Roger Moore got his first taste of 007 a year earlier in Live and Let Die so by now, the role came somewheat easier to him and he did not disappoint. The Man With the Golden Gun was Moore's second outing as Ian Fleming's superspy James Bond.

The Man With the Golden Gun begins at Francisco Sacaramanga's island with a man attempting to assassinate him. The man arrives at his estate and is shown in by Scaramanga's servant, Nick Nack. When Scaramanga goes in to meet him, the assassin pulls a gun on him and intends to shoot him. But before he can pull off a shot, the lights go dim and Scaramanga dives out of the way. The two then proceed to play an assassin's game of cat and mouse on Scaramanga's grounds. He leads the assassin into his elaborate shooting gallery/fun house to lure him into a maze of confusion and get the upper hand on him. The assassin wanders through the funhouse shooting at everything that moves including a wax figure of Al Capone and his gang. The man shoots Capone thinking it is Scaramanga. When he realizes that it is a figure of Capone, the assassin says, "Al, wherever you are, don't hold it against me." Look closely at Capone's figure. When he shoots his rifle, you can see him blink! I guess he's not really made of wax. Meanwhile, Scaramanga is searching for his golden gun to kill the assassin with. He spots it down a few stairs but also sees the assassin at the bottom of the stairs waiting for him. Scaramanga pushes a button which transformas the stairs into a gliding, flat surface and "skis" down them. He performs a rollover when he gets to the bottom, grabs his golden gun, and fires one perfect shot into the assassin's forehead. Scaramanga has won and says, "He'll have to do better than that to get any of my money." This marks the second straight film for Moore that doesn't feature James Bond in the pre-title sequence. We do see a wax figurine of 007 in Scaramanga's funhouse and if you look closely, you can see that it is actually Roger Moore trying to hold still. The title song and credits sequence is a decent effort but the song by Lulu is not one of the series' best.

Back in London, "M" informs James Bond that the office had recieved a note from Scaramanga with special delivery to Bond. Along with the letter, was a golden bullet with "007" etched into it. With this in his possession, "M" assumes that James Bond is the next target of the Man with the Golden Gun (Scaramanga). Scaramanga makes his living as a professinal hit man with the asking price of $1 million per hit. I like this part when Bond asks "M", "Who would pay a million dollars to have me killed?" "M" replies, "Jealous hubands, outraged chefs, humiliated tailors, the list is endless." "M" fears that 007 will be killed and sends him on leave until the matter is cleared.

James visits Beirut in hopes of finding the golden bullet that killed 002 there in 1969. He finds a bellydancer who has the bullet, steals the bullet, and beats up a couple of chaps along the way. Q tells 007 that it came from a 4.2 millimeter gun and only one man could have made the bullet: a Mister Lezar. Bond next travels to Hong Kong to find Lezar and find out who he is supplying these golden bullets with. Lezar tells him a lady picks them up and that's all he knows. Bond follows this lady all the way into her hotel room shower and forces her to cooperate with him. Hong Kong is a great setting for this film and is definately a plus. Bond is informed by Andrea Anders that Scaramanga will be at a club that night and Bond goes there in hopes of finding him. As he is sitting across the street watching the club, Nick Nack walks by 007, and then James decides to enter the club. I love this scene because it is so intense. Bond throws his cigar down and starts walking across the street. As he is crossing, the camera pans up to a second story window where we can see the golden gun protruding out of a ventilation shaft. It gets the viewer on the edge because we all think he's about to shoot James Bond. However, as Bond is approaching the entrance to the club, two gentlemen walk out and Scaramanga shoots one of them in the head. Bond hits the ground and then pulls out his PPK and looks around for Scaramanga. This is easily one of the best parts in the movie. I can never get enough of it. The man Scaramanga shot was a solar power expert named Gibson who possessed a Solex agitator which converted solar power into electricity. Scaramanga wanted this device to create a monopoly on solar energy. During the time The Man With the Golden Gun was made, the United States was caught in the middle of an energy crisis which was the main reason behind this plot in the movie.

