🇵🇱 Steve G 🇵🇸’s review published on Letterboxd:
In many ways, Live And Let Die is just as peculiar as its predecessor Diamonds Are Forever. Except it's great.
Its oddness is planted less into bizarrely misjudged characters, dreadful casting and overly silly scenes, but more into a distinctly un-Bond plot. This one is basically a crime thriller with its obvious blaxploitation nods and even has a shot at being the only horror film in the Bond series what with its voodoo carry-on. It throws in a few swear words, ups the violence and it's quite splendid.
As much as I might have said that Sean Connery should have got this one as his swansong, in many ways it was good that he didn't. For the changing of the guard to Roger Moore, it was perhaps the ideal time to try something narratively different and it works really well. At the same time, it bridges the gap between Connery and Moore really well by upping the humour a bit (mainly through throwing in Clifton James for a bit in the middle - and I love that guy) but also keeping fairly serious for a lot of the time. Or as serious as pre-Daniel Craig Bond gets.
It starts with the most ambitious pre-credits sequence in the whole series, with its three location murders setting the scene brilliantly and also by not choosing to force Moore on us too early on. It's not all sweetness and light with this one, obviously. I mean, I can only imagine anyone who was ever caught out by Yaphet Kotto's disguise must have to live with the shame for the rest of their lives. Plus, despite being an obvious double agent, Gloria Hendry is absolutely dreadful with an absolutely dreadful character.
But it unleashes the Greatest Movie Boat Chase Of All Time, has that superb bus chase as well, plus a quality 1970s cast that makes good use of pretty much everyone. Kotto could not be more obviously great as the lead villain and Julius Harris as his main muscle is the perfect choice as well. David Hedison is easily the best Felix Leiter of the series although why they were constantly arseing around with that role, I don't know.
I do wonder if my predilection for 1970s crime is one of the reasons why I've always liked this one so much, and perhaps that is part of the reason. It's just great entertainment from start to finish and obviously there's that theme as well.