The Man with the Golden Gun vs. The Spy Who Loved Me

8 comments

9 comments

'Golden Gun' by a mile.

Two of my favorite Bonds and two of Moore's best outings. Love both, but I like The Spy Who Loved Me just a little bit more.

Bondathon continues...: The Man with the Golden Gun vs The Spy Who Loved Me. After 3 bad James Bond movies finally comes another great one: The Spy Who Loved Me is awesome. It may not be as good as the first 3 Connery's or the Lazenby, but it's still the best one since those. There are some really great things in TSWLM: Jaws, the special effects, the Bondgirl, the villain and the awesome pre-credits sequence, It isn't perfect though; the humor sometimes feels really forced and the assault on the ship is too much like the assault in the volcano in You Only Live Twice (both movies are by the same director, so that doesn't surprise me). Nevertheless, TSWLM is a great Bond movie and definitely better than TMwtGG, which was unintentionally(?) funny.

Golden Gun pisses all over Spy. Yeah it's unintentionally funny, but funny is funny. Spy is both boring and lame. I think all the slow dialogue and soft-spoken tenderness makes Spy the worst Bond of them all (though I am nowhere near completing my series reassessment). These old Bond films are pretty damn sucky in general. Just display after display of horrible action and creative voids. I am ashamed to have ever loved these films.

While it's true that the old Bond movies (so pre-Brosnan, I guess?) don't hold up in this day and age (they're somewhat slow, they contain a lot of elements we now consider clichés and the action (especially the obviously sped-up hand-to-hand combat in the first 6 movies or so) is sometimes laughable) doesn't necessarily make them bad movies. I don't think any of them is a masterpiece, but they're still good fun. I agree that The Spy Who Loved me is a tender movie in the Bond series,...but boring? Really? The movie starts out with a bad-ass ski chase and the best stunt in the entire movie and one of the best in the franchise; the movie has one of the most entertaining henchmen; and the movie features one of the best car chases. Creative voids? Yes. But boring and lame?

Pre Dalton perhaps. I really dig License to Kill. Though I was left disappointed by The Living Daylights recently, which is a film I remember seeing as a kid about 10-12 years ago and liking considerably. As for Spy, yeah, it starts out OK actually, and the ski chase isn't half-bad (nothing spectacular mind you, especially given the stunts I grew up on, or indeed the stunts in your average modern action film). I liked the Lotus Esprit too. The longer it went on, though, the more dreary it became and the more weary I felt. Watching Jaws rip a car apart like tin-foil did nothing for me. I guess on another day he could've been unintentionally hilarious, but not on this day. Barbara Bach didn't help matters either and the sex appeal is lacking in this Bond too, especially when you consider that 007 spends time in an actual harem. I wouldn't mind if the film's quality was anomalous to the series, but the crap seems typical rather than exceptional. I've still got a few more to get through, but thus far all I've managed to do is cannibalise a few nice memories. I don't even mind clichés in Bond (depending on the nature of the cliché of course - some of the shit in Craig's Royale winds me up). But the action... God... just so damn bad. I don't know if it's bad choreography or no choreography. I feared as much, but I didn't expect the charm, humour and dialogue to be so mediocre. So yeah, boring IMHO. (I rate Goldfinger and Dr No as decent, so there is still hope for the few I have yet to re-watch.)

These are the only two Roger Moore Bonds I've managed to see in a theater so far. Both played very well in that setting, better than at home. "Spy" is the better film overall, but "Golden Gun" is a guilty pleasure of mine.

Both are under appreciated in my opinion, but Spy is definitely better.

Golden Gun is funny, but Spy Who Loved Me is really better

Spy Who Loved Me is one of my James Bond's favorites. I loved the song. Man with Golden Gun is just funny, not good

The Man with the Golden Gun for me. And I also like the Alice Cooper tune by the same name.

The Spy Who Loved Me is one of the best Bond films. The Man With The Golden Gun is (Along with Diamonds Are Forever) a gulty pleasure of mine. It's lower on my personal ranking of the Bond films (Including the two Non-EON films), but I still enjoy it, but at times it's hard to take seriously. The Spy Who Loved Me wins.

I thought the third act of Golden Gun was actually pretty good. The setting of the villain's secret headquarters was stunning, and Lee was brilliant. But god, the martial arts sequences feel forced, as does the inclusion of the American policeman, and Goodnight makes for an extraordinarily dim witted agent. Spy Who Loved Me for now.

Me five minutes in TSWLM: Wow! This is already better than TMWTGG! And it only gets better, too!

Golden Gun for me...SWLM grags towards the end. Yes Jaws is awesome but he's in Moonraker as well so you still get him.

Golden Gun is one of my least favourite Bonds, Spy is one of my favourites

MWTGG is amazing. TSWLM, I should like more but I don't. SPY gets bogged down at the end though on paper it should rank higher than GUN. TMWTGG is just such a wonderful slice of the early-mid 70s. Christopher Lee is great and Herve Villachaise is a quirky, memorably sleazy henchman. TSWLM is a better film but no way it beats the Nixon era cheese of TMWTGG.

Golden gun is by far my favorite Roger Moore Bond movie.