Never Say Never Again

Rating:
Summary: Would have been 5 stars except for the music.
Review: Never Say Never Again(NSNA)has always been among my favorite Bond movies. Released in the same year as the enjoyable, but not that great, Octopussy, NSNA was remarkable simply because Connery was back as 007. I liked Roger Moore as Bond, but he (and no one since)quite measures up to Sean Connery. The only setback was the music soundtrack. With Connery, who cares if the Bond theme isn't there? Then again, the music chosen for this film beyond the title song is the pits. There are points at which the jazzy score is appropriate, but the rest of the time, it's like bad elevator music. At some points the music is so bad it actually distracts you from what's happening onscreen. Still, like I said, it's CONNERY--back for one last (sadly) mission as 007. Definitely worth the purchase price, but keep the earmuffs handy.

Rating:
Summary: It all depends on who you are.
Review: After watching the movie, and enjoying it, and then reading the mostly negative reviews, I will still admit that I actually thought it was a pretty good movie, and I will tell you why;

First of, at first I was extremly dissapointed by the lack of the gun barrel intro and familiar james bond theme. But then I realized that it actually was a breath of fresh air. The intro with the war games and the never say never theme song was quite memerable and cool to me. The intro gave the movie a jazzy, serious tone that appealed to me. If it had the usually intro, this movie would have no doubt been viewed as cheesy and b rate. The special effects with the b-1 and missiles were ground breaking at the time, and are still impressive by today's stadards in my opinion. The jokes at the begining of the movie were funny but were lacking near the end. Connery definenty looked the part. The jazzy music was well made and catchy in my opinion.

If you're a Golgo 13 fan like me, you will understand why I liked this movie so much. but I can understand why Bond fans were dissapointed by this soupy version of the super-spy.

Rating:
Summary: Poor Remake
Review: Sean Connery still has its charm, but he seems more like the aging high school football hero who has to live in the memory of his past glory. This film is a remake of the 1965 Bond film Thunderball. The original movie was much better in every way. The music in this film is very poor, the acting is mediocre and quite honestly the movie is way too long and dull. The changes made in the script don't help it, but rather hurt it. It is worth a passing glance if only to make you appreciate his other Bond films.

Rating:
Summary: Why did they bother with this?
Review: ....when THUNDERBALL was such a classic? Plus it's overlong and we had already seen action aplenty before in all other Bond films. Even worse is the music score, and the climax is recycled into a more boring script lacking originality or great gadgets. What I also can't figure it is why does Connery look so much better in this film at 53 then he did in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER at 41? He's thin, quick, agile, and still quick with the quips. When Barbara Carrera's Fatima Blush waterskis up to him in Nassau she apologizes with "I've made you all wet!", Bond replies, "Yes, but my martini is still dry." Who but Connery could get away with a line like that?

Good supporting cast includes Klaus Maria Brandauer as a young blonde haired Largo lacking the eye-patch. Still where's Adolfo Celi when we need him? Kim Basinger and Barbara Carrera may not have been the best Bond gals, but are they as always sexy. The best sequences in the film come from an opening war-game teaser, the battle with Lippe at Shrublands, and a great motorcycle chase. At least with Connery in the role the film has some class to it, helped with Kim Basinger and Valerie Leon in the cast. Aside from Connery the best performance comes from Barbara Carrera as the assassin Fatima Blush. She's clever, wicked, and has a love for deadly snakes. What's also missing is the ticking clock element of THUNDERBALL creating the worldwide panic. Thus there is no sense of urgency for Bond to save the world from the A-bomb.

So where does the film stand out? Irvin Kershner hot off the success of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK brings some class to it with Carrera's Fatima Blush, the Domination video game, Basinger's dancing, the Health Club sequence, and the tango. The real let down is Edward Fox's terrible performance as M and a lousy music score.

Rating:
Summary: Worst unofficial James Bond remake starring Sean Connery.
Review: I remember liking this movie when I was very young (about six or seven). Then again, up to that point, I liked every James Bond movie I'd seen (which had been all of them except for the Pierce Brosnan pictures). But Never Say Never Again was one I was curious to give a second look, mostly because all this talk of Harrison Ford returning as Indiana Jones made me curious to see how Sean Connery fared as the superspy action hero in his fifties. The answer, not very well (though Ford at his current age appears in better shape than Connery was at the time), and if this were an official Bond entry, it'd be in contention with Moonraker and Live and Let Die as the worst of the series.

The film is a virtual remake of Thunderball; Bond is up against madman Largo, a megalomaniac who has a plan for worldwide blackmail by stealing two American nuclear warheads. On his side is Blofeld (Max Van Sydow) and the sultry, but dangerous femme fatale Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera). Bond eventually gains the services of Largo's girlfriend, Domino Petachi (Kim Basinger), and sets out to bring this terrorist plot to an end.

Never Say Never Again stinks up the screen right from the beginning with its silly title (which obviously relates to Connery's bid to play Bond) and certainly doesn't improve when we hear the awful main theme song. Right off the bat, a lot of traditional Bond elements are noticeably missing, the pre-credits shot of Bond approaching the screen, John Barry's famed score, and an exciting opening that should pave the way for the rest of the picture.

