Thunderball

TV Guide Magazine by

The action is reasonably well-staged, but the film is overlong and occasionally draggy.

The New York Times by Bosley Crowther

[Bond] also has a much better sense of humor than he has shown in his previous films. And this is the secret ingredient that makes Thunderball the best of the lot.

Chicago Reader by Dave Kehr

Slightly bloated Bond, with too much technology and a climactic slaughter that's a little too mindless to be much fun. Still, Adolfo Celi—with his “heat and cold, applied scientifically”—makes a most memorable villain.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

The underwater sequences, which are choreographed and directed with great skill, are Thunderball's standout feature... Thunderball is classic 007 -- not the best picture in the long-running series, to be sure, but a more-than-worthwhile diversion for the action-loving escapist in us all.

Empire by Kim Newman

Connery [is] cruising by this point and the movie doesn't quite match the swagger of Goldfinger, but still effortlessly plies the glory Bond years, concluding with a stunning underwater battle.

The New Yorker by Pauline Kael

Not bad, but not quite top-grade Bond. A little too much under-water war-ballet.