Watch Lightning Bolt For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

Best movie ever!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

American moon rockets (remember them?) are suspected of being sabotaged when the sixth one in a row blows up. It is believed a "radiation force" is responsible as they discover "signals from the bottom of the sea." So much for science. To find out what is going on they call in...Harry Sennet (Anthony Eisley),the American version of James Bond. He works with Capt. Flanagan (Diana Lorys) who is also a love interest. It is decided the best way to scour the sea bottom off Cape Kennedy is for Harry to go to Florida and buy a seaplane pretending to be a playboy. Harry also provides some gumshoe style narration while Capt. Flanagan has her own jazz swagger music. Harry drives one of those cars that stays stationary while the same scenery quickly moves behind it.Perhaps in 1966 this was a decent film...okay it wasn't back then either. Today this production has all that spy camp value we have come to love including hibernation chambers. Watch it for camp value only. I don't know where they got the drawing of the girl in the red tight jumpsuit. It has nothing to do with the film.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Warning: If you watch this on a Rare Flix DVD there is nudity in the movie trailers.

It's pretty obvious that the Italian makers of "Lightning Bolt" were trying to emulate the James Bond movies, but this imitation falls considerably short. That's not to say that everything about the movie is terrible. It looks pretty good, for one thing, with it being well shot as well as boasting some very impressive sets. And the climatic sequence does have a little excitement and suspense. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie leading up to that climatic sequence will have long put many viewers to sleep. There isn't a terrible amount of action in the movie as a whole, and what action there is is mostly flat. Another problem with the movie is with the characters. The hero is a somewhat smug and annoying lead, while the chief bad guy is one you've seen in dozens of mediocre movies before this one. The movie as a whole lacks spark; even Riz Ortolani can't muster the enthusiasm to compose a flashy musical score! Still, despite the flat nature of the movie, it is sort of watchable all the same. I will admit I have seen James Bond clones worse than this effort.

The immense success of the James Bond movies in the 60's not surprisingly beget a slew of entertainingly campy cheapo cash-in copies. This tongue-in-cheek Italian romp might very well be one of the silliest of the whole lot. Diabolical madman Rether (a deliciously wicked Folco Lulli) sabotages all the U.S. moon-bound rocket launches from his secret underwater lair near Cape Kennedy. It's up to suave, handsome Lt. Harry Sennet (amiable Anthony Eisley) and sassy'n'sexy Captain Patricia Flanagan (lovely Diana Lorys) to stop the nefarious Rether. Director Antonio Margheriti and screenwriters J.C. Balcazar and Jose Antonio de la Loma cram this baby with all the right wacky stuff to make this film qualify as an endearingly goofy hoot: we've got leering sexism (Sennet's snide comments about women certainly wouldn't make him a hit with the feminists), a light, frothy tone, a groovy swinging lounge score by Riz Ortolani, lovably rinky-dink miniatures, dippy sound effects, a bevy of beautiful babes (besides Lorys, there's also the luscious Luisa Rivelli and the delectable Wandisa Guida), polished widescreen cinematography by Riccardo Pallottini, tacky gimmicks galore (one villainess sports a water pistol that shoots acid!), laughably lousy dubbing, funky pop-art sets (Rether's underwater lair is very cool), clumsily staged action scenes, and, of course, the inevitable explosive conclusion. Granted, this movie is complete asinine nonsense, but you can't be too hard on a flick in which the main bad guy sells beer on the side and puts his enemies in a frozen state of suspended animation. An infectiously inane riot.

This is one cheesy movie and a lot has been written about it (mostly bad) since it is widely available on the gray market but there are things (mostly bad, again) worth mentioning.Lightning Bolt features smart-ass hard-boiled narration by Eisley and many moments of unintentionally laughable dialog, the kind that would make Ed Wood proud. Nonsensical situations and actions abound in this movie and the special effects are as to be expected; not very special, like the old yarn-for-the-laser-beam trick made famous in Italy.Though the movie has a few charms they are outweighed by too much silliness, a weak villain and the sense that one's time is worth more than the budget spent in making it.