saturday night I watched live and let die (LALD /1973), this james bond/blaxploitation epic with yaphet kotto (from homicide: life on the streets) as the evil ambassador kananga/ the evil heroin dealer and restauranteur mr. big (don’t start). roger moore’s first bond appearance, he handles it as well as he could.up till saturday, I figured octopussy was the premier roger moore james bond movie on sheer name alone, with a close second being view to a kill, with grace jones and christopher walken as zoren, plus a duran duran theme song. supafly, fo sho. LALD may be in the top 5 of james bond movies of all time, a list that previously included 4 sean connery joints and a single george lazenby bond, due to the whole diana riggs as his wife killed during the movie…so sad.
anyway, LALD is rising like cream. Paul McCartney song, sans sappy maudlin sing-songy crap (McCartney staples), and the baddest woman I have ever seen in a bond movie. this chick named rosie, played by gloria hendry. I don’t know what ms. hendry has been doing lately, I know she was in a grip of blaxploitation films, LALD being her second, after slaughter’s big rip off, the sequal to slaughter, starring jim brown. she did black ceasar, black belt jones, hell up in harlem, etc…straight up, shawty was bad…tight ass body, dark chocolate skin, man she was dope…real dope, on the real…needless to say, bond had her, and she was killed by a scarecrow.
oh, and dr. quinn medicine woman (jane seymour) was in the movie too, bond was basically like, “you know imma do you, right?” and she goes, “but…” and he is all, “its in the cards, babe,” and she is all like, “i mean, ok then, i guess i gotta,” and then they do it, and she is in love with that cat…dr. quinn was NOT holdin it down. and the gay dude from boomerang is in this piece too, as a voodoo priest. WAY TO GO GEOFFREY HOLDER.
um, so anyhoo, did I mention yaphet kotto was in this? the black guy who played an italian guy on “homicide” and he was in “alien” too, but he exploded. [warning, if you haven’t seen the movie yet and you don’t want the special effects laden super suprise exciting ending ™ to be ruined for you, stop reading now….ok, moving on] he explodes here too. its weird and uncomfortable, not in the slightest bit cool.
the rest of the movie is dope, though. cool white guy bond, strolling through the ghetto, with his long, black 3/4 length coat, pimpin ain’t easy, mr. bond. he walks into the negro juke joint/ restaurant, and everything stops. james bond is not cool james anymore, he is just a white guy in the wrong place…its kind of funny really. you absolutely have to see this movie. they should have changed the name, though, named it like “when bond goes to harlem” or “bond’s big scores” or “james bond’s baaaaaaaaad ass pick up lines”. all of these would have been pretty accurate names for this film. all in all, i give it a thumbs up and 2 hits on the blackhand side, my brotha…I will look for a pic of gloria hendry, and post it when I can…solid, brotha, right on *raised right power fist*