Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Bond movie, from the golden era, 24 Jul 2007
The second in the Bond movie canon, and a satisfying balance is achieved in this, Sean Connery's favourite of the series. The plot is satisfyingly spy-like, with decoding machines, double crosses and foreign venues...
Cold war politics are not emphasised here, but instead Spectre, a fictional terrorist and extortion organisation, is invented for 1960 political correctness sake. However, with Terence Young once again in the director's chair we get a real cold war style spy thriller, as well as an element of the exotic we associate with Bond.
So what do you get for twice the money as Dr. No..? A then stellar cast, including the famous German cabaret star Lotte Lenya, playing Rosa Klebb, the villain who inspires the Connery quip `She's had her kicks', Daniella Bianchi who had just come runner up in Miss Universe, as well as two more beauty pageant contestants, who play the fighting gypsy girls. Robert Shaw plays one of the more convincing and genually menacing villains, and of course Q makes his debut.
The action scenes are varied, and satisfyingly interspersed with a real story, not so far removed from Fleming's original. Most famously of course, is the 6 minute fist fight between Connery and Shaw on the Orient Express, a scene which some producers at the time were worried was just too violent. Mostly, it is Peter Hunt's fantastic editing that makes the scene, and indeed adds a sense of style to the entire movie. Train fight aside, there are also set pieces including a gunfight in a gypsy camp, and a `money-shot' with exploding petrol canisters in a boat chase in a loch.
As for the remastering, the film is now spotless, although there is no one place one can say the restoration has made a startling impact. Indeed, in some places the improved colour correction has made a night scene darker than before, albeit with improved contrast. The sound has become clearer, but without obvious tricksy surround effects on the dts or dolby digital soundtrack.
The extras include all that the special edition had, plus one or two new items. Specifically, some archive material of Ian Fleming. The radio conversation between Raymond Chandler and Fleming is fascinating, while the other CBS interview and desert island disc appearance are of moderate interest but contain nothing surprising. However, even the original extras are worth revisiting, especially the documentary `Inside From Russia with Love', as the trouble shoot of this movie does have some fascinating stories behind it.
All in all, this was not yet quite the Bond movie that would emerge in its full overblown form in Goldfinger, but a terrifically good thriller, especially given its age, and more of a genuine spy movie than the movies to follow.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Classic Bond!, 27 Aug 2006
Just like the first James Bond, Dr.No, From Russia With Love sticks very close to Ian Fleming's novel which is one of his best. Sean Connery plays a slightly darker Bond than he would go on to play in the later Bond's You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever but it's all fantastic really. The pre credits sequence is one of quality, simple but effective. The films plot is one of the best of the series and you could actually believe it could happen. James Bond is informed by M that a beautiful Soviet agent has fallen in love with him and wishes to defect. She promises to steal a valued decoding machine called the Lektor which MI6 desperatly wants. Bond is warned it could be a trap and indeed it is. Unbeknown to the defector, Tatiana Romanova, the soviets and British are being used as pawns in an inspired scheme masterminded by SPECTRE. Tatiana is unaware that her immediate superior, Colonal Rosa Klebb is actually working for SPECTRE. The plan is for Bond and Tatiana to steal the Lektor then be executed by assasin Red Grant. Spectre will then recover the machine and sell it back to the soviets, embarrasing MI6 in the process and murdering Bond in revenge for his killing of Dr.No. This is real classy stuff, something that todays Bond films need to rediscover. There are no real gadgets in From Russia With Love, they would not come in properly untill Goldfinger but Bond is given a suitcase by Major Boothroyd [ Q ] who makes his first of 17 appearances in the Bond films. The suitcase has a built in knife compartment down the side of the case with two strips of gold soveriegns embedded in each end. The case also has a built in powder so if the case is opened incorrectly you will get a cloud of smoke in your face. These things come in useful to Bond as they help him kill Red Grant on the train. Red Grant is played excellently by Robert Shaw and the fight on the train is proberly the most famous fight scene in a Bond movie. The boat scene at the end of the film is done very well for the times and the all around feel of the film is that of not only a Excellent Bond film but a great Cold War thriller as well. This film had a slightly bigger budget than the first and the results can be seen on the screen.An excellent entry in the series.You get the same special features on the second disc as you got with the 2003 special edition release PLUS a lot more so i would reccomend this dvd to any Bond fan or film lover!
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"She's had her kicks", 4 April 2007
Col. Klebb (Lotte Lenya) Tells Tatiana Romanov that the KGB wants her to defect and take the LEKTOR (a typewriter sized cipher device with her). M (Bernard Lee) tells James bond that he is to help Tatiana and get the Lector. Every thing sounds pretty simple. But who is Klebb really working for?
This movie relied more on acting than gadgets. In later movies gadgets almost outshine even 007. Here the only real gadget is the brief case with the standard 00 issue.
As if you have not heard it a million times this is the definitive 007 movie. When some one mentions 007 this is the one that come in mind. It has well known good guys, bad guys and good-bad guys (Lotte Lenya). See her in the movie that made her famous "The Threepenny Opera".
Who can forget the posters of Daniela Bianchi with the velvet band around her throat? She even looks good through a periscope.
Of course with out Sean Connery as 007 became a classic. All the later Actors that played the bond Character are compared to him. This is almost a series of several mini movies as we move focus from one character to another.
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