Christopher Lee plays Francisco Scaramanga, the world's greatest assassin and the eponymous 'Man with the Golden Gun'. After a golden bullet is sent to MI6 with '007' written on it, M sends Bond on a sabbatical, pulling him out of a mission to find a missing expert on solar energy (The film had been made during an energy crisis). So, he tries to find Scaramanga on a trail that leads him from Beirut to Macau, to Hong Kong, to Bangkok, to a private island in the South China Sea. Soon, he learns that Scaramanga was hired to kill the expert on the orders of a wealthy energy magnate Hai Fat. But Scaramanga wants some kind of maguffin relating to solar energy so he can gain a monopoly on that market.
They certainly did turn up the comedic elements in this film, but I find that they overdid it. There's a kind of 'love triangle' between Bond and the two girls of the week: Britt Ekland as the inept MI6 agent Mary Goodnight, and Maud Adams as Scaramanga's mistress Andrea Anders. I don't think Britt Ekland does the best job as a Bond girl. She always seems to be making mistakes and I can't help but feel like she's a stereotypical 'blonde bombshell'.
There's a fight scene with a group of students at a dojo, followed by a boat chase, and a car chase with a jump across a broken bridge. It's a good stunt, but they had to ruin it with a comedic sound effect (a slide whistle).
However, the best aspect of the film has to be the late Christopher Lee. He's a great villain, both charming and sinister, and he carries the film any scene he's in. Accompanying him is his manservant, a French midget called Nick-Nack. Well, OK then.
Overall, I think I could give this one a miss. If you want a martial arts comedy, you might like it, but I think other films did that better.
Oh yeah, and Sheriff Pepper makes a comeback. I'd like to see what he adds to the story.
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