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Thanks. I stand corrected. Math was never my strong suit. should stick to my calculator... :)>-
1. Thunderball- 4.05
2. From Russia With Love- 4.03
3. Goldfinger- 4.00
4. Dr. No- 3.42
After only 4 reviews, Thunderball takes the lead. We were getting 6-7 reviews on average prior to this round so I hope we will get a few more reviews about the new leader to get a better idea how it truly rates.
The 5th entrant, You Only Live Twice, will appear Saturday.
I ranked it the weaker of the first four films (IMO) TB may have had the weaker story but it cannot be rivaled on sheer spectacle. It is also the most polished of the early films.
Well, like I said, the ratings depend on our reviews and every one counts towards raising or lowering a score. Goldfinger would be comfortably ahead of everyone but one review took it down below FRWL. Another one could change that. All 4 reviews thus far for TB have been very positive, including my own, hence the high score.
"Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond"
The year is 1966. After the phenomenal success of the prior two films, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman plan to film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" as the next in the series, until problems with a warm Swiss winter and the resulting inadequate snow cover did not leave Saltzman and Broccoli enough time to find the locations they felt they needed to film. Instead, they elect to produce the 11th book in the series, entitled "You Only Live Twice". Released in 1964, shortly before the death of Ian Fleming, the original story is based on Bond's revenge for the murder of his wife, Tracy, at the end of the his prior novel, 1963's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Welsh screenwriter Roald Dahl is hired to do the screen treatment and calling the book a "plotless travelogue", basically discards Fleming's sequel and commences to write a different story. Dahl makes some use of the novel's characters but in the film version, Bond fakes his high profile murder in Hong Kong and is secretly dispatched to Japan by M after American and Soviet manned spacecraft are mysteriously made to disappear in orbit by an unknown craft, which the British suspect is landing in or near Japan. With both the Americans and Soviets threatening to go to nuclear war with the other, Bond works with with the Japanese secret service and their "M", Tiger Tanaka, in order to find the perpetrators and comes to suspect that SPECTRE is once again involved. SPECTRE is working on behalf of and at the same time extorting the government of a powerful unspecified Asian power, implied to be Red China, in order to provoke war between the superpowers. While racing to stop this diabolical plot and save the world from nuclear holocaust, Bond finally comes face to face with the enigmatic head of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, inside his spectacular hideout within a dormant Japanese volcano.
In addition to the massive rewrite, filming was also plagued by unrelenting press coverage, plus the stunning announcement by the disgruntled Sean Connery that he intended to retire from the role. After the producers were able to come to terms with his issues and get him on board for the movie, principal filming began in Japan in July 1966 under the direction of Lewis Gilbert. Other locations used more briefly were Hong Kong and Norway, while back in England production designer Ken Adam was overseeing the construction of Blofeld's volcano hideout, a set that cost the entire budget of Dr. No. Filming wrapped in March 1967 and the movie was released on June 13th 1967, the first Bond film to have a summer premiere. The movie would be the first not to exceed the previous gross of the prior release, but it still went on to earn $111 million worldwide and was generally lauded by fans and critics alike at the time as a solid and successful entry in the series.
THE CAST-
Sean Connery as James Bond
Akiko Wakabayashi as Aki
Mie Hama as Kissy Suzuki
Donald Pleasence as Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Tetsurō Tamba as Tiger Tanaka.
