Rate It
|
||||||||||||||||
Rating Averages
My Friends |
Not rated. () |
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
All Flixster |
(17660) |
4420 |
18981 |
Female |
(6966) |
1744 |
7487 |
Male |
(10694) |
2676 |
11494 |
More Like This
If you liked this, then you'll also probably like...
Got another recommendation for someone who liked this movie? Add it to the list!
Got an opinion? Use the buttons to vote on all the suggestions people have added.
If lots of people vote, the best suggestions will rise to the top.
| The Hunt for Red October (50%) |
|
|
|---|---|---|
| A View to a Kill (69%) |
|
|
| Octopussy (67%) |
|
|
| Live and Let Die (60%) |
|
|
| The World Is Not Enough (40%) |
|
|
Plot:
When two atomic warheads are hijacked by the evil SPECTRE organization, British superagent James Bond (Sean Connery, in his final performance as 007) jumps into a frantic race to save the world from n...( read more 
)
Meet Other Fans
Recent Reviews
-
MCT:July 30, 2008The ?unofficial? James Bond film, Never Say Never Again debuted in 1983 with Sean Connery returning to the role of 007 (12 years after his last performance as the secret agent). It?s not an official Bond movie as it wasn?t made by the same people. That being said, they should be glad that they didn?t make it. This one is pretty lackluster.
I wish I could elaborate more on the plot, but I was falling asleep halfway through the movie. Some guy gets an eye transplant and steals some nuclear warheads and then this other guy holds the world hostage. Kim Bassinger runs around like a dumbass with a man face for a bit and then Sean Connery limps through the movie, showing his age and banging three chicks. There?s some weird 80s style video game, some fake sharks and a horse jumping off a cliff. The rest is a blur.
Granted, at this point in time I?ve only seen 3 Bond movies (this makes 4), but they were loads better than this one. This film moves at a snail?s pace and it?s over 2 hours long. It?s almost painful to sit through. If I had to rate the film, it would get one star for being a Bond movie and another half star for it being a Connery Bond at that. I can?t see giving it much more of a rating than that. -
MCT:July 15, 2008
I didn't like this as much as some of the other Connery Bond Films but it was still charming enough to keep me entertained.
-
MCT:July 12, 2008
For the makers of this film, the real coup had to be casting Sean Connery as the lead. Not only would the prospect of seeing Connery play 007 again draw audiences to theaters, but it allowed this competing, "unofficial" Bond flick to present a different kind of hero; an aging, semi-retired Bond who's thrust back into the line of fire to once again save the world from egomaniacal terrorists. It must have been like watching your favorite fighter making the comeback of a lifetime.
-
MCT:June 12, 2008
Performances by Barbara Carrera as Fantima Blush and Klaus Maria Brandauer as Maximilian Largo give this remake of Thunderball a boost over the original.
-
MCT:May 14, 2008The illegitimate and highly unusual remake of Thunderball often gets unfairly neglected. Sure it doesn't have the trademark opening logo, John Barry score or regular actors but it is worth checking out just for the return of Connery. Plus, it has a couple great villians (including Max Von Sydow). The motorcycle chase is fun and the fight in the massage parlor is classic Bond (think From Russia with Love). It's unfortunate the film fails on so many other levels, including a tiresome ending. Ultimately, this Bond film feels totally different from all the others and despite Connery's presence, it doesn't quite successfully work.
-
MCT:May 2, 2008When Kevin McClory teamed up with the Eon company to make the movie Thunderball in 1965 he was contractually obliged not to exercise his rights to the James Bond character for ten years, Sure enough in 1975 McClory started pitching a 007 script titled Warhead to all the competing studios, but it wasn't until 1983 that Never Say Never Again actually made it to the silver screen opening opposite the lame Roger Moore vehicle Octopussy. Never Say Never Again (a title suggested by Sean Connery's wife) has on display a variation of the plot that McClory had produced almost 20 years earlier.
Faced with not being able to include the iconic familiar gun-barrel sequence at the beginning of their 1983 Bond movie, Taliafilm (named after the wife of the producer and Rocky actress Talia Shire) had to cone up with their own graphic image. What they decided upon gives the first clue that we are about to experience something different, a breath of fresh air and a good kick up the rear end to a series of movies that had become stale through resorting to self-parody and recycled dialogue and villainy.
Yes, [NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN is a retelling of the THUNDERBALL storylines worked out between Fleming, Bryce, Whittingham and McClory. It's technically speaking not a remake of the 1954 picture though, but a different version of the story using characters that appeared in the earlier drafts (such as Fatima Blush).
And from the moment the screen fills up with all those 007's and the audience is drawn in, we know right away that Connery is back and better than ever, and looking much fitter than he did in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER.
