Live and Let Die (1973)

I watched this movie on Amazon Prime.

So... I had seen some of the older Bond movies, including this one, a long long time ago. Like about 20 years ago, renting them from the Library as a kid. Most of them I hardly remembered but I wanted to finally start my journey of going back and watching all the old Bond movies again. Some a long over due re watch, others seeing for the first time.

Before this watch, I don't think I had ever actually seen Live and Let Die before. I knew there was some Bond movies I've never seen but I didn't really know which ones. I really enjoyed this one though, and now I am remembering why Roger Moore is my second favorite actor for Bond behind Brosnan.
Nothing against Connery, and the franchise wouldn't even have gotten legs to begin with if not for his start. But I find Moore far more likable, more charming and even better looking/more handsome than Connery. For me, Moore feels more like Bond than Connery.
Some of that could be due to seeing Moonraker and Octopussy a few times as a kid. I believe I even had Octopussy on VHS that I'd sometimes watch with my Brosnan tapes.

This is Moore's first outing as Bond, and while he hasn't quite found his footing to make the character his own yet, this is already a great start.
The movie itself is also a fun campy watch, getting into more the style of Bond I enjoy better. The boat chase does go on for a bit too long though, even if it has a few fun gags.
The villains are fun, though Mr. Big's face makeup/mask is not convincing at all. Tee Hee and Whisper are both memorable, and then there's the voodoo guy on top of that! This film is actually pretty stacked with villains.
There are a few distracting things, especially the obviously non venomous snakes used as dangerous snakes through out the film. And as stated before the boat chase goes on for a bit too long. I also noticed Bond spends a lot of time in cars or taxis in this movie just traveling and getting chased. Not that it's too bad. It's still better than the car chase in Diamonds.

I really liked this movie a lot. A firm 4 out of 5 stars and this is really making me excited to dive more into the Moore era of Bond, and see how he shaped the character more. And why he's my second favorite actor for the role.

Mistake Status: I had only planned to do mistakes really for the Brosnan era of Bond. However, this was the first Bond movie I watched since my return to moviemistakes... and during the watch I caught a few mistakes and also the obvious factual errors with the snakes used. While I still had the movie rented on Prime, before it expired, I figured I'd go ahead and clean up the existing entries on the site. Going through and doing all the time codes and making pictures for them. Also several needed corrected. I ran out of time before it expired on Prime and wound up finishing up the pictures and time codes using a Spanish language version of the film on internet Archive lol. Because of that I wasn't able to do timecodes for quotes, but oh well. The process I found more fun than I thought, and this has made me reconsider only doing the Brosnan films, and I will very likely do the whole series at some point, deep dive for mistakes. Not sure when though as I have other priorities. But at the very least as I watch each one following this I'll try to see a few while watching it and help with time codes and pictures on existing entries.

Quantom X ★

8.8/10. Pretty decent entry into the Bond franchise and a good start for Moore. I like the chemistry between him and Jane Seymour as Solitaire. Catchy song in there too.

Rob245