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Created Oct 29, 2011 01:27AM PST • Edited Feb 09, 2019 10:50AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   The best Bond? Hardly, notwithstanding its haughty reputation and terrific title.

   Connery’s in rare form, granted. However the Bond girls are … who are they again? Former beauty queen Daniela Bianchi and a pair of Gypsies. Hardly Ursula Andress, Halle Berry or Jane Seymour.

   The übervillain? Never shows his face, sort of a SPECTRE meets Charlie’s Angels thing.

   Bond even fails to introduce himself in the expected manner. What’s up with that?

   From Russia with Love ain’t bad. It’s even better than OK, it just ain’t great.

   Is it obligatory? For Bond fans, yes.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Oh Sean. Sigh. Dude’s the best Bond ever, even if Daniel Craig has since equaled him once or twice.

   Daniela Bianchi was a Miss World runner-up, but she’s little more than an also-ran Bond girl.

   Lois Maxwell’s one and only Miss Moneypenny is a treat, her Bond-a-tious flirtations always a highlight.

   Lotte Lenya is a great Bond villain, true enough. The woman did more for diminutive character actresses than anyone this side of Linda Hunt. Unlike Legendary Linda however, Little Lotte broke out as a woman.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars OK 2.5

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Good 3.0

11. Direction OK 2.5

12. Play OK 2.5

13. Music Perfect 5.0

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5

    Venice and Istanbul. Yep, sounds like Bond locations.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

17. Sex Titillating 2.3

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Salty 1.6

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.1

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.1

23. Biological Surreal 2.2

24. Physical Glib 2.0