Thunderball

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Overall rating: 4/5

Director: Terence Young

Starring: Sean Connery, Claudine Auger, Alfonso Celi

Tagline: You can make an underwater movie that doesn’t suck …

The Film: Here’s James Bond in his, what, fourth outting? This one’s not as nonsensical as its predecessor, “Goldfinger,” and it has Tom Jones doing the title song, and solid underwater photography. On the negative side, it
suffers among the least compelling villains and Bond Girls of the series.
Nonetheless, everything clicks here, making a solid package that sums up the
best of Bond before the special effects and exotic locales completely took
over.

Rating: 4/5

The DVD: Don’t blame the studio for how lame the early Bond DVDs tend to be. They’re doing what they can with what little archival material was there, but the documentaries that come along with these DVD releases tend to be drier than day-old toast. Extra point for at least trying, and serving the
hard-core Bond geek, if no one else.

Rating: 3/5

Easter Eggs: None

Five Degrees of Seperation

Never Say Never Again — See an aging Connery embarrass himself in
this pallid remake of “Thunderball.”
Dr. No — It’s all there in the original Bond.
The Bourne Identity — No underwater sequences, but still a competent
spy thriller.
The Manchurian Candidate — Frank Sinatra in the ultimate spy movie,
in glorious black and white.
The Abyss — Just kidding. Most aptly named movie ever. Three hours
of subaquatic hell.

Tags: 007, james bond, sean connery