Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Thunderball (1965)


Thunderball is the fourth James Bond outing, and it's a film with great visuals and some really fantastic production values. Emilio Largo (#2 member of SPECTRE) hijacks two nuclear weapons and threatens their usage on the world unless the world pays up. James Bond has his hands full juggling femme fatales and a megalomaniacal villain. The direction and editing is excellent, with just the right touch of that forced acceleration in the action scenes that is characteristic of Bond in the 60s. John Barry hits his stride here, turning out a fantastic score as well as a great theme song sung by Tom Jones. The biggest problem with the film--a very prominent problem--is the excessive use of underwater action scenes. While not poorly done from a production standpoint, the underwater sequences are a chore to sit through. They're well-lit and the action is pretty clear, but the underwater setting cripples sound design and movement, which ruins the pacing.

7/10

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