As it turns out, Scaramanga does not have a million dollar contract out for 007. Which was a bit of a disappointment for many fans. Certainly, it would have made the film much better if the two were stalking each other, but this was not the case. Even though he is not being hunted, Bond persists that they go after Scaramanga to prevent him from succeeding with his plan. "M" agrees so he sends Bond to stop him. There is someone who is financing Scaramanga's contracts of $1 million and Bond suggests that it is probably a Chinese industrialist named Hai Fat. To stop Scaramanga from succeeding, Bond attempts to impersonate Scaramanga at Hai Fat's estate and blow the whole operation. But Hai Fat discovers that he is not Scaramanga and hold him hostage at his Kung fu school. At the school, Bond is forced to compete with a couple of the students there at martial arts. Bond waxes the first guy he faces with a kick to the face while he is bowing, which is great fun. The second guy is more cautious and gets a few good licks on 007. But Bond gets the best of him with a few good chops and a power-punch to the face before escaping the school by crashing through the wooden window. This leads to several members of the school pursuing Bond in speedboats. They chase him through the canals of Hong Kong at very high rates of speed. Bond hides in an alley and when the opposition is not looking, zooms out of it and splits their boat in two. Our good friend, J.W. Pepper returns in this film as he is apparently vacationing in Hong Kong. This chase is slightly reminiscent of the boat chase in Live and Let Die and is a very good part in the film.

Meanwhile, Bond discovers that it was Andrea Anders who actually sent the note and golden bullet to London; not Scaramanga. She wanted Bond to come looking for him and eliminate him because she hates him and wants to leave. In return for this favor, Bond convinces Andrea Anders to retrieve the Solex agitator from him. She does so but in return she gets something from Scaramanga as well: a golden bullet in her heart. Andrea is dead but Bond gets the Solex from her. For the first time, Scaramanga and Bond meet here at the kickboxing arena and Scaramanga says to Bond, "I shall find what she took from me [solex]." When Scaramanga leaves, Bond, Miss Goodnight, and Lt. Hip all follow him. But as Goodnight is placing a homing device in Scaramanga's trunk, she is thrown into it. This leads to the best part in the movie: the car chase. Scaramanga takes off and Bond enters an AMC dealership and decides to take the showroom model for a test-drive. J.W. Pepper is sitting in the passenger side and thinking Bond is a dealer he asks, "How 'bout a demonstration boy?" Bond replies, "Certainly sir.", and plows through the front store showroom window in pursuit of Scaramanga. I love this sequence more than any other as Bond is chasing Scaramanga through the streets of Hong Kong. Bond pulls some amazing moves in the AMC Hornet which happens to be one of my favorite Bond cars. It looks like a 70s muscle car which is why it is so awesome. Bond ends up taking a wrong turn and loses Scaramanga. They are on two different roads separated by a large canal in the middle. I love how they crank up the Bond theme here are 007 spots the defunct bridge and sets up to jump it. The brigde is out and all there is are the two ends of the bridge standing. Bond is going to attempt to jump the bridge and land on the other side. Pepper looks at the bridge and says, "You're not...." and Bond says, "I sure am, boy!" and jumps the bridge. The stupid sound they make as they are jumping should be erased and the sound of the car's engine should be put in its place. That would be much better. When filming this scene, physicists determined at exactly what angle the bridge should tilt at and exactly how fast the car should be going when it hits the bridge. Amazingly, the stunt driver perfected the jump on the first try!

Scaramanga gets away back to his hideout in his car that sprouts wings and flies away. He still has Miss Goodnight and the Solex with him so Bond goes to Scaramanga's island to retrieve them. When he gets there, Scaramanga shows Bond around his estate and where he harnesses all of the solar energy. After the tour, the two and Miss Goodnight eat lunch inside. Scaramanga challenges Bond to a duel afterwards to see who the best man is. However, the duel leads back into Scaramanga's funhouse shooting gallery where the two are playing cat and mouse; just like the pre-title sequence. Bond gets out of camera view by maneuvering underneath the funhouse's construction in order to ambush Scaramanga. Underneath, Bond's Walther PPK falls from his pants down into the darkness. Next we see Scaramanga lurking around carefully trying to find Bond. Remember the Bond figurine we saw at the beginning of the film? 007 posed as his own statue in the maze and shot Scaramanga when he came into view. This was a great climax because the music by John Barry is fabulous as they are hunting each other. Bond rescues Miss Goodnight and flee the island before it explodes. They then climb aboard Scaramanga's boat and sail home. While onboard, James and Goodnight are in bed when she says, "James, I've always wanted to take a slow boat from China.

The Man With the Golden Gun is by far one of the very best films in the James Bond series. For one, the enemy is the best one so far. I found Scaramanga to be far more entertaining than any of the Blofelds had been. The locations for the film were superb; I really like Mary Goodnight as the Bond girl; the action scenes were not a disappointment; Roger Moore was getting better as James Bond; John Barry's musical score was aces; the plot was very well written; and characters both good and bad were great. By now, the James Bond series was hitting its incredible stride. With unforgettable characters, seductive locales, and go-for-the-jugular suspense, The Man With the Golden Gun is a mesmerizing action-thriller of the highest order.

Overall Rating: A-

James Bond Will Return in "The Spy Who Loved Me"