Theme: Magicians

Live And Let Die (1973) – Roger Moore and Jane Seymour

While this was Roger Moore‘s first outing as James Bond, he had plenty of experience starring in a similar role after his TV series The Saint which ran from 1962 to 1969. So Roger was well prepared for this role, and does a strong job here.

Live And Let Die opens with a highly memorable scene where an elaborate funeral walk turns out to be dedicated to the agent who asks “whose funeral is it?”. Shortly after that, we get the classic theme tune to this movie, which is one of the best James Bond theme tunes ever made.

This movie is quite memorable in how it features a card-reading psychic woman called Solitaire – she’s the main female in this movie and is played more than adequately by British actress Jane Seymour.

The second main female in this movie is a black woman called Rosie Carver, played quite well by Gloria Hendry.

The chief baddie, Mr Big aka Dr Kananga, is played adequately by Yaphet Kotto.

25 minutes in, we’re introduced to one of the bad guys’ main goons – a man called Tee Hee Johnson, played quite well by Julius Harris. He has a big scary metal pincer for a hand, and this probably inspired the future baddie called Jaws who has scary metal teeth and is probably the most memorable baddie in the whole James Bond movie saga. Jaws appears in two Bond movies in the late 70s – The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979) – in the middle of the Roger Moore era. Incidentally, those were the only two Moore-as-Bond movies directed by Lewis Gilbert, and those were also Moore’s most successful Bond movies at the box office (both before and after accounting for inflation). Just like Tee Hee surprised James on the train in this movie, Jaws also surprises James on the train in The Spy Who Loved Me.

The other main baddie in this movie is played quite well by Geoffrey Holder – he plays a 9-foot-tall voodoo magician called Baron Samedi.

Around half an hour before the end of Live And Let Die, we’re introduced to a man who is probably the funniest character in the whole James Bond saga: Sheriff JW Pepper, played very well by Clifton James. He takes stereotypes to the extreme in a humorous way. He makes his first appearance in this movie, and makes his second & last appearance in the subsequent Bond film: The Man With The Golden Gun.

Live And Let Die was directed by Guy Hamilton, who up until this point had only directed one Bond movie – that being Goldfinger, the best one from the Connery era (and the best one till this day, according to Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic – but what do they know – they also rate Daniel Craig above Roger Moore). So we can probably expect big things from this movie, and it doesn’t disappoint. This movie is not a boring one per se, but much of it can get a bit monotonously predictable for frequent rewatchers, as the storyline is quite a basic in extended patches. Nevertheless, considering its strengths, I have to rate this an Upper-OK movie, alongside Goldfinger, making it the joint best Bond movie so far.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) – Benedict Cumberbatch

This superhero movie by Marvel is a bit of a disappointment for action hero movie fans who loved the original Doctor Strange (2016). This sequel is so bad, Google doesn’t even classify it as an action movie – Google calls it a Horror instead!

The plot lacks cohesion, lacks originality, and lacks awesome action hero moments. Granted, there is a bit of a plot, there are some kind of new concepts, and there are some sort of decent moments in this movie; but it’s generally several levels below the bar set by the original – it’s not on the same level in any way except in the special effects department. So it should be no surprise that critics worldwide are calling it a flop. Actually, there is one thing it does a bit better – Horror – and we know that’s really what Hollywood loves most! But for fans of comfortable-yet-buzzing action hero movies, this sequel really kind of stinks.

Benedict Cumberbatch doesn’t perform poorly though – he does alright, considering what he’s working with here. Elizabeth Olsen plays the ‘bad guy’ – the Scarlet Witch, and does a fair job of that too. Xochitl Gomez plays the butch female superhero born from two mothers (trust Hollywood to push stuff like that) who works with Doctor Strange against the Scarlet Witch. Xochitl gave a very basic performance here – she’s not the best actress – not by a long way – but to her credit she was only in her mid-teens at the time of this movie’s release.

Doctor Strange (2016) – Benedict Cumberbatch

This movie is a bit sickly at near the start, with talk about harvesting organs from a still living man, followed by surgery visuals, the likes of which we get again in an unexpected close-up about half way through the movie. There’s also slightly too long of a car crash scene near the start. This movie clearly wants to traumatise the audience a bit, and/or incite bloodlust in those prone to it. Due to its name I guess we shouldn’t expect clean action – a touch of horror shouldn’t be surprising here.

Mood setting is generally excellent, with great timing where it matters. There are also a few great touches of humour in this movie.

The action gets very interesting at times, and is satisfactory at other times.

The combat is fanciful – hardly realistic – but the sentiment is frequently on point.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role very well, as if he were made for this role. Additional cast members are generally pretty good too.

All in all, due to its qualities, with the odd drawback, plus the fact it’s not so realistic a movie as what I normally review, I’d rate this movie Decent – no more, no less. It’s a fun movie to watch every now and again, but its depth of vibe is limited due to its near cartoony nature. For this reason it’s comparable to movies like Bloodshot and Black Panther which have a similar mix of realism vs unrealism (albethey generally more believable), and a similar level of action.

Sequel

If you enjoyed this movie, you may also enjoy its sequel: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). However, that movie is a lot messier and of course less original since the lead character has already been fully established. And unlike the original, the sequel is not even classified as an Action movie by Google – it’s classed as a Horror instead!

Doctor Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) was also featured in a few other Marvel Studios films released between the two actual Doctor Strange movies, including Thor: Ragnarok (2017); Avengers: Infinity War (2018); Avengers: Endgame (2019); and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).