious, and employs the services of Solitaire, a beautiful young woman with the power to foretell the future through the use of tarot cards. As with a number of the other films, much of the plot of this one revolves around Bond's ability to win over the villain's female accomplice.

The Bond films, of course, are all dependent upon a stylised formula involving adventure (especially chase sequences), exotic locations, beautiful women, evil villains, memorable music and a generous (but preferably not too generous) helping of humour. When all the elements of the formula come together, the result can be a highly enjoyable piece of entertainment. "Live and Let Die" has, by and large, got most of the elements right. Its main asset is the lovely Jane Seymour, one of the most beautiful as well as one of the most talented of the Bond Girls, as Solitaire. She was one of the youngest of the Bond Girls, being only 22 a the time the film was made (Honor Blackman and Maud Adams, for example, were both in their late thirties when they starred in a Bond film), but despite her lack of experience turns in a very good performance. Her Solitaire is not a strong action heroine like Pussy Galore or Anya Amasova, but a passive figure, melancholy and fatalistic, troubled by her psychic powers but at the same time frightened of losing them. As such she has rather more depth than the average Bond heroine.

Roger Moore is also good in this film; in 1973 he was still clearly youthful enough to be convincing in the role and makes the most of it. As the villainous Kananga Yaphet Kotto is adequate, but he does rather suffer the fate of being outshone by the two secondary villains, his henchman Tee Hee (the man with the metal arm and claw for a hand ) and Baron Samedi with his demonic peals of laughter. (Curt Jurgens suffered a similar fate in "The Spy who Loved Me", where Richard Kiel's Jaws turned out to be more memorable than his own Stromberg). There are some exciting chase sequences, particularly the one in the old bus across San Monique, and the waterborne one through the Louisiana bayous. I didn't much care for the character of J W Pepper, a rather stupid redneck Louisiana sheriff with a thick Deep South accent who was obviously intended as the film's main comic relief. (He makes another appearance in "The Man with the Golden Gun"). Nevertheless, there was some successful use of sardonic humour, such as the scene where a man, watching a traditional New Orleans jazz funereal, asks "Whose funeral is it?" and is told "Yours" immediately before being stabbed to death. The music was also good, especially Paul McCartney's brilliant theme song. My overall view is that this is, together with "For Your Eyes Only", the best of the Roger Moore Bond films. 7/10

My favorite essayer of James Bond debuted in this film. Live And Let Die marked the debut of Roger Moore as intrepid British secret agent 007. I've always thought that Moore perfectly fitted the public's idea of what to expect from James Bond than any other actor who portrayed him, although purists who faithfully have read the Ian Flemming novels would no doubt disagree.

Moore was in an interesting position with this film. With Sean Connery finally and as he thought irrevocably never playing 007 again and with George Lazenby not capturing the dollars of the movie going public, if Moore had failed in the role, no doubt the James Bond series would have come to an end.

When you think of some of the plans of world domination that Sean Connery foiled in his films that SPECTRE had, Moore's assignment in Live And Let Die is kind of minor league stuff. Three British agents are killed almost simultaneously in different parts of the world, one at the United Nations in New York, one in the New Orleans French Quarter, and one on the Caribbean island nation of San Monique that is ruled by Yaphetto Kotto. That's what 007's mission is, to find out what links these deaths in these disparate areas of the globe.

Kotto is our head villain and while his ambition isn't quite SPECTRE domination of the world, it's still pretty extensive. He has some connections with a Harlem racketeer and also with some voodoo priests in all these areas. In fact voodoo and the fear of it forms a great piece of his method of keeping power and part of the plot as well.

Roger Moore and Jane Seymour who was 'introduced' in Live And Let Die have more narrow escapes in this film than they did in some of those old movie serials. His wrist watch becomes a very valuable weapon in his arsenal. And not only does 007 have to deal with human predators, Moore has to both play tag with some alligators and nearly swim with some hungry sharks.

