Does anyone regard 'Never Say Never Again' as better than Bonds 1-24?

Anyone honestly think NSNA is better than any of the 24 main films?
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Comments

  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    It's total crap ! ( only my opinion ) :D
    https://www.ajb007.co.uk/post/895849/#p895849
    We were just talking about it here.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • ChriscoopChriscoop Belize Posts: 10,449MI6 Agent
    edited September 2017
    Erm..... Not me, I can't think of one redeeming aspect of this wholly amateur cheese fest. Ive now seen it once and I do say never again! ;) how do you view it Andy007?
    It was either that.....or the priesthood
  • The Domino EffectThe Domino Effect Posts: 3,631MI6 Agent
    Nope. Not even close.
  • Bond44Bond44 Vauxhall CrossPosts: 1,581MI6 Agent
    Not at all it was a remake of Thunderball and it showed. I think it highlights Bond is bigger than purely the actor who plays him.

    Octopussy was released at the same time and was much better.

    Cheers :007)
    My name is Bond, Basildon Bond - I have letters after my name!
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    The obvious comparisons are to Thunderball (which it remade) and Octopussy (which was released the same year). I've heard people say they prefer NSNA to those films, and no matter how much they stick up for NSNA, I'll never understand. I think it's complete rubbish. I just watched a version of it that had proper Bond music replacing Legrand's music (which I think is one of the best aspects of NSNA), and the music pointed out to me that the original scenes the cues were written for were all considerably better than every scene in NSNA.
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    out of 24 films over 50 years you'd think there'd be at least one worse
    unfortunately I'm thinking of the most recent entries as possibilities, yet even the weakest of those have several sustained stretches better than anything in NSNA
    Fatima Blush is by far the best part of that film. Maybe an edit just of her scenes would be better?
  • Andy007Andy007 Posts: 100MI6 Agent
    My honest opinion is that the only Bond film it can possibly run close is Diamonds are forever. DAF is largely dross and NSNA is very watchable compared with that. But the rest are way ahead of it really. It can't be taken that seriously but even so is poor compared to all other Bond films.
  • philpogphilpog Posts: 51MI6 Agent
    I would rank NSNA somewhere in the middle. I find it superior not only to THUNDERBALL, but also Connery's last two EON films (YOLT and DAF), all four of Brosnan's snooze-inducing efforts, and even the bloated, overrated SKYFALL.

    The film has a wonderfully relaxed, self-deprecating Connery performance, two of the best Bond villains (Largo and Fatima), and some great, cheeky one-liners. It's ultimately let down by a slow-going third act and budget constraints.
  • IanFryerIanFryer Posts: 327MI6 Agent
    Andy007 wrote:
    My honest opinion is that the only Bond film it can possibly run close is Diamonds are forever. DAF is largely dross and NSNA is very watchable compared with that. But the rest are way ahead of it really. It can't be taken that seriously but even so is poor compared to all other Bond films.

    I genuinely like DAF, mainly for the genuine wit employed in its script. Actually, the jokes are maybe the best part of NSNA (aside from Rowan Atkinson's mugging), and the better gags were recycled by Dick Clemens and Ian La Frenais from their TV and movie scripts for Porridge. I can't bring myself to hate Never Say Never Again, but it's not a film I return to often.
  • HigginsHiggins GermanyPosts: 16,618MI6 Agent
    Connery looked younger in NSNA than in DAF :p
    President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.

    Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
  • Gassy ManGassy Man USAPosts: 2,972MI6 Agent
    It's better than some -- I liked it better than OP and AVTAK, for instance.
  • ichaiceichaice LondonPosts: 593MI6 Agent
    Dreadful, I tried watching it yesterday but didn't get very far before switching channels.
    Yes. Considerably!
  • chrisisallchrisisall Western Mass, USAPosts: 9,061MI6 Agent
    I like it better than MR or SF.... 8-)
    Dalton & Connery rule. Brozz was cool.
    #1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
  • Sir Hillary BraySir Hillary Bray College of ArmsPosts: 2,174MI6 Agent
    If given the choice between watching NSNA or DAD, I would choose NSNA any day.
    Hilly...you old devil!
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,420Chief of Staff
    IanFryer wrote:
    Actually, the jokes are maybe the best part of NSNA (aside from Rowan Atkinson's mugging), and the better gags were recycled by Dick Clemens and Ian La Frenais from their TV and movie scripts for Porridge. I can't bring myself to hate Never Say Never Again, but it's not a film I return to often.

