From Russia with Love

From Russia with Love (1963)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057076/]

The Gist:
From Russia with Love has all the markings of a sequel. They attempt a delicate game of repetition and variation, trying to capitalize on the success of Dr. No by creating a ritualized opening that the entire Bond series would eventually become known for. In particular, you have a mysterious opening scene that somehow will propel Bond in to action (Dr. No = conspicuous murder...From Russia = conspicuous murder of man wearing very convincing James Bond mask a la Scooby Doo), you have Bond being called away from schticking some British trollop, you have the meeting with M where the mission is laid out along with gratuitous flirtations with Money Penny, and so on. In short, the Bond films are exemplary at creating a familiar experience while offering enough change on the formula to draw viewers in. The only problem with this film is that the process hadn't been perfected yet, and the plot of the film suffers a great lull due to the whole mission seeming vaguely unimportant and meandering. The ending has a great action sequence in a train, but it couldn't make up for the movie as a whole.