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The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Oh...the pain.
I should preface this by saying I've been a hard-core James Bond fan since my first viewing of GOLDFINGER on the big screen, back in 1964, at the tender age of 10. I've seen the Bond movies at their best, and then with this title in mind, definitely at their worst. I was in the Navy back in 1974, at the Great Lakes Naval training facility, and my buddy and I used to go into Chicago on the weekends. We'd go to the USO, where they would give us sandwiches and cokes, and sometimes free tickets to the movies. I saw that MWTGG was opening that Friday, and asked my buddy if he wanted to go see it. He never saw a James Bond movie in his life (!), and so I told him that he was in for the time of his life! Anyway to make a long story short, he was dazzled and had the time of his life, while I sat in my chair, cringing at what I was seeing on the screen and wondering, "what have they done to my James Bond?" I should add that I didn't badmouth the movie to my friend, since he had such a great time, but just wondered to myself, "is this the end of the series?"
If I could express my feelings about MWTGG, I'd say that it was the closest a James Bond film came to be like one of Columbia's Dean Martin Matt Helm movies.
I remember whenever a new 007 film premiered, it was like Christmas time! I sensed things were starting to go wrong when DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER came out. Production values were down, bits of slapstick humor we're starting to be thrown in and the writing just wasn't up to the previous standards. The Bond movies were starting to copy trends, instead of setting them, as the previous films had. LIVE AND LET DIE came out, and for some reason , which I can't explain, everything worked. Although, with the debut of Roger Moore, we were definitely seen a new kind of James Bond. The movie was a lot of fun, and the small bits of comedy were reigned in by the overall action and adventure. Followed up by GOLDEN GUN, however, and everything seemed to just spiral downward. I can't go into details, without a ton of spoilers, but we were seeing , what should have been a classic with the great Christopher Lee as the villain, a movie that, like all the other studios were churning out, a parody of the series, itself !
Fortunately, the excellent THE SPY WHO LOVED ME followed, and the series got back on track.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988)
Infantile trash.
What's so hilarious about a show that criticizes low budget films? With the comments so supposedly clever that idiotic fans label the show "genius" and the "greatest show, ever...", etc. MST3K is the TV equivalent of idiotic trash like the Howard Stern radio show. A bunch of morons sit around and make fun of, whatever, without taking a good look at themselves. Taking pot shots at low-budget films is no big deal. The morons who embrace this show have no imagination and have to have someone make the remarks for them, so they can feel superior. If MST3K took on the big, so-called "important" films, like ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN, THE COLOR PURPLE, ARMISTAD, anything by Woody Allen, Robert Redford, Spike Lee, etc., then I could respect them. Making fun of a low-budget film on a televised show, is the TV equivalent of a bully picking on a 98 pound weakling.
Hammerhead (1968)
Dreadful
Made at the height of the spy movie craze, Hammerhead commits the worst sin of all in the movie trade - it's monotonous. I enjoy an entertaining bad movie as much as the next, but a boring bad movie is unforgivable and forgettable. So why am I writing this review, you may ask? Because I'm a nice guy and I'm doing this as a public service. If you're a hard-core James Bond/spy movie fanatic like me, you HAVE to see every release that came out during that period. It's inevitable that you're going to track this one down. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Oh, I'm sorry-I forgot to mention the plot. Vince Edwards, who some of us remember. on TV as Dr. Ben Casey, doffs his O.R. scrubs and puts on his suit and tie to become... Well, that's the beauty of this incomprehensible film. When you watching you're not exactly sure what he's supposed to be. One minute he says he's an international jewel thief, the next minute, perky Brit flower child Judy Geeson accuses him of being a spy. Even though you never really find out what he is, by the end of the movie, you don't really care. From the beginning to the end, this piece of crap keeps going back and forth to scenes of "Flower power children", dancing in the streets, dancing on top of boats, dancing on top of cars, dancing up on stage...well you get the idea. Maybe if you take some hallucinogens, this movie will really be enjoyable for you. When I think of "dated" movies, I think some of the worst ones come from the "psychedelic age". This movie smells like stale pot. I recommend avoid at all costs.