TimBoHannon
Joined Mar 2001
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Reviews82
TimBoHannon's rating
I freely admit that "Never Say Never Again" may be the toughest movie for me to review unbiased. It is a James Bond movie, but it exists outside canon. Every other has distinct markings that tell a viewer's mind "You are watching a Bond movie!" Once somebody has seen them, it is no longer possible to view this picture without your brain telling you that you are watching counterfeit.
One of the most common complaints is the missing John Barry musical score. That is certainly legitimate. At the time only four other composers had scored a Bond movie, and only Bill Conti wrote a score that sounds remotely Bond-like. I was not alive in 1983, and my first Bond movie was "GoldenEye," so the absent music should not affect me as much as it did the audience of the time. It would not, except Michael Legrand's score made my ears file a lawsuit against me. This music is *dreadful.*
I wrote that Bill Conti's "For Your Eyes Only" score clashed with the action, although I also complimented it. Legrand's music is bad enough to ruin the action. He also wrote the eponymously titled theme song that obnoxiously plays over the opening action. My suggestion is to mute the television and play "The Final Countdown" or some other bombastic song during this section.
Returning Bond actor Sean Connery brings the movie immediate credibility. It is the other shared characters where "Never Say Never Again" trips up. Moneypenny (Pamela Salem) is all right. Q (Alec McCowan) is, well, different. I still like him. M (Edward Fox) is a disaster. This M is an unpleasant clever dick always ready with a new complaint. Fox actually does a near-flawless job playing the horribly- scripted, misbegotten excuse for Bond's boss.
Being partially a remake of "Thunderball," "Never Say Never Again" shares the same plot. SPECTRE, the criminal group above all others, steals two atomic weapons, and then contacts NATO with the conditions they must meet to prevent the ultimate nightmare from ending badly. This movie goes about the theft more believably than the original. Nobody has ever come remotely close to accomplishing a fraction of what is needed to steal nuclear weapons, so the story will be almost as implausible as "Moonraker" regardless of how it is told.
"Never Say Never Again" most improves upon its predecessor with the supporting characters. The lead villain is Max Largo, played by Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. Unlike Thunderball's Emilio, Max is clearly in charge. When this Largo speaks with the villainess, there is mutual respect and he gives the orders. His girlfriend is Domino, this time Petachi (Kim Basinger). While Domino Derval was nearly Emilio's prisoner, Petachi loves Max and is happy with her life. When Bond first sees her, she is dancing by herself on the deck of his yacht.
Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) takes the place of Fiona Volpe. Volpe was a good yet unspectacular villain. Blush takes the character and ratchets up the setting several levels. In a nice role reversal Blush is the one who seduces Bond, simply because she wants to. Her over-the-top clothing adds more fun to the movie and nicely harmonizes with Carrera's alluring, feral performance. As for beauty, Carrera trails only Jane Seymour as the most gorgeous actress to play a Bond girl.
The health clinic section is an improvement over "Thunderball" since Bond is not sexually harassing the staff, and it has the movie's best action. Actor Pat Roach, famous for airplane propeller fight in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," shows up as a SPECTRE hit-man after Bond. Connery and Roach give us a long, fun, and creative altercation, but its ends awkwardly. Roach's baddie gets a cupful of 007 urine to the face that affects him so badly that he backs into a shelf of glass jars with enough force to kill himself. Bond is so manly even his urine will burn your skin.
Like before, Bond needs information from Domino and uses Largo's murder of her brother to change her loyalty. While Fatima keeps the movie from growing boring, it moves so slowly that Bond does not meet Domino until the halfway mark. The turning point happens during Largo's ballroom party, which includes Legrand's one good contribution, ironically presented as in-movie music and not part of the soundtrack. Most of the best scenes come here, and Bond's brilliant and hilarious handling of the doorman is the highlight of movie. However, it follows up with a mostly lifeless chase and then snails towards a finale that, while tepid, avoids the endless underwater battle and tacky speed up effects from "Thunderball."
SPECTRE founder Ernst Stavro Blofeld returns, played by cinema legend Max von Sydow. This Blofeld is as good as any, but is woefully underused. After Largo's defeat, the movie forgets about him entirely. It would have been great if the movie left enough time for a second climax, but I would have been happy with any type of resolution, even a passing statement of some kind. The complete lack of resolution with Blofeld made the ending feel a little empty for me.
