Recensioni degli utenti

Shot in Rome,usually known in the English speaking world as "Lightning Bolt"(so like "Thunderball"!),this movie is an especially tacky example of the Euro-Superspy genre of the 1960's.Often these movies starred second string American actors to help US sales-and this has Anthony Eisley(best known as a lead in the TV detective series "Hawaiian Eye"),who spent a lot of his career in such Euro schlock.Handsome,tough looking and businesslike,Eisley was suitable for these kinds of roles,but here he is immersed in a distinctly third rate "Bond" caper.The story has elements from "Dr No"(villain who shoots down US moon rockets-cue the grainy stock footage of Cape Kennedy which fills the movie),but here the tale is clumsily developed and full of absurdities.The villain,vaguely resembles Goldfinger,and is-wait for it-a fiendish beer manufacturer,just like the villain in the Matt Helm movie "The Ambushers"(1967).Eisley's hero "Harry Sennet" at times acts with incredible stupidity.He drives right on to a rocket launch site to try and stop it leaving-just as it blasts off!In another unprofessional moment,Sennet,captured and surrounded by thugs,goes into a rage and tries to attack the gloating villain,when it's obvious he will fail and just gets more battering from the bad guys for his trouble-007 would be appalled!And here is a hero who more than once tries to "buy off" enemies by offering them cheques!(a wonderfully absurd scene has him doing a cheque for a gunman who's ready to shoot him!). The English dubbing is clear but often incongruous(a renowned rocket scientist who speaks in a "Barry Fitzgerald" Irish burr?).To try to make the narrative more coherent,we have Sennet providing a frequently cornball "tough guy" voice-over at certain points.

I did quite like the villainess with an acid squirting gun,and the "underwater city" hideout has a certain threadbare pop art mid 60's charm(with its ice-chamber where the villain stores his frozen victims).The final action and destruction scenes are far better done than the rest of the movie,the director seems more at home with fighting/mayhem than other aspects of film making.

There are a lot of better examples of 60's Eurospy out there,but "Lightning Bolt" is tolerable if you are interested in the genre.

Six American moon launches in a row from Cape Canaveral have ended in catastrophe in the destroy button needing to be deployed in each case as the rockets were going off course and with the high cost of the destroyed hardware of the rockets . Dr. Rooney (Francisco Sanz) , part of the scientific team behind the launches, believes it is sabotage in having detected radiation signals coming from below the water's surface in the vicinity of the cape that is most-likely the cause of the rockets' change of trajectory. When Rooney himself goes missing in his investigation of the radiation source , the FSIC (Federal Security Investigation Commission) gets involved in knowing indeed that it is sabotage. Then a U. S. agent (Anthony Eisley) is assigned the mission and he goes undercover posing as a wealthy playboy to stop a madman (Folco Lulli) from destroying a NASA moon project. Just like his English counterpart (007) , our special agent to be surrounded by some beautiful female representatives (Wandisa Guida, Diana Lorys, Luisa Rivelli) and luckily , Italian genre cinema is an almost inexhaustible breeding ground for beauties of all kinds.