Live And Let Die got an Academy Award nomination. The title song written by Paul and Linda McCartney became one of the biggest songs to come from a Bond film. It lost however to the Barbra Streisand classic title song, The Way We Were in 1973.

Because it introduced Roger Moore as 007 to the movie going public, Live And Let Die has an enduring significance in film history. But even if it were not a milestone film, Live And Let Die is one of the best of James Bond films to come out with any actor playing 007.

Live and Let Die is directed by Guy Hamilton and adapted to screenplay by Tom Mankiewicz from the novel written by Ian Fleming. It stars Roger Moore, Yaphet Koto, Jane Seymour, David Hedison, Julius W Harris, Gloria Hendry, Earl Jolly Brown, Clifton James and Geoffrey Holder. Music is scored by George Martin and cinematography by Ted Moore.

Bond 8 and 007 is assigned to investigate the recent murders of MI6 agents in New Orleans, San Monique and New York. Suspicion falls on San Monique ruler Dr Kananga, a man who has definite links to Harlem crime lord Mr Big. As 007 digs deeper he uncovers a plot to corner the world's heroin market, but halting such a plan is hindered by the presence of voodoo in his midst.

Connery was gone, for good this time, no amount of cash would entice him to don the tuxedo for a "legitimate" Bond movie again....... This meant that producers Broccoli & Saltzman would be showcasing the third actor to play James Bond in a four year period! After the fall out of the casting of Lazenby in OHMSS, it was agreed that a established actor was needed this time around. Timothy Dalton was mooted, as he was for OHMSS (he was never offered the role though until 1986), but it came down to just two actors, Roger Moore & Michael Billington. Billington would screen test for the role of 007 a few times in his life but never landed the coveted role, as a sweetener he got to play a minor character in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me. So Roger Moore it was, someone the producers knew quite well and who was well in vogue after starring in The Persuaders and The Saint. He also was honoured to play the role, wanted it badly and accepted the fanaticism that went with it.

Moore's take on Bond the man was a world away from Connery, and rightly so, but Live and Let Die is not far removed from Connery's last outing, Diamonds Are Forever. In truth it's a weak script, with Mankiewicz probably under orders from above to play to Moore's strengths and keep the overt humour and cartoon escapades as a selling point. The decision to pitch Bond into a world of voodoo is a good one, and it was not, as some believe, an attempt to grasp the tails of the Blacksploitation market that had made waves in the early 70s. It's a better film than Diamonds Are forever, without doubt. The villains are memorably played, though Kananga's (Koto) demise is indicative of the daftness that would blight many Bond movies from here on in, and in Hamilton's hands the action, especially an adrenalin pumping speedboat chase, is quality entertainment. Top blunderbuss theme tune, too, from Paul McCartney & Wings. While Felix Leiter is back on good charming form in the hands of Hedison (a real life friend of Moore and it shows).

Problems elsewhere, though, stop this from being a great Bond movie. Much of the film is made up of scenes that are played purely for smiles rather than for dramatic purpose. In short a Bond movie has stopped taking itself seriously. The introduction of Sheriff Pepper (James) is pointless, the beautiful Seymour shows promise but then becomes one of "those" Bond girls who is a liability to 007 outside of the bedroom, and the film is padded out with scenes that offer nothing important to the story. Hendry's Rosie Carver is a dope and poorly written, though it gave Bond his first inter-racial "dalliance", something that the producers were nervous about behind the scenes. While there's no Q! And George Martin's score is very hit and miss.

A new actor playing Bond and many failings in the picture, could Bond still succeed? Yes indeed! Moore, in spite of not getting good page to work from and getting stick from the critics, put his own stamp on the role by looking smooth, having an excellent vocal delivery and being someone the girls wanted to bed and the boys wanted to be. The box office sang to the tune of over $160 million, over $40 million more than Diamonds Are Forever. The tag-line ran "More Action, More Excitement, More Adventure", though not entirely accurate, there was indeed an abundance of fun play and gadgets are us (Felix Lighter, priceless). Bond was set to continue coining it in for the foreseeable future, but the dye had been cast and Bond ran the risk of becoming purely a cartoon caricature..... 7/10

This is my favorite Roger Moore Bond movie. It doesn't skimp on anything. It's fast-paced all the way. Which is something to be said since this was Roger Moore's first Bond movie. Great action sequences and characters,this is in my top three!

