After an overlong but very decent debut for Roger Moore (Live And Let Die), the Bond franchise slips into silliness slightly for this ninth and Moore's second outing as the spy. While the film poses a very decent and different story to its predecessors it gets bogged down too much in the so called 'comedy' that the writers and producers presented Moore's incarnation of the spy with and while these comic moments can be quite funny at times they seem to be out of place, especially for a Bond film. For example; the amazing stunt of the car corkscrewing across the river via that broken bridge could have been one of the greatest stunts in cinema, yet it has a silly sound effect dubbed over the top - why? Then there is the return of Sheriff JW. Pepper from Live And Let Die and sure he was great and provided some light relief the first time around, but here it drags the tone of the movie down and you start to feel bored of this character as he offers nothing new - luckily he never returns… more »

After an overlong but very decent debut for Roger Moore (Live And Let Die), the Bond franchise slips into silliness slightly for this ninth and Moore's second outing as the spy. While the film poses a very decent and different story to its predecessors it gets bogged down too much in the so called 'comedy' that the writers and producers presented Moore's incarnation of the spy with and while these comic moments can be quite funny at times they seem to be out of place, especially for a Bond film. For example; the amazing stunt of the car corkscrewing across the river via that broken bridge could have been one of the greatest stunts in cinema, yet it has a silly sound effect dubbed over the top - why? Then there is the return of Sheriff JW. Pepper from Live And Let Die and sure he was great and provided some light relief the first time around, but here it drags the tone of the movie down and you start to feel bored of this character as he offers nothing new - luckily he never returns after this!

Gripes aside though; Golden Gun has its moments and is certainly better than Moonraker, A View To A Kill and Die Another Day, all of which followed. At times, when the silly humour is not being forced to centre stage, there is time for some quite dark humour which can amuse. The title song by Lulu is not a classic but very catchy indeed, while Christopher Lee puts in a good appearance as the villain - assassin Francisco Scaramanga. Brit Ekland enters as the resident Bond girl with yet another sexual themed name, and Maude Adams makes her first (and better) appearance in the series as the kept lover of the main villain. Set pieces and stunts are also brilliant, the scene in the hall of mirrors is very well done and the scene where the car corkscrews across the river is a blooming brilliant stunt, when viewed with the sound off! Scaramanga's island lair is also a fantastic location to look at and perfect for his and Bond's finale show down.

On the whole; Golden Gun has a decent underlying plot and a decent cast despite some of their appearances. Roger Moore seems to be settling into the role very well...if too well but the sad fact is though that despite a very different and very intriguing plot of the assassin out to kill Bond you cannot help but notice that the film is sagging around the edges, like the franchise at the time which was being plagued with problems between exclusive producers. Was this the reason why Golden Gun takes Bond and turns him into a slight parody of his former self? Whether this was the reason or not, the producers certainly noticed their mistakes and took longer over the following film; The Spy Who Loved Me, which would prove to be Moore's best!