¨Lightning Bolt¨or ¨Operazione Goldman¨ (1966) belongs to ¨Eurospy" subgenre , under this somewhat barbaric Anglicism hides a series of films produced in Europe between 1962 and 1969 that tried to take advantage of the success of James Bond and especially : Dr No , From Russia with love and Goldfinger. One of the peculiarities of the "James Bond¨ rip-offs was wanting to imitate their model without ever having neither means , nor budget , turning to economy like most films of this sub-genre . Operation Goldman could have sunk into mediocrity or conformism , but it was without counting on this good artisan Antonio Margheriti that found the breeding ground here ideal to give us one of those uninhibited and fun movies that he had the secret of shooting with skill and professionality enough . The movie starts slowly like a conventional spy story , but once the hero is in the villain's underwater landmark , the director lets loose by recycling some ideas already exploited in his previous sci-fi movies like frozen humans , etc. The script is obviously just a pretext for Margheriti who does not hesitate to fit models and ideas of all kinds , which does not prevent him from abusing NASA stock footage , this is one of the weak points of this production, but the filmmaker once again demonstrates his incredible knowledge by integrating the explosion of models into real images. Unable the production to afford a designer of Ken Adam's importance , and the lack of budget does not prevent Margheritti from inventing some successful settings , as he cleverly uses some impressive scenarios , such as the large underwater headquarter, the villain's "high-tech" desk, protected by two giant articulated needles or the Italian Olympic team's training pool with a handful of bathing suit extras . In addition , he recreates a Florida hotel without ever leaving Spain or Italy where it was shot . Stars Anthony Eisley who was at the time one of the actors of a series that aired on ABC "Hawaiian Eye" (1959-1963). Subsequently, he also appeared in quite a few budget and genre films such as The Wasp Woman (1960), "The Navy vs. The Night Monsters" (1966), "The Mighty Gorga" (1969), The Witchmaker (1969), "Dracula vs Frankenstein" (1971) or "The Doll Squad" (1974). The film benefits itself from appearances by gorgeous young starlettes to be followed long careers in the Eurotrash genres , such as : Wandisa Guida, Diana Lorys and Luisa Rivelli . But here stands out the really gorgeous Diana Lorys , a Spanish female who has distinguished herself quite a bit in the spaghetti western: "The outlaws of Casa Grande" (1964), "I Gemelli del Texas" (1964), "The charge of the mounted police" (1964), "Murieta" ( 1965), "The border of hatred" (1965), "Django shoots first" (1966), "El texicano" (1966), "Pancho Villa" (1968), "Sonora" (1968), "Río Hondo" ( 1968), "Shoot Django First" (1971), The Four Mercenaries of El Paso (1971), "Chino" (1973), "Goodbye California" (1977), "The Cursed City" (1978) . While Wandisa Guida is a beauty who has distinguished herself in many films of the Sword and sandals genre: "The Revenge of Hercules", "The Rebellion of the Slaves", "The Revenge of Ursus", "The gladiators of Rome", "Maciste in King Solomon's mines", "The giants of Rome" ("Fort Alesia") or "Samson against all" and she will appear again in "A 077, Sfida ai Killers" and Operazione Goldman before stopping her career, making a final appearance in 1982 in "Assassinio al cimitero etrusco" ("Crime in the Etruscan Cemetery"). And being a Spain/Italy co-production showing up here and there some Spanish familiar actors , such as : Francisco Sanz , José María Caffarel , Tito Garcia , Fernando Hilbeck , Barta Barri and Italians : Folco Lulli , Aldo Canti , among others.

