The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) Movie Review

The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) IMDB Prime Video

The Man with the Golden Gun movie poster

The ninth James Bond film and the second (out of 7) starring Roger Moore. A professional assassin with a golden gun charges a million dollars per kill. He trains against other assassins in a room that is set-up like a fun-house, which includes multiple mirror mazes (and in the opening sequence !). If you want to train against other assassins who better to train against than James Bond ? (Léon, John Wick, Ray, The Jackal, Jef, Vincent and Jules, The Bride, Vincent, Nikita). I made a strong case for a few others, but James is still probably in the top 10. Is The Terminator considered an assassin ? I’m getting off topic.

Can Bond find the man with the golden gun and spoil his current plot that revolves around solar energy ?

I want to give a shout out to one of my favorite actors from the 70’s and my childhood, Hervé Villechaize. If you do not know the name you probably know him from his catch phrase on a late 70’s tv show “the plane, boss, the plane”.

As far as James Bond films go, this one is entertaining and worth a look. It falls firmly in the middle of the pack The cool gadgets that were fun in 1974 are less cool today but you get the idea ! I give it a 7/10

The Lady From Shanghai (1947) Movie Review

The Lady From Shanghai (1947) IMDB Prime Video

The Lady from Shanghai movie poster

Rita Hayworth plays a vixen that gets director/actor Orson Welles mixed up in a murder plot in this film-noir classic. They find themselves caught in a fun-house mirror maze in a key plot moment that involves gunshots…if they can find what they are shooting at ! One of the few maze films that involves a funhouse mirror maze but is not a horror film. Also a film that doesn’t just contain a maze, but uses it in a major way to move the plot and story forward (like The Shining). A very solid movie. 8/10.

Labyrinth (1986) Movie review

Labyrinth (1986) IMDB Prime Video

Labyrinth (1986) movie poster

Jim Henson, Lucasfilm and David Bowie collaborated on this classic fantasy movie. A teenage girl is angrily babysitting her younger baby brother and she wishes he would be taken away. The Goblin King grants the wish and takes the brother in a classic case of be careful what you wish for. Her only way to get him back is to solve a Labyrinth in 13 hours or her brother will permanently become a goblin in this weird fantasy world. Includes a wonderful tribute to MC Escher and tons of interesting puppets courtesy of Jim Henson, along with some musical numbers from David Bowie. I give the movie a 6.5/10.

Enjoy the MC Escher scene below, featuring David Bowie singing “Within You” along with the movie trailer below that.

It Chapter 2 (2019) Movie Review

It Chapter 2 (2019) IMDB Prime Video

It Chapter 2 movie poster

The Losers Club is called home 27 years after their encounter with Pennywise in Derry, Maine. He seems to be in a very bad mood. Eventually we have a few characters stuck in a fun-house mirror maze with the sadistic clown Pennywise. And things get intense. Running in a mirror maze is a BAD IDEA. I’ve personally never tried running in a mirror maze, but I have walked through many, and I have walked into plenty of walls at slow speeds which I did not enjoy.

Based on the story by Stephen King (also author of the all-time great maze movie, The Shining). This movie is not as strong as the first installment, but Pennywise will still have you hating clowns and jumping from your seat at an unexpected moment. I give it a 6/10.