Fan Verdict - Thunderball
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Each month, a different James Bond film
is selected for review, rating and discussion by the largest
online community of 007 fans - the Keeping
The British End Up forums.
Fans rated the following elements of the
movie on a 1-10 scale (10 being best): Bond,
Babes, Villains,
Humour,
Sadism,
Snobbery, Action,
Locations,
Gadgets, Music and 'Tilt' - a rating to account for any qualities
not captured in the main categories.
Also up for discussion were the 'best
bits' of the movie, including: most 'Bondian' moment,
funniest scene,
best line,
best location,
best action sequence,
best Bond girl and
best overall performance.
Thunderball overall score:8.7 |
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Above: Cover art for the "Thunderball" score, composed by John Barry...
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| Most 'Bondian' Moment
Winner: James Bond comes face to face with the villainous Largo for the first time over the chemin de fer table. Here Bond beats the proud aristocrat and takes Domino, the beautiful kept lady as his prize.
Honourable mentions: Bond, having dispatched with the rogue Colonel Bouvard and tastefully leaves a nearby bouquet of flowers on the dead man's body.
Funniest Scene
Winner: Bond exclaims "Oh, not you" when he comes face to face with the MI6 Quartermaster who regrets journeying to the Bahamas to equip 007. |
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Rating Results
| Category |
Average Score |
Babes |
9.6 |
Locations |
9.5 |
Bond |
9.4 |
Music |
9.3 |
Humour |
8.6 |
Action |
8.4 |
Villains |
8.3 |
Sadism |
8.3 |
Gadgets |
8.3 |
Snobbery |
7.2 |
| Overall |
8.7 |
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Honourable mentions: Bond finds he's let himself into the wrong room - that of femme fatale, Fiona Volpe.
Best Location
Winner: Nassau, The Bahamas.
Best Action Sequence
Winner: In an epic climax to 007's mission, he and the US frogmen take on Largo's elite SPECTRE force in order to prevent the villain from escaping with stolen nuclear weapons.
Best Bond Girl
Winner:
Luciana Paluzzi.
Best Overall Performance
Winner:
Sean Connery as James Bond.
What The Fans Said
Below are selected quotes from reviews by Keeping The British
End Up members. Click here to
read all the reviews in their entirety.
"The behind-the-camera vets John Barry, Terence Young, Richard Maibaum, Ken Adam, etc., are all operating at the creative zenith of first generation Bond cinema. In addition, TB features the best gallery of beautiful and exotic women to appear in a single Bond film: Claudine Auger, Martine Beswick, Molly Peters and best of all, Luciana Paluzzi who's not only gorgeous but actually gives a fantastic performance as well" -- Prince Kamal Khan
"After 3 movies searching the formula for 007, Thunderball reaches the perfect balance, putting together a great worldwide plot, loads of gadgets, terrific villains (Fiona Volpe, Largo, Blofeld again), great headquarters, bringing excitement from a clinic in England to the underwater of Jamaica. " -- Ytterbium
"Connery gives the best performance here. Thunderball is just an excellent, exotic, out of this world Bond adventure. The underwater scenes are the best in the whole series and the girls are some of the sexiest." -- FieldsMan
"The razor-sharp dialogue also sparkles throughout, the action is extremely well-staged, notably the still-hugely impressive underwater battle finale, John Barry pulls off yet another terrific score and, despite claims to the contrary, this isn't a "gadget-packed" Bond film; the gadgets are small and plausible touches which never get in the way of the inventiveness of Bond himself" -- Lazenby.
"The cynics of Thunderball all latch onto the length of the underwater scenes in the film. It's surprising therefore to discover that these scenes make up less than 25 minutes of the 2 hour screen time. The scenes themselves, in particular the climactic underwater battle - Bond versus Largo - is brilliantly filmed and draws the film to a fine conclusion. Domino ultimately defeating her tormenter is a nice touch and the frenetic editing on the Disco Volante adds to the excitement." -- James C
"This was probably Connery at his best, and most comfortable in the role 007. People always look to Goldfinger, and yes even From Russia With Love, in terms of the standard bearer for the character of 007 - but Connery gives a performance in Thunderball that easily trumps any performance in the previous 3 films. When future Bond actors look back as to see how the role was done right, they needn't look any further than Connery in Thunderball." -- hASEROT
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