Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Ploydsge just watch it!

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

murray_johnc 1967 was a bad year for British Cinema. As if Casino Royale wasn't ludicrous enough, Ken Russel made this clunker his debut on the big screen. In their heyday, cinemas used to hand out cardboard face masks with red and green lenses; alas in 1967 there were no usherettes issuing clothespins that the hapless audiences could clip on their noses. Speaking of noses, one of the film's saving graces was the miscasting of Karl Malden with that hilarious nose with a tip shaped like a woman's butt, Malden was the only actor who could make Jimmy Durante look handsome. Having never had the misfortune of reading Len Deighton's novel, I'm not sure whether to blame him or John McGrath for the awful script. However often producers rely on an audience's ability to suspend disbelief, facts are still facts. YOU CAN'T BREED DEADLY VIRUSES OUTSIDE A HUMAN HOST, CERTAINLY NOT IN EGGS OR PETRI DISHES. The film's other saving grace is the casting of Ed Begley as Gen. Midwinter, an over-the-top demagogue, who seems to be a hybrid of Barry Goldwater and H. Ross Perot with a generous dash of T. Boone Pickens. LOL

SnoopyStyle Former MI5 Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) is now a private detective. He gets a phone call from a computer voice directing him to a package in an airport locker. He's told to go to Helsinki where he gives the thermos to Anya (Françoise Dorléac) and his old friend Leo Newbigen (Karl Malden). He is soon suspicious of Leo and his mysterious boss. He is coerced to work for MI5 Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman) who tells him that the thermos is filled with a deadly virus and the conspiracy is headed by an oil tycoon General Midwinter (Ed Begley).This spy thriller isn't serious or realistic. It's basically a lower grade espionage movie with a convoluted premise. It does jump around a little with out-of-the-way locales, virus, beauties and Russians. Director Ken Russell made a competent but somewhat unimpressive movie. It's a low tension mystery rather than a high power thriller. Then the movie turns into a spoof with the cartoon villain. Its craziness is just enough fun to be interesting.

Tim Kidner You can look upon Billion Dollar Brain as either a Cold War Spy drama, with Michael Caine or as a Ken Russell movie. Or both...I bought it as the latter as I'm trying to get all his films, on discovering some of his odder and, shall we say, more florid films.I was under no illusion, though - B.D.B has been on early hours TV many times and I've always had a quiet interest in the Harry Palmer character, rather than an infatuation, so I had seen it before. So, this DVD was a cheap (compared to scarcer Russell's) way of re-acquainting myself with Russell's take on a standard spy drama.Taken as such, it certainly passes muster - if it's the arty, OTT creativity of our Ken you're after, you've got the wrong film. Combining the sardonic dark irony of the bespectacled Palmer with frozen landscapes of the communist North (filmed in Finland) plus some familiar faces - Karl Marlden in particular, it's a steady recipe that shows Ken could turn his hand to such and curb his excesses if he needed/wanted to.Whilst some of it seems horribly dated (the opening computer scenes seem like museum relics now, showing just how far this technology has changed in the last 45 years) the print of this MGM DVD is crisp and clean and widescreen. Versions on TV tended to have been on commercial channels where quality has been poor and ad-breaks frequent, making this a nice change to watch it properly.The plot (crank Texan Ed Begley about to start a new Russian Revolution, to kill off Communism, aided by a super-computer, the 'Brain') is obviously daft and contrived and very 007, especially in these days of hindsight but if nothing more, it's a great travelogue, aided by Ken's eye for detail and composition. Oscar Homolka as the Soviet Col. Stok may seem very stereotyped but is good fun as he relishes in greeting Palmer as "English!!" Others will enjoy seeing Catherine Deneuve's sister Françoise Dorléac in her last film before she was killed in a car accident. She does indeed look very appealing wrapped in (& out!) of her furs.Donald Sutherland features as the computer 'voice', you can hear his nasal tones through the electronic distortion, once you realise it's him and there's some effective and often sinister ambient music from Richard Rodney Bennett.For all that though, the film is a bit flabby about the middle with a fair amount of chasing around through snowy forests and frozen lakes. Though at times BDD verges on Bond territory it never sustains it - and probably never should - and at 110 mins it could be a bit leaner. The budget, no doubt was a fraction of that franchise and it does show.Michael Caine is, always, perfect and overall, whilst not in either his top ten films, nor Russell's, for that matter, it remains good Cold War spy drama fodder.

christopher-underwood This should have been so much better but it appears that Mr Russell may have paid more attention to filming the stunning snowy landscapes than to his actors. Michael Caine is, of course, laid back at the best of times but here he seems allowed to almost walk through the part. He would be so much more alert and aware in Collinson's Italian Job two years later. The storyline is OK but for me this switches from stunning landscape to plodding acting and the tale, as a result, never gets properly told. Francoise Dorleac also seems to be lacking some verve, she certainly seems reluctant to show us any of her lovely body. Maybe she knew she was about to die, tragically. For whatever reason this may be a decent enough spy movie and a decent enough performance for Caine fans but this is not vintage Ken Russell. Maybe like me he got a bit bored with it all.