It contains a colorful cinematography by cameraman Riccardo Pallottini , though a perfect remastering being really necessary . Displaying a thrilling and moving musical score by Riz Ortalani. The motion picture was well produced by Alfonso Balcazar and professional but regularly directed by terror expert Antonio Margheritti or Anthony M. Dawson , though it displays some failures and shortcomings . Expert filmmaker Margheriti could not escape to shot Euro-spy films : after a series of science films fiction that will considerably strengthen his reputation over time, he continued with this spy genre : an adventure of Agent 077 aka Bob Fleming "A 077, Sfida ai Killers" with Richard Harrison and ¨Operazione Goldman¨, the latter largely inspired by Dr. No and Goldfinger. ¨Lightning Bolt¨ was directed by Stakhanovist Antonio Margheritti, who was responsible for one of the most bizarre and insane space operas ever made : ¨Wild, Wild Planet¨. He was one of the great Italian directors of the era, and has really attracted a cult following, but he made more than his share of half-way decent films in a number of different genres, and a few which are actually goofy enough to overcome their limitations. Antonio Margheritti was a good but uneven craftsman , expert on terror and exploitation films. Being a prestigious filmmaker of Spaghetti Westerns, terror , adventures Peplum and anything else . Notorious Antonio Margheritti directed with skillness and aplomb from 1956 to his death in 2002 . Antonio was a former university engineering student who began shooting in 1956. He made all kinds of genres , some of them splendidly directed and others mediocre or flops . As he realized wartime movies , such as : ¨The Last Hunter¨, ¨Tornado¨, ¨Codename Wild Geese¨, ¨Der Commander¨ , ¨Command Leopard¨ . Sci-Fi : ¨War of Planets¨, Planet of the Prowl¨ , ¨Criminal of the Galaxy¨ , ¨Yor the Hunter from the future¨ , ¨Treasure Planet¨ . Spaghetti Western : ¨Joko¨, ¨Dynamite Joe¨, ¨The Stranger and the Gunfighter¨, ¨Take a Hard Ride¨ , ¨Ghosts go West¨ , ¨Joe implacable¨, ¨God Said to Cain¨. And Terror : Virgin of Nuremberg , Cannibal Apocalypse , Alien From Deep , ¨Flesh for Dracula¨ , ¨Flesh for Frankenstein¨, among others. Rating 5.5/10. Mediocre but passable for the enjoyable cast and adequate direction . The picture will appeal to Euro-spy aficionados.

The Plot. A U.S. agent goes undercover as a rich playboy to stop a madman from destroying a NASA moon project. I saw this under the title of Lightning Bolt.

Made in Italy and Spain, this 1966 movie takes it's plot from the James Bond / spy craze of the 60s, with a bit of NASA space work thrown in to make it interesting.

It is by no means a great movie, however I can see how this could be fun as a midnite grind-house screening. It's wide screen and technicolor and there are relatively decent special effects. There's also some fun 60's misogyny.

What brings the experience down a notch is that it seems like the whole movie is dubbed even though they are speaking English. It gives the film a cheaper feeling.

A lot of the sets look very Bond-ish. The acting and directing is a few notches above most cheap-o Italian movies. Although it's a bit slow paced.

If you grew up watching late 50s and 60s TV shows, chances are that you would recognize Anthony Eisley but not his name. While Eisley never became a big star, he was rather ubiquitous on TV. I remember him from "Dragnet", "The FBI" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" but he's more remembered for "Hawaiian Eye". However, in "Lightning Bolt" he's given the chance to be a star--albeit in a very low-budget Italian spy caper. Often American 2nd and 3rd tier actors were brought in to star in Italian films of the era. Since few knew Italian, the films were completely dubbed and marketed internationally. Many were horrible, some were classics (such as "La Strada" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") and most were somewhere in the middle--like "Lightning Bolt".

In "Lightning Bolt" (a.k.a. "Operazione Goldman"), Eisley (who is inexplicably red-haired) stars as Lt. Harry Sennett--an American James Bond-type hero. His mission is to discover what's causing the rockets at Cape Kennedy to go off course and explode. This means lots of pretty girls, fast cars and danger. The plot is very similar to two films--"You Only Live Twice" (a Bond film about Blofeld capturing manned rockets) and "Strange Brew" (since the evil boss-man turns out to be an insane brewmeister!!).

So is it good? Well, yes and no. The film looks like they wanted to make a Bond film but only had about a tenth the budget. Some of the sets are impressive but all too often the stunts and action scenes come off as not quite ready for the bit screen. As for Eisley, he isn't bad as he isn't meant to be as smooth or sexy as Bond and is pretty decent in the action scenes. The print is often poor. In some cases you cannot blame the filmmakers--such as the scratchy or grainy sections. But, in others they obviously used lousy stock footage. "Lightning Bolt" is a movie with much to dislike. Yet, it also has a certain kitschy fun that makes it worth seeing. It certainly is NOT a film for everyone--but for the right audience it's worth seeing. For a much better Italian action/adventure film, try watching the much more slickly made "Danger: Diabolik"--especially since Diabolik dresses EXACTLY the same as the brewmeister's henchmen. Overall, bad but quite enjoyable.