    I pretty much agree with you here...although Atkinson overdoes the mugging...and I do like Alec McCowen -{
    YNWA 97
  • superadosuperado Regent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,651MI6 Agent
    It's hard for me to deliberately determine which of the EON movies are better/worse than NSNA. Rather, I include it as a bonafide Bond film, because I don't think that being made by EON automatically gives a movie the status "real." It's kind of like adopting a child to add among your biological children; genetically that child is different, but you love it as you do with his siblings.
    "...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
  • Mr_OsatoMr_Osato Posts: 398MI6 Agent
    The biggest problem with NSNA is that it is such an unnecessary movie. Thunderball was a great, classic movie, that did not require a remake. Then what also doesn't play to NSNA's advantage is the dodgy side story with Kevin McClory. It is hard to sympathize with him.

    That said, if I analyze the movie itself, it is not that bad. Connery is clearly having fun, the story remains solid (the Thunderball plots is classic Bond) and therefore I raise it higher than DAD (which is quite dreadful) and also DAF.
    OHMSS, FRWL, DN, GF, CR, GE, SP, YOLT, TB, TSWLM, LALD, TLD, TND, FYEO, SF, MR, TMWTGG, TWINE, OP, AVTAK, DAF, LTK, QOS, DAD

    1. Connery 2. Craig 3. Brosnan 4. Dalton 5. Lazenby 6. Moore
  • ml94ml94 FinlandPosts: 79MI6 Agent
    No.
    "Bond, James Bond"
  • ml94ml94 FinlandPosts: 79MI6 Agent
    Gassy Man wrote:
    It's better than some -- I liked it better than OP and AVTAK, for instance.
    Why better than OP?
    "Bond, James Bond"
  • Mr SnowMr Snow Station "J" JamaicaPosts: 1,736MI6 Agent
    philpog wrote:
    I would rank NSNA somewhere in the middle. I find it superior not only to THUNDERBALL, but also Connery's last two EON films (YOLT and DAF), all four of Brosnan's snooze-inducing efforts, and even the bloated, overrated SKYFALL.

    The film has a wonderfully relaxed, self-deprecating Connery performance, two of the best Bond villains (Largo and Fatima), and some great, cheeky one-liners. It's ultimately let down by a slow-going third act and budget constraints.

    Just out of curiosity, were you Tommy (Pinball Wizard)?
    "Everyone knows rock n' roll attained perfection in 1974; It's a scientific fact". - Homer J Simpson
  • ChriscoopChriscoop Belize Posts: 10,449MI6 Agent
    ^ :))
    It was either that.....or the priesthood
  • Gassy ManGassy Man USAPosts: 2,972MI6 Agent
    ml94 wrote:
    Gassy Man wrote:
    It's better than some -- I liked it better than OP and AVTAK, for instance.
    Why better than OP?
    Both films are basically a redux of GF, for starters. I wasn't crazy about the production, either -- India has never been a draw for me on film. I have nothing against the country or its people, but onscreen depictions generally seem dour to me. I also saw the film in theaters, and at the time, two things were very common.

    First, there was a rash of films set in India that hit theaters after Gandhi -- A Passage to India, Octopussy, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Deceivers, The Razor's Edge etc. Even if some were released after OP, there was plenty of hype, and in those days before the Internet, only a handful of outlets that publicized them, so the sudden, constant influx of India-related marketing, to me, got played out pretty fast.

