Bond IV - Thunderball

-The opening funeral is nice, especially the "That chick's a man, baby!" moment. And Bond throwing flowers on the corpse is a nice touch.

-A jetpack!! Niiiice! Still, hardly the best Bond opening.

-Tom Jones singing a song called "Thunderball" is rife with wonderfullness. Sometimes it must be tough to come up with a song that fits the movie's title but once you've figured out "Thunderball" you're probably on easy street.

-Ah, Blofeld is back. But no one's called him that yet, have they? Dude getting killed in his chair is another great Austin Powers bit.

-Bandage Man at the spa is oh so mysterious.

-I'm not sure about the spa lady leaving Bond alone on the spine stretching machine for so long. The only reason it makes any sense is because he totally assaulted her right before.

-There's a weird edit...they're showing the guys getting on the plane in the midst of which we see Bond massaging the chick with a mink glove.

We see the pilots get briefed, take off and then cut back to Bond, still giving the masssage. Weird.

-The bomber landing on water is cool and all the SCUBA stuff (and there's a lot of it!) is cool.

-I really like the room where the secret service guys are having their meeting. But I can't help but wonder why there is a 2-storey window allowing anyone to look in.

-I don't understand the game of "Banco" at all but I like the little paddle and the way the guy says, "Banco!"

-Domino is dubbed. Man, every film features some major character not using their actual voice. It's somewhat disconcerting. (I believe the chick doing Domino's voice is the same one who did Honey in Dr. No. Yeesh.)

-Another Felix Leiter. Probably a tough role to cast since he's basically Bond's step-n-fetch-it guy. Still, this dude is cooler than the last. He even wears his shades inside.

-The first of many cool underwater fights. Henchmen are so stupid.

-This whole movie the clock is ticking down but Bond always has time for a nice lunch or to make time with a lady. I also like how when Bond goes to Largo's they hang out and make small talk, both subtly acknowledging they know who the other guy is. This happens to James a lot.

Again, Evil Dudes: 1 bullet well-aimed = no more Bond.

-The sharks are a nice eeeevil touch.

-Damn, Bond has a nice, huge hotel room. And, once again, he's not too busy to fuck around with a naked chick even though he knows she's going to try to kill him right after. Then he says, "What I did, I did for King & Country." What a smoooothe mofo!

-Then a good henchman fight involving a "Judo chop!" and a zinger ("I think he got the point.") Still, a pretty cool fight for 1965.

-I already mentioned it but it is amazing how much SCUBA work they did.

-Hydrofoils are cool. Why don't we see more of these (in real life and movies!)

-My last note was that the plane was cool but looked damned dangerous...oh yeah - the best way out of the liferaft is getting pulled out of it by a plane while tied to a safety line. That looks dangerous...but exhilerating. If you're James Bond. By all rights he should have cut the line and snuggled with Domino a bit longer. That's usually his style.