Looking past the missing music, gunbarrel opening, title arrangement, familiar sets, and familiar actors is not easy for anybody who has seen a canon Bond movie. "Never Say Never Again" is objectively superior to "Thunderball," but comes up short on entertainment. Compared to "Octopussy," the official Bond movie released the same year, "Never Say Never Again" is bland, even though it is technically better. Armed with a more focused screenplay, a more balanced story, more good action, and a soundtrack that enhances the movie, this could have been great. Instead, it falls short and Thunderball now rests in pieces.
One of the most common complaints is the missing John Barry musical score. That is certainly legitimate. At the time only four other composers had scored a Bond movie, and only Bill Conti wrote a score that sounds remotely Bond-like. I was not alive in 1983, and my first Bond movie was "GoldenEye," so the absent music should not affect me as much as it did the audience of the time. It would not, except Michael Legrand's score made my ears file a lawsuit against me. This music is *dreadful.*
I wrote that Bill Conti's "For Your Eyes Only" score clashed with the action, although I also complimented it. Legrand's music is bad enough to ruin the action. He also wrote the eponymously titled theme song that obnoxiously plays over the opening action. My suggestion is to mute the television and play "The Final Countdown" or some other bombastic song during this section.
Returning Bond actor Sean Connery brings the movie immediate credibility. It is the other shared characters where "Never Say Never Again" trips up. Moneypenny (Pamela Salem) is all right. Q (Alec McCowan) is, well, different. I still like him. M (Edward Fox) is a disaster. This M is an unpleasant clever dick always ready with a new complaint. Fox actually does a near-flawless job playing the horribly- scripted, misbegotten excuse for Bond's boss.
Being partially a remake of "Thunderball," "Never Say Never Again" shares the same plot. SPECTRE, the criminal group above all others, steals two atomic weapons, and then contacts NATO with the conditions they must meet to prevent the ultimate nightmare from ending badly. This movie goes about the theft more believably than the original. Nobody has ever come remotely close to accomplishing a fraction of what is needed to steal nuclear weapons, so the story will be almost as implausible as "Moonraker" regardless of how it is told.
"Never Say Never Again" most improves upon its predecessor with the supporting characters. The lead villain is Max Largo, played by Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. Unlike Thunderball's Emilio, Max is clearly in charge. When this Largo speaks with the villainess, there is mutual respect and he gives the orders. His girlfriend is Domino, this time Petachi (Kim Basinger). While Domino Derval was nearly Emilio's prisoner, Petachi loves Max and is happy with her life. When Bond first sees her, she is dancing by herself on the deck of his yacht.
Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) takes the place of Fiona Volpe. Volpe was a good yet unspectacular villain. Blush takes the character and ratchets up the setting several levels. In a nice role reversal Blush is the one who seduces Bond, simply because she wants to. Her over-the-top clothing adds more fun to the movie and nicely harmonizes with Carrera's alluring, feral performance. As for beauty, Carrera trails only Jane Seymour as the most gorgeous actress to play a Bond girl.
The health clinic section is an improvement over "Thunderball" since Bond is not sexually harassing the staff, and it has the movie's best action. Actor Pat Roach, famous for airplane propeller fight in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," shows up as a SPECTRE hit-man after Bond. Connery and Roach give us a long, fun, and creative altercation, but its ends awkwardly. Roach's baddie gets a cupful of 007 urine to the face that affects him so badly that he backs into a shelf of glass jars with enough force to kill himself. Bond is so manly even his urine will burn your skin.
Like before, Bond needs information from Domino and uses Largo's murder of her brother to change her loyalty. While Fatima keeps the movie from growing boring, it moves so slowly that Bond does not meet Domino until the halfway mark. The turning point happens during Largo's ballroom party, which includes Legrand's one good contribution, ironically presented as in-movie music and not part of the soundtrack. Most of the best scenes come here, and Bond's brilliant and hilarious handling of the doorman is the highlight of movie. However, it follows up with a mostly lifeless chase and then snails towards a finale that, while tepid, avoids the endless underwater battle and tacky speed up effects from "Thunderball."
SPECTRE founder Ernst Stavro Blofeld returns, played by cinema legend Max von Sydow. This Blofeld is as good as any, but is woefully underused. After Largo's defeat, the movie forgets about him entirely. It would have been great if the movie left enough time for a second climax, but I would have been happy with any type of resolution, even a passing statement of some kind. The complete lack of resolution with Blofeld made the ending feel a little empty for me.
