S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is up to its old tricks again and out to avenge the death of Colonel Jacques
Bouvar, at the hands of 'Monsieur Bond' (Sean Connery). The plan this time is to demand
a ransom from the North Atlantic Treaty powers of $280 million (£100 million, at the time)
Agent Count Lippe (Guy Doleman) has been dispatched to the South of England to do the
business.
The best way to make a threat is by stealing a Vulcan plane from NATO containing a couple
of atomic bombs and say you'll destroy a major city within seven days if payment is not
made. The plan to stop S.P.E.C.T.R.E. No.2 Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi) is codenamed
"Thunderball".
The cast also includes two Bond girls - one good, Domino Derval (Claudine Auger)
and one bad - Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi), the latter being No.2's other half -
and yet another actor playing the role of Felix Leiter (Rik Van Nutter).
An anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, with a number of flecks on the print at times,
although moreso during the opening scene, but it still looks damn good for a 35-year-old
film. Surprisingly, the opening credits are slightly windowboxed.
The average bitrate is a good 5.81Mb/s, often peaking over 7Mb/s.
The sound comes across in remastered Dolby Digital 5.1, bringing life to all the action
sequences from the jetpack, through "the rack" spine-stretching scene to the underwater
spectacle. Oh and not to mention the opening 'gunshot' in the traditional Bond walk-on.
Extras :
Chapters :
The usual 32 chapters for an MGM, which is an excellent amount. If only some other DVD
companies could take a lesson from this one.
Languages & Subtitles :
English is the only language on the disc - in remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 - and there are subtitles
for English (and hard of hearing).
And there's more... :
MGM seem to be pulling out all the stops for their Bond collection and starting with the
first Bond film made we have a great amount for you to sink your teeth into.
Featurette: Inside Thunderball (4 mins): A brief note
from Patrick MacNee about how different versions of the film have
featured different dialogue dubbed over, some with missing music.
Featurette: The Thunderball Phenomenon (30 mins): A look at
the most successful Bond film of the sixties, again narrated by MacNee and
featuring clips from the film and chat from actresses Lois Maxwell, Molly
Peters, Luciana Paluzzi, Michael Van Blaricum, President of the
Ian Fleming Foundation and Q (the late Desmond Llewelyn).
Featurette: The Making of Thunderball (27 mins): Not had enough
featurettes yet? This one follows in the same vein, again narrated by MacNee
and including chat from Sean Connery and director Terence Young.
4 Trailers (8 mins): It only states three, but there are four,
the last one being a combination of Thunderball and You Only Live
Twice, the fifth Bond film. The first two are in anamorphic 2.35:1, while
the last two are letterboxed at approx 1.66:1.
TV spots (3½ mins): Five altogether. Two for this film
alone in 4:3-cropped black and white, plus three in colour offering a
"Bond Sale" double-bill of Thunderball and From Russia With Love.
Radio spots (5 mins): 10 radio adverts from United Artists
to promote the film in the USA.
The Thunderball Gallery: Over 600 still images from several different
points in the film
2 Audio Commentaries: one featuring director Terence Young
and "others", with the second featuring Peter Hunt, John Hopkins and
"others".
Some of the content, particularly the TV spots, aren't exactly first-rate
in terms of picture quality and sound, but it adds to the nostalgic quality
and all the interviews are clear and easy to hear.
Menu :
An underwater theme, naturally, with the Bond theme smashing through the
speakers in surround sound, topped off with a Dolby Digital 5.1 roar from the
MGM lion.
The initial screen offers you the choice to start the film, select a scene,
choose a language or watch the extras.
This is fourth Bond film to feature Connery and another one I haven't seen
before. There's some good action set pieces, but also a handful of slow scenes
and Adolfo Celi isn't the most deadly of Bond villains.
However, when things do calm down a bit, more action isn't too far away and it's
weird to see land-based physics applied to the underwater climax.
The disc is also stacked with extras again, so this DVD comes well-recommended.
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL
The following is a list of all the Bond films now available in production order
with their dates of release, followed by the unofficial movies:
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
