39 replies to this topic

[Desslar]

Thunderball's OK, it just kind of gets lost in the crowd. It has a great intro scene, but after that there's little that stands out. The Caribbean location seems a bit redundant after Dr. No only 3 years earlier. Domino doesn't strike me as a knockout, and yes the underwater combat scenes are a bit tedious.

I won't say it's a better film, but Never Say Never Again does improve in some areas over the original. The locations are a bit more varied, it has a good car chase, and the climax is more tense and explosive. Oh, and it has Kim Basinger. There is of course the matter of that hideous toupe....

[Turn]

Originally posted by Desslar
Thunderball's OK, it just kind of gets lost in the crowd.  It has a great intro scene, but after that there's little that stands out.  The Caribbean location seems a bit redundant after Dr. No only 3 years earlier.  Domino doesn't strike me as a knockout, and yes the underwater combat scenes are a bit tedious.  

I won't say it's a better film, but Never Say Never Again does improve in some areas over the original.  The locations are a bit more varied, it has a good car chase, and the climax is more tense and explosive.  Oh, and it has Kim Basinger.  There is of course the matter of that hideous toupe....

Were we watching the same films? Thunderball set a pace for future Bond films. I could see it getting lost in a crowd if you've seen some of the later films before it, but it stands out quite well on its own. NSNA should get credit for trying to copy a good story, but doesn't come close to the original in my eyes. You don't think Domino is a knockout but Kim Basinger stands out? I'm not slamming her, but there is no comparison to me.

And what car chase do you mean? That little thing with the Q motorcycle? That has to rank as the least interesting car chase of any Bond film in my opinion.

How was NSNA's climax more tense and explosive? In TB, you can feel the weight of beating the deadline to stop SPECTRE. I never felt that at all with NSNA. It was like they said they needed a shootout and put one in (and people slam TND's shootout climax?). And the little one-on-one underwater fight between Bond and Largo was probably the lamest confrontation with a villain of all.

[Desslar]

Originally posted by Turn


Were we watching the same films? Thunderball set a pace for future Bond films. I could see it getting lost in a crowd if you've seen some of the later films before it, but it stands out quite well on its own. NSNA should get credit for trying to copy a good story, but doesn't come close to the original in my eyes. You don't think Domino is a knockout but Kim Basinger stands out? I'm not slamming her, but there is no comparison to me.  

And what car chase do you mean? That little thing with the Q motorcycle? That has to rank as the least interesting car chase of any Bond film in my opinion.  

How was NSNA's climax more tense and explosive? In TB, you can feel the weight of beating the deadline to stop SPECTRE. I never felt that at all with NSNA. It was like they said they needed a shootout and put one in (and people slam TND's shootout climax?). And the little one-on-one underwater fight between Bond and Largo was probably the lamest confrontation with a villain of all.

Well, I certainly preferred Kim Basinger to Domino, but that's a rather subjective issue.

I was referring to the motorcycle chase. It may not be among the best, but I enjoyed it more than any chase in Thunderball.

I definitely think NSNA had a better climax. Instead of a very slow underwater ballet and a tussle on a speedboat we get a big shootout and a desperate struggle over a nuclear bomb.

I liked Thunderball, but just find it overshadowed by films like Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice.

[Jmart007]

Thunderball is a very good movie, but it suffers from the same thing that happened with Die Another Day. The movie is 10 minutes too long. Both of these movies are good, with Thunderball obviously, (IMO) being the better one, but both of these movies just seemed to go on, and on, and..........

The thing I do like about this movie are the Bond girls, possibly the best ensomble of Bond girls in any of the movies. However the movie doesn't contain my favorite Bond girl, which still goes to Jane Seymour as Solitaire.

[Blox]

TB negatives? Leiter was questionable casting & the lip sinking was a little funky on location -- that's about it. I agree with Peter Greenhill who said it needs to be seen on the big screen to fully appreciated.

[Jaelle]

Originally posted by Dr.Carl Mortner
Thunderball is one of the greatest action films of all time, standing up both as a Bond movie and an epic action blockbuster in its own right. I feel sorry for an over-Matrixed, XXX'd world in which it's found too "slow."

Thank you for that! TB is absolutely one of *the* best Bond films ever, and stands quite well in its own right out of the Bond series. I love that film, I never get tired of it! Others have already listed its positives so I won't repeat them here. And I too almost "spit all over the computer screen" at the idea that NSNA improves on it. Well to each his own of course.

And anyway guys, ANY film in which you get to see Sean Connery in tight little white shorts for a good portion of the film will keep my shallow little heart glued throughout!

[doublenoughtspy]

Like: Jet pack, Claudine Auger, 00 briefing scene, SPECTRE briefing scene

Dislike: Leiter (Gosh James, what do we do now??!?!!?), underwater drags on forever, finale is waaay too sped up

[Pussfeller]

The problem with Thunderball is its lack of uniqueness and individual style. It is certainly Bondian, but not in a way that makes it stand out. The music is totally forgettable compared to Goldfinger or even YOLT, and there are no jaw-dropping sets or nifty scenes. The characters are not bad, but they are certainly not interesting. The whole film seems to be a cautious distillation of DN with GF, with nothing to show for itself except some then-novel stunts/effects and a boring, ponderous pace.

[Triton]

Originally posted by Pussfeller
The problem with Thunderball is its lack of uniqueness and individual style. It is certainly Bondian, but not in a way that makes it stand out. The music is totally forgettable compared to Goldfinger or even YOLT, and there are no jaw-dropping sets or nifty scenes. The characters are not bad, but they are certainly not interesting. The whole film seems to be a cautious distillation of DN with GF, with nothing to show for itself except some then-novel stunts/effects and a boring, ponderous pace.

I disagree with you Pussfeller on all points. I like the Thunderball soundtrack, and I enjoy listening to it as much as I do Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice.

Fiona Volpe ( Luciana Paluzzi) is one of my favorite femme fatales in the James Bond movies, certainly better and more entertaining than Helga Brandt (Karin Dor). I also think that Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi with voice by Robert Rietty) is a memorable and interesting villain. Anthony Dawson IS Ernst Stavro Blofeld, not the petulant maniac played by Donald Pleasence in You Only Live Twice, or the New York ganster played by Telly Savalas in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, or the English gentlemen played by Charles Gray in Diamonds Are Forever.

Sorry that you found the underwater scenes to have "a boring, ponderous pace." Either you find underwater scenes entertaining, or a bore. Remember that this was one of the first motion pictures that had action sequences under the sea. I found Thunderball to be memorable for the underwater scenes of stealing the bombs from the submerged Vulcan, Bond finding the Vulcan at Golden Grotto, and the underwater battle between SPECTRE and US Navy SCUBA divers. Unlike some, I found these scenes to be exciting and refreshingly different.

[Pussfeller]

You're right on some points, Triton, but I still feel Thunderball to be thin in comparison with other Connery films. I suppose the whole plot structure of TB now strikes me as dull after having seen NSNA, but that's partly my fault.

I always felt Thunderball to have a weak story, even as a book. The excellent cast certainly helped it along, but for me it was not enough. Everything seems tacked on and disjointed in comparison with the taut, unified plot of Goldfinger, the building suspense of FRWL, or the inventive flair of DAF.

I'm not saying that Thunderball is a wasteland of a movie. I simply feel that it lacks the character and distinction of Connery's other entries.