Looking past the missing music, gunbarrel opening, title arrangement, familiar sets, and familiar actors is not easy for anybody who has seen a canon Bond movie. "Never Say Never Again" is objectively superior to "Thunderball," but comes up short on entertainment. Compared to "Octopussy," the official Bond movie released the same year, "Never Say Never Again" is bland, even though it is technically better. Armed with a more focused screenplay, a more balanced story, more good action, and a soundtrack that enhances the movie, this could have been great. Instead, it falls short and Thunderball now rests in pieces.
I have gathered from my reading about "Thunderball" that both past audiences and today's viewers consider it a drop in quality compared to its three predecessors. Try as I may, I cannot find reason to disagree. Every positive I find is matched by a drawback. "Thunderball" has no exceptional aspects to hide those flaws, and that makes them really hurt. I have pondered and analyzed this Bond movie more than any other over the years. All of those thoughts cannot be placed in one review, so I am going to stick to some of my main thoughts on the fourth James Bond movie.
James Bond (Sean Connery) spends the first section of the movie at an inpatient health rehab clinic. Officers of SPECTRE, returning as the enemy after a one-movie absence, are using the same clinic to set up their next project. First, Bond discovers a murder. Then he is recalled to work when the English Prime Minister and the American President receive an extortion demand from the now nuclear armed SPECTRE. James recognizes the murdered man from a photograph in his briefing file, and embarks for Nassau to find the victim's sister (Claudine Auger). Bond soon discovers that in order to have access to her, he must deal with Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), who is also SPECTRE'S second-in-command.
1) Sean Connery gives his final good performance as Bond. He carries an innate toughness and confidence along with charm and likability. Even down to his smallest mannerisms and inflections, Sean took complete ownership of the part. Bias is not the only reason he is still considered the best in the role; he earned that respect.
2) The early Bond movies boasted a lineup of great villains. First came the calm genius Dr. No; second, the demanding authoritarian Rosa Klebb; and third, the ever creative Goldfinger. Largo is an acceptable villain, but falls far short of the prior three. He has his moments, such when he murders an employee for failing a mission that never had any chance of success. Overall, Largo never makes the audience feel the great authority he wields; he just comes off as smug. Part of the problem comes from the next item.
3) Luciana Paluzzi plays beautiful villainess Fiona Volpe. Paluzzi's predator-in-disguise acting makes Volpe far more fearsome than Largo. Regrettably, the script tarnishes the strength of the character by making her look good through the stupidity of the male villains. Count Lippe (Guy Doleman), the lead bad guy during the clinic portion of the movie, is incompetent. Volpe is a good enough character to be taken seriously without displaying her next to Lippe's carelessness.
That flaw repeats itself when Volpe turns up in Nassau. She openly rebukes Largo at one point, and then speaks to him as if she is in charge. If Largo holds the second highest rank in SPECTRE, who is she to give him orders? Largo is supposed to be more powerful than any of Bond's opponents so far.
4) Felix Leiter has made nine appearances so far. In "Thunderball," Leiter is his best. "Goldfinger" portrays Felix Leiter like a surrogate uncle to Bond. Rik Van Nutter takes over the role here. Of the six others to play Leiter, only the underused David Hedison has matched Van Nutter's sincerity. He shares an unforced chemistry with Connery. Bond and Leiter are best friends and make the perfect team, so much so that Bond reminds Leiter that he "knows him better than that." It is too bad that Van Nutter only had three English speaking roles, because many movies, Bond or otherwise, would have benefited from his presence. My favorite moments in "Thunderball" are ones with Felix on screen.
5) Approximately half of the action occurs underwater, where the photography is remarkably clear and colorful. The climax is set down there, but at over eight minutes far outstays its welcome. It soon becomes repetitive shots of two men floating in circles trying to best each other along with a few wide shots where rising air bubbles are potentially distracting. Contrast that with the Wavekrest scene in "Licence to Kill," which worked perfectly because of its variety and brevity.
6) The rest of the action is fine. The pre-title scene contains one of the series' most rousing and creative brawls followed by one its most delightful surprises. It is the highlight of the movie. Bond has a lot of gadgets here, and their use is dispersed well throughout. That is always a plus.
7) Terence Young, an excellent director, tries to manufacture tension during times the script fails to provide it. One embarrassing scene stars a traction machine with settings ranging from "Therapeutic" to "Homicide." As with too many other scenes, the music is more menacing than what happens on the screen. These scenes are awkward.
8) Finally, the movie runs too long because it moves too slowly. No major cuts would be needed to fix that. "Thunderball" spends far too much time displaying the mundane. Removing ten seconds here and 15 seconds there in a dozen or so scenes would have made a giant difference without removing a single scene.