1965's Italian-Spanish "Lightning Bolt" (Operazione Goldman) was picked up by Woolner Brothers for a double bill with Stewart Granger's "Red Dragon," TV veteran Anthony Eisley popping up mostly in low budget features like "The Wasp Woman," "The Navy vs. The Night Monsters," "The Mighty Gorga," and Al Adamson's "Dracula vs. Frankenstein." FSIC (Federal Security Investigation Commission) is assigned the case of American rockets drawn off course by radiation on their way to the moon, an obvious echo of the debut James Bond feature of 1962, "Dr. No" (the original title and Florida settings also recall "Goldfinger"), Eisley's Lt. Harry Sennett posing as a frivolous American playboy with checkbook always ready, his smarmy narration of every little detail quickly wearing out its welcome. Folco Lulli plays the villain Mr. Rehte, whose likeness adorns his own brand of beer, safely hidden near Cape Kennedy in a subterranean stronghold, one that the Bond series would adopt a decade later for "The Spy Who Loved Me." A science fiction element is added with hibernation chambers keeping his enemies in a state of suspended animation, all reduced to skeletons during the explosive climax, an impressive display of set design and special effects for director Antonio Margheriti. An unlikely chase scene at the halfway mark finds our hero trying to prevent the latest launch by driving headfirst toward the site, reminding one of Robert Loggia in 1957's "The Lost Missile." Eisley just doesn't look the part of suave secret agent, and for once the girls aren't much help, though brunette captain Diana Lorys scored a 1961 triumph with Jesus Franco's "The Awful Dr. Orlof," later appearing in Amando de Ossorio's "Fangs of the Living Dead," Christopher Lee's "The Bloody Judge," and Paul Naschy's "The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll."

Anthony Eisley is cast as Harry Sennet, a top secret agent who goes into action to foil a bad guy who keeps interfering with rocket launches, using a weapon that he somehow managed to put on the moon. Sometimes Harry gets help from his boss, Captain Flanagan (stunning brunette Diana Lorys), but mostly he goes it alone.

There certainly were plenty of these "James Bond" imitations and spoofs to come out of the 1960s, and "Lightning Bolt" a.k.a. "Operazione Goldman" provides quite a bit of enjoyment. Granted, a fair amount of the entertainment value is derived from the various absurdities on display:

Sennet attempts to stop a rocket launch by driving right into the tower. Needless to say, this does not go well.

He actually attacks the bad guy when his nemesis has plenty of time to see him coming, and the henchmen have enough time to get there first and beat him up.

Plus, he actually tries to bribe some of the bad guys with cheques! (He's usually allowed to spare no expense during his missions.)

Our dastardly villainous mastermind is Mr. Rehte, played with brio by corpulent Italian Folco Lulli. You have to love this guy: not only does he have big plans for domination of the Earth, he also has a side business as a beer manufacturer!

In addition to the lovely Ms. Lorys, other eye candy is provided by Wandisa Guida and Luisa Rivelli. Another big laugh occurs early on when Ms. Lorys pops a cigarette in her mouth and all the guys present offer her a light.

Eisley is a studly, engaging hero, although modern viewers will either chuckle or wince at his casual sexism. In order to carry out the mission, Sennet must pose as a rich playboy, and you can tell he likes this kind of gig. At one point, he actually smacks the ass of this lady who's supposed to be his *boss*!

You add to that ninja-style costumes for the henchmen, amusing narration by Sennet, a fairly colourful visual approach for a movie done on the cheap & cheesy side, a decent forward pace, and a good amount of explosions, and you do have the ingredients for an agreeable Euro-spy schlock flick, all brought to life by the prolific director Antonio Margheriti.

Seven out of 10.

