James Bond - From Russia With Love (Ultimate Edition, 2 DVDs)

SPECTRE have plans to steal a decoder (the Lektor) from the Russians. They also have plans to humiliate the British Secret Service in retaliation for the death of Dr No. Rosa Klebb, a SPECTRE agent, is given control of this operation and recruits an unstable killer (Red Grant) and a Russian clerk Tatiana Romanova. Tatiana will defect to the British but only if James Bond, with whom she has fallen in love, will collect her and the decoder. 007 happily agrees to take the case and works with Ali Kerim Bay in Turkey. After attempts on their lives by SPECTRE 007 learns enough about the decoder to assure himself of its authenticity. He helps Romanova escape and they ...  Read the complete review

MGM DVD started well with their James Bond DVD collection releasing the first and most recent titles in the film series (‘Dr. No’ and ‘The World is Not Enough’ respectively) to much acclaim. Both discs contained an excellent array of extras together with stunningly mastered prints of the films themselves, an achievement especially in the case of the first film due to its vintage. The next release in the series was, logically enough, to be the second ever James Bond film, ‘From Russia With Love’, and here, once again, MGM pulled out all the stops to produce a DVD which is a credit to the film’s name. THE FILM The ...  Read the complete review

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 ...  Read the complete review

From Russia With Love is the 1963 follow up to Dr. No. Terrence Young is again on directorial duty and was expected to build on the success of Dr. No. He easily achieves this with one of the best films in the series. The film starts with a great set piece where Bond appears to be being hunted down. This sets a convention for the series in which an action scene would feature before the main titles. It is also the first film in which we meet Ernst Stavro Blofeld (known as Number 1 in this film) who is the head of SPECTRE. But he was to feature more heavily in future films. After the title sequence, another convention that has become synonymous with the films, ...  Read the complete review

This is one of the best movies of the series along with Goldeneye and On Her Majesty Secret Service (OHMSS). In my perspective the second Bond is the one where the Cold War theme is more evident. The plot revolves about a decoding machine called Lektor that the Russians use. Obviously MI6, and their yankee friends would love to get their hands on it, as it would enable them to decode every russian transmission. But so would the SPECTRE as it foresees the decoding machine as an important step in their goal of world domination. This is the triangle of hate and deception that supports the movie. SPECTRE leader Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) manages to deceive a beautiful ...  Read the complete review