From Russia With Love (1963)
Average Rating: 8/10
Reviews Counted: 48
Fresh: 46 | Rotten: 2
The second James Bond film, From Russia with Love is a razor-sharp, briskly-paced Cold War thriller that features several electrifying action scenes.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 0
The second James Bond film, From Russia with Love is a razor-sharp, briskly-paced Cold War thriller that features several electrifying action scenes.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 85,714
Movie Info
From Russia With Love, the second in the series of James Bond films, is the film that solidifies all the Bond film elements into a formula -- the action sequences are intensified and lend greater tension to the proceedings; John Barry's inimitable score makes its first appearance; and Sean Connery as Bond has nailed down his role as 007 -- accentuating Bond's stylishness and sophistication, while toning down his cold-bloodedness. In From Russia With Love, the bad guys don't want to take over the
Apr 8, 1964 Wide
Mar 28, 2006
United Artists
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Cast
-
Sean Connery
James Bond -
Daniela Bianchi
Tania Romanova -
Pedro Armendáriz
Kerim Bey -
Lotte Lenya
Rosa Klebb -
Robert Shaw
Red Grant -
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Eunice Gayson
Sylvia -
Walter Gotell
Morzeny -
Francis De Wolff
Vavra -
George Pastell
Train Conductor -
Nadja Regin
Kerim's Girl -
Lois Maxwell
Miss Moneypenny -
Jan Williams
Masseuse -
Neville Jason
Kerim's Chauffeur -
Peter Bayliss
Benz -
Martine Beswick
Zora -
Alizia Gur
Vida -
Fred Haggerty
Krilencu -
Desmond Llewelyn
Maj. Boothroyd -
Peter Madden
McAdams -
Vladek Sheybal
Kronsteen -
Peter Brayham
Rhoda -
Leila
Dancer
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All Critics (48) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (2) | DVD (28)
The film lacks the exotic, colourful flamboyance of the best of its successors. So shoot me.
Sophisticated? Well, not really. But fast, smart, shrewdly directed and capably performed.
Top CriticFrom Russia with Love is a preposterous, skillful slab of hardhitting, sexy hokum.
For my money, still the best Bond, with a screwball plotline that keeps the locales changing and the surprises coming.
007 is very much with us again, and anyone who hasn't yet got to know him is urged to do so right away!
Standing at the pinnacle of the series, From Russia with Love shows how good a Bond film can be when all the ingredients mesh.
Everything that worked in DR. NO is fully realized here. Sean Connery is 10 times more confident here as 007, oozing charm and masculinity.
The second Bond is one of the best in the series, due to the intriguing plot, sinister villains, and fabulously staged fight aboard the Orient Express.
It has more in common spiritually with Le Carre than Fleming. Only after James Bond's vulnerabilities have been further exploited than in "Dr. No" does he succeed. "Russia" is about as far as it gets from the biggest Bond, but it's easily the best.
One of just a couple Bond adventures that is genuinely great as cinema.
Creative Cold War Bond thriller is best for teens and up.
It's not too different from the non-Bond action thrillers of the same era, in which company it falls well short of the top film, North by Northwest. Plenty of period charm, though, and a few of the Bond franchise's most Austin Powers-esque moments.
Much of it borders on the inept and the embarrassing, and that goes for the title song sung by Matt Monro, the "singing bus-driver".
One of the finest Bond outings, this flourished in the paranoia of the times before the franchise was devalued by an over-reliance on gadgets, camp quips and a skittish lack of focus or direction.
The stylish second Bond film From Russia With Love now looks as if it was shot yesterday.
FRWL has character and dash, and even something of a conventional plot, all worth revisiting for this pin-sharp restoration.
The narrative is plodding, time has not been kind to set-pieces that were once so thrilling and now seem oddly perfunctory, and 007's misogyny and casual slapping of several women is more than faintly repellent.
This is probably the best Bond film made.
Sean Connery's second outing as James Bond became his personal favorite, and that of many Bond fans around the world. [Blu-ray]
...a pivotal entry within the series...
With a tight, witty script and unforgettable baddies, this is one of the very best entries in the series, stylishly cementing the formula -- for good or ill.
One of the best of the Bond films.
Audience Reviews for From Russia With Love
Super Reviewer
It also is a more polished film than its predecessor, and one heck of an enjoyable spy thriller.
The shadowy organization SPECTRE are usually bent on world domination. This time, they team up with the KGB, and it seems as if all they just want a Russian decoding device. Bond steps in to stop them,. but, as good of an agent as he is, he can't help but get sidetracked by a lovely lady.
Connery really comes into his own here, and he's great. The villains, mainly Lotte Lenya's Rosa Klebb and Robert Shaw's Red Grant, are likewise quite excellent and memorable. The action and adventure are thrilling, the music is wonderful, and this goes down as one cool, suave, and awesome romp that is not to be missed.
Super Reviewer
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- James Bond: Red wine with fish. Well that should have told me something.
- Red Grant: You may know the right wines, but you're the one on your knees. How does it feel old man?
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- Tania Romanova: But, there are some English customs that are going to be changed.
- James Bond: But of course darling.
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- James Bond: Suppose when we meet in the flesh, I don't come up to her expectations.
- M: Just see that you do.
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- James Bond: Your Lips are perfect. For me that is...
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Foreign Titles
- James Bond 007 - Liebesgrüße aus Moskau (DE)
- From Russia With Love (1963) (CA)

