THUNDERBALL was the fourth film in the James Bond series and unfortunately, it was a step down from the previous three--probably due to an overuse of gadgets and some poor supporting performances (particularly from the rather wooden "Bond girls").
The first third of the film was actually the most interesting to me but certainly was low on action. Bond was at a sanitarium recovering from his last mission. I thought this was a great touch--seeing him covered in scars so that you could see he wasn't superman! Here, he accidentally stumbles onto a horrible plot--one of the more exciting ideas from the Bond films. It seems that Number 2 (a BAD choice of names, I know) is hatching a plan to steal atomic weapons so he can blackmail the world!! Once Bond leaves for the Caribbean, the film becomes a little less interesting, though I must admit the entire sequence involving the airplane landing there was pretty high on the cool factor. What wasn't cool were the silly women he met--one malevolent lady who, as usual, Bond beds and a sweet one who, as usual, Bond beds! Both had very little personality and frankly were dull in almost every way (you can probably guess how they weren't).
Not a bad film at all, but certainly not among the best Bond movies.
By the way, due to a strange little copyright problem, this film was remade by an entirely different film company about two decades later and the film, once again, starred Sean Connery. It was very aptly named, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN--and frankly, it's a lousy knock-off of THUNDERBALL and is inferior in most every way.
The first third of the film was actually the most interesting to me but certainly was low on action. Bond was at a sanitarium recovering from his last mission. I thought this was a great touch--seeing him covered in scars so that you could see he wasn't superman! Here, he accidentally stumbles onto a horrible plot--one of the more exciting ideas from the Bond films. It seems that Number 2 (a BAD choice of names, I know) is hatching a plan to steal atomic weapons so he can blackmail the world!! Once Bond leaves for the Caribbean, the film becomes a little less interesting, though I must admit the entire sequence involving the airplane landing there was pretty high on the cool factor. What wasn't cool were the silly women he met--one malevolent lady who, as usual, Bond beds and a sweet one who, as usual, Bond beds! Both had very little personality and frankly were dull in almost every way (you can probably guess how they weren't).
Not a bad film at all, but certainly not among the best Bond movies.
By the way, due to a strange little copyright problem, this film was remade by an entirely different film company about two decades later and the film, once again, starred Sean Connery. It was very aptly named, NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN--and frankly, it's a lousy knock-off of THUNDERBALL and is inferior in most every way.