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Live and Let Die

Maybe because it is the first one I saw (at a cinema in Aviemore, Scotland I recall when on holiday) but my favourite James Bond film (if not my favourite James Bond) is Roger Moore's first outing as 007.

It is undoubtedly politically dubious - mostly white virtuous people pitched against mostly black criminal people - and the trashy Voodoo and Tarot running theme is a travesty of both (and how they became to be interconnected is a mystery) - but it is simply so enjoyable.

From the opening scenes of the dispatch of three British agents, especially the New Orleans funeral shifting from slow mourning to jazz infected celebration through the memorable chase scenes with the decrepit double decker bus and the speed boats in the Louisiana bayou to the denouement on the train with the thug with the artificial arm, it is simply magical (and graced with a Paul McCartney inspired score that is fun too)!

Even the astonishingly wooden Jane Seymour (as the Tarot packed seer) is splendidly, enjoyably bad...


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