Someone is destroying U. S. missiles as they are launched. An intelligence team, headed by agent Harry Sennett (Anthony Eisley), is sent to the Hotel Florida to investigate. The area, Sennett discovers, is a nest of spies, and another important missile launch is sabotaged, despite Sennett's effort to warn authorities.

He tracks the saboteurs to a brewery that fronts a criminal mastermind. His lugubrious adventures also take him to a secret installation located in pressure domes beneath the Atlantic Ocean. He finds super-criminal Rhett (Folco Lulli), who tells him the missiles are test targets for an experimental laser weapon. Rhett intends to take the laser to the moon, where he can blackmail Earth's governments. Unless there was any doubt, Sennett halts this routine world-domination plot.

LIGHTNING BOLT is a slightly dog-eared and low budget spy-sci-fi, Italian- and Spanish-produced mixture. It is nonetheless enormously entertaining due to the tongue-in-cheek attitude of Eisley's agent-hero, who rattles off an seemingly endless series of quips as he goes about saving the world.

Eisley, who is the unsung hero of countless low budget movies, has a stiff male model look that doesn't translate well to these super-agent shenanigans. But that fact only adds to the fun. LIGHTNING BOLT fits somewhere behind those boozy Dean Martin-Matt Helm spy parodies of the 1960s. Abundant newsreel footage of crashing missiles and a lot of miniature model shots are also laughably entertaining.

This movie is a lot of fun with multiple plot twists and a bad guy with a hilarious German accent. If you like SciFi or Eurospy take a little time and enjoy Operation Goldman.

This is one cheesy movie and a lot has been written about it (mostly bad) since it is widely available on the gray market but there are things (mostly bad, again) worth mentioning.

Lightning Bolt features smart-ass hard-boiled narration by Eisley and many moments of unintentionally laughable dialog, the kind that would make Ed Wood proud. Nonsensical situations and actions abound in this movie and the special effects are as to be expected; not very special, like the old yarn-for-the-laser-beam trick made famous in Italy.

Though the movie has a few charms they are outweighed by too much silliness, a weak villain and the sense that one's time is worth more than the budget spent in making it.

Needless to say that I was not familiar with the 1966 movie "Operazione Goldman", from director Antonio Margheriti, prior to here in 2025, as I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the movie. I literally knew nothing about the movie when I sat down to watch it, so I had no expectations to the movie. I suppose that left director Antonio Margheriti with a large window of opportunity to entertain and impress me.

However, I was not impressed. Nor was I entertained by what writers Alfonso Balcázar, Ernesto Gastaldi and José Antonio de la Loma had compiled for director Antonio Margheriti to bring to the screen. Sure, I've seen worse and far more boring movies than "Operazione Goldman", but this movie was a swing and a miss in terms of adequately entertaining me.

I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, which actually served in favor of the movie, as I enjoy watching unfamiliar and new talents on the screen when I watch a movie. The acting performances in the movie were fair, despite the fact that the script wasn't all that interesting.

Visually, I will say that the movie was okay. There was a particular esthetic to the wardrobes, sets and colors, which definitely helped to keep the movie somewhat afloat.

My rating of director Antonio Margheriti's 1966 movie "Operazione Goldman" lands on a three out of ten stars.

The poster and the pictures of the movie look very appetizing, like a real valuable Bond. But the reality is different. Poor Folco Lulli was swallowed by the lava because he tried to imitate Gert Fröbe in "Goldfinger". The whole movie fails because it tries to copy another Bond, "You Only Live Twice". I'm convinced that the producers Giuseppe De Blasio (as Joseph de Blasio), Anacleto Fontini (as Cleto Fontini) and Alfonso Balcázar, they did not had the money of Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, therefore, their effort is worthwhile, the film is not really bad. The sets are OK, the music is OK, the actors' play leaves something to be desired.

Operation Goldman (but as far as I could tell there is no "Goldman") aka Lightning Bolt (as "Thunderball" came out the previous year) or my personal favourite, as suggested by another reviewer on IMDB...

