Review of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) by Kenneth B — 04 Jan 2015

Thankfully Bond hadn't gone completely stale by the time this film was made, and to this film's credit, casting George Lazenby was quite a gamble. However, I can't help but think that they were trying to be too safe, thus neutering any hope of any risk paying off, which unfortunately happens with numerous later Bond films.

A big problem for me is the film's overly-bloated length. Even the Sean Connery films were shorter, and had more balanced pacing. This film, on the other hand, just felt really slow, and for a film that tries desperately to imitate the success of its predecessors, that's quite a problem.

At the very least this film retains the veneer of its predecessors, which helps because at least it looks and sounds like it might be worth a place alongside its predecessors, but that's all this film really has in the end.

I could make the argument that this is a pretty shallow film, but it's a shallow film that knows how to present itself. By Bond standards, it's alright, but I think that it could have been so much more.