The Best of Bond
The Bond films vary in quality even more widely than the books, but this is still, hands-down, the best Bond film. It's more concerned with espionage than stunts, with character than supposedly cool one-liners, it has that gorgeous look of the best 60s films, it's not remotely self-referential and it doesn't have to struggle against competing spy/action franchises because it's so far ahead of the few rivals it had back then anyway. This DVD set makes FRWL look freshly-minted and is a significant step up from all previous editions. It looks good enough to eat - in fact, it's hard to imagine that hi-def could look significantly better.

Sean becomes Bond
In only his second outing as the worlds most famous spy Connery commands the screen now in a way only hinted at in Dr No. Not only is Connery's acting much better he seems to have grown in much the same way Bond does in the books. The malevolence and boredom which Flemmings Bond has when not engaged on a mission is evidently present as is his belief in putting the Job before all else. Taking Daniel Craig aside Connery in From Russia With Love is the only other Bond to have what Craig described as a physical presence capable of the acts he portrays on screen. The final fight scene would be unbelievable without this, given the menace and physicality of his opponent brilliantly built up throughout the film, much in keeping with Flemming's original novel.

The remastering as with others in the series is completed very well, a much better experience than the Christmas day cuts of days gone by. The surround sound track is particularly engaging and really does add to the action movie experience.

A highly recommended movie and probably one of the best Bond films made. It has it all great action, menacing intelligent villains and a very possible plot. Flemmings knowledge of the scale of an intelligence section required to achieve the aims of the plot really adding to the story-line.

Quick Reviews!
Another dark outing for Connery, FRWL sees Bond lured by SPECTRE into their territory as revenge for his interference with Dr. No. Along for the ride is Donald Grant (The cooly ruthless Shaw) who is not what he seems. Naturally Bond realises what is happening just in time and, in a brilliant fight sequence (one of the best in the series) he takes one Grant, who may be his match in every way. However, SPECTRE will not give up so easily and will stop at nothing to make the Secret Agent pay.


This has probably one of the best scripts for a Bond film, full of twists and surprises, not pandering to any audience, and before the time when every Bond film had to have very certain themes planted into it. It seems like a thriller with strong action elements, rather than an action with strong comic elements as the series would progress to, but unfortunately the film is not as good as it should have been. The Bond girls are instantly forgettable, the theme song is awful, and there are few good set pieces. What lifts it though is Rosa Klebb (another strong performance, by Lotte Lenya), helped by a couple of shoe gadgets, and the pre-title sequence which, although not one of the best, would continue in all following Bond movies. The introduction of Q, rather than Boothroyd sparks the beginning of Bond's use of gadgets and another good relationship in the films. Not memorable enough, difficult when Goldfinger was next, but scores points for being gritty and realistic.

This DVD has a wonderful restoration job in terms of sound and picture quality, making the film seem like a modern action flick. The extras include interviews and commentaries, and are equally as interesting as each other in the series.

"You may know the right wines, but you're the one on your knees."
With an embryonic and not entirely successful Robert Brownjohn title sequence of credits projected onto body of belly dancer (some great spelling mistakes here, as `Monte' Norman and `Martin' Beswicke's agents probably pointed out!), Barry's first official Bond score and Blofeld's first (off-screen) appearance, the formula is clearly beginning to fall into place. This was also the first of the series to have a pre-title sequence, one of the few that relates directly to the film's plot, and it is still by far the most successful of any of them.

The gadgets that were to eventually get so out of hand make first appearance in form of Bond's ingenious attaché case, but at least here they are still entirely credible - nothing more extravagant than a well kitted-out briefcase and a breakaway sniper's rifle. Series regular Walter Gotell also makes his first appearance, though not as General Gogol but as the head of a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. training school. Unlike the cute and lovable old Russian bear at SMERSH in the Moore films, here he is cheerfully ruthless and businesslike, using live targets in training courses.

Bond's snobbery is much to the fore here. "Red wine with fish, that should have told me something," he tells Robert Shaw's working class homicidal paranoiac, the best and most genuinely threatening of the Bond heavies ("You may know the right wines, but you're the one on your knees."). It also establishes the sexual deviancy of the villains in Rosa Klebb's lesbian tendencies (very apparent as her hand wanders onto Daniella Bianchi's knee). With Bond such an amoral figure, the villains had to be even more immoral and perverse: always bastions of authority, usually millionaires they get their kicks planning global crimes, so depravity is simply foreplay to them. Even Vladek Sheybal's chess master Kronstein, looking for all the world like Vladimir Putin with mild indigestion, seems at a remove from mere mortal pleasures.

It's still the best of the series and most convincingly plotted, an excellent crane shot of the chequered setting for a chess tournament sets the scene for the chess-like nature of the plot as factions co-existing in uneasy truces are set off against each other. Indeed, directorially this is considerably more ambitious and assured than its predecessor, evident in the skilfully handled church scene and a beautifully blocked scene as Bond is followed along a train platform by Shaw inside the train.

Sadly, while pitched as the `Ultimate Edition,' the transfer is still problematic. The picture quality is certainly improved, but rather than the original British 1.66:1 ratio, it's presented in the cropped 1.85:1, but worse still, the ending is still missing footage of Bond examining the reel of compromising 8mm film in the gondola before the end title. As with Dr No there's not a huge amount of new extra material over the extras from previous release, all of which are carried over here, but it's pretty good - extracts from Ian Fleming on radio show Desert Island Discs, a TV interview with the author and a featurette on Fleming and Raymond Chandler.

From Russia With Love - A Review
Perfect, in every single way. A few more Bond elements are put into Bond's second adventure. With all the main cast and crew of Dr No put together they dreamed up a faithul to the book sequel. It begins with Bond being sent to retrieve the Lektor. A top secret item stolen from the military but it is really a trap because of the murder of Dr No with Bond being lured into the hands of the beautiful Tatiana Romano working for SPECTRE who later switches to Bond's side. Bond saves the day in the end and there is a brilliant fight onboard the Oriant Express with Donald 'Red' Grant. Once again the Ultimate Edition DVD is in great form as many of the others are. One of the best, if not the best Bond film and a must for any fan or a fan of spy thrillers or British cinema in general.

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