Never Say Never Again (1983)Plot In A Paragraph: A SPECTRE agent has stolen two American nuclear warheads, and A long retired James Bond (Connery) is brought back and must find their targets before they are detonated.It was The Battle Of The Bond's in 1983 a returning Connery had this movie, whilst Roger Moore starred in Octopussy. My second favourite Bond movie of the 80's (Behind Licence To Kill) I think this is better than anything Roger Moore turned out that decade, and its superior to Thunderball which it is a loose remake of.It's not without its faults, it has some ropey effects, its theme song is OK, but not up to the usual high standard of songs. And It's a bit daft how Kim Basinger's Domino trust Bond straight away, he touched her up in health club, he introduced himself and they had a chat at the bar (within a 24 hour period) and that's it. She immediately cares about him, and believes everything he tells her over her long term partner.12 years after his last outing as Bond, it's a welcome return for Connery. As much as he'd hate to admit it, he is right at home in the role. It's the the first time he had been clean shaven since 1971, and it would mark the last time he would appear on screen clean shaven too. It has a good amount of tension and the perfect amount of humour too. Most of the supporting cast nails it too Klaus Maria Brandauer makes an a compelling villain (much better than the full guy with an eye patch in Thunderball) Max Von Sydow is in full pantomime villain mode as Blofeld, Kim Basinger looks great and is OK as Domino and Barbara Carrera is a lot of fun too. Bernie Casey is fine as Felix Leiter and Roman Atkinson has a small role too. Edward Fox is awful as M though. I don't know what was going on there.In the end Never Say Never Again lost The Battle Of The Bond's (Octopussy grossed $12 million more) but It gave Connery a much needed boost at the box office. grossing $9.72 million on its first weekend, which was reported to be the best opening record of any James Bond up to that point and surpassing Roger Moore's Octopussy's $8.9 million from June that year. It ended up grossing $55 million at the domestic box office (which was a solid return on a budget of $36 million) to end the year the 14th highest grossing movie of 1983. Connery would not star in another movie for three years. When he did return, it was mostly older, wiser mentor roles from then on. So as a goodbye to the leading man, sex symbol, action man Connery (excluding The Rock) this was a good way to bow out.

Being "unofficial" means that this entry in the Bond series has no returning cast members apart from Sean Connery, but the mainstays (Moneypenny, M, Felix) are played by different actors which is somewhat confusing. The budget looks (not sure whether it IS, though) much lower than one of the Moore Bond films, with very poor back projection in the special effects sequences and some incredibly dated computer stuff in the form of a game in which two players launch warheads at each other and attempt to blow each other up. If somebody says that this is a highlight of the film, I have to say that the film is in big trouble!Connery is back, in his early 50s by this time, noticeably slurring his words and wearing an incredible fake toupee. Well, it's sad to say that he STILL manages to upstage the rest of the cast but that isn't difficult when the villain is played by the miscast Klaus Maria Brandauer who acts more like a spoilt mummy's boy than a super villain. We also have the silly Barbara Carrera as a femme fatale who explodes after a gadget goes wrong, Kim Basinger as a highly forgettable Bond girl, and some other British mainstays like Rowan Atkinson, Valerie Leon, Anthony Sharp, and Edward Fox in supporting roles. None of them makes much of an impact.Weirdly, the film starts off brilliantly with a superb fight between Connery and Pat Roach, a hulking brute of a man. Their fight takes place in a country hospital and is greatly choreographed with lots of props and furniture being smashed up. That's the highlight of the film. The only other action takes the form of a motorbike chase (in which Connery's bike flies through the air at every opportunity) and some murky underwater shenanigans filmed by none other than Ricou Browning! The plot is the similar to that in THUNDERBALL and its easy to say which is the better film. The script is silly, but no more so than any other Bond film of the period, and the music is very bad. For an hour nothing happens in the way of action at all! A pointless, bland, boring Bond movie that makes me wish Connery could have just gone out on a high with DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER instead of lowering his status with this mild tosh.

In a couple months I will turn 52, just about the age that Sean Connery was when he made this film, which I happened to have caught at the movie theater back in 1983 when I was 19 years old. With this in mind, I re-watched NSNA for the first time in almost 33 years over the course of 4 daily workouts on the treadmill machine, finishing up yesterday.Last night, I turned on a rerun of an old Johnny Carson show on the Antenna-TV network, and who turns up but Connery, sans toupee and sporting his classic 'stache. Turns out the show was from 1983, and Sean was promoting NSNA.Believing this to be another instance of synchronicity in my never-ending study of fine arts, I determined to add my review to the body of literature devoted to this cinematic opus.The most interesting thing about this movie is the middle-aged Connery, playing the middle-aged 007. These facts are used to advantage early on in the film but are mostly forgotten by midpoint, with the Scots thespian's handsomely craggy facial features being the only reminder that in addition to the evil Mr. Largo, Our Hero is also fighting the inevitable effects of father time. As such, this is a lost opportunity.(Two years after this film, cartoonist Frank Miller did a much-praised comic book story of a 50 year old Batman titled 'Dark Knight,' which became a genuine cultural phenomenon...Miller never forgot for a moment that the Caped Crusader was now 50, and in fact in the early scenes Bruce Wayne sports a mustache and receding hairline which make him strangely similar to Connery.) The other missed opportunity is the climactic physical confrontation between 007 & Largo, which takes place underwater, with both wearing scuba gear. As you can anticipate, the scuba fight takes place in slow-motion, thus sucking way much of the satisfaction. This was a story which clearly called for a knock-down, drag-out fight, ala Red Grant, the aging 007 going Mano e Mano against the young Teutonic Largo.The musical score is another weak spot. It seemed decent enough in 1983, but the fusion-jazz stuff seems very outdated now, whereas the bombastic John Barry stuff from the EON films has held up much better.Weaknesses aside, this is a fun enough film with which to waste a couple hours. Besides the enduring appeal of our old friend Mr. Connery, there are plenty of fights, vehicular chases, and fun spy-fi business to enjoy. If you are young and viewing this, remember that the when you are over 50, the world will be a different place, and you will be far more vulnerable than now. Your nemesis will not be SPECTRE, but rather the limitations of your body, and the cruelties of the workplace, where cocky young SOB managers like to treat experienced, seasoned pros as if we are all dead wood.

Never say never again I viewed last on itv4 and by God it's great stuff for real bond enthusiasts it stars Sean Connery as James Bond 12 years after he called it quits with the series with diamonds are forever in 1971 and it's about an older 007 who is called out of retirement by his superior m played by Edward fox to stop a spectre operative played by Klaus Maria Brandeur and his voluptuous sidekick Fatima blush played by Barbra careera who have stolen two nuclear warheads and held NATO ransom by planting them in various locations and bond must stop them before they cause world war 3 . Overall this film despite it being classified as an unofficial bond film is really quite fun and much better than most of Roger Moore's turkeys ( octupussy which came out at the same time ) Connery is brooding as well charming as bond he doesn't look bad considering he was 52 in 1983 when this was released and handles himself well especially in the action scenes and love scenes better than in Diamonds are forever when he looked flabby and overweight Kim basinger is stunning and tough as the Bond girl of the piece she is not just seen as a sex object . Klaus Maria Brandeur is credible villain with his cynicism and his snake like charm and overall his coolness under fire , Barbra carreaa Though is gorgeous but severely goes OTT as Fatima blush the cartoonish fem fatale and it's just embarrassing to watch . But check this film out its better than most of Roger Ms cartoonish outings ignore the negative reviews there ( obviously Moore fans ) check it out its undoubtedly Sean Connery's best bond film in my opinion .