While some of the characters were retained, the movie was an abysmal mess-a very high budget and confusing mess. Sadly, in a few cases (such as YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE), about the only similarity between the books and the movies were the titles! In fact, the original CASINO ROYALE was a horrid film in practically every way except for the music.
While some of the Bond films have been a lot of fun, most have practically nothing to do with the great Ian Fleming novels. For many years, I have longed to see a James Bond series actually based on the books.
