After making the perfect James Bond film the producers knew they had big shoes to fill— so they went bigger, they went all in, and for the most part it pays off. Third appearance of America’s answer to 007 in the form of Felix Leiter played by a third actor— they can’t seem to settle on a Felix. THUNDERBALL is GOLDFINGER with a bigger budget but it also sort of loses its way and two of the three Bond girls look so much alike that I mix them up. But if you want to show someone a Bond film and you want it to be even more action oriented than GOLDFINGER this is your choice. Connery’s last great Bond film.
BOND will return in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
BOND: Connery is as good in this one as he was in the last one, so he’s perfect. *****
VILLAIN: Largo is a Spectre villain, he’s pretty good. ****
THEME SONG: Tom Jones kills this one. *****
HENCHMAN: We’re told how sinister Vargas is, we even get a glimpse of it, but when it comes time to fight he loses in a half second. ***
OVERALL BOND RATING: 9.2