The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Bond movie #9 has 007 in the crosshairs of the worlds greatest assassin, the conveniently never photographed Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee). The wonderfully 70's plot concerns nefarious efforts to corner the market on a new solar cell technology, one vital to confronting 'the energy crises'. Exotic locations include Beirut (on a sound stage), Macau, Hong Kong, and other islands off the Chinese coast, as well as Thailand, where Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) from Live and Let Die makes an unlikely reappearance in an unlikely car chase by an AMC Hornet of an AMC Matador Coupe (I hope that cross promotion paid well). Britt Ekland, who interestingly appeared on screen with Lee the previous year in the cult horror film The Wicker Man, is a dimmer then average Bond girl. Hervé Villechaize is Lee's assistant Nick Nack. Nick Nack's chief function is to assist a tall man who likes to wear white suits on an exotic island, and thus The Man with the Golden Gun can be viewed as, and I would argue should be viewed as, that one time Mister Roarke let Tattoo go on a Fantasy Island vacation. ***

Ranking the Bonds so far:

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
From Russia with Love
Goldfinger
Dr. No
Thunderball
Diamonds are Forever
You Only Live Twice
Live and Let Die
The Man with the Golden Gun

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

This is the latest film from director Luc Besson, perhaps best known for the 1997 feature The Fifth Element. Based on the French science fiction comic book series Valérian and Laureline, which ran from 1967 to 2010, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Plants shares the crowded visual sense of The Fifth Element, though perhaps the best point of comparison might be the 1968 movie Barbarella. Both films were directed by Frenchmen (Roger Vadim in the case of Barbarella), based on French comic books from the 1960's, depict crowded, trippy, and not always coherent futures centuries hence, and made points of emphasizing the figures of their female leads, who play outer space secret agents, in Barbarella Jane Fonda, in Valerian Cara Delevingne.

Delveingne is Laureline and she is partnered (logically) with Valerian (Dane DeHaan), a notorious ladies man who is constantly trying to convince Laureline he would give it all up if she would marry him. The two spar continuously throughout the film, though the chemistry is not very strong and you'll likely find you don't care much if they end up together or not. For plot the couple become involved in a case that ends up related to the genocide of a peaceful, Polynesian-type alien race, and the subsequent cover up. They do most of their sleuthing on Alpha, a kind of Babylon 5 on steroids whose origin story, depicted at the beginning of the film, is its most interesting part.

I found the movie entertaining enough, I was never really bored, though I have serious doubts about the films re-watchability. Clive Owen and Ethan Hawke are in this, and John Goodman voices a CGI character. Rihanna appears as a shape-shifting alien "performer" and does a pretty suggestive dance so this movie isn't really for kids, though to be honest I'm not sure who it is for. **

Live and Let Die (1973)

Despite having one of the more memorable title songs of the franchise, Live and Let Die is my least favorite of the Bond movies yet. Roger Moore took over the lead in this eight installment and so far I'm not particularly impressed, this Bond feels like a slightly different character then the one played by Connery and Lazenby. We are starting to move more into the realm of self parody here, though the movie still takes its self mostly seriously. A 21 year old Jane Seymour is the main Bond girl and gets a well deserved "Introducing" credit. Yaphet Kotto is the main villain and the "exotic locations" are New York City, New Orleans, and a fictional Caribbean Nation called San Monique. This film could be considered as part of the Blaxploitation sub genera popular at the time, though for awhile late in the film it essentially becomes Smokey and the Bandit on boats. ***

Ranking the Bonds so far:

From Russia with Love
Her Majesty's Secret Service
Goldfinger
Dr. No
Thunderball
Diamonds are Forever
You Only Live Twice
Live and Let Die

