Thunderball (Blu-ray)

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"Thunderball" is the fourth film starring Sean Connery as James Bond and was the highest grossing film in the series with Connery in the lead role. Connery would go on to star in just one more film before handing the reins over to George Lazenby and eventually Roger Moore. "Thunderball" is an entertaining film that acts as a transition film between the harder edged and more serious first three films and the cartoony and over-the-top films featuring Moore. The film may have grossed more money in box office receipts, but it lacks the stellar story and impact that "Dr. No," "From Russia With Love" or "Goldfinger" possessed and the picture feels less exciting and less focused than the previous efforts. "Thunderball" is still a quality picture, but it isn´t nearly as classic as the first three films in the series.

This time around James Bond (Sean Connery) begins the film attending a funeral. He quickly realizes that the deceased is still very much alive and disguised as a widow in mourning. Bond disposes of the bad guy and then sets off in a fully functioning backpack and then speeds off in an Aston Martin after taking care of pursuing bad guys with a pair of water jets mounted in the trunk of the Aston Martin. This begins the strong reliance on gadgets that would provide the mainstay of James Bond action sequences during the Roger Moore years and while I was impressed that the backpack actually worked, I was less impressed with the water jets. Thankfully, Tom Jones provides the film´s title song just after the water jets save the day. Who doesn´t love Tom Jones?

After the film´s initial sequence, Bond is sent to the Bahamas to a spa, where he can find plenty of attractive women to seduce and use his charms. When he is nearly killed on a machine nicknamed "The Rack," Bond springs to action and uncovers a murderous plot involving the pilot of a French Vulcan, which becomes stolen and crash landed in the ocean to hide its whereabouts. With the aircraft and its nuclear payload missing, Bond is called upon to return to England where it is realized that SPECTRE´s number two agent Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) is behind the plot. Bond asks M (Bernard Lee) to return to the Bahamas and seek out the sister of the dead body Bond found at the spa, Domino (Claudine Auger). It is revealed that Domino is staying with Largo on his boat the Disco Volante.

Bond and Largo begin to work against each other as Bond has Domino working undercover to discover if the nuclear weapons are on the Volante. Meanwhile, Largo sends out assassin Fiona Volpe (Luciano Paluzzi) to take out Bond, but she fails. Bond teams up with his longtime friend, CIA agent Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter) as they try and uncover the plot as to what SPECTRE has in store for the bombs. Soon Bond finds himself scuba diving among sharks and trying to board the Volante in hopes of stopping Largo. Eventually, a large scale fight occurs underwater between Largo´s men and the Coast Guard in what is one of the better choreographed underwater sequences in the history of cinema. The film then ends on one of the hokiest rescue sequences in the history of cinema.

I enjoy "Thunderball," but feel that the filmmakers and Connery were all on auto-pilot for this and the last Bond film starring Connery. The story takes forever to unfold and there are long stretches of time when the film just seemed to drag on. At this point Bond had played the spy three previous times and he does a convincing job as James Bond, but the one liners feel a little too easy and the great fight sequences that were part of the earlier films have been replaced with gadgetry and over-the-top action sequences. Connery had only played Bond for four years at the time of "Thunderball," but he seemed to have aged more over the course of this time and lacked the energy and excitement that was delivered during his earlier performances. With a plot that wasn´t as tight and a lead actor beginning to decline, "Thunderball" seems long in the tooth.

There are three things I absolutely despise about this film that perhaps brings about some of my inability to love "Thunderball." The first thing is Rik Van Nutter as Felix Leiter. Jack Lord debuted the role in "Dr. No" and Cec Linder dropped the ball in "Goldfinger." However, Van Nutter just doesn´t seem to fit the role and I´ve always been bothered with the actor as Felix Leiter. The second thing that complete agitates me in "Thunderball" is the climactic action sequence aboard the Disco Volante. Bond and Largo are fighting for control of the boat as it speeds at ridiculous speeds between rocks. If ever anything should get a digital cleanup, it is the rocks that the Volante speeds past, because this scene is horribly goofy. But it is not nearly as goofy as the sky hook rescue of Bond and Domino from a raft just outside of Miami. They were close enough to be picked up, but instead had a balloon and rescue from an aircraft. I have to roll my eyes every time I see this.

There are some things that the film does exceptionally well. Claudine Auger is wonderful as Dominique Derval and the voice dubbing by Nikki van der Zyl is smoothly mixed into the film. Up until this point in the Bond annals, Auger is perhaps my favorite Bond girl. Ursula Andress looked amazing, but I liked the playful energy that Derval brought to the role. Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewelyn and Lois Maxwell are always welcome in their roles respectively as M, Q and Miss Moneypenny. They were the classic actors in these roles and I´ve always enjoyed seeing them as Bond´s colleagues. The underwater fight sequence that ends the film has some logistical errors in it, but watching a large battle with knives and spear guns is always a blast.

I can sit down and watch "Thunderball" now and then when I have nothing better to do. I don´t find it nearly as compelling as the first three entries and it simply does not feel as classic. The scope of the film is far more epic and ambitious and this picture is the beginning of the evolution of the series, but I´ve always been partial to the tighter films starring Connery before "Thunderball." Those films I can sit and watch attentively, but this picture doesn´t quite hold my interest after having watched it a couple times in my life. It´s good, but just not great. The film certainly has its fun moments and some of Bond´s quips are a hoot, but "Thunderball" cannot compare to the earlier entries. While Connery was the best Bond, "Thunderball" is not the best film starring Connery as Bond.

Video:

"Thunderball" widens the view a bit and is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen video. This is a change from the 1.66:1 aspect ratio of "Dr. No" and "From Russia With Love." The film is mastered with AVC MPEG-4 compression and is clean and detailed. I don´t find the film to be as visually stunning as the earlier entries, but it still looks quite good considering it is over forty years old. The level of detail with "Thunderball" is quite good, but the underwater sequences look nearly identical to the DVD releases. I would assume this is due to the photography used to film these moments. One interesting thing about "Thunderball" on Blu-ray is that the level of detail has gotten high enough that it is easy to spot some of Connery´s tattoos under the makeup. The coloring of the film is quite good as well and skin tones are generally very natural looking. The print is clean and I cannot recall any major flaws in the transfer. This Blu-ray release is slightly hindered by the source materials, but is quite good considering the age of the film.