James Bond Marathon

[James]

MOVIE / DVD INFO:

Title: Dr. No
Year: 1962
Director: Terence Young
Rating: PG
Length: 110 Min.
Video: Widescreen 1.66:1
Audio: English: DTS HD Master Audio, English: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Sean Connery
Ursula Andress
Joseph Wiseman
Jack Lord
Bernard Lee

Plot:
His name is Bond, James Bond. And here, in his explosive film debut, Ian Fleming's immortal action hero blazes through one of his most spectacular adventures. Sean Connery embodies the suave yet lethal cool of agent 007 as he battles the mysterious Dr. No, a scientific genius bent on destroying the U.S. space programme.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Trailers
Featurettes
Gallery

My Thoughts:

Watching this again, it was fun to see many Bond elements in the debut film. Shaken, not stirred. Bond, James Bond. The James Bond theme. Casinos. And the Bond girls. I was amazed by just how bad the actresses were...but who really cares; right? The Caucasians-posing-as-Asians theme is laughably embarrassing. Mostly I thought back to films of this era and I think this was really the beginning of a new era for films. Bond brought a lot of sexual freedom to the movies.

Thanks for this marathon! 

[Rich]

From Russia With Love



Secret agent James Bond battles the all-enveloping tentacles of an international crime syndicate called SPECTRE. The organization's mad plan for world supremacy unfolds with the icy efficiency of a chessmaster's complex strategy, and if they succeed, the antagonism of the cold war will be pushed from deep-freeze to the supernova of atomic oblivion. But our man Bond dispatches sultry spies, madmen, and double agents with the same coolness he displays while downing martinis and making love to beautiful blondes. In this, the second of the series, Bond travels to Turkey to meet a mysterious Russian woman who claims to have fallen in love with his photograph. She offers him a secret translating device if he will join her, although he does not know that she has been put up to the task by Rosa Klebb, formerly of the KGB, who has gone to work for SPECTRE. It's Bond's assignment to get the girl and the machine back to England--and to do it, of course, in style.

Lacks the grit of Dr. No & the complexity of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but this movie is up there with the best Bond films IMO. This is still a strong espionage thriller despite being produced in the early 60's, and again it is interesting to see at this early stage so many Bond traits that have continued through the series, with a wonderful and now familiar pre-title sequence and John Barry score. I did find Bond a bit naive in this one, falling for a most obvious trap, but overall at this stage I thought the 007 franchise had more touch with reality than in later productions.
A cool film highlighted by the thrilling fight on the train. 

[Dragonfire]

I did really enjoy both Dr. No and From Russia With Love, though the woman in From Russia With Love bugged me a few times.  She didn't seem overly bright, and James seemed a bit gullible where she was concerned at times too, but I still enjoyed the movie.  I have the newer DVD releases that have all sorts of extras connected to the making of the movies.  The extras were really interesting.

I did post reviews on both of these on Epinions a few months ago if anyone wants to take a look.

Dr. No 
From Russia With Love

Dr. No -  
From Russia With Love -  

[Jon]

From Russia With Love
5 out 5

I think this is the perfect Bond film, and holds up very well. It has more confidence than the often awkward Dr. No, although I understand Rich when he says that had more grit; it also had more silliness and over-elaborate lairs. Whereas that becomes a welcome staple of Bond stories, I like that it's toned down here because it means From Russia With Love can stand on its own two feet as a very accomplished thriller. It's almost as if they used Dr. No to establish the Bond motifs, but used this story to make sure wider audiences stayed with them. From now on, all other Bonds will be measured against their predecessors in all sorts of respects so this second entry was really the only chance to make a proper film. Goldfinger and onwards would be nothing but Bond films with nothing to prove against the wider film world; No and Russia are still thrillers.

The plot is clever and substantial, but to pick up on another of Rich's points, On Her Majesty's Secret Service was more complex? More ridiculous surely! I found that plot far too daft. To be fair, that film had more emotion, but this was far too early in the series to have Bond talk about his feelings. Russia feels more relevant than most entries.

The DVD has a very good half-hour making of and after watching it, I'm surprised it got made at all! Various accidents including Terence Young almost drowning in a crashed helicopter aside, they ran out of money before essential reshoots which meant a rushed edit by Peter Hunt who did a phenomenal job. Saddest part though was about Mexican actor Pedro Armendariz, who played Kerim. He had cancer and became gravely ill during filming, but he insisted on finishing the film. They concentrated on his scenes and by the end were literally propping him up on set. After filming he checked into hospital. Rather than suffer any longer he shot himself with a gun he smuggled in. 

This film has long been a favourite Bond entry for me and a huge reason was Kerim. I loved his cheery character and the setup against the Russians with his periscope! I had no idea such a memorable performance was made under such conditions.

[Tom]

Title: From Russia with Love
Year: 1963
Director: Terence Young
Rating: FSK-16
Length: 110 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: German: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono, English: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

Stars:
Sean Connery
Daniela Bianchi
Pedro Armendariz
Lotte Lenya
Robert Shaw


Extras:
Booklet
Commentary
Featurettes
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

I really liked the first half hour or so. The introduction of typical Bond villains (who were obviously the template for Dr. Evil (Blofeld) and Frau Farbisina). Also always fun the scenes with Bond, M and Moneypenny. And now also with Q
But then the movie dragged a little for me, beginning with the train ride. But it picked up again towards the end.

Rating:

[Rich]

Goldfinger



Special agent 007 (Sean Connery) has just come face to face with one of the most notorious villians of all time. And now he'll have to outwit and outgun this powerful tycoon to prevent him from cashing in on a devious scheme to raid Fort Knox – and obliterate the world economy!

