FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) [FILM ONLY REVIEW]

Advantages: Lots of action and thrills
Disadvantages: None

...Terence Young's FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE was released in 1963, one year after its predecessor, the first James Bond offering DR. NO, took the world by storm. The latter was a very exciting introduction to the world of secret espionage as vividly created in the Ian Fleming novel it was based on; but how well does the follow up Ian Fleming adaptation, with greater production values, John Barry's now famous musical score and the movie franchise's first hip title sequence, do in comparison? 007 is a licence for English Secret Service Agents to kill. It is a great honour and few agents have it. James Bond is one of them. One of England's finest he is sent to Istanbul to retrieve a much sought-after decoding machine, which can access Russian state secrets, from a defecting Russian agent, who, working in Istanbul, is risking her life bringing...

Charles_Strickland 26.11.2006 · Read review
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Review of From Russia With Love (DVD)

From Russia with Pfeiffer and Connery

Advantages: Cast, premise...
Disadvantages: ... just too long for its own good.

...The Russia House is an international espionage thriller which, according to the blurb, is "A filmmaking tour de force and incredibly sophisticated, suspenseful and sexy entertainment". Don't believe the blurb - but don't necessarily be put off watching this film, either. Sean Connery stars as British publisher Barley Blair, who is sent a manuscript by Katya (Michelle Pfeiffer). This manuscript was written by a Soviet scientist and contains details of an extremely sensitive nature. British and American intelligence get wind of this potentially earth-shattering document and rope Blair in to work for them. When Blair eventually meets Katya, he realises that he wants to protect her more than anything else - or is he bluffing - or even double-bluffing?? With an excellent cast including not only Connery and Pfeiffer but also Roy...

CaptainDisaster 17.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Russia House (DVD)

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Advantages: City of such beauty
Disadvantages: Locals tend not to be overly friendly

...I took Paul to St Petersburg, Russia in November 2003. It was his birthday/Christmas present. It had been a destination we both always fancied, and whilst looking through the Sunday Telegraph travel section, we saw a tour company advertising trips. After looking into that deal and then independent travel, we decided to go it alone!! So we booked our flights out of Heathrow, direct to Pulkovo airport with BA. Traveling from Belfast meant connections but we are well used to that now! Another web search along with the aid of a guide book (TIME OUT ST PETERSBURG) found us our hotel – a reasonably priced local hotel Pulkovoskaya. Also required for trips to Russia are a visa – we had to send our passports along with forms and photos off to the Russian embassy in Edinburgh – something l was not too happy about...

purdy 02.01.2004 · Read review
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Review of St Petersburg (Russia)

Bond goes to Russia

Advantages: great gadjets
Disadvantages: dated and contains boring scences

...The second edition of the Bond series. From Russia with love was one of the classics too. The film boasts a number of outstading elements. One of these is the pre-credits seqeunce were Grants attcks a fake Bond. Another being the introduction of Q and the Bond gadgets. Bonds assignment in this film is to un-cover a decoding machine called 'Lektor'. This is currently held by the Russians. Bond is helped by Soviet agent- Romanova. SPECTRE, a secret national crime organisation, tries to prevent Bond from finding the 'Lektor' but are un- succesful. On his missions, bond encounters many enemies- one of wich is Donald 'Red' Grant. Actor, Richard Shaw, gives a brilliant performance. Grant has two roles in this film, and altenates well between them. As Grant- he is aruthless killer, though he has to have a disguise and become 'Nash...

Ice_Blaster 25.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of From Russia With Love (DVD)

James Bond - From DVD Heaven With Love

Advantages: Great storyline , good range of extras
Disadvantages: Extras not quite up to the standard set by the other Bond discs, mono sound - again!

...You know it's Bond when that music starts, and here we have the second Bond film from 1963, 'From Russia With Love'. It may be the second film, but it's the first to feature those wonderful silhouetted females cavorting over the theme tune, leaving us all gasping for the outline of nipples and gasping at the amazing gymnastics! (Well, that's what it used to do for me anyway!) It's also the third film to be released in the wonderful remastered DVD series, packed full of ultra-special extras. Just what a DVD should be like! While I'm concentrating on reviewing the DVD and not the film here, suffice to say that Connery's second outing is a far more relaxed affair - Connery looks and sounds much more the part, and while it lacks the grittiness that Dr No had, it makes up for it in the hints of exotic locations and multiple women that...

peppermint 26.03.2001 (23.03.2001) · Read review
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Review of From Russia With Love (DVD)