As an avid fan of 70s horror and exploitation, I have no problem at all with Live and Let Die's voodoo plot elements and many blaxploitation trappings: as far as I am concerned, they only serve to make this a very unique debut for Roger Moore as cinema's greatest secret agent, setting it well apart from everything Connery did as Bond.

In addition to superstitious mumbo jumbo and jive-speaking soul brothers, this adventure also benefits from a kick-ass theme song from Paul McCartney, an appearance by big-breasted Hammer babe Madeline Smith, the casting of a hot-as-hell Jane Seymour as sexy Tarot reader Solitaire (so called because, until meeting Bond, she'd only played with herself?), and some classic, corny quippery from an impossibly suave Moore.

Unfortunately, despite all of this, the film must be considered something of a disappointment, suffering as it does from a weak storyline/script, dreadful pacing and sub-par action, including a soporific, overlong speed boat chase, during which we are introduced to Clifton James' irritating Sheriff J.W. Pepper, surely the most ill-advised character of the whole Bond franchise.

Roger Moore takes over the role of James Bond in the 8th installment to the series. In this film, James Bond goes to New York to investigate the mysterious deaths of some British agents. He feels there is a connection between a big time Harlem gangster named Mr. Big and Kananga, the mysterious owner of a small island who is trying to sell self produced heroin. As he gets deeper into the case, he discovers that Kananga and Big might be more closely connected than he originally thought. This is a pretty good installment to the Bond series.

After Diamonds are Forever, the James Bond series needed a serious boost so it could be a serious spy series again. Though this movie isn't as good as the early Connery films, it's certainly better than the last two in the series. For the most part it sticks close to the Ian Fleming novel, though there are a few differences, mostly in the beginning and the end. The last film was more like a dumbed down action movie than a James Bond movie, and I was glad to see that they fixed that with this film by putting James Bond on a serious case. One thing that bothered me though was the dialogue. The writers kind of overloaded on the jokes and one liners, which made almost every line out of Bond's mouth corny.

The acting isn't bad. Roger Moore gives his best performance as James Bond in this movie, and though he's nowhere near Connery, he's miles above Lazenby. David Hedison plays an average Felix Leiter. Jane Seymour was an alright Bond girl, and Yaphat Kotto wasn't too bad of a villain.

Overall, this movie had room for improvement, but it wasn't bad for the most part.

7/10

Several British agents are killed in America and in the Caribbean. Despite the difference in how the murders occur they seem linked together by drugs. Bond begins to investigate and finds links between the American drug dealer Mr Big and the mysterious owner of a Caribbean island Kananga. While investigating Bond falls foul of both despite gaining the affections of Kananga's beautiful mistress Solitaire.

Roger Moore's first Bond is one of his best. The film wisely steps away from those regular bad guys the Russians and gets a new feel by actually having non-white main characters. The plot is pretty good and doesn't have the usual `take over the world' feel to it. There is plenty of silly stuff of course but the stunts are quite good and Bond has a new line in `eyebrow raised' humour.

Moore will never be the best Bond but he did make the role his own – adding an element of self-deprecating humour to the role. Yaphet Kotto is a good actor and makes a good bad guy. Jane Seymour isn't convincing as the mystic property of Kananga – she really should have been played by a black actress and it shows a lack of bravery on the side of the producers that they went with a white face as the lead Bond girl. Julius Harris is good as Tee Hee and Clifton James adds some comedy value as J.W. Pepper.

Overall this is one of Moore's best Bond movies and certainly stands out from previous films with numerous Russian baddies. Also the theme music is a really fun song from Wings.