Watched with my son, both seen it several times, and for me the best Bond film I have enjoyed, we both loved it again despite nearly being able to quote lines, it is truly endlessly entertaining.
Why is this such a classic Bond film?
The major introduction of gadgets to 007
The Aston Martin
Gert Frobe as Auric Goldfinger - a great villain
Pussy Galore (is that not the best Bond girl name??)
Oddjob and his novel hat
The gold plated death
Guy hamiltons direction
The laser scene
Shirly Bassey belting out an amazing theme song
etc etc etc

I wanted to be Bond after seeing this film originally, it is truly superb, timeless, funny, taut, an example of a big budget well spent.

Very happy to have watched it yet again 

[Achim]

The Man with the Golden Gun
Goldfinger

"I expect you to die, Mr. Bond." What a great line. This is one of the best Bond films (I prefer Thunderball though) and one can easily see why. There is not much I can add to what has been said in the above review. There is an excellent villain (Goldfinger, who doesn't care about stealing more gold, he'll be fine with what he has becoming more valuable ) with two wonderful side kicks (Oddjob and Pussy Galore). Sure, Bond is a terrible sexist in this one and while Ms. Galore is attempting to be strong she ends up falling for Bond; well, I took it she realized the gas was toxic and didn't want to be responsible for all those deaths. (Do we need to spoiler tag reviews of old Bond films...?) This is still a more realistic Bond, with Superhero/-villain antics kept to a minimum (the last fight with oddjob). The gadgets are reasonably believable.


...loooking back at John's review I now wonder: Who was Kerim?


Now looking forward to the sharks in the next one

[Jon]

...loooking back at John's review I now wonder: Who was Kerim?

Methinks you're a little confused! Kerim was in From Russia With Love, not Goldfinger. I haven't reviewed that yet. I may have to wait until I've broke the back of this Oscar marathon, though I'm losing willpower!

[Achim]

Methinks you're a little confused! Kerim was in From Russia With Love, not Goldfinger. I haven't reviewed that yet. I may have to wait until I've broke the back of this Oscar marathon, though I'm losing willpower!

[Tom]

Title: Goldfinger
Year: 1964
Director: Guy Hamilton
Rating: FSK-16
Length: 105 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: German: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono, English: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: Danish, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

Stars:
Sean Connery
Honor Blackman
Gert Frobe
Shirley Eaton
Tania Mallet

Extras:
Commentary
Featurettes
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

A great Bond. Probably one of the finest. "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die" is one of my favorite lines in the Bond franchise.
Q is becoming the gadget master that we know and love.
But I must admit, that the movie dragged a little towards the end for me.

Rating:

[Dragonfire]

I did enjoy this one.  I had seen some of it on television before, but I don't think I had seen all of it until I watched it on this DVD.  Goldfinger made a good villain and his plot wasn't as ... bizarre as what was cooked up in some of the other Bond movies.  I wasn't overly impressed with Pussy Galore though.  She didn't seem to be anything special to me.  All that really stood out was her name.  And the scene when James ...had his way with her didn't sit well with me.  It was more forced and I just didn't care for it.  I did like Oddjob and his hat.  That was a bit strange that a guy would kill with a hat, but it worked. 

Overall, I think this is one of the best of the Bond movies.   

I did post a review on Epinions back in September that is longer and more detailed if anyone wants to take a look.

[Achim]

But I must admit, that the movie dragged a little towards the end for me.

Hmmm, it's kind ofg funny you would say that. because forgot to say in my post that my impression was that the film was excellently paced. Despite the actual action sequences being rather few I felt it all went along quite nicely with the climax coming without me looking at the clock (to all: don't even think about it, I already thought of all jokes you could make about that sentence ).

[Tom]

Title: Thunderball
Year: 1965
Director: Terence Young
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 125 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: German: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono, English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Danish, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

Stars:
Sean Connery
Claudine Auger
Adolfo Celi
Luciana Paluzzi
Rik Van Nutter


Extras:
Commentary
Featurettes
Photo Gallery
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers

My Thoughts:

For some reason this movie didn't really click for me. One of the reasons is probably because Bond is too much of an asshole in this one. He is really forcing himself onto women here. Even going so far as to blackmail a woman into sex.
And he stayed an asshole until the end. There Domino came with another man "who has helped her", and as the boat is about to crash, he pushes the man overboard telling him "I will get you later", and flies away to safety with Domino. The man probably wasn't pretty enough
Highlights: Q was fun as always. And Domino is one hot Bond girl!

Rating:

[Achim]

I haven't seen the film in many moons and after the above review I wonder how it will be received tonight...

[Rich]

Thunderball



The thrills never stop as Agent 007 (Sean Connery) goes above the call of duty - and to the bottom of the ocean - to track down a villainous criminal who's holding millions hostage and threatening to plunge the world into a nuclear holocaust!

Overboard on the gadgets with this outing, and the plot suffers accordingly, but this is still a fun movie which i enjoyed. It is not a personal Bond favourite for me, the villain was not as convincing, the bad girls not as bad, although Claudine Auger is eye candy of the highest order. Connery seemed to become a parody of the Bond character, the lines too predictable and delivered with an apparent monotone disinterest, and the underwater scenes never-ending.
However despite the cheesy one-liners, sexual innuendos, exotic backdrops etc, I find as with the other early 007 films more realism in the storyline and characterisation than in later attempts. The music as always is top notch, and although the action is somewhat dated, in context to production year it is easily appreciatable.