From Russia with Love

A deviant contribution to the British film crown jewels, but one that brings a heap of contradictions. For some, this is the very signature of Bond, one they would like to see more often, and I acknowledge that the tough battle with the cold spy adversary is among the best that the sixties adventures could offer. However, watching it with the removal of six decades is sometimes painful because a disastrous first half precedes a thrilling second half. In the first half, empty dialogue is carried out, episodic scenes are chained together, and opponents of 007's sexist face have a field day. The highly positioned female antagonist is portrayed as an ugly box, and as a reward for saving the group, the main hero is reluctantly offered two women from the local community. And there are lots of other things that are too much a product of their time, causing my smile to twist into a cringe unnecessarily often. Sean Connery himself, of course, plays it with a charm all his own, but this time it almost wasn't enough. (07/01/2022)

More money, more steel. After the grand success of Dr. No, the budget for the next installment was doubled, and thus could have been spent on helicopters, speed boats, multifunctional briefcases, and penicillin injections for James Bond, who this time left-handedly fucks not only his young paramours, but also a Russian agent and two rambunctious gypsies, all of which occurs with a casual flair that the makers of Fast Money could only dream of. Two-thirds of the way through, Agent 007's second adventure manages to keep you constantly on tenterhooks with its unpredictable script and a sense of omnipresent eyes and ears, thanks largely to a clever and down-to-earth screenplay that, despite the extensive exposition, doesn't drag its feet into overblown ambitions of world domination, but instead narrows its premises the more the film progresses. Except, of course, for the final helicopter and boat shenanigans, which were an afterthought to give the film an action-packed climax. Unfortunately, they also make the whole impression of the finale feel fragmented in both pace and mood, and the whole film comes out from under the Bridge of Sighs somewhat empty. The best part is once again a mentally underdeveloped Bond girl who trades a prestigious job as a spy for the chance to be the next trophy of a dude who grabs girls by the arm as a matter of course. (16/06/2019)

The most genuine spy film of all the Bond films. Connery's Bond met his match in Robert Shaw. SPECTRE and the Soviet Union got a proper hammering, without unnecessary frantic action scenes. It definitely belongs to the best of this genre. (03/08/2016)

007__#2__One of the best Bond films. It has an interesting compact plot by Bond standards, cool villains (the girl with the bayonet in her shoe is great, Martin Shaw as a straightforward killer), and the few action scenes are pretty good and brisk (well shot train fight). A big improvement compared to Dr. No. (02/10/2005)

After the famous success of Dr. No, the Saltzman-Broccoli production duo thought about which book would be best suited as a continuation of Agent 007's triumphant journey on the silver screen. In the end, a rather unexpected factor spoke for From Russia with Love... J. F. Kennedy declared this book one of his favorites, sales rose, and guys from MGM knew what to do. And so, six months after the Cuban atomic crisis, a film appeared in movie theatres in which Russia and the West stand unknowingly on one side of the barricade, manipulated by the clever gambit of the Czechoslovak Kronsteen and the SPECTRE organization, headed by the mysterious Blofeld (note that there is a question mark next to his name in the headlines). The plot is very well tangled this time, but as a result it a fades out (or rather into other episodes). The myth of James Bond as a super agent is beginning to take shape, with Q, a multipurpose briefcase and a camera-recorder appearing on the scene, and yet this film takes place even more in the intentions of a classic spy film. A lot of dialogue, a few sympathetically-flowing action sequences (especially the fistfight with Grant on the express is worth it), even more ticklish scenes than in Dr. No, a beautiful Bond girl with a Russian accent... and a slightly weaker Connery, who just shadows his famous performance from the first movie. However, From Russia with Love has one of the best entangled stories of all the Bond movies and, of course, a sheer 1960s atmosphere, so I can't give less than Dr. No... actually, yes I can....a debut is a debut. Terence Young just knew how to make Bond movies. ___ Bond song: "From Russia with Love" (Matt Monro) (29/10/2004)