Thunderball (Special Edition)
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Movie Reviews of Thunderball (Special Edition)
Movie Review: the ULTIMATE Bond Movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
Never before or after has there been a Bond film as utterly perfect as Thunderball, the fourth masterpiece of the Bond series which is directed by Terence Young and stars Sean Connery. The movie is perfect. Everything shines. The directing is tense. The editing is fast and exciting. John Barry never made another score as great as the one here (On Her Majesty's Secret Service gets close comparision). Connery is at his best here. he's completely comfortable, yet not bored with the role, which which plague You Only Live Twice. This one has the best Bond girls, too. Fiona Volpe is a sexy, sinister, and dangerous bad girl, the best of the series. Claudine Auger is great. The underwater photagraphy is simply stuning! The movie doesn't bore me for a second (I may be the only one to say so, but I wasn't bored with all the underwater stuff). The movie is exciting, funny, thrilling, suspensful, and all around perfect. Well, I suppose nothing is perfect. there is some bad editing or obvious rear projection, but that's just dumb nit-picking, and overall, Thunderball offers the most satisfying of all the Bond classics. The same goes for the DVD. It's pretty much the same as the Laserdisk, only the Laserdisk was 100 dollars! This DVD is about 30 or less. The picture is stunning, and in my opinion, stands out as the best from the material in Box-set #1. The blue of the underwater scenes is rendered gorgeously, and there isn't any distracting grain. The film should only be viewed in widescreen (as well as almost all the other Bonds), and that's what the DVD has. Gorgeous. The sound is remastered and sounds fantastic. The special features are vast and interesting, and contain two of the best Bond documentarys ever, "The Making of Thunderball" and "The Thunderball Phenomenon." It should be noted that on the menu, there is a technical error. If you select "The Making of Thunderball," you get "The Thunderball Phenomenon" and vice versa. No big deal. There's also a short documentary about the different versions of this movie. Add two commentaries and a load of publicity materials and you have the best Bond DVD of all. If you can only own one Bond film on DVD, make this the one. If you can only own two, get this one and OHMYSS. However, you SHOULD buy them all. But, this is the ultimate one. See it.
Movie Review: This is what Bond is all about! Clearly the best Bond film in the franchise!
Summary: 5 Stars
I noted that this is the only Bond film of the entire series that, to date, has not received a single 1-star review here on Amazon. That's pretty dang good!
Director Terrence Young had introduced us to Bond in DR. NO and FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. Guy Hamilton then took us down the GOLDFINGER road, and while his attention to action made that the first SMASH Bond film, he also seemed to lose alot of the more down-to-earth flavor that made the first two Bonds so much better.
But, Terrence Young returned for his final Bond film, and somehow managed to provide the perfect mesh of the realistic Bond from the first two films, and the more action-oriented Bond of GOLDFINGER. The result is a very happy marriage indeed - it's just too bad there were very few legitimate children born of it!
THUNDERBALL contains all the great locales, villains, and Bond coolness that we love, without getting into the ridiculous, gadget-filled territory of the later films. It introduces us to our first true Bond femme fatale, and also gives us the first really interesting Bond girl in Claudine Auger's Domino character.
The music in the movie by John Barry is very nice, high-lighting the slower pace of much of the film. This movie is longer than the previous three by almost 20 minutes, and it is a nice extra cushion to really build the tension. In fact, Bond is largely absent from the first 45 minutes of the movie, and we finally see more of the villians plans - what they are and how they are being accomplished - in almost meticulous detail. Somehow, this makes the threat more real. Speaking of the threat, the plot being about terrorists stealing nukes and demanding ransom to prevent blowing up an undesignated city, is as fresh as today's headlines!
The only real gripe that can be levied at the film is that Connery does indeed seem a little less interested in the role than he had been. I think he's still mostly on track here, but he's missing the total devotion that he showed in the first three films.
That aside, THUNDERBALL is simply the best Bond - offering everything that makes Bond great, and eliminating all the over-the-top sillieness that made the later films so excruciating to sit through!
Movie Review: A Visually Euphoric Underwater James Bond Favorite
Summary: 5 Stars
After a one-film hiatus SPECTRE returns. So has Sean Connery as he was finally groomed to perfection as the definitive screen incarnation of James Bond in "Goldfinger." Terence Young is also back as director. However, he seems to have been influenced over the fine-tuning that Guy Hamilton brought to the main character and overall tone of "Goldfinger." Due to that film's success Young seems to be floundering here being diverted from his vision of the character that he helped bring to the screen. Young is 180 degrees from being the auteur he envisioned himself to be.