Anthony Eisley starred in the private detective TV series "Hawaiian Eye", and managed to combine that with a B (C, D, etc... all the way down to Z) movie career, which included one Eurospy.

This one takes the rocket downing plot from "Dr No" and combines it with a grand scheme to mount a laser weapon on the moon (anticipating "Goldeneye" and "Die Another Day") in order to rule the World. The villain's appearance is clearly based on Auric Goldfinger and his undersea base is reminiscent of "The Spy Who Loved Me".

Production wise, this is a real mixed bag of "the good, the bad and the ugly" of Eurospy, but I'd like to start off with "the good", which, by the standards of the genre, I might even dare to describe as "great", namely the villain's lair and the climax, which is where most Eurospy movies are usually found wanting. Due to their threadbare budgets, the "Emperor" is eventually revealed as having not enough clothes and the audience are left shaking their heads in disappointment or laughing out loud, rather than being excited and thrilled, as intended. Not so here. For once the final third of the movie easily surpasses what has gone before and delivers a surprisingly effective and relatively exciting spectacle.

The futuristic internal sets of the Villain's undersea base are without doubt the most impressive I have ever encountered in a Eurospy. I think even Ken Adam would approve of them. I've asked myself how they could be of such a high standard, when compared with the rest of the production. The best theory I have come up with is that director Antonio Margheriti was also working on his popular "Planets" series of Sci-Fi adventure films over the course of 1966, so he may have either borrowed some of the space age sets used for them (or some other Spaghetti Sci-Fi production) or alternatively, he got the same set designers to knock something up for this movie as part of a larger contract.

The finale does not disappoint either, containing no shortage of action and destruction, with fiery explosions, torrents of red lava, and numerous fight scenes of varying quality. All in all, it comes closer to matching the grandeur of an actual Bond movie climax than any other Eurospy I've seen.

However the external visuals of the base are far less effective, consisting of brief, murky shots of a model, which, at a stretch, may remind the viewer of Stromberg's undersea city in "The Spy Who Loved Me", but are nowhere near the standard of a Gerry Anderson TV series equivalent from the same period.

So the story concept is above average, the plot development is rudimentary, but contains all the necessary situations required. Fight scenes vary from very good to embarrassingly inept. The dialogue is banal and the music is unremarkable, but they perform their function appropriately.

Anthony is not really good looking enough to be convincing as an "International Man of Mystery". He ogles his way around the hotel pool, stepping over sunbathing babes, then makes his way across the dancefloor, deliberately walking between dancing couples and leering at the ladies, all the while delivering a smug monologue to the audience. He gives off a sleazy vibe that registers a negative reading on the Suave-o-meter.

Two women aren't faking an attraction to him, his superior officer, Diana Lorys, who is strangely besotted with him in a totally unprofessional manner, and an air hostess crew member of a sea-plane that he purchases, so he tells us, as part of establishing his cover as a playboy millionaire. Quite a bit of screen time is invested in this purchase process, which seems to be a redundant irrelevance. They do eventually manage to tie the plane back into the story right at the end, but the appearance of a rescue plane at the end of a Eurospy hardly needs a back story to justify it.

His only gadgets are a watch with a Geiger counter and locator beacon ("even tells time" quips Professor Rooney), a pen which releases some sort of teargas, and a cheque book, which he deploys to try and buy his way out of tight spots, with mixed results. It's a plot device which doesn't come off and just seems weird and lame, particularly when he tries to bribe the main villain, who is clearly already very rich or he wouldn't be able to fund his evil scheme.

Diana Lorys, as Agent 36-24-36, holds a higher rank than Anthony and is talked up at the beginning of the movie as being a highly respected and deadly agent by the bosses, while Anthony is referred to as her "assistant", however in practise Anthony gets all the glory, while she functions mainly as a damsel in distress and romantic interest. Perhaps it's intended as a joke? A woman taking credit for the man's heroics?

