Can you explain this a little bit more about your comment about LTK? When in this movie does change the tone for you? Personally, I have never experienced it that way.
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When they hit Republic of Isthmus. It moves from something more akin to a police procedural to more of the samuri film that i know they were aiming for.
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From Russia With Love (1963)
I do wish the trilby hat would come back, but that mighy be because ive been watching White Collar…
An odd one to review this, as it is easily my favorite of the books. It is for the most part very loyal but they could easily have made a darker film from the book which i sort of miss. However, it is clear that, as well as wanting to stay as loyal as possible to Fleming’s novel, it wants to be defining what the film series is going to be and indeed when Bond films go “realistic”, and never had quotation marks done so much heavy lifting, it is FRWL that is still used as the model.
Kerim Bey’s ending is perfect for both the character and the actor. If ever someone got to choose their final words they would struggle to beat his.
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Goldfinger (1964)
This should not have been the film that predicted the future. The only differences is how he crashed the US economy and there’s no James Bond to stop him…
Filmwise, it remains a classic for a reason and I do think it benefits from purposefully not being FRWL despite the previous film’s success so we now get the second arcytype Bond film (the third type was 3 years off)
I will say the dubbing of so many cast is distracting but it’s mostly only noticable once its pointed out at which point you get really drawn to the sheer amount of it.
Edit: Oh, look, having a huge rambling speech with blatant lies just because he likes the sound of his own voice and his spineless fellow crooks just go with it…can’t see that happening…
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Very nice.
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Thunderball (1965)
I notice Kevin McClory’s credit holds WAY longer than anyone else’s in the opening credits…
The film has clearly been given the mandate of wanting another Goldfinger, but Terence Young and Guy Hamilton are very different directors so the former trying to make the latter’s film puts the film at odds with itself more than once. It’s somewhat personified in Felix, the kind of actor Young casts in the role but is written the way Hamilton portrays him.
John Barry’s score where he’s trying to blend the styles he used in FRWL and Goldfinger, which as i said the film does struggle with, works is brilliant - you can really see (hear?) why he proved difficult, if not impossible, to replace.
Fiona Volpe as the first true femme fatale is just a joy to watch. She has control in all her scenes and it’s when she comes up against Bond that there’s the most threat to the point her dispatch gives a sense of relief - the villain in the film who could have beaten him is finally off the board.
Edit: Underwater sequences are still dull and this film has..so..many…throughout…the…film…including…a…send…in…the…cavalry…version…which…are…dull…at…the…best…of…times…
Sorry, just wanted to recreate the feeling of watching those god awful scenes that Eon conviced themselves work up to 1997.
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It’s indeed hardly credible today but at the time this was considered hugely innovative and spectacular even. The concept of filming underwater was quite the audience magnet and spawned not just tv shows like Flipper and Barrier Reef but also The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and all of these used to go strong well into the 1970s.
When scuba diving became a more common sport and the equipment to document your journeys less expensive the whole thing turned commonplace by the mid-80s or so. Still, the setting and atmosphere lend themselves to the action genre - from JAWS to THE ABYSS to THE MEG - but the idea how to stage underwater action has changed significantly since THUNDERBALL. It’s doubtful the book would be adapted today - or only if the villain operated from a Stromberg-like base guarded by DNA-enhanced laser-sharks with the ability to wreck nuclear submarines with a single bite…
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This, definitely.
I never thought that Largo works as a villain. But Fiona is a threat.
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Fair but it does somewhat display that novelty alone doesn’t make something work and the sheer number of them in this film highlights that.
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It was certainly a technological achievement to have developed cameras that could film underwater in such clarity and color, and TB would’ve offered audiences something they’d never seen before. But in some ways I think it’s like any other novelty gimmick, be it 3D or Sensurround or, really, CGI: it may fill a lot of seats in the short term but it’s no guarantee of longevity and indeed tends to date a film as very much of its era. Personally I view the Avatar films the same way: impressive to watch now, but destined to be forgotten in the long run.
And Sea Hunt! You forgot Sea Hunt!
Looks like Lloyd Bridges picked the wrong week to give up PR…
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I’ve had a crap week so im wanting to put CR67 and YOLT together. They are both suddenly ott despite the othetrs not doing that. Any thoughts before i start?
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Watch YOLT first. Then have a Vesper Martini before watching CR67. And another one when they go to the Casino. Usually helps. 
If you watch CR67 first (but with the same modus operandi), you’ll probably be giggling inappropriately during large parts of YOLT and it may happen that you’ll be unable to ever take YOLT serious again. (to create ze proper effect, it helps to have another Vesper Martini before starting with YOLT) 
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But beware of scissors after so many Vesper Martinis, you don’t want to end up trying that haircut on yourself.
If Connery can’t pull it off, nobody can.
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