Bond movies generally rely on three things: the charisma of its leading man, the effectiveness of the villains, and spectacular action sequences. Sean Connery has actually never been my favorite as 007 (I've always preferred both Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore in the role), but he still makes a good impression even at the ripe age of fifty-three, delivering silly lines with a sense of conviction that few actors could muster. He's not quite as good with the action sequences, he moves a bit too slow during the fight scenes and the use of stunt doubles are often easy to pick out (the motorcyle helmet is the most obvious).

The supporting cast is subpar without exception. Klaus Maria Brandauer is one of the weakest Bond villains, Barbara Carrera is over-the-top without being fun or even sexy, and a young (though admittedly quite foxy) Kim Basinger represents the bane of good acting. Connery struggles mightily hard amid the crap that surrounds him, but he can't save the day here, and he's eventually dragged down by the awfulness.

Never Say Never Again was directed by Irvin Kershner, the same man who gave us The Empire Strikes Back. Virtually none of the outstanding qualities of that film are evident here. This picture has the look of a hack job, it's poorly edited and crafted without a sense of flair. Most of the action scenes are terribly boring, the only lively setpiece being a motorcycle chase that's quite fun to watch, but doesn't match up to the series' most impressive action sequences.

Never Say Never Again was released the same year as the Roger Moore Bond film Octopussy, which wasn't a great film, but memory serves that it was at least a passably enjoyable action movie that boasted several excellent action sequences. There's a reason why Never's distributors prefer not to acknowledge the movie's existence, and why it's the one Bond movie casual movie fans probably remember in infamy or don't remember at all.

Rating:
Summary: Bland, but Fresh.
Review: Let me tell you right off the bat, that this movie is a complete remake of thundrball. When Harry saltzman and Cubby Broccoli split up, Harry only got the rights to thunderball. (Broccoli got the rest) So Harry figured he'd go and make a cheap remake of his only movie, rehashing all the important events to put a new spin on the story. Basically It's Thunderball, but with Sean Connery as the only remaining cast from the original movie.

Despite my somewhat negative review above, I own this movie, have seen it three times and can objectivly state that while confusing at some times, makes all around sense if you've seen the first movie, and is entertaining for the most part. It is a remake, and remakes have a notorious reputation for being horrible. But this movie takes its place in Bond lore.

One last thing, they should have stuck to the original bond theme. (E.g. keeping Blofelts identity secret by not showing his face, had more beautiful Bond Women, and a Q branch scene ruling over the dismal portrayal of the one in this movie.)

Rating:
Summary: Painful to watch
Review: This is BY FAR the worst James Bond movie ever. It starts out pretty good (except for the crummy title song): Sean Connery is back in action as 007, he has a lot of great lines, and there are more beutiful women than usual. But about halfway through the movie I begin to realize why most Bond fans refuse to acknowledge "Never Say Never Again" as part of the series. At this point, the script writer apparently ran out of dry one-liners, because not another witty thing comes out of Bond's mouth for the rest of the movie. And is it just deja vu, or am I seeing "Thunderball" all over again? What idiot wrote this? IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME AS THUNDERBALL! The story is the same, and the characters even have the same names! The only difference is that "Thunderball" was a good movie and "Never Say Never Again" is not. This would have been forgivable if the movie was just Sean Connery playing James Bond one last time for fun, but the thing is, it isn't fun! Halfway through the movie one of Bond's female accomplices is gruesomely murdered and what little "fun" is left in the movie ends. It's strange that Bond never even mentions the girl who gets killed. I mean, come on James, the lady just died for you, you could at least say something about her!
From here, the action starts to pick up. You'd think that the film would become more exciting because of this, but actually it gets more boring. I almost fell asleep a few times, and I'm not the kind of person who falls asleep during movies. A few scenes which should be entertaining, like an escape from a seaside castle and a gun battle in an underground cavern, are as boring as can be. Its amazing how incredibly dull a 007 action scene can be when it doesn't have Monty Norman's James Bond theme playing in the background. At this point I am thinking "Please God, make the movie end!" But it doesn't! It goes on and on and on. Every time I think it's going to end, it really isn't. Finally, Domino kills the villain, Largo, with a speargun (just like in Thunderball). But it is an underwater scene, and Largo is wearing scuba gear, so I can't see his face and I'm not even sure if she killed Largo or just some anonymous goon! I'm guessing that she killed Largo, because the movie (thank you God!) ends soon afterwords. Sean Connery: It's great that you came back to play James Bond, but you should have refused to do the movie until they came up with a better script. I, like other Bond fans, do not even consider this horrible disgrace to be part of the series. I'd like to pretend that it never happened.

Rating:
Summary: This Movie...
Review: I am a BIG fan of Sean Connery's and I was happy when he returned for this role, but the movie is not his best.

'Thunderball' was good, but for its time, it wasn't ready, I think the action scenes in 'Never Say Never Again' is a great improvment, on Thunderball, and for that alone, I would recommend you to buy it - Just seeing Sean Connery back as Bond, is a good enough reason.

Rating:
Summary: boring
Review: a stupid movie i used to like sean connery but this movie i hate him in this movie the dont show the gun barrel the song is (crummy) and is weird and thunderball is better than never say never again

Rating:
Summary: A disgrace to James Bond films!
Review: This film, in my opinion, is one of thhe worst Bond films ever made. Even though I am a Sean Connery fan, this movie just has a really boring plot, a really un-convincing villian, etc.