The title song has been attacked by 007 fans over the years, but I actually like it quite a lot (in direct comparison with the rest of the admittedly rather tame soundtrack). I have found myself over the past 20 years humming it to myself (sometimes at the most inopportune moments) and so it has obviously become seared into my consciousness as only a catchy tune can.
And here we come to what is the 1983 movie's pretitle sequence. But instead of interrupting the flow of the story with yet more images of nude women and silly fluorescent effects the titles play out for the action allowing the audience to immediately find its feet and settle into the pace of this thrilling picture.
Of course it's not the first time that we have seen Bond killed off in the opening minutes. We saw it first at the hands of Red Grant in 1963's FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and then again just four years later in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. Here Bond is on a training mission and for those with keen eyes its really quite obvious (no muzzle fore from 007's gun). As such it works a little better in the little details, and when 007 rescues the leggy millionaires daughter held captive she plunges a knife into him.
It is at this point that the factor of a new M really pays off. We see Edward Fox sternly watching the exercise on tape. We see another unidentified character (presumably Tanner). Its not until the very last minute that Connery's 007 is revealed - alive and well.
Following on from a dressing down from M is one of my favorite sequences in the movie - namely Shrublands. It's a favorite of mine because we really get introduced to my favorite character in the movie Fatima Blush. The 1965 movie has Fiona Volpe, but Volpe lacked the super-charged charisma, biting wit and ego-maniacal psychotic nature that Barbara Carrera simply oozes as Blush.
Look at the tenderness she shows to Jack, followed immediately by her bashing his head against the wall. Witness her dispatching of Jack and then crooning over her pet snake, and who can forget her final confrontation with 007 - "guess where you get the first one."
Carrera steals every scene she is in. She dances on her way to kill Bonds French ally and like a black widow spider she seduces 007 and then attempts to kill him with a device to attract a special group of sharks attached to his air tanks.
The second highlight is the appearance of Indiana Jones alum Pat Roach as Count Lippe. Who cannot appreciate and revel in the fun fight in which Roach's Lippe plays the indestructible Jaws role, minus the embarrassing buffoonery that Richard Kiel brought to the EON franchise. Bond throws everything at Lippe to no avail and then in an amusing conclusion the character is blinded by Bond's urine falling back into a collection of glass cylinders and test tubes.
Connery's reaction is classic.
In an attempt perhaps to counter the familiarity of the group of has-been actors inhabiting the SIS offices in the EON series at the time, this Connery movie has the most impressive list of actors to inhabit any Bond movie. In addition to the already mentioned Connery, Fox, Carrera and Roach we also have the incredible Klaus Maria Brandeur as Largo, the revered Max Von Sydow and Bernie Casey as a black Felix Leiter (hey, why not?!).
Brandeur plays Largo with just the right amount of understated menace and Casey is probably the second best Leiter of the series (after Hedison). You really get the feeling that he and Connery's 007 are the best of buddies, their interactions and playful barbs appear genuinely affectionate and respectful of the other,
The one A-list actor who really lets down the rest of the team is Kim Basinger. She admittedly didn't have much to go on, but it is in this one respect that Claudine Auger and the 1965 EON effort takes the honors.
Some have said that it is with Bonds arrival in Nassau, that this movie tends to wander a little. I respectfully disagree. It is here that the majority of Carrera's scenes appear and here that Connery has his first confrontation with Largo. I have yet to really understand the computer game the two play, but it works nicely in building up some real tension and suspense (name a Moore 007 -villain scene that achieved the same level of pent up pressure - I can't). The final line from Connery - " I wouldn't know, I've never lost" is also probably one of the best 007 comebacks in the entire series.
Yes, this section of the movie also features some of the best dialogue, the promise of which had been ably shown in the brilliant Q-scene earlier in the picture. The lines come thick and fast and are genuinely witty in comparison with some of the gags in the Moore series of pictures. In addition Rowan Atkinson nicely doesn't outstay his welcome as comic relief and his "don't know his mother" line always makes me smile. Other gags that work include the cigarette lighter gag at the casino and the "your place or mine" bomb at the hotel.
The ending in Africa is over a little too soon and the small battle in the underground caverns lacks the scope of some of the 007 pictures. But I think it works well in the context of the rest of the picture and is not the confusing, overlong mess that really mars the 1965 effort. Its cleaner and tighter, just the way I like it.
Yes, even though Roger Moore is my favorite 007 actor, "Never Say Never Again" is my favorite 007 picture.
Irvin Kershner, who directed the best of the Star Wars movies, again brings us a franchises crowning achievement with a steady directing hand, incredible witty dialogue, superb performances by an amazing cast and Sean Connery returning revitalized after a 12 year absence from the role that made him famous.
It's the one 007 movie that I have watched more than any other.
