 | | |
James McMahon --
When Connery is on-screen as James Bond and looking the part, I'm a happy 007 fan. Connery looks tough and in control. In fact, much better than he did over a decade earlier in Diamonds Are Forever. Though the familiar EON faces and sets are gone, it's interesting to see alternate takes on M, Q and Largo. Klaus Maria Brandauer is better as Largo than Thunderball's Adolfo Celi, but we take a huge step backward in substituting the superficial Kim Basinger in place of Thunderball's luminous Claudine Auger. The talented Rowan Atkinson is completely out of place as unneeded comic relief. The film score is a great disappointment, saved from worst 007 score status only by Eric Serra's score for GoldenEye. Overall this is a fascinating glimpse into an alternate reality version of Thunderball, and in some areas manages to outdo the original.
Robert Cotton --
More Fleming than 70% of the Eon series. Connery 's return is handled fairly well, but production values are far too low. The Director claimed they didn t know the budget from day to day. It shows. Worst musical score in history.
Paul Baack --
This movie doesn't get the respect it deserves. Hobbled by it's lack of the familiar Eon trademarks, and seriously wounded by it's terrible Michel LeGrand score, it's still a pretty enjoyable, straightforward James Bond story, with some really good performances and crisp dover 20irection by the venerable Irvin Kirschner (The Empire Strikes Back). Of course, the main point of this movie is the return of Sean Connery to his most famous role. Twelve years after the shabby Diamonds Are Forever, Connery here looks, as they say, tanned, fit, and rested; much better than he looked the last time he assayed the role. He's clearly having a good time here, and has some pretty decent Bondian dialog lines courtesy to Lorenzo Semple Jr. script. Klaus Maria Brandauer and Barbara Carrera as SPECTRE baddies Maximilian Largo and Fatima Blush also have a swell time being as bad as they wanna be; Brandauer especially makes a great psychotic Bond villain.
NSNA was borne of a marketing questionnaire by Warner Bros. who were researching the public's desire to see another Clint Eastwood "Dirty Harry" movie; the questionnaire listed a number of actors and the roles they made famous, Connery and Bond were one of the matchups (Eastwood and his famous cop were buried halfway down the list). To the studio's surprise, there was a great interest in seeing a new Sean Connery 007 adventure. And of course there was Kevin McClory and Sean Connery, both with giant chips on their shoulders, with the legal rights to remake Thunderball and a ready-to-go screen treatment. Like the saying goes, the rest is history. It's unclear how much faith Warner Bros. had in the project -- the finished product up there on the screen clearly shows that there must have been some hard budgetary restraints.
At any rate, it's a competently-made James Bond movie; hell, it's better than that same year's Octopussy, and can/should be enjoyed by serious Bond fans as a sort-of "alternate universe" take on the "Bond Film" as a genre unto its own.
|
Bill Koenig --
Sean Connery wasn't just the star, he was a de-facto producer, his opinions having a major effect on the script and other aspects of the production, a remake of Thunderball. His performance is good, but he gets more mixed marks on how he influenced the script. The people who know the most about writing tend to be writers, after all. One gets the impression that this film was Connery's grudge match against Albert R. Broccoli. Yet, the movie, at times, is as uneven as Broccoli's lesser movies. Some people praise the tango scene between Connery and Kim Basinger. But it makes me groan because when he tells Domino that her brother is dead, it's played for laughs. The corresponding scene in Thunderball was much more powerful emotionally. Connery's choice of Michel LeGrand for composer is a major demerit for the film. Barbara Carrera's Fatima Blush is a big positive but her demise is too jokey. Screenwriter Loronzo Semple Jr. wrote both the pilot for the Adam West "Batman" series as the tense 1975 film "Three Days of the Condor." The NSNA script resembles both at times.
Ed Werner --
The bastard child. After all these years I still don't know if this should be considered part of the
Bond canon. Try as he may, Connery is just too old to play Bond here. Why did he feel the need
to remake Thunderball? Obviously he didn't bring anything more to the table than he did before.
But as a huge Connery and sixties Bond fan, it was kind of neat to see him play the role again
although no new ground was broken here.
Klaus Maria Brandauer plays a truly psychopathic Largo and is one of the best villains Bond
has ever battled. