OK Connery

The first 20-30 minutes of this are surprisingly good: a fantastic title song (in both the English and the Italian versions!), a rousing score (by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai), cool gadgets (driverless car), sexy and powerful women (Daniela Bianchi and Lois Maxwell - sexier here than in any official Bond film!), a bon viveur villain (Adolfo Celi), Monte Carlo and Malaga locales, and - last but not least - the sublime atemi (it's fatal). It slows down A LOT in the middle, but does deliver the expected explosive finale. The production is fairly polished, and Neil Connery, although obviously not a casting find like his brother, is inoffensive. The whole film is very meta, too - in a modern sense. **1/2 out of 4.

Despite being a low budget Italian rip-off of the James Bond series, I think this movie could have worked, but try telling that to the particular Italian filmmmakers that tried to pull this off. There are many problems with this movie, but I think the biggest problem is how dull much of it is. It takes forever for the premise and conflict to be established, and it's mostly slow going from that point on. There is sporadic action, but it's badly directed and choreographed, and it adds little life to the movie. As for Neil Connery, he not only lacks the charisma of his older brother, he doesn't seem to be very enthusiastic to be there. Maybe it's because for most of the movie, his character comes across as a stunned observer for most of the running time instead of actually getting involved in the action. And how can you have a James Bond rip-off that doesn't contain any fancy gadgets? The only thing of merit to be found is the musical score co-written by the great Ennio Morricone.

I remember so clearly how excited I was to see this movie into theaters were the first came out. When I remember most was seeing so many great familiar faces from the Sean Connery 007 series. Little did I know that composer Ennio Morricone would later become famous for the theme for "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly," but I did love the theme song "O.K. Conneryand," which incidentally is an alternate title for this film is. Many will tear this film apart, but I say no fair. It was meant to be for fun, and succeeds quite well there. True, the dubbing is awful, especially since I really wish I could have heard Sean's less famous brother speak for himself, but no matter. There are lots of great locations to see how the many attractive Italian girls, and if you don't take it too seriously (God knows how you could) it's a fun and entertaining way to pass the time. Hell, it beats the crap out of "Casino Royale."

Another touchstone of the Eurospy subgenre, Operation Double 007 better known as Operation Kid Brother, is a fair Bond copy, albeit on a slightly smaller scale, and is as entertaining as any of the legitimate Bond films. This was the first time out for Neil Connery, brother of Sean, and it was the only spy movie in his movie mini-career. He manages just fine as the super surgeon cum super spy although his distinct lack of charisma makes for a rather bland lead performance.

Fortunately director Alberto De Martino (Upperseven the Man to Kill (65), Operation Lady Chaplain (66)) keeps this colorful, active film moving at a good clip so we don't have too much time to mull over Connery comparisons. The use of Connery's real name for his character is a strange stroke due no doubt to the forbidden use of the name Bond. It sort of screws up the (weak) attempts at humorous mentions of the Bond mystique when you can't even say the word.

Thank goodness Connery is surrounded by exotic locations, beautiful women and villains as good as Adolfo Celi. Celi plays it to the hilt too as Thair, the number two villain of Thanatos who wants to be number one. Celi is deservedly one of the most famous Italian character actors whose talents can be seen in other spy movies such as That Man From Rio (64), Target For Killing (66), and Death Knocks Twice (69). Perhaps the film's finest asset is the presence of the lovely Daniela Bianchi as Maya, a bad girl turned good.

You could do worse than this Bondian escapade; there's plenty to look at and laugh at and there's a Morricone/Nicolai score to boot. We should be used to checking our brains at the door by now.

During the height of the original James Bond craze in the 60's, there were a lot of rip-off films produced. High profile celebs like Dean Martin and James Coburn starred in light hearted Bond rip-off series. Existing characters like Bulldog Drummond and Modesty Blaise were co- opted into films that were more like Bond films. Even Bond material not owned by the folks behind the series got adapted into the terrible film "Casino Royale". Still ... trust the Italians to produce the most blatant rip-off of them all. This film stars a ton of actors from the Bond series ... Lois Maxwell, Bernard Lee, Anthony Dawson, Daniela Bianchi, Adolfo Celi ... and throws in Sean Connery's young brother Neil to play the younger brother of "England's greatest spy" who's called into action when his brother is not available. The film's not exactly good ... in fact, I don't think the plot ultimately makes much sense at all ... but with all these actors from the series and surprisingly decent production values, it's nowhere near as bad as you'd expect. The big problem with the film is the giant gaping charisma hole that is Neil Connery. It's no surprise that only one brother became a star.