The film seems loosely constructed and leisurely acted. Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo looks the part but he never seems a real threat to Bond. In fact he seems to lose every encounter with Bond whether it be at the gambling tables or engaging in idle banter on the merits of women vs. guns. Bond outdoes him in skeet shooting without even looking at the target.
What makes the film very memorable is John Barry's rich score and Lamar Boren's beautiful and colorful underwater photography. The two went hand in hand. I also thought the villains' plot to hijack a Vulcan jet was extremely well filmed and executed. This film has a very British feel to as it should have.
This film has always been a favourite with diving and snorkeling enthusiasts. I met a very young couple this summer at the beach club. I happened to mention James Bond. These two half my age immediately said, "Thunderball!" Do you like "Thunderball?" I replied, "Absolutely. And by the way I see you are drinking Red Stripe Beer. Did you know that when Bond tosses Quarrel into those corrugated cartons in "Dr. No" those are cases of Red Stripe Beer?" And so I met some new Bond fans.
As for the DVD, I liked the fact that they re-mastered the film in stereo, but it somehow is too overbearing in spots. I also liked the end titles on the British version much better with the original music that Barry had scored for this sequence.
All that being said, I still always liked this film.
Movie Review: " You Shouldn't Have Opened That Car Door By Yourself..."
Summary: 5 Stars
Thunderball! Yes it is definately one of the best movies in the Bond saga. ( The thought of the remake, Never Say Never Again, ohh lets not even remember how bad it was..).
Ok, unforunately by this point the Connery had started to lose his hair and it shows, but it doesn't detract from the fact that Connery is, was and will always be James Bond. He carries the role so effortlessly that whoever is the " new " James Bond, they are always measured by Connery and quite rightly so..
But, to the movie. Connery returns again to the screen to save the world from the terrorist organisation of SPECTRE. The opening sequence, the the rocket pack at the chateau in France and the marvelous fight sequence between Bond and the Colonel set the tone and the pace for this fantastic movie. Tom Jones wails out the wonderful theme song amazingly well, although when Jones sings it now it's afew keys lower.
Not to spoil the plot, but once more our fantastic hero is called in once more to find two atomic weapons, stolen by SPECTRE, before they are detonated in a major city if a ransom is not paid. The plot takes Bond to the Bahamas where he meets Domino Durval ( played by the gorgeous Claudine Anger ) and the architect of the SPECTRE scheme, Emile Largo.
The only minus point I have for the movie is that with the large amount of underwater action it is hard to mantain a high leveled action movie pace at times and it shows. However, such small concessions considering the scale of the picture.
The DVD features are marvelous, as we are becoming use to with the MGM Releases of the James Bond movies. Documentaries, trailers and the marvelous Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack! That alone makes it worth the purchase if you have the system to appreciate it.
On the whole no movie collection should be without Thunderball. Even if it was a stand alone movie, outside of the Bond collection, the story, action and the delivery make it worth owning at the least.
After all this...... "I think you'll get the point..."
Movie Review: Classic Bond At Its Best!
Summary: 5 Stars
I found this movie to be essentially perfect Bond. By Thunderball, the producers had made the Bond Formula. One of the ingredients in this formula was the Pre-Credits Sequence. In Thunderball, it was one of the best. A perfect blend of action (the fight) and gadgets (Rocket Pack).
Then, we fly in to the first Maurice Binder titles. It complements perfectly with the music and the underwater theme. Then we are treated to 2 hours of perfection.
The plot has some great action without going way over the top and becoming cartoonish like some of the more recent bonds. It starts when SPECTRE has a plan to hijack a warplane carrying two atomic bombs and hold NATO for ransom. Bond is assigned to Nassau and quickly gets drawn into the world of SPECTRE. With the help of Domino, a beautiful girl whose brother was killed as a result of SPECTRE's misdoings, Bond gets the villain cornered on a boat... You'll have to see it to find out!
The girls, for one, Claudine Auger as Domino Derval was perfectly cast. She had the essence of a Bond Beauty, and she was very memorable. But the best girl was Luciana Palluzzi as Fiona Volpe. This sexy and dangerous Redhead is my favourite Bond girl. I loved the scene in the hotel when Bond is captured. She was imitatated in the next Bond, You Only Live Twice, but was never matched.
One of the great Bond villains, Adolfo Celi as Emilio Largo, better known as Number Two. He was threatening and cool, a great combination.
The locales were nothing short of stunning. From Shrublands to France, from Florida to Nassau, this Bond delivers! And Sean Connery at his best. Even he says this was his best performance! And I agree. The action is perfectly balanced in this movie, allowing strong character and plot development.
This is the best Bond.