Never Say Never Again
1983 Directed by Irvin Kershner
Synopsis
Sean Connery is James Bond 007
James Bond returns as the secret agent 007 one more time to battle the evil organization SPECTRE. Bond must defeat Largo, who has stolen two atomic warheads for nuclear blackmail. But Bond has an ally in Largo's girlfriend, the willowy Domino, who falls for Bond and seeks revenge. This is the last time for Sean Connery as Her Majesty's Secret Agent 007.
Cast
Popular reviews
More-
Part of:
Dr. No-vember or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bond FilmsGood to see you Mr. Bond. Things've been awfully dull 'round here. I hope we're going to see some gratuitous sex and violence in this one!
-QIn 1983 the independently produced James Bond film Never Say Never Again was released in theaters a mere four months after EON Productions' own 007 adventure, Octopussy. Although independently produced, it actually had a bigger budget then Octopussy. It also had an experienced director in Irvin Kershner who had done a little film called The Empire Strikes Back a few years earlier. Most importantly however, it starred the original James Bond; Sean Connery. Whether or not nostalgia…
-
Never need to watch this again!
-
Continuing my journey to see every single 007 film before the release of Skyfall, I just got finished watching the thirteenth (but unofficial) Bond film, Never Say Never Again.
The reason why this is unofficial is because it was not produced by Eon Productions, the company that produced the majority of the James Bond films. Also, instead of an original story or a Fleming adaptation, this is basically a remake of Thunderball, the fourth Bond film. There was a long legal battle since the 1960's where Kevin McClory claimed to help write Thunderball but never got credit from Ian Fleming or Jack Whittingham. McClory managed to retain the film rights and made his own Thunderball. This film went head to…
-
If you’ve never seen ‘Never Say Never Again’ then I would advise you to continue to never see ‘Never Say Never Again’. (If you have seen ‘Never Say Never Again’ then you’ll already know to never see ‘Never Say Never Again’ again.)
-
Unofficial Bond film (and remake of THUNDERBALL) has an admittedly older Bond (Sean Connery) trying to stop a henchman of SPECTRE who has stolen nuclear weapons. Some decent stuff in this one, and Fatima Blush (Barbara Carerra) is a terrific Bond sub-villain, but THUNDERBALL isn't my favorite thing in the world and therefore this remake of it doesn't do much for me either.
Blofeld (Max Von Sydow) is in this for no reason at all, to the point of making me angry that they even bothered making him a character. Also, the lack of James Bond music REALLY hurts the action scenes. Bond also plays video games, which is just... weird.
-
A very long and very complicated history surrounds the production of Never Say Never Again, a 'remake' essentially of Thunderball that took the better part of two decades to get made thanks to fascinating legal proceedures and bitter personal battles. If I'm honest... it doesn't really end up being all that much worth the effort. As an alternative James Bond movie to the 'official' franchise, it offers little in the way of competition and solely remains worthy for Sean Connery returning to his most famed role in middle-age and doing so with style and panache. Around him, however, is an uneven, at times plodding and increasingly dated 007 adventure.
I was never a huge fan of Thunderball, the original tale,…
Recent reviews
More-
Bond, James Bond. It's good.
-
---
-
so-so
-
Although not considered canon in the Bond universe, I'm a hopeless completist, so it would nag at the back of my mind if I didn't watch it.
Of course, there's no theme tune amd none of the usual faces, but being free of the sacred cows opened the film up to some interesting interpretations. Loved their version of Q for example.
And instead of ignoring the white elphant in the room that is their aging star, they wrote it in to the plot. Connery does actually appear to be having fun here, and that comes across.
Quite entertaining.
Meglamania Plot Score: 5/10 - Rehash of Thunderball plot but Maximilian Largo seems to be such a nice bloke, he really never felt that threatening.
Henchmen Score: 8/10 - Ah, Fatima Blush, what a gorgeous pyschopath.
-
Sean was a little old but was a fun film
-
Sure it has it's moments. But it is no real James Bond! I have more fun watching the original "Thunderball".
-
That was bad. Connery is too old and too unbelievable, the whole M/Q/Moneypenny charade doesn't work at all, what should in theory be fun pokes at the franchise and the other films never reach their target, the acting is as wooden as an old garden shed, the soundtrack is forgettable 80s drivel and I can't even remember the gadgets - having finished this movie 30 minutes ago....
Also, while I have nothing against cheesy dialogue, especially in the Bond series, this one took things to a whole new level of awful (could be just the German dubbing though).
Why still two stars? Couldn't resist giving one for Kim Basinger and the other one is for the fight scene at the hospital early in the movie.
-
Connery's last outing as 007 is one of the more forgettable Bond films. Didn't get into it at any point.
-
Like most of the other Bond films i did see NSNA a couple of times on TV when i grew up, but i never knew about the special background behind it until a few years ago.
Now that i'm watching all 007 films chronologically for the first time ever, the differences are all the more obvious.
NSNA was released only a few months after OCTOPUSSY and they are two completely different beasts.
I don't like Roger Moore that much as Bond, at least OCTOPUSSY was heading back into a better direction after the silly mess that came before that one.
NSNA feels a lot more like a classic Bond, only with a lot more action. This is exactly how i'd…