Lazenby sucks as James Bond

Can't argue with that.

 

I've always been sympathetic to Lazenby. Clearly out of his depth, but he makes a go of it.

Contrast with, say, Sofia Coppola in Godfather III.

 

I'm not a Bond expert and maybe somebody can provide some insight, but I recall reading that Lazenby might be the actor who most physically resembled the way Ian Fleming wrote James Bond.

 

True.

But if you watch any Bond documentaries, or even watch some of the extras on the OHMSS DVD itself, unfortunately Lazenby didn't have brains to match. He is exhibit A of a one-shot star who let fame go to his head. He was reviled by the cast, especially Diana Rigg, as they fought during filming of the movie.

The producers had the idea of bringing him back, thinking he showed at least some potential considering he wasn't even an actor. But Lazenby thought he was too big for Bond and thought Bond was getting square during a year where Easy Rider, etc., came out.

Which is why he wasn't heard from again until the late 70s when Kentucky Fried Movie came out. And not after that until he was in Gettysburg.

Too bad. What followed was the unfortunate Connery redux Diamonds Are Forever (a.k.a. Connery cash grab which completely ruined financing of the movie, which is why the ending just kind of happens abruptly in a mediocre movie by any standard), then the Roger Moore era, which really sucked at the beginning (Moonraker's sheer off-the-charts inplausibility/cash grab from Star Wars is the only thing that keeps Man With The Golden Gun off the bottom of the Bond canon).

I love OHMSS, though I would concede that From Russia With Love (which to me, is like Sticky Fingers is to Exile On Main Street for the Stones when comparing the two, you can't go wrong), is a better movie in the traditional sense of what makes a good movie and Danielle Bianchi is impossibly gorgeous.

Also if you had one John Barry soundtrack to get ... OHMSS is the one. It is very, very good.

 

To clarify: Lazenby wasn't in the opening skit of KFM. He was the governor in the That's Armageddon skit, was shot as he was about to say something. I think he came before Donald Sutherland as the clumsy waiter.

 

The one good thing about Bond movies are the one liners. And for my money, and for all the Bond flicks, NO ONE delivered one-liners better than Roger Moore. Connery was great, but Moore's timing was outstanding.
Not only that, his comical scenes were much better. Just got finished watching The Man with the Golden Gun. The scene where the state trooper from Louisiana and Moore are chasing Golden Eye and Tattoo is great.

 

That is probably the worst scene in any Bond movie ever. You're clearly trying to get a rise.

 

You gotta be joking Bub. That whole scene was a riot from the time Moore steals the car and drives off the showroom floor, to when the state trooper is arrested by the local police.
I loved it when he kept calling Moore "boy." Moore finally got the chance to call him boy when they jumped the river.
Also, did you notice that all the cars were AMC?

 

Yeah. My eyes bled.

That scene is exhibit A on how that franchise fell after the Connery years. Why in the hell would Bonds meet up with the hilljack sherriff from Live And Let Die, just by chance, in freaking Bangkok or Rangoon or wherever they were?

And why would Sherriff Buford T. Justice or whatever his name was, be shopping for an AMC in southeast Asia?

Hell, why would that sherriff even be in the southeast Asia?

It's not funny, it's freaking ridiculous. Man With The Golden Gun is a truly awful flick.

 

Untrue. You may pick any scene out of Moonraker and it's far worse than TMWGG

 

They're both shit; I give Moonraker a slight edge because it at least tried to be a big movie with action all over the world (and in space, of course)

 

Moonraker is most definitely shit. But you know going in Moonraker is shit because it's James Bond in space. It's James Bond's sellout to Star Wars. It's ridiculous on its face and you know it going in.

The Man With The Golden Gun is a different kind of shit, a poorly executed mound of dung. Man With The Golden Gun could've been decent, I suppose, if they didn't fuck around with AMC car flips, jackhole southern sheriffs, midget second bananas and third-nippled villians. Scaramanga!