Teru Shimada as Mr. Osato
Karin Dor as Helga Brandt
Charles Gray as Dikko Henderson
Bernard Lee as M
Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny
Desmond Llewelyn as Q
Ronald Rich as Hans
Tsai Chin as Ling
BOND- People critical of Connery's performance in this one state that he looks "bored". Perhaps the fact that he was leaving the role had something to do with this sentiment. But when I compare him here to his final official appearance in 1971, I have to mildly disagree. To me, if anything he goes back towards his superspy Goldfinger persona, more unflappable and seemingly more in control. I think it IS obvious though that the Dahl material isn't nearly as good compared to what he had to work with before, and it does show- 3.5/5
WOMEN- Two Japanese, one Chinese, a first for Bond. Main Bond girl Aki is played by Akiko Wakabayashi. She's a competent agent and does a nice job with her English and portrayal. The girl Bond winds up with, Kissy Suzuki, is played by the more renowned Mie Hama, who was known as the "Brigitte Bardot" of Japan for her effect on Japanese men. The Kissy role unfortunately has a lot less meat on the bone and as Hama's English was poor, it's probably just as well. Still, to this day I don't think I've ever seen a woman (short of my daughter of course) as beautiful as Hama in my life and she remains my choice for best looking woman in the series. Rounding things out is Tsai Chin as Bond's Hong Kong contact Ling, who gives him "very best duck" amongst other things, and finally a gaggle of assorted women in non-speaking roles who are supposed to be Japanese and obviously are badly not. Not bad overall, but not the strongest contingent by any means- 3/5
VILLAINS- After much teasing the head of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, is finally revealed in the flesh and played by English actor Donald Pleasance. I've never been sure whether I should be amused or not by the choice, but Austin Powers sure has gotten a lot of mileage out of the bald head, physical deformity, and Nehru jacket. I like Pleasance a lot in the "Halloween" movies and other things, but his Blofeld is a bit underwhelming and not very convincing. It's obvious that little thought was put into this casting. Japanese actor Teru Shimada is cast as Mr. Osato, an industrial manufacturer of chemicals who supplies and ships rocket fuel for the joint Red China/SPECTRE venture. Let's just say that he's a bit of a bungler. Then we have his "confidential secretary" Helga Brandt, also SPECTRE #11 and his on-site liaison, portrayed by German actress Karin Dor. She's obviously a bit more efficient than Osato, but blows her best chance to kill Bond in favor of having sex with him. Both pay the price for it, as SPECTRE never tolerates failure. Finishing out the villains is Ronald Rich as Blofeld's silent henchman Hans, and Burt Kwouk and Michael Chow as Red Chinese agents. Considering the buildup of several years to when we would actually see Blofeld, very disappointing- 2/5
HUMOR- One of the areas where the movie stands out. So many great one liners that are not just limited to Connery, Q, and Moneypenny, the Japanese cast also gets off some good ones. I've used some of them in real life and they work just as well outside of the movie, especially since my "tree" is not bare. On the downside, attempting to pass off Connery as Japanese is laughable and not in a good way, and tends to temper my score for this category- 3.5/5
ACTION- Here we have another area where the movie stands out. Fantastic sequences include great battles such as Bond's autogiro versus 4 SPECTRE helicopters, the final battle inside Blofeld's volcano lair, and a very underrated fight between Bond and a Osato assassin inside his offices. The assassin is played by Peter Fanene Maivia, a famous wrestler in his day who also happens to be the grandfather of wrestler turned movie star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson- 4/5
SADISM- More good stuff here which helps the movie. Blofeld feeding people alive to a steaming pool full of piranhas is quite sadistic, especially if you realize how nasty a single piranha bite actually is. Brandt's plastic surgeon tools are fairly nasty as well but never get used, but the threat of using them gets across. Not at the levels of the prior three films, but effective enough- 3/5
MUSIC- Coming off the somewhat disappointing Thunderball and the magnificent tear jerking Oscar winning score of Born Free, it was interesting for me as a child to see what Barry would come up with, and the effort was closer to the latter. A timelessly beautiful and memorable title song and other pieces such as "Mountains and Sunsets" and "The Wedding" just seem to perfectly embody the scenes and scenery. Barry's use of Japanese instruments adds to the overall ambience without being too cliche, I love this soundtrack and give it top marks- 5/5
LOCATIONS- Described as "lush splendor" on the back of the VHS release, the Japanese locations are certainly all that. And Ken Adam's set pieces are all that and more. Gorgeous places that make me want to be there in person- 5/5
GADGETS- What can be said about Little Nelly and all the Japanese weapons such as the "rocket cigarette", a helicopter equipped with a powerful magnet, Aki's car with direct contact to headquarters, and the Chinese designed spacecraft that swallowed the American and Soviet space capsules? Nothing bad for sure. It's all used to great effect and that's what I expect, gadgets that are going to be used and not Q's experimental models that are there for laughs- 5/5
