The acting done by Connery is absolutely fantastic, this is the first film I have seen him in and now I understand why he should be the only Bond. He is silky smooth, quick witted and full of unshaken confidence. Although I found Daniel Craig's rugged version of Bond to be entertaining in Casino Royale and Skyfall, he becomes more of a soldier than a secret agent. Connery's Bond seems to prefer out smarting his opponents while Craig seems to use brute force. Connery's version just seems to fit the character of a secret agent much better than Craig's.
One of the only flaws is that the female lead, despite being very easy on the eyes is pretty brutal as an actress and her character is very poorly written. At point she hopelessly over acts her love for James, even though she met him a day ago. Then her character altogether is fairly weak and slightly dim witted which is a let down. Compared to Eva Green's character in Casino Royale who is perhaps more witty than James creates interesting dialogue and character development that is lacking from From Russia with Love.
The camera work is pretty much by the books but it works really well in the majority of scenes. For instance in the scenes involving the master criminal, we never get a look at his face only of his cat that he is holding in his lap. During these scenes they are on a boat because it allows them to have the shot tilt like a boat rocking in the sea. However, the tilted camera gives a subtle dutch angle to know that the plot is evil and diabolical. The only thing that would have made the scene better would have been more interesting lighting, because all of the actors are lit with the same amount of light.
Overall I enjoyed it, pretty entertaining, I give it 3 and 1/2 stars out of 5.
