This movie is my favorite of the 007 movies I've seen. It's a bit more down to earth with some semi-realistic cold war political intrigue in it. Still has some ridiculous stuff in it too, but I wish other Bond movies were a bit more like this one. For those keeping track, Bond had sexual relations with 4 women in this movie. 2 in a threesome, even, but one was a lady he had sex with in Dr. No. So for the first 2 movies his total number of women is 6.

"From Russia with Love" is the second installment in the Bond franchise and widely considered to be the best of the Bond movies up to this point. While I haven't seen enough of them to either confirm or deny this, I did really really like this movie. I understand the praise.Connery revises his role as James Bond, heading to Turkey to meet with a potential Russia defector who wants to travel back to England with him and bring a Russian super-decoder as payment. What Bond doesn't know is that Tatiana is secretly working for Rosa Klebb, former officer for the Russian military. What Tatiana doesn't know is that Klebb is not loyal to the motherland anymore and is secretly working for SPECTRE. SPECTRE is attempting to pit Russia and England against one another, assassinating James Bond, while stealing the Lektor machine in the process. It's all very complex.This movie's filled with great scenes and Connery is at his very best in this one. The cast around him is fantastic too. Robert Shaw may just be my favorite Bond henchman I've seen thus far. He's a fantastic actor that has this foreboding-ness about him that I can't get out of my mind. My favorite character introduced in this one though is Kerim Bey. I'm sad this actor died so young because he is phenomenal here.A couple of scenes stand out, some of them really setting the tone for future Bond stereotypes. For one, the train fight scene is absolutely brutal! There's so much tension and good action choreography in this, one of the best early Bond fight scenes, hands down. The scene where we get introduced to our first set of gadgets is fun too. The suitcase isn't the most memorable gadget but it has a great deal of importance as it introduces us to Q.Sidenote: I also loved the chess scene and the great set design on display there. I loved all the scenes involving SPECTRE as well.I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the title sequence, another archetype of the Bond flick. It's a memorable one (even if you can't read it) and foreshadows our interactions with the gypsies later. This one has everything you want in a Bond film: a good henchman, SPECTRE, a devious plot, good action sequences, gadgets, beautiful women. This is the film that changed the action genre forever!

Sean Connery's second outing as James Bond in 'From Russia with Love' is more darker, edgier and fluid than 'Dr No'. The second film has a more espionage feel to it and Connery also seems to have adapted to the role like a true British spy. Robert Shaw is quite good as the blonde-haired assassin in Red, with a menacing presence throughout the movie. The love interest in Daniela Banchi, as the Russian spy in Romanova who is duped by SPECTRE, provides conflict and a genuine romance for Bond, and Lotte Lenya's Rosa Klepp has very memorable scene as the villainess pulling Grant's string. The film provides plenty of action and locations, and I think it flowed better than 'Dr No'. Granted, I only watched them all in order recently, but I liked how this film followed on from the first one with SPECTRE being more of an established organisation with a structure and system. They are truly evil and failure is not an option if you are going after Bond!The second installment is better than the first, with impressive action sequences and interesting characters, and no doubt raised hopes for the third installment! ***½ out of *****!

I've recently made it a point to go back and fill in the gaps in my Bond viewing and found that I was woefully (and somewhat shamefully) neglectful of the Sean Connery era. I watched Dr. No once several years ago, and the same with You Only Live Twice, but I'm not sure I saw the former from the start, and equally unsure if I ever finished the later. I've also seen Diamonds are Forever (a hint of what was to come in the Moore era), and of course Goldfinger (on a couple of occasions), but I hadn't seen what many regard as Connery's best Bond outing, From Russia with Love.From Russia with Love is not exactly what a casual Bond viewer like my self would regard as "classic" Bond. It lacks action, with the first scene resembling such coming at about 45 minutes into the movie. It doesn't feature globe hoping and exotic locales, taking place mostly in Istanbul. There are no colorful henchman or cheekily named young beauties. And the plot is actually kinda plausible, if a bit bland. For sure there are classic Bondisms, many of which I recognize from the Austin Powers series, but of all the Bond films I've seen (and I believe the only ones I haven't at this point, at least in part, are Thunderball and Live and Let Die), this one seems the least... Bond.I wanted to like this movie more. I really did. It's handsomely made, Connery is in fine form, feeling very sure of himself in 007's undoubtedly couture shoes, and Robert Shaw and Lotte Lenya make for a pair of very solid--if underused--villains. But this is an achingly dull movie. I'm no millennial who needs his senses dazzled every five minutes or he's checking his a Facebook feed. I like and appreciate a crockpot story and will take it over a microwave plot most times. But I found From Russia with Love listless, wasting a potentially propulsive narrative with an approach that equates to a cinematic shrug. The stakes are low compared to your average Bond outing, so what they needed was more energy, and it's simply lacking here until the third act, and by then I just didn't care anymore.