Overall, "Thunderball" is not a bad movie. I think the term "Thunderbore" is unfair. Compared to "From Russia with Love" or "Skyfall" it is boring, but I never felt like I was going to lose interest. "Thunderball" receives a passing grade on the strength of Connery and Van Nutter, and on Young's stalwart direction. It could have been better. It also could have been much worse. I say a five out of ten is a fair number.
James Bond (Sean Connery) spends the first section of the movie at an inpatient health rehab clinic. Officers of SPECTRE, returning as the enemy after a one-movie absence, are using the same clinic to set up their next project. First, Bond discovers a murder. Then he is recalled to work when the English Prime Minister and the American President receive an extortion demand from the now nuclear armed SPECTRE. James recognizes the murdered man from a photograph in his briefing file, and embarks for Nassau to find the victim's sister (Claudine Auger). Bond soon discovers that in order to have access to her, he must deal with Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi), who is also SPECTRE'S second-in-command.
1) Sean Connery gives his final good performance as Bond. He carries an innate toughness and confidence along with charm and likability. Even down to his smallest mannerisms and inflections, Sean took complete ownership of the part. Bias is not the only reason he is still considered the best in the role; he earned that respect.
2) The early Bond movies boasted a lineup of great villains. First came the calm genius Dr. No; second, the demanding authoritarian Rosa Klebb; and third, the ever creative Goldfinger. Largo is an acceptable villain, but falls far short of the prior three. He has his moments, such when he murders an employee for failing a mission that never had any chance of success. Overall, Largo never makes the audience feel the great authority he wields; he just comes off as smug. Part of the problem comes from the next item.
3) Luciana Paluzzi plays beautiful villainess Fiona Volpe. Paluzzi's predator-in-disguise acting makes Volpe far more fearsome than Largo. Regrettably, the script tarnishes the strength of the character by making her look good through the stupidity of the male villains. Count Lippe (Guy Doleman), the lead bad guy during the clinic portion of the movie, is incompetent. Volpe is a good enough character to be taken seriously without displaying her next to Lippe's carelessness.
That flaw repeats itself when Volpe turns up in Nassau. She openly rebukes Largo at one point, and then speaks to him as if she is in charge. If Largo holds the second highest rank in SPECTRE, who is she to give him orders? Largo is supposed to be more powerful than any of Bond's opponents so far.
4) Felix Leiter has made nine appearances so far. In "Thunderball," Leiter is his best. "Goldfinger" portrays Felix Leiter like a surrogate uncle to Bond. Rik Van Nutter takes over the role here. Of the six others to play Leiter, only the underused David Hedison has matched Van Nutter's sincerity. He shares an unforced chemistry with Connery. Bond and Leiter are best friends and make the perfect team, so much so that Bond reminds Leiter that he "knows him better than that." It is too bad that Van Nutter only had three English speaking roles, because many movies, Bond or otherwise, would have benefited from his presence. My favorite moments in "Thunderball" are ones with Felix on screen.
5) Approximately half of the action occurs underwater, where the photography is remarkably clear and colorful. The climax is set down there, but at over eight minutes far outstays its welcome. It soon becomes repetitive shots of two men floating in circles trying to best each other along with a few wide shots where rising air bubbles are potentially distracting. Contrast that with the Wavekrest scene in "Licence to Kill," which worked perfectly because of its variety and brevity.
6) The rest of the action is fine. The pre-title scene contains one of the series' most rousing and creative brawls followed by one its most delightful surprises. It is the highlight of the movie. Bond has a lot of gadgets here, and their use is dispersed well throughout. That is always a plus.
7) Terence Young, an excellent director, tries to manufacture tension during times the script fails to provide it. One embarrassing scene stars a traction machine with settings ranging from "Therapeutic" to "Homicide." As with too many other scenes, the music is more menacing than what happens on the screen. These scenes are awkward.
8) Finally, the movie runs too long because it moves too slowly. No major cuts would be needed to fix that. "Thunderball" spends far too much time displaying the mundane. Removing ten seconds here and 15 seconds there in a dozen or so scenes would have made a giant difference without removing a single scene.
Overall, "Thunderball" is not a bad movie. I think the term "Thunderbore" is unfair. Compared to "From Russia with Love" or "Skyfall" it is boring, but I never felt like I was going to lose interest. "Thunderball" receives a passing grade on the strength of Connery and Van Nutter, and on Young's stalwart direction. It could have been better. It also could have been much worse. I say a five out of ten is a fair number.