THE EXPLOSIVE REVIEW

Starring: Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, Clifton James, Richard Loo, Soon-Tek Oh, and David Hedison.

Directed By: Guy Hamilton.

Story:
As the ninth film in the franchise and the second to star Roger Moore, “The Man With The Golden Gun” sends James Bond after a device known as the Solex Agitator, which is capable of harnessing the sun’s powers. The villain who has this device is Francisco Scaramanga (cough *Count Dracula* cough, Christopher Lee) and his little sidekick (and by little, I mean literally… little) Nicknack. 007’s sidekick, err Bond girl, this time around is Mary Goodnight.

Characters:
*James Bond (Roger Moore): Agent 007 who now seeks out the source of a golden bullet which happens to be Scaramanga.
*Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee): A villainous assassin who enjoys gun duels and plots to misuse solar energy.
*Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland): The Bond girl who assists him in his adventures throughout the Far East.
*Andrea Anders (Maud Adams): Scaramanga’s dissatisfied mistress who helps Bond track him down.
*Nick Nack (Herve Villechaize): Scaramanga’s little servant.
*M (Bernard Lee): Head of M16 Secret Service.
*Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell): M’s secretary.
*Q (Desmond Llewelyn): Bond’s master of gadgets.

Overall:
Performances by Christopher Lee and Roger Moore light up this Bond adventure and give it some flair. Beneath that all, however, is a Bond film that feels rather boring or uninspired in some ways. There are fantastic concepts behind the two villains here, but the movie’s overall script lacks a sense of invention or freshness, elements that the previous entry “Live And Let Die” had.

The film pays a rather tedious comedic return visit to Sheriff Pepper from “Live And Let Die” but it goes on longer than it should, it worked for that film but here it just feels like they’re trying to remake that sequence all over again. The movie does contain one of the coolest car flips ever captured on cinema however. In addition, the film doesn’t really get remotely interesting until the last 30 minutes when, after a long car chase which he loses to, Bond tracks the villains down to their private island and goes there in a Seaplane. He is greeted by Scaramanga and Nicknack, shown around the facility, and even has lunch with them. Scaramanga then challenges Bond to a gun duel in his funhouse fortress which was carefully crafted by him.

While the end of the Gun duel doesn’t have a satisfying finish, the film makes matters worse with a tacked on “the whole place is going to blow” sequence (in how many Bond films have we seen this before?). “The Man With The Golden Gun was fairly successful box office-wise, but it was also the lowest earning Bond flick. Perhaps releasing it within a week of “The Towering Inferno” and “The Godfather, Part II” wasn’t the smartest idea on the studio’s behalf.

Rating: *1/2

Starring: Gary Oldman, Odette Yustman, Ethan Cutkosky, Cam Gigandet, Meagan Good, Jane Alexander, James Remar, Idris Elba, Rhys Coiro, Carla Gugino, Aiden David, Conner David, Eric Flores, Atticus Shaffer, and Rachel Brosnahan.

Directed by: David S. Goyer.

Story:
A malevolent spirit known as a dybbuk refuses to leave the world and instead inhabits the body of Casey Beldon, plaguing her with nightmarish dreams, strange visions, and a ghostly child with big blue eyes. Casey seeks the help of a spiritual advisor, Rabbi Joseph Sendak, to perform an exorcism and rid the entity from her body.

Characters:
*Rabbi Joseph Sendak (Gary Oldman): A spiritual advisor who can perform a Jewish exorcism.
*Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman): The protagonist college girl who is being haunted by the dybbuk entity.
*Romey (Meagan Good): Casey’s best friend who happens to know a lot about voodoo, dreams, and superstition.
*Sofi Kozma (Jane Alexander): An elderly lady who is revealed to be Casey’s grandmother. It turns out that she had a twin brother who died as a result of Nazi experimentation, the brother in question happens to be the ghost/dybbuk who is haunting Casey.
*Matty (Atticus Shaffer): Casey’s neighbor’s son whom she babysits from time to time.

Overall:
I was surprised and pleased to see that “The Unborn”, written and directed by the critically-acclaimed and respected David S. Goyer (just thought I’d point that out to let you all know that this wasn’t directed by some stupid music video director like many movies are these days), is neither a remake or a book adaptation because hey, let’s face it, that is the automatic assumption nowadays. It is in fact a creation of Mr. Goyer, however, it’s not entirely original as it borrows from so many movies that it’s not even funny - “The Exorcist”, “The Omen”, “Rosemary’s Baby”, need I go on?

“The Unborn” is a downright cheesy horror flick with cringing dialogue, Mr. Goyer actually wrote and directed this? That’s hard to believe. Wow. Maybe he watched too many of the crappy horror movies that came out recently before he conjured this up. As with most horror pictures in the now era, it relies on boo and jump scare tactics with the occasional musical cue, no build-up whatsoever. The script tries to be clever and throw in some Nazi genetic experiment as the initial catalyst for all that’s happening, but it doesn’t work. Sorry, but the whole “my baby is possessed” or “my child is a demon” cliche is just that - CLICHE. If you feel you must go and watch “The Unborn”, just be sure to go home and UNwind yourself by watching a horror movie that came out before the year 2000 - You may not like everything you see, but you’ll have a lot better trouble than if you stick with the 2000s where a good horror movie is like a needle in a haystack.

Rating: *1/2