The Man With The Golden Gun

By this point in the Bond series, the production seems to have come to terms with itself: it would never be high art, just well-done, glitzy and flashy, if somewhat formulaic, entertainment. You get that here: gimmickry, hot chicks, exotic locales, and a likeable hero throwing quips around like they’re going out of style. With the exception of one really bad idea--a lame attempt at a running gag, which hopefully doesn’t appear in the next flick--it’s all pretty standard but enjoyable; not great, but not awful either. Some moviemaking enterprises do much, much worse. If that’s a low bar...well, you can’t always ascend mountains.