Review of Thunderball (1965) by Steven V — 27 Dec 2008

Thunderball is the fourth of the James Bond movies and was commercially the most successful of the Sean Connery era. This movie was originally planned as the first movie to feature the British spy, with a screen story worked on by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming.

This movie has plenty of amusing action and some gorgeous locations. The women in this movie are indeed very beautiful, and in some cases more resourceful and independent than earlier James Bond girls.

The movie also gives us one of the better villains from the series in the shape of Emilio Largo, menacingly portrayed by Adolfo Celi. Where it comes undone is that the story is terribly uninspired and the film is somewhat overlong (this was the first James Bond movie to go beyond the two hour mark, and was lengthier than any of its predecessors by a good quarter of an hour).

To make matters worse, the reliance on gadgetry becomes more intrusive than it did in any of the earlier movies. Sean Connery is good as the hero, but the newness of the role has worn off and there isn't that same enthusiasm that could be seen in his performances in the first three.

Thunderball is a slick and spectacular action movie, but it just has a soulless, packaged feel to it that makes it less impressive than the other 007 movies of that time.