cricketbat One of the lesser "Bond movies," I'm afraid. Sean Connery looks bad, the plot is a re-hashed Thunderball and it's annoyingly slow and drawn out. No wonder this isn't accepted in the official Bond canon.

jkm0119 Don't waste your time on this movie. If you want the suspense of a James Bond movie it is not there. If you want special effects, forget it. If you prefer yawning while watching a movie watch it. I could have edited out 1 hour of the movie and it would have been better. I can't believe Sean Connery sunk so low to accept this script.

Coventry Whilst the good old producer Albert R. Broccoli was carelessly finalizing the thirteenth official Bond movie "Octopussy", together with regular director John Glen and star Roger Moore, the frustrated writer/producer Kevin McClory thought it would be a funny joke to release an unofficial Bond flick with the original hero Sean Connery and – God forbid – an American (!) director by the name of Irvin Kershner. A lot of people openly wonder why "Never Say Never Again" ever got made. Well, I think this movie has three main reasons for existing. Number one: to sooth McClory's ego (something with a lingering lawsuit). Number two: to boost Sean Connery's popularity and bank account during a dip in his career. And number three: to mess with the heads of die-hard 007 fans, since this episode is never included in fancy collector box-set editions and has to be purchased separately! Is this one of the most redundant movies in cinematic history? Yes, most definitely! Is it worth tracking down in case you're a fan of the series or action/adventurous movies in general? Yes, it certainly is! "Never Say Never Again" is a reshape of the fourth official Bond movie "Thunderball", which also starred Connery. "Thunderball" coincidentally also just happens to be Bond movie I watched most recently, so it was very easy to compare them. Both films are really quite identical and the only significant difference is that 007 is twenty years older and about to enjoy his retirement. The rest is pure repeat. The multi-millionaire SPECTRE agent Largo developed a very ingenious plan to steal two nuclear warheads and holds the world at ransom by threatening to detonate them. James Bond discovers the scheme by chance, when he's in a fancy health spa and follows Largo to the Bahama's. By seducing Largo's girlfriend Domino Petachi, who still doesn't know that Largo abused and killed her brother, 007 hopes to discover where the warheads are located. The return of Sean Connery as the heroic special agent is undoubtedly the biggest trump of the film, but I usually always classify my Bond favorites based on the entertainment value of the villains. Max von Sydow makes a very promising Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but unfortunately his role is little more than a cameo. Klaus Maria Brandauer is decent but can't hold a candle to Adolfo Celi who played the role in "Thunderball". Most entertaining is Barbara Carrera as Bond's iron female opponent Fatima, who's as sexy and deadly as Luciana Paluzzi was in the original. I think "Never Say Never Again" is best enjoyed as a parody, since many aspects of the film are clearly intended to be ambiguous and humorous, like the meaning of the title itself (referring to the fact that Connery himself said that he would never play James Bond again after "Diamond are Forever") and the presence of Rowan Atkinson as a clumsy British ambassador.

freemantle_uk Never Say Never Again is an oddity of a film, made because of a legal dispute screenwriter Kevin McClory and MGM after McClory worked with Ian Fleming when writing for Thunderball before it was turned into a novel and subsequently turned into a film. After McClory sued he was allowed to credited as a producer, got the rights to the character of Blofeld and organisation SPECTRE and allow to make his own Bond film after enough time has elapsed. This is more interesting then the actual film.In Never Say Never Again Sean Connery plays an aging Bond working for an MI6 that has limited funding and an M (Edward Fox) who has no respect for the 00 section. After failing a training exercise Bond is sent to a health camp to get back into shape and stumbles on a plot that leads to the theft of two American nuclear warheads and leads to Bond going back into action to stop SPECTRE and their agent Maximillian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer).Never Say Never Again is an interesting case study of a film, made because the rights controversial, that allowed another Bond film to be made outside the main series and to see Connery return one more time as Bond because of the big paycheque and as a way to say screw you to EON. It is the most official unofficial franchise film to be made. It even lead to a media dubbing 1983 as the Battle of the Bonds, forcing Roger Moore to stay on in the official series. The official one won.Never Say Never Again is really a poor remake of Thunderball, which is a damning indictment because Thunderball is one of the weaker Connery Bond films. McClory and co could only make a film with the Thunderball plot, so the big selling point was the return of Connery. Never Say Never Again did have some interesting ideas, we see an older Bond who seems past his best, an idea that was used in Skyfall, has an M who has a dislike to Bond, like Judi Dench's M in Goldeneye and showing MI6 struggling financially and politically. But that idea seems to be an excuse to for why Never Say Never Again then be a commentary about the espionage world. Plus the official series ended up doing these ideas better then Never Say Never Again.The film does has some decent set-pieces, the opening training exercise was strong except for the god-awful theme song, the fight in health club and the motorbike chase and the scene where Bond dances with Domino (Kim Basinger) could have easily have fitted in an official Bond film. Barbara Carrera as the main henchwoman, Fatima Blush was a great addition and Alec McCowen was strong as the film's Q, Algernon, having great banter with Connery and having to work with work with limited resources. The film also the excellent casting of Max von Sydow as Blofeld, a man who would have been perfect to play an official Bond villain.Despite these positives Never Say Never Again is weaker then most entries in the Bond series and can tie with Diamonds Are Forever as the worst Connery Bond film. Like Diamonds Are Forever Never Say Never Again had an interesting set-up for a darker, more thoughtful Bond but wasted the potential. The film has also feels very dated, that it was a product of its time - the special effects look worst then what was in Thunderball and the video game sequence was just added because of the growing popularity of video games. Even the music didn't feel approach for a Bond film or even an action film in general: it sounded more like an attempt of making a jazz album. The score only has action beat during the climax. Bond was also still able to bed women 20 to 25 years his junior, which was just creepy with the film having a nonchalant attitude towards it.Fox as M was wasted. He had a great set-up as a civil servant and an outsider to the intelligence service, someone who has run down the 00 section. He was just made out to be pompous public school boy with no understanding of the world and Fox exaggerated every mannerism. He was the worst portrayal of the character, official or unofficial.Never Say Never Again is just an exercise in vanity from McClory and Connery, making it just because they could. It was made out of spite and if Connery wasn't involved no one would have been interested. It is nothing but a footnote in the Bond series.