SUPPORTING CAST- I don't find M, Q, or Moneypenny to be particularly great in this category, just average compared to their prior performances. However, Bond does get a solid Kerim Bey type ally that really works. Japanese actor Tetsuro Tamba portrays Tiger Tanaka, the head of the Japanese Secret Service. He is like most Japanese, highly efficient but also with a great sense of humor. He and Bond establish both a solid working partnership that firmly aids Bond, and a personal friendship that treats Bond to much laughter and more. English actor Charles Gray plays Bond's MI6 contact in Japan, Dikko Henderson, who has assimilated well to the culture after many years but still retains his English identity. I would have liked to have seen more of him compared to what I saw 4 years later- 4/5
OVERALL SCORE AND RECOLLECTIONS- As stated in my prior review, I fell asleep at the theater but certainly not from boredom with the PTS, and didn't get to see this one until later in 1969. Many things about the movie registered well with me and still do to the day. I had my very first crush in Mie Hama, a woman I find to be a living goddess and my personal "cherry pie" fantasy. The gadgets, music, humor, and action are mostly first rate, somewhat innovative, and memorable. Although it appears my ratings say I like this one more than Dr. No, as an overall effort that isn't quite the case as I tend to favor the strength of the Bond performance, villains, and storyline of Dr. No to slam bang action and humor. Maybe I'm weird in this respect, but I am one of those who definitely enjoys this movie and all the good things it does bring. It scores 38 out of 50 points for me, or an average of 3.8
You're welcome royale65, thanks. Well, at the time I got to see the entire film on the big screen, I was 7 going on 8 so there are lots of things I thought then that I probably don't remember now. Location wise, what I remember best was the splendor of Japan and the volcanoes. They looked incredible then and still do on my 46" flat screen at home. The external shots were filmed at Mt. Kirishima and all the volcanoes you see were those surrounding it.
Space wise, I loved the concept of the SPECTRE craft swallowing the others. Otherwise, it really wasn't anything different than watching the original Star Trek, which had an episode where an unmanned "doomsday device" swallowed anything in it's path, including entire planets. Except that it was a Bond movie, of course. Now that I think about it, perhaps one of them borrowed the idea from the other, although there could be earlier concepts. I'm not particularly a big fan of outer space genre movies like Star Wars and the like, but it was different for the Bond series. I'm OK with Bond plots being space based, but the idea of Bond actually in outer space is not one that works for me when there's so many beautiful locations here on earth that need to still be filmed.
Bond 4 Connery gives a solid if underwhelming performance as Bond, obviously cheesed off with all the press attention and not getting what he believed he was worth, very much the super spy again, you never get the feeling that he is ever in real trouble.
Women 5 Aki and Kissy are some of my favourite Bond girls, very beautiful, but overall the women are not up to Thunderball's.
Villains 3 Unfortunately we get to see Blofeld, and quite a let down it is too! It's that blind bloke from The Great Escape! Love DP but I find him as Blofeld a great let down, always preferred not being able to see what he looked like - and he is nothing like his description in Fleming novel. A mixed bag of henchmen and women.
Humor 4 Quite good humour, though some of it falls a bit flat for me.
Action 5 Ninjas, micro-copters, a great fight in Osato's office, fight a Kobe docks, pretty good action all round.
Sadism 4 Piranha, surgical implements, Q in shorts quite sadistic for an 'A' rated film!
Music 5 For me this is the best part of YOLT, I love Nancy's theme song, even it was 'cut and paste' from several takes, and Barry score for the rest of the film is awesome. Love it, love it love it.
Locations 5 Fantastic widescreen awesomeness with gorgeous Japanese locations, truly exotic, this will be one of the highlights when the blu-ray comes out.
Gadgets 4 Too much reliance on gadgets? I think so, though who could not like little nelly? A gadget heavy film, prefer less gadgets myself.
Supporting Cast 4 Tiger is a great supporting act, but most of the rest are fairly unremarkable, Moneypenny looks quite tasty though - probably the last time you could say that!
Never got to see this in the cinema, though when I was younger there was a double bill (with the magnificent OHMSS) at Plymouth's Drake cinema, though I couldn't persuade my friend (who got me into Bond in the first place) to get his dad to take us there. Plymouth is over 20 miles from where we live and my parents never had a car. So when this finally got shown on IVT, I invited my friend over (he only had a B&W telly) so we could watch together. Although I was quite impressed at the time I was also disappointed that there was no Shatterhand, no Garden of Death, and no naked pearl divers! The older I get the less I like this film - it comes in the lower middle position of my rankings - I don't get the PTS, or how Bond and Aki can see what happens to the helicopter that gets the car with a super size magnet, how anyone could mistake Big Sean for a Japanese (just laughable), do love Aki though and it is a shame her character gets killed off. All in all, not my idea of a great Bond movie, yet waiting in the wings OHMSS…
EDIT To make things even for SirHenry, I have 'upped' my score for the women to 5, have to say I do like the oriental ladies, so no problem rounding up to 5.
