Never Say Never Again is an "unofficial" James Bond film. The legal processes it took to get the film made is more interesting than the movie itself, so I mention them here. I know that all of this is true because I read it on Wikipedia.
Before the official series began, Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond and author of the novels on which the film series is based wrote a screenplay for a potential first Bond film. The movie was not made and the film rights of to the novels were sold to Albert R. Broccoli, who produced the official series until his death, starting with Dr. No in 1962. Fleming then took the unproduced script and turned into a novel, Thunderball, which was produced by Broccoli as the fourth Bond film in 1965. However, the original story treatment still legally belonged to producer Kevin McClory, or at least, McClory thought so. A legal battle ensured, and in an out-of-court settlment, it was decided that McClory did indeed have the rights to the film treatment of Thunderball (not the novel)-but could not produce any a film from the material until twenty years had passed.
Twenty years later, McClory decides to make his movie. The problem is that Broccoli has made a highly successful series of Bond films himself, with George Lazenby and Roger Moore suceeding Sean Connery as 007. How can McClory compete with the Moore series? Lure back Connery. How can he do that, when Connery said he hated the character and would never play the role again? Simply pay the actor a really, really large sum of money! Ah, I love Hollywood.
Was McClory's effort worth it? Financially, yes, as the film was a hit (so was Broccoli's Octopussy, released the same year). From a cinematic standpoint, the film isn't very good. The biggest problem is that there seems to be a certain sense of sleaziness to the whole enterprise, as Never Say Never Again is obviously made to ripoff the Broccoli series. The attempt doesn't quite work, however, it never seems like a real Bond film. Even with Connery, things don't seem quite right without the theme music, the traditional opening sequence (in which Bond kills the veiwer from the point of view of a gun barrel), the big prolouge, title sequence, and supporting cast of M, Q, and Miss Monneypenny (though those characters are present here, they are played by different actors and it doesn't jive). The sexism in this movie is really rampant, making the Broccoli series look feminist by comparison.
Connery gives a fun performance, but something is different. It doesn't seem to be the same Bond from the 60's. He's less debonair and more of a pig, an interesting character, but not quite the ultra-cool one from Goldfiner and Diamonds are Forever. An even worse acting dissapoinment is Max Von Sydow, one of the greatest actors ever, who gives a complelty typical, almost phoned in performance as Bond's arch-nemisis, Ernst Stavo Blofield. Too bad.
Overall, the movie is just boring. This is surprising since Irwin Kershner directed the best Star Wars movie and doesn't have a problem with action sequences.
Never Say Never Again is interesting to see how another cinematic treatment of Bond looks, but it just reminds us that despite his series flaws, Broccoli found at least theorically the best approach, and executed near perfectly with For Your Eyes Only and came close with The Man with the Golden Gun. It's interesting for the differances, but it just reminds us how effective the "real" series is.
Never Say Never Again (1983)