Sean Connery returns – after a 12-year absence – to the role that made him famous, in this ‘unofficial’ Bond movie, made outside the auspices of regular producer Albert Broccoli and without any of the series’ regular faces. A remake of the earlier Connery-Bond film ‘Thunderball’, it concerns the activities of the charming tycoon Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer), in particular his threat to detonate a bunch of stolen nuclear warheads unless the world bows to his wishes. Bond is assigned to the case and sets about dealing with it in his own inimitable (yet much imitated) manner. Barbara Carrera features as the gorgeous villain, Fatima Blush, and Kim Basinger appears as Bond girl Domino.
After years of enduring Roger Moore in the role of James Bond, it was good to have Sean Connery back in 1983 for Never Say Never Again, a one-time-only trip down 007’s memory lane. Connery’s Bond, a bit of a dinosaur in the British secret service at (then) 52, is still in demand during times of crisis. Sadly, the film is not very good. In this rehash of Thunderball, Bond is pitted against a worthy underwater villain (Klaus Maria Brandauer); and while the requisite Bond Girls include beauties Kim Basinger and Barbara Carrera, they can’t save the movie. The script has several truly dumb passages, among them a (gasp) video-game duel between 007 and his nemesis that now looks utterly anachronistic. For Connery fans, however, this widescreen print of the Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) film is a chance to say a final goodbye to a perfect marriage of actor and character.
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