If I round off your women score to 5, that's 44 points. Maybe you liked the movie more than you thought? Half points are OK to use if our reviewers want to use them, but they have to be used in even numbers. If you want to add another half point somewhere or prefer to round off the women number to either a 4 or a 5, that's OK too.
You Only Live Twice 1967
Bond - 2/5 - Connery is better here than Goldfinger, but still a pale imitation of his earliest appearances. This should of been his last release. Much more plausible in the part than Diamonds are Forever. Still traces of his supreme best from 1962-63, but few and far between. By this time was a shadow of his former greatness
Women - 3/5 - I have nothing against Japanese girls, but the women this year didn't live too long in the memory. Nice girls though, did very well, pity one had to perish
Villains - 3/5 - Donald Pleasance' Blofeld is one of the more memorable as Number One, definite improvement on Charles Gray but not as good as Savalas. We don't get to see him until some way into the film, but when it happens, it's an almost legendary point of the entire series. 'Let me introduce myself, My name is Ernst Stavro Blofeld. They told me you were killed in Hong Kong' (Connery) - 'Yes, this is my second life'. (Blofeld) - 'You Only Live Twice Mister Bond'
Humor - 3/5 - Not too much emphasis on this. Connery gets some fun one liners, but nothing really ever gets out of hand. A right balance of straight faced and humorous moments throughout
Action - 3/5 - Never was much of a fan of the ninja assault on the Volcano late on. Damn boring even, not much happens for me, although a few fun bits and pieces. For the rest of the time, there are some fun action sequences, Osato premises early on and before Bond gets captured and taken to the Ning-Po for interrogation by Brandt being such examples
Sadism 3/5 - again, not really a feature I look for in Bond, but since asked, maybe about a three being generous. The Piranha pool was a bit devilish wasn't it. Helga's surgical instruments looked a bit nefarious also
Music 5/5 - The high point of the film
Nancy Sinatra gives us one of the best and most memorable themes ever. Can't praise it enough except give maximum scores
Locations 1/5 - All scenes are restricted to Japan most of the time, nothing against the country, but it feels almost like an 1960's equivalent of License to Kill. Bond spends too much time in one place or country and it does get tiring after a while, some nice scenery here and there, but one of the poorest ever for location filming
Gadgets 2/5 - I never liked the Little Nelly helicopter idea, just looks silly, especially some of the background projection while Connery's seated. A helicopter with a giant magnet on it for comic effect, Connery's trick cigarettes, Blofeld's trap door over Piranhas etc. All very good but nothing too memorable
Supporting Cast 3/5 - Tiger Tanaka is good for the most part, not a big fan of some of the Japanese girls maybe, Lois Maxwell seems underused, Bernard Lee could of had an expanded role as other times, bit more Q for a change if I remember, most of the other faces just seemed to make up the numbers of fill in a bit of background. The Hans character was yet another take on the Donald Grant character from Russia, and failed miserably, the fight with Connery was awful and over in the blink of an eye. Bon Apetite
Overall rating - 2/5 - I've said it before and I'll say it again. You Only Live Twice is one of the worst James Bond releases ever for me. Only Nancy Sinatra and some decent action bits here and there prevent it from being an unmitigated disaster. A release to forget. It's all rather dull and mundane. Haven't seen this in some time, but won't hurry for another viewing
Thanks for reading
You're welcome. Like I said, glad to see a little love for the film and for Asian women. Obviously I'm a big fan too and very much enjoyed the time I had with 2 of them in my past. Hopefully someday again...as to the rest, I was extremely lucky that my Dad and Pop-Pop were big Bond fans and encouraged me to watch them. I just took to them like a duck to water. By accident of birth, I was old enough to have seen the Connery classics on the true big screen before they went to free TV here in the States, and remember the experience. I would definitely suggest though that some of the classics are making their way around again on the big screen and hopefully you'll get to see YOLT or any you may have missed. James Page has been doing a great job locating and posting these airings and I was lucky enough to take my boy (a 4th generation fan) to see Goldfinger in all it's 35mm celluloid glory this past June. Lots of memories watching again that way, especially with everything being digital.
