• It’s borderline archiveable for sure and I wouldn’t have a long argument with someone who said it wasn’t worthy of rewatching. For me, I think there’s enough here to admire, enjoy, and study
  • The man-made Volcano set piece utilized mainly at the finale cost more than Doctor No. it can be seen for more than three miles away—it’s an awesome set piece
  • Very solid title song and credit sequence- this time Nancy Sinatra—Maurice Binder did the titles and love the color and silhouette work here—I think he did all the bond films thru 1990—other highlights include Charade
  • Oddly enough this screenplay is written by Road Dahl—unremarkable for the most part
  • You can definitely see Connery’s interest waning—there’s a lot of line reading in his performance
  • Two opening sequences in medias res before the actual titles—the rocket capture and the fake assassination- great openings
  • The dedication to the Japanese and Asian aesthetic starts out pretty admirable and well-intentioned but it goes sideways when they try to make up Connery— but it’s 1967 as well and this is the same decade we had Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
  • The volcano and location shooting helicopter work in Japan is inspired—the extras—sheer epic size of the final battle is pretty wild and admirable- the visual of like 30 ninjas dropping from the top from ropes is great
  • Plenty of empty chases that are long and unengaging
  • Extremely similar in plotting to no—hard to ignore- we even have the end with the girl on the raft
  • Recommend but barely- not close to the top 10 of 1967