![Murder by Death (1976)](/uploads/profile_image/1c9/55b6a112-6269-4caf-a402-5e256545a1c9.jpg?m=1522361132)
Murder by Death (1976)
Movie
A group of five renowned detectives, each accompanied by a relative or associate, is invited to...
![The Cycling Anthology: Volume 1](/uploads/profile_image/773/71ea2984-6d46-4eed-b631-446302727773.jpg?m=1522326749)
The Cycling Anthology: Volume 1
Book
The Cycling Anthology is a collection of essays by some of the world's leading cycling writers. You...
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David McK (3251 KP) rated Casino Royale Vintage 007 in Books
Jan 30, 2019
And that's the crux of this book: British (not-so) secret Agent James Bond is chosen to go undercover to bankrupt Le Chiffre in gambling at the Casino Royale of the title.
THis Bond is also quite 'hard', more akin to the Bond of the Dalton or Craig era of the films than to that of (say) the Moore era or - my favourite - the Brosnan era. As the first novel in the series, this also highlights to Bond just how cold the spy game an be, with the inclusion of Vesper Lynd: one of only two female's in his (literary) life who have such an impact on him.
While the prose does flow well enough, and the novel is short enough not to out-stay it's welcome, it none-the-less failed to ignite any desire in me to hunt down any other of Ian Fleming's Bond novels: I'm not going to avoid them (or say no if I come across them), but neither I am going to actively hunt them out.
![The Wrong Mans - Season 2](/uploads/profile_image/7e0/f79b6562-1153-48f6-bc6a-1c60caf387e0.jpg?m=1522355649)
The Wrong Mans - Season 2
TV Season
From actor/writer duo James Corden and Mathew Baynton, The Wrong Mans series centers on Sam Pinkett...
![The Wrong Mans - Season 1](/uploads/profile_image/1e4/fd185984-fda0-4ab7-91b5-a28a7bb261e4.jpg?m=1522329058)
The Wrong Mans - Season 1
TV Season
From actor/writer duo James Corden and Mathew Baynton, The Wrong Mans series centers on Sam Pinkett...
![For Your Eyes Only (1981)](/uploads/profile_image/842/2b2bb237-e06a-4747-a4ca-810972d80842.jpg?m=1522333458)
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Movie Watch
While visiting the grave of his deceased wife, Tracy, James Bond is called back to MI6 headquarters....
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Chris Parnell recommended You Only Live Twice (1967) in Movies (curated)
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) in Movies
Feb 19, 2018
Not bad instance of Bond franchise as pure genre movie; decent fights and chases, but only one moment that really deserves a place on the 'best of Bond' showreel (the corkscrew bridge jump). Christopher Lee barely breaks a sweat as the best actor in the movie. Slightly sleazy atmosphere (in places it resembles a softcore porn movie with the sex edited out); you can kind of see why one of the original producers thought the series had run out of steam and departed before the next one.
![40x40](/uploads/profile_image/c74/d8277c53-81ff-4d2c-8007-2bac329f4c74.jpg?m=1553205006)
David McK (3251 KP) rated Live and Let Die (James Bond, #2) in Books
Jan 30, 2019
You used to say live and let live
(you know you did you know you die you know you did)
But in this ever changing world in which we live in
Makes you give in and cry ...
Live and let die ..."
(cue guitar riff)
With that out of the way - Paul McCartney and Wings, later covered by Guns 'N Roses - Live and Let Die is the second James Bond book by Ian Fleming, but the eighth film in the series, and the first to star Roger Moore in the lead role.
And reading it with contemporary eyes, boy has it aged. Quite different than the movie - although the key elements (vodoo, Baron Samedi, Solitaire, American southwest setting) are intact, it can also be quite uncomfortable reading this with modern sensibilities, particularly in how Flemings (and Bond) treats the female characters, and in how the Harlem culture and denizens are portrayed.
Allowances must be made, I suppose, for the time period in which it was written ...
![The GAA & Revolution in Ireland 1913-1923](/uploads/profile_image/307/18e08665-5160-474e-b059-7229ec114307.jpg?m=1522358450)
The GAA & Revolution in Ireland 1913-1923
Book
The decade between the Labour conflict (the 'Lockout') of 1913 and the end of the Civil War in 1923...