I'm 50 now and living through this important anniversary and unprecedented milestone in movie history. And there were times that I feared it would end with all the legal issues over the years. So, within a week of my 51st birthday on November 4th, that little boy who watched Thunderball when he was 7, will watch his 23rd Bond adventure on the big screen and I'm glad to say that the "itch" for a new adventure has never left me. And after having watched the 2nd and 3rd trailers in their full glory this morning, it's gotten even stronger. I don't know what I'm going to do with all the excitement until then!
And I envy you for that! I wish I could see it before my birthday but it is truly fitting being British that you should. I won't even be on this board between then and 11/11 because I don't want to know what my fellow hardcores thought until I see it myself.
As a point of discussion, how do you assess this?
I'm curious about that too. He rated Connery's Goldfinger performance higher and has had some other inconsistencies in his prior reviews as well.
BOND 2 connery is overweight, looks bored, least inspired performance
WOMEN 5 I really liked Aki and Kissy is gorgeous.
VILLAINS 2 Blofelf is weak. Pleasance was miscast and he looks tired and drugged in some scenes. He is the weakest villain of the decade.
HUMOR 4 good high marks here
ACTION 5
SADISM 5 nasty and real. Point blank shooting of Osato, the Pirahna pool.
MUSIC 5 Barry scores very high. this soundtrack is very very good and one of the best of the series.
LOCATIONS 5 well utilized and gave a great feeling of being there.
GADGETS 2 I was never a fan of the gadgets after GF and can do without them. they got kinda outrageous (little Nellie) fun but silly.
SUPPORTING CAST 4 Tanaka is good, the girls are great, Maxwell, Llewelyn, Maxwell are up to par.
Total= 39 which works out to 3.9 Connery's performance and the casting of Pleasance drags the score down.
I had to wait seven years before seeing the film and I was impressed with the action. Later viewings I could see the cracks in the armor, mostly Connery and Pleasance as well as some of the action scenes that just don't have any method behind the madness.
YOLT is not the worst film of the series not by a long shot, but it ranks as the weakest of the decade. Not as polished as TB or OHMSS. It is my least favorite of the golden age 1960's.
As Tiger would say, your taste in women is exceptionally cultivated :D
I'm really loving the reviews of this movie from my fellow originals, I feared I would be the only one who liked it. It seems overall thus far from the additional comments that while this one may score higher based on the strength of certain categories, there's something about Dr. No that we all like just a little bit more.
That said, I'm going to scream if anyone thinks that Lazenby's performance is better than Connery's in any movie short of DAF.
This was a fun one to review. I'm sure the next film in your series will bring up some very strong comments from all fans.
I never understood the hangup the producers had with Hama's poor english. they had always dubbed actresses and actors from the beginning. I'm glad they did not dump her but come on. Ursula Andress, Daniella Bianchi, Gert Frobe, Claudine Auger, Adolfo Celi, the list is endless. Hama's beauty ranks very high and I'm glad they choose to keep her in the film.
It would hardly be fair to compare the two actors performances, Lazenby was a model who had done a TV commercial for Big Fry chocolate bar and Connery was already a seasoned actor having been on stage, television and in Hollywood films. Having said that considering his lack of experience I think Lazenby does a fine job, if he had only kept in the series and 'attended night school' between the films I'm sure DAF would have been a film to savour.
You are spot on. Since you and SirHenry have opened the "gates"
Lazenby was not as bad as some on these boards will make him out to be. He may have been wooden in a couple of scenes but for the most part and I would say 90-95% of the movie he did just fine. He was supreb in the action sequences, his romancing of Tracy and her death scene are tops. He was a sly devil as he romanced the "Angels" and I know we should save these comments for the OHMSS review but for what its worth, I had to chime in.
Simply on the basis that for the most part in Goldfinger Connery just sits around looking bored, I shouldn't have to reiterate this, been said so many times before. Yes, he looked the part, although was slightly past his supreme best, but what's the good of having one of the best Bond's ever, just sit around for three quarters of the film and doing nothing, terribly wasted that year in my estimation. It was just a part of an overall boring and mundane release. Connery in Thunderball, while not as good as his first two appearances, was a marked improvement on Goldfinger, and we actually had Bond get up off his ass and go out there and get involved in action sequences. This was also apparent in You Only Live Twice. Overall poor release as I specified, Connery by 1967 was a shadow of his former self, but that year, was involved in some decent action bits and pieces. And also, looked considerably older than the five years since his debut, but still did not too badly that year. Still looked much more plausible in the role than his swansong from the official series in Diamonds are Forever. Should I have given Connery a 3 for YOLT?, Well I made a decision at the time and I'm sticking with it, bottom line is, I just enjoyed his performance that year better than Goldfinger, Yes he did look more plausible in the part for the latter, but as before, that year was totally devoid of any decent action bits and Connery was wasted for the most part. Was just given a bit more room to manoeuvre in 1967 and that's what I liked about it, even if he did look older than before. Bit of a ramble maybe but that's about the size of it
Also by the time YOLT was released there were so many Bond imitators in the market place that YOLT ran the risk of imitating some of the imitators. That volcano set cost more than the budget of DN!