    The other issues is that Glen's films signaled a change in how the Soviets were used as villains. In previous films, there was also something of a fantasy element to the Soviets -- the intermingling of SMERSH and SPECTRE, for instance, or the building of assassins like Red Grant. Even in The Spy Who Loved Me, the Soviets were treated in as extreme a way as MI:6, so that XXX was essentially a female Bond. But with the 1980s, the Soviets were treated, for lack of a better term, more realistically and less imaginatively. The lines were blurred more. On some level, this makes sense since Reagan and Thatcher were constantly going on and on about the "evil empire," but it made Bond seem less escapist and more a reminder of what I saw on the news every night. And I could just see that on the news.

    NSNA was more like a 60s film. It had SPECTRE, for starters, and more colorful characters, and it was filmed in a style closer to those films. For all the complaints that it was just a remake of Thunderball, which it was, OP and AVTAK just redid the formula for GF, and not remotely as well. Where OP and AVTAK are superior is mostly in elements that NSNA simply could not reproduce -- the use of the gunbarrel, for instance, and Bond theme and the supporting castmembers. Had these elements been available, though, NSNA would likely rise in people's appreciation.

    It's not without its flaws, though. At times, the pacing is off, and the attempts at humor mostly fall flat, especially with Rowan Atkinson and all the obvious self-awareness that it was celebrating the return of Connery in a non-official production. The title song is terrible, as is most of the soundtrack (Phyllis Hyman's original posted below was much better than the song that replaced it, but it sounds, perhaps, too much like a "real" Bond song). Because it had to avoid infringing on Eon's trademarks, it also just looks different -- M's office looks more like Colonel Ross's in The IPCRESS File than what we're used to, and Q's workshop looks more like someone's garage. These seem more concessions to avoid legal entanglements than artistic choices meaning that the production was hemmed in. The contrast is apparent and far too often jarring to a fan.

    But I still find NSNA much more entertaining than OP, and in the end, that's what counts most.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBvDSbFdgic
  • ml94ml94 FinlandPosts: 79MI6 Agent
    Ok, OP should have been Moore's swansong.
    "Bond, James Bond"
  • The Red KindThe Red Kind EnglandPosts: 3,119MI6 Agent
    Nope. NSNA isn't better than any of the 24 official films. I can watch it over CR'67 though.
    "Any of the opposition around..?"
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I can't watch either. Both utter rubbish :#
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • philpogphilpog Posts: 51MI6 Agent
    OGG007 wrote:
    Just out of curiosity, were you Tommy (Pinball Wizard)?

    The next generation of Helen Keller jokes.

    Give me strength. :s
  • JoshuaJoshua Posts: 1,138MI6 Agent
    I saw this film on the other day on tv. I did not like it as a James Bond film. I will now not watch this again I think.
  • ToTheRightToTheRight Posts: 314MI6 Agent
    Considering the Craig era purposely departs from several traditional Bondian elements that NSNA was limited by legally, I favor NSNA over quite a few of the disappointing later EON entries. I find NSNA far superior to TND, DAD, QoS, SF and SP for instance. I'll even go as far to say I find it no less faithful or true to the Fleming source material Thunderball than Craig's Casino Royale was to that novel.
    If indeed the rumors of an EON sale post Bond 25 ring true, and another studio/company acquires the rights to put Bond on the screen, we may have plenty on non-EON Bonds to compare to. Who's to say their Bond franchise won't look like every other CGI comic film out there starring Ben Affleck or Robert Downey Jr? Who's to say their Bond films won't depart so far from tradition to that it makes NSNA look more and more like classic FRWL Broccoli Bond?
  • FiremassFiremass AlaskaPosts: 1,910MI6 Agent
    Hard to say what is better, but I enjoy watching it more than YOLT, OHMSS, DAF, FYEO and SF.
    My current 10 favorite:

    1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
  • VesperMelogranoVesperMelograno The SouthPosts: 901MI6 Agent
    Basically anything is better than DAF...
    I've always wanted to have Christmas in Turkey
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