Review of From Russia with Love (1963) by Cameron J — 03 Jan 2012

First a Scot, and now a Russian? Oh, manski, lassie, how long did it take them to get a Bond that was actually English? Heck, for all we know, Sean Connery was raised in Japan; he just likes his Scottish accent best. No, of course, Connery's European, because as long as you're in Europe, then you can do just about any accent you want. Seriously, you can never tell the difference between English and Australian, until an Aussie goes English and nails it... I guess; and meanwhile, I can just bump up the level of southern in "my" accent, and not even do that right. No, this is James Bondski; Sean Connery is returning as everyone's favorite Brit, and knocking out the role, yet again. Still, like "Dr. No", not even Sean Connery's sparkling charisma can make us forget the flaws of this film.

After that really cool opening credits sequence - in which they print the credits as lights on the body of a belly danger -, you'd think that they learned to have a better grip on editing, but after the subsequential chess game scene that just seems to go on and on, you quickly take that thought back. In fact, the story editing in this film is even worse, not just being loose, but just plain weak. There are very few moments where you're saying, "Wow, that was a really bad cut", but some scenes feel messing, with scenes of exposition and development taking the most damage from the messy story editing. Still, the messy editing result you'll run into the most are scenes that run too darn long, not just more so than they need to be, but sometimes more so than "any" overdrawn scene from "Dr. No". That, and many a quiet scene form to create plenty of dull spots in the film. Most every flaw from "Dr. No" is back and even worse, keeping this film from surpassing its predecessor. However, for every stepback this film makes from the original, it pays strong respect, if not a step foward in enough other aspects to ultimately come out on par with "Dr. No".

Something excellent out of the first film were the lush locations, and with this story being bigger, we of course get even more glorious sights of the land. The wider scope certainly adds more extravagance to the action, which is a sharply staged and slickly executed by Terence Young, with a lot bit of spice up from the always great score. Still, like "Dr. No", the real force behind the film is Sean Connery, bringing back more of that powerful charisma - perhaps made even stronger by some really good lines -, broken up by glimpses of humanity to make him a compelling lead. We don't get another "taranchula" scene from the first film, where we really get to see Connery show off his acting chops, but there is still plenty of subtle, yet compellingly human emoting in Connery's performance from time-to-time, and while the editing is too messy to develop a very strong emotional atmosphere, Connery still gets the sense of danger and intrigue across, just like he did in "Dr. No". Connery goes on fully embodying the slick perfections, as well as compelling imperfections of the icon effortlessly. Really, I've little to say, other than more of the same when it comes to this film, because it follows many of the same elements of the film. Still, there is plenty of slickly refreshing twists in the story to really make this a comfortable sequel, and with everything moving at a slick pace, other than the couple of slow spots, you can expect consistent entertainment.

Overall, it's dull on occasions, yet consistently messy in the editing department, keeping it from ever surpassing "Dr. No", in terms of quality, but with a grander story for even more dazzling shots, as well as solid action and yet another electrically charismatic performance by Sean Connery, "From Russia with Love" stands as just as thoroughly enjoyable as its predecessor.

3/5 - Good.