Russia: a journey to the heart of the country and its people

Advantages: informative, well reported historical facts and interesting encounters with locals
Disadvantages: too much personal life of the journalist in the book (not inherent to the context)

...?. The book is filled with essential historical facts, from the origin of the Russian state to present ?Putin Russia?, via the Tzar?s dynasty and the Communist Revolution. I give full credit to Dimbleby in exposing the atrocities perpetrated by the Communists during their dictatorship, without skipping quickly over the subject, or blaming only Stalin for that. Dimbleby makes quite clear that the atrocities were perpetrated by an ideology, not just by a crazy man. I was a bit surprised and relieved by this, given the well known Left-winger bias of the BBC, the producer of the book. Dimbleby is also very critical of Vladimir Putin and it couldn?t be otherwise. Russia is basically a dictatorship with a puppet government, but what infuriates Dimbleby is that to many Russians (young people included) this is not a problem. They like a strong man...

Lelo 13.09.2009 (14.09.2009) · Read review
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Review of Russia - Jonathan Dimbleby

From Russia With Love

Advantages: Introduction to a Masterful Writer!
Disadvantages: A Long Review!

...= Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy lived from 1828 to 1910. His parents died in his early youth so his relatives raised him, but his life soon degenerated into debauchery, drinking and gambling, forcing him to sell of part of his inheritance. He began writing in 1852 whilst serving in the Army and by his death was such a prolific author that his collected works span some 90 volumes. The two that are the most well known, certainly in Western society are the encyclopaedic War and Peace and the book I am here reviewing, Anna Karenina. The book was some four years in the making, Tolstoy beginning it in 1873 and concluding it in 1877 and is thought to reflect some of the character of Tolstoy in his relationship with his wife, Sophia Behr, whom he married in 1862. Initially it was being presented serially in a Russian periodical - Russian Messenger - but...

Scotsmanmatt 16.04.2005 (08.07.2005) · Read review
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Review of Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

From Russia With Talent

Advantages: Excellent and very watchable film
Disadvantages: Will it be widely distributed?

...Russian cinema woke up from its Stalinist torpor after Gorbachev?s starring role in ?Perestroika?. Although much rubbish has been produced in the name of capitalism and fast bucks (the Russians have proved astonishingly adept at adopting the less salubrious aspects of western ?values?), the counter-tendency to create serious drama in a less stifling atmosphere has also returned; Russia is after all the country that gave birth to Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov. ?The Return? is an enthralling film, a family drama which tackles serious issues. Issues such as growing up in what is effectively a one?parent family, the shabbiness of post-soviet Russia, the politics of family and friendship. What appears in its first scenes to be a standard movie about kids switches with the arrival of the two boys? missing father whom they have...

JoePoirot 30.07.2004 · Read review
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Review of The Return (DVD)

From Russia With Love!

Advantages: Strong, tasty and very classy.
Disadvantages: Too easy to drink!

...festivals around the country (hopefully they will be making an appearance at the Great British Beer Festival in August). Their range includes several core beers (they started at four but this is changing all the time and currently rests at six) and a range of special and seasonal creations. The regulars include Wild Swan (a light lemony beer at 3.5% ABV), Brock (a lower gravity dark stout at 4.1% ABV) and Jaipur (a strong IPA at 5.9% ABV). ~~~THE BEER. ***A Bit of Background*** It seems a little odd for a beer brewed in deepest Derbyshire to be named after a place in Russia. Granted it IS a beer brewed in the style of a Russian Imperial Stout (more about that later), but WHY St. Petersburg in particular? The answer for that comes from the history of Thornbridge Hall itself. A man called John Morewood purchased Thornbridge Hall in...

tange 10.04.2006 · Read review
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Review of St. Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout

Cold War Classic

Advantages: Sean Connery, good story,Daniela Bianchi
Disadvantages: A little dated now

...The first film Dr. No had established the Bond films with their mix of espionage, sex, violence and gadgets. The second From Russia With Love was infinitely better and for a Bond film surprisingly gritty. From Russia With Love featured an altogether more gripping and exciting screenplay than many of the somewhat formulaic sequels. As it was made in 1963 it was still made against the background of the Cold War and indeed the Cuban Missile Crisis had been only a couple of years before. The enemy were seen as the Communists in Russia who sought supremacy over the West. Espionage and counter-espionage was a hot topic selling truckloads of books by Ian Fleming, John Le Carre and others. Sean Connery returned as Bond again and I know many people, myself included still regard him as the best and quintissential Bond. Connery displays just...

polydeuces 14.10.2001 · Read review
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Review of From Russia With Love (DVD)