James Bond Movie Review: ****Live and Let Die (1973)

 Roger Moore is introduced as the new James Bond without any loss in intensity.  Three British agents are killed, and Bond is sent to figure out what is going on.  He finds, Mr. Big/Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) is behind the goings on.  Solitaire (Jane Seymour) is reading the cards and providing information for Mr. Big.  This movie has a voodoo flavor as two of the deaths occurred in the Caribbean and New Orleans.  He discovers that they are planning a heroin operation and disco vers the field.  High light of this movie is the boat chase in the bayou, going over berms at times.  And who knew Jane Seymour started as a Bond girl.  Some of the normal characters including M and Moneypenny.  Clifton Jones has a cameo as the sheriff chasing the people going back and forth in boats.  David Hedison portrays the CIA man helping.  

Interesting movie with the undoing of the voodoo magic and the chase and trying to kill Bond so many times, by shark and by crocodile.

Movie Review: ****The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)

 Found this made for TV movie on You Tube as I was looking for information having to do with the musical.  This is not the musical but a 1982 movie starring Jane Seymour as Marguerite and Anthony Andrews as Sir Percy Blakeney/ Scarlet Pimpernel.  Ian McKellan portrays Chauvelin, the force of the republic and is capturing people as traitors to send to the guillotine.   This movie is foremost a love story, and how love survives when you feel your partner has betrayed you.  The plot is very similar to the musical.  I understand it strayed from the book.  It does have Blakeney reciting poetry, where is the Scarlet Pimpernel, which is a song in the musical.  Other than that there is no singing.  Marguerite is an actress who falls for Blakeney.  She does not know he is the Pimpernel.  As in the musical, Blakeney feels she betrayed St. Cyr and his family.  They were all guillotined in the movie.  Marguerite's brother, Armand (Malcolm Jamieson) plays and important part in the movie.  He works for the republic but is also a spy for Pimpernel.  As in the musical, this movie ends with a spectacular sword fight.  This work is much better than your typical made for TV movie.  I enjoyed it.

Movie Review: ***A Memory iIn My Heart (1999)

A Memory in My Heart (1999)  This is Jane Seymour in a made for T.V. movie.  Seymour portrays a woman with amnesia.  She has since remarried and decided to forget the past; until she runs into someone who knew her from the past, and even has a photo of she and her children.  She is able to travel to her hometown and reunite with her children.  However the story from her ex-husband is that she ran away and abandoned the children eight years earlier.  The children have been told that she died.  Could this be the real story?  Her current husband does not believe she would ever abandon her children.  However without her own memories what is she to do.  It just happens that scenes keep triggering flash back to her memories; and she isn’t the only witness to what took place.  Reportedly this movie is based on true events.

Movie Review: ****^Somewhere in Time (1980)

This is one of the best romantic dramas I have ever seen.  This has a classic love story, the only problem being that our lovers are a couple generations apart.  Richard (Christopher Reeve) is a play write.  On the evening of his big opening, an older woman, Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour) meets him saying, "Come back to me." 
Eight years later he is a bit despondent about life, and takes a trip to the Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, Lake Michigan.  There he becomes enraptured with an old painting of an actress.  He studies this and realizes it is the same person who visited him.  He visits an old professor who believes in time travel.  He says the clue is to immerse yourself in the other time, and blocking out of your own time, and then using self hypnosis, it is possible. 
He tries this the first time, and fails.  He then looks at the old register books, and finds his own name, so he knows he will eventually succeed.  So he tries again, and wakes up in 1912.  He at first doesn't find the actress, but eventually he does.  It is with difficulty that they are able to go for a work.  McKenna's manager does everything in his power to keep them apart.  Richard attends the performance, and McKenna goes off script, and recites a love invitation to Richard.  At intermission they agree to meet, but the manager abducts Richard and leaves him tied up in the stables.  He is not able to get away until the next day, and discovers the acting company has left.  However she has left the company, and finds him for a day of bliss. 
All can not end happily which such a match.  A penny is the cuprit, a penny from 1979, not 1912.
This movie has a sad ending, as Richard starves himself to death so he can be with his love.  He does accomplish this.  Love or mental illness.  I am sure people called it illness, but it works as they meet in the after life in the last scene.
This love story is fantastic, and the resistance of the manager only makes the story more beautiful.  However the self starvation is a bit disturbing.