Thunderball [Blu-ray] [1965]

Blu-ray all zoneRatio of the feature film:2.35:1Languages of the feature film:DTS Master Audio 5.1: EnglishDTS 5.1: French, GermanDolby 5.1: Latin Spanish, Brazilian PortugueseDolby 2.0: 2 commentariesSubtitles for all the videos:German, French, Latin Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and English for the hearing impairedSubtitle available only for the feature film:SwedishVerdict:An outstanding picture and sound quality, the Lowry Company in charge of this restoration did an excellent job for the fourth film of the collection, this film couldn't have been watched in better condition than it is today. If you watch carefully, you should notice that the car after the DB5 does not have a door on the driver side for the stuntman to be ready to jump out of the vehicle. The mockups of the plane landing on water and the boat exploding at the end looks more obvious.Soundtracks:The English soundtrack is by far the most surrounding and accurate obviously, the German and French made in the 60s are also of good quality.The Latin Spanish, the original dubbing is quite by far the most amazing using the new remastered soundtrack: they have removed the front centre channel which contains most of the English dialogue and replaced it by the original Spanish dubbing which contains some background noise meaning the special sound effect and music sometimes differ compare to the English soundtrack. The dialogues also taking up all the channels make the depiction of the Spanish soundtrack sounds mono during some part of the film, not all fortunately!Un-expecting dubbing:As usual in the early Bond films, the Bond Girls were dubbed. Nikki Van der Zyl, the one who dubbed Ursula Andress in Dr. No dubs the French actress Claudine Auger (Miss France 1958). The reason seemed to be that she could not speak loud enough despite a good command of English.And also, Adolfo Celi playing Emilio Largo is dubbed by Robert Rietty.NB: quite surprisingly, Blofeld whose face cannot be seen is played by Anthony Dawson and voiced by Joseph Wiseman (both featuring in Dr. No).In the French dubbing, it is the German actor Gert Fröbe (playing Goldfinger in the previous film as well as speaking fluently French) who dubs Blofeld but not in the German dubbing.Overall, we are looking at an excellent film technically speaking as always from Lowry. You shall not be disappointed.

This is a decent Bond film. It's got Sean Connery as Bond and he hasn't lost any of his appeal. It's also close to the book which I really like. And yet, it's never been one of my favourites in the series. Having seen it less often than most of the other Bond films, I decided to give it whirl last night. It kept me nicely entertained, especially the first half of the film with some of the more memorable moments of the franchise. There is the pretitle sequence with Bond attending his own funeral, the epic getaway with the jet pack, and who could forget Fiona Volpe on her golden motorbike, played by the bewitching Luciana Paluzzi? The scenes in the spa where Bond is whipped back into shape are fun to watch, Adolfo Celi makes a decent adversary, the Spectre lair is suitably intimidating. All good so far.What doesn't work quite so well for me is the second half of the film. Not the story line, mind you. That's solid enough. And the Bahamas locations are glorious. But there are these endless underwater sequences, and I can't help finding them just a bit dull. I'm sure technically they're brilliant, and back in the 60 probably novel and exciting, but I found them too long and too slow and was wishing for a good fast paced chase on land. Or some dialogue. But maybe that's just me.The DVD is good. Excellent picture and sound, subtitles for those who may need them and any amount of extra material (this latter refers to the 2 disc Ultimate Edition I purchased).

this is the apex of bond. murders man in sauna for no reason.

Hindsight is marvellous is it not. We can see things just the way they are.I have read the bond books four times over my lifetime and I'm just finished with 'Casino Royale' starting my fifth round with them. I mention this to impress you dear reader with my love of Ian Fleming's books.But I can't remember watching a bond film from beginning to end. Always a snatch here or there on Xmas or bank holiday. I did not think any film could match the stories. Bit snobbish of me really, guilty as charged.Anyway, I recently decided to watch them starting at the beginning with 'Dr No' then 'From Russia with Love' then 'Goldfinger' and now 'Thunderball'.I really enjoyed the first three. They are what they are a sort of timepiece in cinema history.But what has happened in 'Thunderball'? I struggled to watch it. It's all there just like the first three but something is missing.Hindsight informs me. Overdone is the word. Was the budget too big allowing over the top scenes? All that underwater stuff I didn't really have a clue what was going on. The clichés were just too sad.I could go on. Shame. I am going to continue the journey along the bond films 'you only live twice' is next.I hope they learnt the lesson from 'Thunderball' and get it right.

Peak Bond.

I was reluctant to buy this after the DVD 2-disc ultimate edition thinking how much better can it be.The best improvement comes in the visual department where it actually displays 4K in the corner and then the film begins.Immediately the sharpness of the movie is that much better then the DVD restoration process.There is a big but, with the increased sharpness and detail comes increase grain in the picture.There seemed to be a massive problem with film studios using cr*ppy film stock of the time which has nothing to do with the film restoration.However this being the fourth in the series is less of a improvement than Dr. No so at the film technology was moving on at the time the film was made.It is just a shame ITV keep on hammering the Bond movies to the death.For a long time I didn't know or understand Thunderball especially after the success of Goldfinger but I watch it now and again recently and enjoy the opening 'health farm' segment with all the byplay going on. Claudine Auger is absolutely stunning looking leading lady but never saw her again.