mark.waltz While I've never seen a James Bond film yet that I hated, I have to admit that some are better than others. Some are faster moving, have better plot lines, more seductive female characters and yet the better ones are those that are more outlandish in plot. The five Sean Connery films made between 1962 and 1967, it seemed like they are either extremely good or just acceptable. "Thunderball" falls into the acceptable mode, the first one to go over two hours, and fails to completely impress in regards to its plot line. But you can enjoy it for all it has, grabbing you instantly with that energetic theme song sung by Tom Jones.Once again, Bond deals with an extremely wealthy madman, determined to bring the world to its knees by threatening to blow up a major city either in England or the United States, and not specifying which one. As most of this takes place either on top of the ocean or beneath it, there are a lot of boat chases in addition to swimming with sharks, a major plot point established in the first scene. The action is pretty much non-stop, the women scantily clad and the love scenes hot. Connery gets in a slew of amusing wisecracks, but overall, it's still formulaic and nothing remotely special. What I'd give, though, to be able to hit the high note on the last line of the opening theme song.

stormhawk2018 This is the fourth entry in the James Bond series, and this timearound Bond once again finds himself squaring off against international criminal organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E.- specifically their member Emilio Largo- an eye patch wearing nut job who drops enemies and ineffectual henchman into a tank full of hungry sharks. Largo has hijacked a NATO nuclear bomber and hidden the bombs in the ocean depths. He gives the British government one week to pay him a ransom of 1,000,000 pounds or else he'll launch the weapons. Well, it doesn't take long before Bonds sets of for Nassau to foil this diabolical plot, and he's get a few beautiful woman to accompany him along the way. This is a fun one. It's Connery (once again), and, while he's not as strong as he was in the previous two entries, he's still quite strong here, and very comfortable with the role. It's a solid film, but maybe one of my least favorite of the Connery era. It's not a bad movie, just not quite as exciting as some of the others. It's a bit goofy, but I think it really only adds to the charm. Plus, we get some great underwater scenes, and those are quite well done, especially for the time period. Those are some of the best parts, but the cinematography in general is quite good, and there's some okay land sequences as well. With a decent title theme from Tom Jones, a fine score in general, and an entertaining title sequence, this is a really fun movie, and a decent entry in the long running series. Give it a go.

soldier-81367 Sean Connery's fourth Bond film. In this, the fourth instalment in the series from the original team, you have a classic Bond film. A competent villain, a thrilling adventure in an unusual setting, great Bond Babes and one of the series' all-time best scenes. Terence Young's direction is taut, whisking the narrative along with the speed and precision of a jet plane.Certainly among the top five of all Bonds.

Coventry "Thunderball" was the fourth installment in the James Bond franchise, and as the hype and popularity rose, the available budgets exponentially increased as well, as a matter of course. The budget for this movie was more than the three previous ones accumulated (and then still it's very modest in comparison with nowadays action flicks), which explains the fact that "Thunderball" also marks more or less the point where the franchise became more focused on the hi-tech gadgetry and extravagant set-pieces. Heck, even 007 himself begins to behave shamelessly like a millionaire, as he takes vacations in luxurious spa resorts and tropical islands, and has fancy flying devices stored in the truck of his beautiful Aston Martin! But the work of a secret agent is never finished, and still whilst luring the voluptuous nurse into bed, Bond already spots a few sinister men who are clearly up to no good. They turn out to be henchmen of SPECTRE's number two – Emilio Largo – who's punctually preparing the heist of two nuclear warheads. Once in his possession and carefully hidden underneath the bottom of the ocean, Largo threatens to blow up both Miami and London in case the world doesn't pay up 100 million dollars' worth of uncut diamonds. The government hastily summons all double-0 agents to locate the warheads in less than 14 days, but naturally James Bond is the only one making any progress in his very own typically daring and flamboyant style. After having missed out on "Goldfinger", Terence Young reclaims his place in the director's chair and once more serves a delicious Bond-cocktail with all the ingredients that make the series recognizable: breathtaking women (Claudine Auger, Martine Beswick and – especially – the lethally ravishing Luciana Paluzzi), charismatic villains (Adolfo Celi doesn't even need his eye patch in order to look menacing), dreamy filming locations (Paris, Bahama's …), eccentric scenery and gimmicks (luxury yachts named "Flying Saucer", shark-infested swimming pools) and – as top of the bill – masterfully choreographed albeit slightly overlong underwater battle sequences. My sole complaint in general with regards to "Thunderball", in fact, is about the length. I realize all Bond movies last around 110-140 minutes, but in this case there should have been cuts within the first half hour. The preparations for the heist of the warheads is illustrated extendedly and in every tiniest detail, including the training and plastic surgery of the pilot assigned to hijack the Avro Vulcan Bomber, and it takes an incredibly long time before the audience properly registers what one-eyed Largo's evil plans actually are. Almost every plot description of "Thunderball" states something like: "SPECTRE stole two atomic bombs and holds the world at ransom", but it effectively takes more than half an hour before we reach this point.