Billion Dollar Brain (1967)

Early Ken Russell spy thriller that looks very nice but gets lost tonally somewhere between serious, Le Carré political critique and the more cartoon elements of Bond in a way that's a bit incoherent. Russell clearly has a lot of fun getting into the mania of Cold War…

Josh Lewis

I sat in on a Newsnight interview with Michael Caine the other day, as he was doing a show at the concert venue where I work. One of the fascinating things he talked about - which didn't make the edit - was this ludicrous idea that he just plays himself on screen.…

Rick Burin

Twenty years ago today, on 22nd December 1999, BBC1 broadcast this film (well, technically you could say that it was actually twenty years ago tomorrow, cos it was on at half past midnight) and I instantly fell in love with it. I was twenty then, I am forty now and I don't…

Mark Cunliffe 🇵🇸

With intelligent computers looming ominously, private armies mobilising and ideological madness running wild, Billion Dollar Brain isn’t an easy watch in the current political climate. It nominally belongs to the same gritty, anti-Bond tradition as the previous Harry Palmer…

Richard

“Some games are more dangerous than others.” It was yet another hot day in Georgia, so the dogs wanted to watch something with snow in it. Billion Dollar Brain has lots of snow and ice but not much coherence. I found it disappointing on two previous viewings but didn’t…

noir1946

The plot is heavy whacky in this one. Not sure I knew what was going on half the time though.

Mos Co

1967 Ranked Physically Owned Films I'm quite surprised the odd mixture of John Le Carre serious style espionage and goofy Bond worked so well for me in this. I'm not sure if my expectations were low with it being the third in the series, or if Russell's direction…

Gregory Kent

With Ken Russell at the helm I was expecting a radical departure from the previous two Palmer pictures, and I didn't get that especially. To me it felt less like a sixties film and more like an early seventies film, though I don't have enough of a film vocabulary to…

Sonny_Jim

"Some games are more dangerous than others" Going through director's works and finding out about some bond-esque series with Micheal Caine, why not. This carries the same vibe as "from her majesty's secret service" and "from Russia with love". Good to…

Caroline