After the movie was obtained by MGM-UA (the company that produces the EON production) there was talk among fans as to the possibility of the gun barrel sequence being added to make it part of the "canon", I for one do not think that this unique James Bond 007 movie should be tampered with in that manner. -
MCT:April 10, 2008
Many think it is part of the James Bond series, but it is actually a spoof, and better than some of the actual Bonds.
-
MCT:April 9, 2008
Not actually a real bond film, not sure what that means exactly but its not, but still its one of the best!!!!
-
MCT:March 13, 2008
Never Say Never Again was the second unofficial 007 film to be made, with this one competing with Octopussy. The biggest problem about this film is having an ageing Sean Connery. He is just too old to convince the audience he is Bond, especially with the grey hair. His voice doesn't help either.
Its also too hard to try and forget about the other Bond films at the same time. Their version of Moneypenny is too similar to Lois Maxwell, whilst M and Q are the complete opposites. In this Bond world, Q Brach looks like a junkyard and all the 00s have been retired.
The music is OK for what's it's supposed to be, but don't expect any Bond sounds. Overall, the film becomes a just normal action feel, which feels as if they a basing it on Bond. You can reach the end or give up whilst watching it, it really depends on how you feel. -
MCT:February 28, 2008
Got this as a xmas present on DVD. Saw this movie when it came out in 1983. Then again 2/23/08. Not the Best Bond film, but it has its moments.
-
MCT:January 21, 2008
A fairly good, if non-official, Bond film. It has some great sharks.
The update of thunderball is different enough that it doesent feel like quite the same ground is being covered.
so. better than I expected. -
MCT:January 8, 2008
Sean decided to make this film after leaving the Bond series in 1971. A good film but lacked something, the spark wasn't there as before.
-
MCT:January 7, 2008
where Thunderball won me over, this movie let me down on so many levels. this "out-of-franchise" Bond film was a disappointment from the gun barrell-less opening credits. even Sean Connery could not redeem this movie. a fair effort with some decent action sequences, but totally not on the same level with other Bond films.
-
MCT:December 28, 2007YOu would think Sean connery as Bond would be automaticly kick ass, but HOW THE **** DID Kirshner miss the mark????
-
MCT:December 22, 2007
so-so Bond film. Unofficial action movie marking Sean Connery's return to the role that made him a superstar in 1962.
-
MCT:December 15, 2007
The only highlight of the movie is good acting from the American military officers and the presence of Barbara Carrera. Above all else, this has to be the worst James Bond movie ever
-
MCT:December 15, 2007
During the 'Battle of the Bonds' ('83), die-hard Connery fans supported an unofficial 007 production while Moore's 'Octopussy' gained blockbuster success. Connery's final reprisal of Bond is entertaining, however doesn't follow any of Fleming/Broccoli;s clever film continuity. The plot is a rewrite of the classic 'Thunderball', but is clearly an excuse for Sean Connery to selfishly end his own Bond-film saga on a futuristic note (while Roger Moore appears to have done better in recent roles).
Definitely the raunchiest entry to disgrace the film franchise - Connery is a pervish 53-years-old here. -
MCT:November 24, 2007
The year is 1983. The press announces two James Bond movies coming out in the same year. One starring Roger Moore and the other one bringing Sean Connery, the first big screen James Bond back into action.
The results:
Ocopussy was the clear winner due to better stunts and action scenes and a totally original story.
Never Say Never Again is a clear example of what happens when someone takes an original Bond story and fails to improve on what had been done already.
I bet Ian Fleming is glad he was not around to see this one. -
MCT:November 22, 2007This is by far the most forgettable James Bond movie I've ever seen (not that I've seen many). I forgot the title until I saw this on Flixster, if that gives you any idea.
-
MCT:September 24, 2007
it is a shame that this Bond movie did not become as good as the other ones even thougt Sean Connery was Bond :(
-
MCT:September 8, 2007
It really just lacks that certain quality of the actual, official series. But it's always a joy to watch Connery in the role that made him famous - and if anyone even dares to say he was too old to be Bond, he was still younger than Moore in the majority of HIS films.
-
MCT:September 4, 2007
Dull movie based on the original Thunderball scripts. See the fan made "Special Edition" that re-edits and re-scores the film more like an EON production. It's a great study n how to make a bad film slightly watchable.
-
MCT:August 25, 2007This one of alright, at least for a bond, and delivered what you would expect from it. It didn't have any STRIKING performances, as it doesn't really stick well in my mind, but the same can be said for it's quality. If something is exceptionally bad, I remember it QUITE well.
So this is in the middle, where you can enjoy it without it being one of the lower par bond films
My Friends Said...
Never Say Never Again Recent Reviews
Register or sign-in to see your friends' reviews !
Comments
This board looks lonely. Be the first to talk about "Never Say Never Again" !