Some scenes just don't work. When Bond kills Henderson's assassin and he puts on his shoes and mask and pretended to be injured. The driver carries him into the office building. Wouldn't he have noticed the difference in weight? Why did Helga chose to resort to such an expensive and waste of a good aircraft to kill Bond when she could have just shot him? Bullets cost less than a small plane. The Little Nellie sequence should not have occurred. Bond had seen nothing and was going to report all clear when the SPECTRE helicopters jumped him. He was heading home! why try and molest him and Little Nellie??
Thunderball (Echoes)
Bond - Connery reached his apex in Thunderball. More than held his own against Adolpho Celi, Lucianna Paluzzi. Sean managed to have his way with three women, took on all comers, managed to swap Canada for the Bahamas and even survived a shark bump. Other than FRWl, Connery's best performance as Bond. (5)
Women - Thunderball has Claudine Auger and Lucianna Paluzzi. Need I go any further? (5)
Villains - Adolpho Celi did fine as Largo. The eyepatch was menacing, but Largo held back other than killing Domino's brother. Vargas, Lippe, etal. did well in their roles. Fiona again saves the day. Not the Rogues Gallery of FRWL, but they still did well. (4)
Humor - Has it moments, but stayed with the dry humor and slowly seques into the bawdy humor we would later see. The intentionally funny spots didn't always come off well (3).
Action - I know some are down on TB for the action being slow, but things go slower in water folks. The underwater action was fantastic and it was a cinematic breakthrough for its time. My only gripe with the action is that the Disco Volante battle came off as a little cheesy (4).
Sadism - Anyone with a pool filled with sharks and coldly kills the man who just delivered your missiles is pretty sadistic in my book. Bonus sadism points for #1 killing Lippe for picking the wrong pilot and zapping another number for creating his own retirement account (5).
Music - Not the best song Tom Jones ever recorded, but credit to Tom for hitting the high note. Up until the Disco Volante finale, the music matched the scenes, then reverted back to the standby 60's music. Best part was the drum solo moments before Fiona is killed and immediately going back to the softer dance music (4).
Locations - Kind of basic with the Bahamas, the Miami coast and the Eiffel Tower on the background wallpaper. Yet the shots in the water made up for the basics of locations (4).
Gadgets - Nothing really elaborate or memorable gadget wise, but they all served purposes in helping Bond (4).
Supporting Cast - Everyone at M16 got good visability and played their roles well. Rick Van Nutter wasn't Jack Lord, but he sure as heck wasn't John Terry. We get the return of Martine Bestwick. In any other film she would have been a lock as the #2 girl and in some cases, better than the main girl(4).
Overall rating - (42) This was an epic adventure featuring many spectacular underwater scenes. Thunderball is a film I can watch over and over again and never get stale. Compared with other earlier Bond films, there wasn't anything really awkward that doesn't translate well today. Sadly, this is the last we see of Sean Connery at his prime.
Interesting thoughts in paragraph #2.
On point #1, the driver (Mr. Maivia) would only know the difference if he had carried the assassin at another time. The bigger question to me would be why he didn't notice the switch when he got Bond out of the car and onto his shoulders. Point #2 I already touched on, she should have killed him while she had him tied up on the Ning-Po. I'm guessing she figured she'd play along with his request to fly him to Tokyo and that's when she attempted to do so and failed. Point #3 I feel the same way about, it was just a dumb move on SPECTRE's part because Bond pretty much knew then that their base was somewhere amidst the volcanoes. It's likely they figured that whoever was flying a toy helicopter was just some ordinary, defenseless guy and that he'd be an easy target.
You weren't talking about Bruce Lee then were you? Because he could act.
I wouldn't call Bruce a great actor, but I'll compromise and agree that he had more skills than George and Chuck for sure.