In 1965, for the fourth year running, there would be a Sean Connery James Bond movie. Thunderball had a massive budget, and it more than made it back. When adjusted for inflation, Thunderball until Skyfall in 2012 was the highest grossing Bond movie. You could make the argument that this fourth Bond movie was the real peak of the James Bond mania that happened in the 60s and into the 70s with Sean Connery.
How to Download Thunderball
Thunderball was released on 9 December 1965 in Tokyo, on 22 December 1965 in USA, and on 29 December 1965 in London. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
I like Thunderball, and I think that it is a fun time, but this does not come close to From Russia with Love or Goldfinger, in my opinion. Hey, this is still a good Bond movie, but it had a near-impossible task to top two of the best Bond movies of all time that came before it. I still enjoy this, and it has some very cool moments, but there are just a few things here that do not click with me quite as much.
The story is pretty solid. We have another movie based around SPECTRE, and this time they have stolen two bombs from NATO, and unless they get 100 million in diamonds, they will blow up a major city in either the UK or the USA! These are some pretty big stakes, that is for sure, and there is only one agent with the skills, gadgets, and charm with the ladies who can stop SPECTRE.
From Russia with Love and Goldfinger set the bar very high with their villains, and this movie just cannot compete. The main villain of SPECTRE this time around is SPECTRE No. 2, better known as Emilio Largo, probably best known for his eye patch. We do get an awesome Bond girl in Claudine Auger as Domino. Domino is such a badass, and she is pretty easy on the eyes. To be fair, the villains in this movie are ok, but they do feel kind of bland in comparison to what came before it, and if it were not for the eye patch, Largo would be pretty forgettable, in all honesty.
One of the things that Thunderball is known for is the underwater sequences. These must have been very impressive at the time, and they still look great now, but there are so many underwater scenes that they lose impact. The movie lacks the wow factor of the many different locations other Bond movies have. Bond still does some globetrotting here, but far too much of the movie feels like it happens underwater.
I also feel that the opening of Thunderball is a little weak too. Getting an awesome opening action scene that shows what a badass Bond is was something you expected, but this movie feels like it opens at a much slower pace. In watching this for the first time in many years, I do not actually think the pace of the movie really improves at all.
Again, I feel like I have to say this is not a bad movie, as I have pretty much just been complaining since the start of our discussion here today. The thing is, Thunderball is a decent Bond movie, but it had the hard task of following two fantastic Bond movies. This is one movie that, even though I do not dislike it, I could never see myself making a real effort to watch it again.
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