Wandisa Guida has much the better role, as the beautiful henchwoman who at first appears to be bad, but turns out to have been coerced into co-operating with the villain, because he has cryo-frozen her father as a hostage. It's a common Eurospy plot element. She gets to change sides, help Anthony escape, kick some ass and foil the villain's evil scheme, before dying courageously

There is no Ursula Andress, as some imdb reviewers suggested, but there is an Ursula Parker

Jose Maria Caffarel turns up again, but this time his role is not nearly as quirky and interesting as it was in "Ragan". At one point he tangles with Anthony and gets slapped around for information, before being shot by Wandisa. He appears to be seriously wounded, yet turns up again later, apparently unharmed, to tangle with him again, this time with fatal results.

Folco Lulli plays "Mr Rehte", a Beer Baron seeking World domination. He is portly and sports a quiff of bright red hair, along with a perpetually amused demeanour and a fruity foreign accent. In other words, if you enjoyed Gert Frobe's characterisation of "Goldfinger" then you will probably enjoy Lulli's performance as "Beerfinger". Anthony engages he and his henchmen in an extended battle during the climax, before the two of them eventually end up at the the top of the rocket gantry for a final confrontation ("Beerfinger" takes the lift, leaving Anthony to climb up the hard way)

Florida is the only exotic location, with Cape Kennedy / Canaveral visited via the magic of stock footage. The film begins with extensive scenes of space rocket launching, showing the huge slow moving machines, gantries and sliding hanger doors, and the towering rocket trundling into position. Further footage of blast off, mission control, radio telescope and then several examples of rockets going off course, veering this way and that, becoming engulfed in fire and having to be blown up by remote control. All of which would still have been quite fresh and fascinating for movie audiences in 1966.

Anthony drives a stylish red E type Jag, which gets an extensive workout mid movie, before being blown to smithereens in a bizarre attempt by Anthony to prevent another launch. This incorporates more stock footage of another rocket exploding on the launch pad in an inferno, while Anthony staggers around amongst the fiery carnage, a scene which rather overstays its welcome in my opinion.

Then there's a rom-com finish before Anthony and Diana fly off into the sunset

Overall I found that the gap in standard between its best and worst aspects is so wide that it makes it hard to rate.

Goldfinger-esque moments

Beerfinger - (revolving his chair to face Anthony) "Welcome Mr Sennitt, I was certain that sooner or later you would do me the honour of paying me a visit" (studies Anthony for a moment) "You look disappointed"

Anthony - "I was expecting something different. Are you always pushing your beer?"

Beerfinger - "I brew many things young man, including an excellent whiskey, would you care for a drop?"

Anthony - "On the rocks... if you can spare some of your ice"

Beerfinger - "I've never killed anyone until now, Mr. Sennitt, but you may be the first."

Anthony - "I'll decline the honour"

Beerfinger - "You are the only unpleasant incident in my otherwise impeccable plan"

Anthony - "Thankyou"

Beerfinger (zaping Anthony with his "lah-ser" beam when he tries to attack him from behind) "Heh, heh, heh, heh, I should have warned you that I'm not particularly fond of personal contact"

It's pretty obvious that the Italian makers of "Lightning Bolt" were trying to emulate the James Bond movies, but this imitation falls considerably short. That's not to say that everything about the movie is terrible. It looks pretty good, for one thing, with it being well shot as well as boasting some very impressive sets. And the climatic sequence does have a little excitement and suspense. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie leading up to that climatic sequence will have long put many viewers to sleep. There isn't a terrible amount of action in the movie as a whole, and what action there is is mostly flat. Another problem with the movie is with the characters. The hero is a somewhat smug and annoying lead, while the chief bad guy is one you've seen in dozens of mediocre movies before this one. The movie as a whole lacks spark; even Riz Ortolani can't muster the enthusiasm to compose a flashy musical score! Still, despite the flat nature of the movie, it is sort of watchable all the same. I will admit I have seen James Bond clones worse than this effort.