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

All the back of the DVD box bothers to say for plot description on this one is that: "The fourth installment of the hugely successful Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil: Afterlife is again based on the wildly popular video game series." Not that it matters but there is actually a lot of plot here, Alice and her clones take out Umbrella Corp headquarters in Japan, she loses her powers, goes to Alaska to try and find the group she was with in the last film, then makes her way down LA and hooks up with a group of survivors hold up inside a prison, which they eventually break out of with the help of Wentworth Miller of all people. The film ends in yet another cliff hanger, but you won't care. *1/2

Diamonds are Forever (1971)

Sean Connery returns to the role that made him famous in Bond movie number seven, Diamonds are Forever. Feeling more like a coda to the last movie then anything else there is a brief pre title sequence where Bond seemingly dispatches Blofeld (this time sporting hair and played by Charles Gray) presumably in response to his murder of Mrs. Bond at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The main plot concerns the hording of South African diamonds for nefarious purposes, and the chief exotic locals in this are Holland and Las Vegas, where a reclusive Howard Hughes type Billionaire plays a major part. Jill St. John is the main Bond girl, a diamond smuggler named Tiffany Case. There is also a literal 'couple' of gay hitmen in this, and I'm not sure if that's progressive or retrogressive. My chief takeaway from this film is that I want to visit 1971 Circus Circus. ***


Ranking the Bonds so far:

From Russia with Love
Her Majesty's Secret Service
Goldfinger
Dr. No
Thunderball
Diamonds are Forever
You Only Live Twice

Army of Shadows (1969)

A film about the French Resistance in World War II directed by one member of the French Resistance (Jean-Pierre Melville) adapted from a novel by another member of the French Resistance (Joseph Kessel) and based on the true experiences of yet other members of the French Resistance. You can't do much better for authenticity on its subject matter then Army of Shadows, a film that depicts the actions of the Resistance as brave, but far from glamorous.

Episodic in nature the film follows a handful of members of one resistance cell over the course of around six to eight months during the heart of the Nazi occupation, late 1942 and early 1943. Unlike a lot of other films about the Resistance Army of Shadows lacks that one big mission, blowing up a munitions base, or assassinating a General, things like that. Instead the Resistance spends most of its time trying to avoid capture, rescue captured associates, and hunt down traitors in their ranks. While they provide the British with some intelligence and help rescue some of their downed airman, Resistance effectiveness was limited. Effectiveness however was not the central point, the central point was standing up, something which this film makes clear most French people (understandably) did not do.

Army of Shadows is not the comforting story of the Resistance most French people liked to tell themselves, as a result the film was not particularly well received in France at the time it was released. In fact, taking their lead from French critics American distributers did not release the film in this country, that is until after it was 'rediscovered', the movie was released theatrically in the United States only in 2006 and made lots of years best lists, including being named as the Best Film of the Year by Newsweek, The New York Times, The LA Weekly, Saloon.com and others. This is a pretty amazing movie and defiantly worth seeing, despite being rather bleak. ****

It (2017)

A horrifying reimagining of Albert Lamorisse's 1956 French short film The Red Balloon. No actually It is the newest version of the story from Stephan King's 1986 novel of the same name, which was previously made into a television mini-series in 1990, with Tim Curry memorably playing the demon clown Pennywise. Set of course in small town Maine, but updated from the youth of the baby boomers to the 1980's, the film invites obvious comparison not just to its source material but to the Netflix series Stranger Things, as its protagonists are chiefly Jr. High level kids dealing with the paranormal, one of whom (Finn Wolfhard) is also on Stanger Things.

I'll say right up front that Stranger Things is better, but this is still good. I liked the young cast, of whom the vaguely Elle Fanning like Sophia Lillis has the most potential to grow in an Oscar worthy direction. Bill Skarsgård of course has some big shoes (pun intended) to fill as the movies It. He's creepy, does a good job, but Pennywise suffers some from diminishing returns do to his frequent appearances. This film takes it time, and makes sure everyone gets their little story line, but I can certainly understand why it was approached previously as a mini-series rather then a film. There is a good sense of ill ease permeating this movie, though often its most discomforting parts are the human rather then the supernatural.

Is it a spoiler to say there will be sequels? ***1/2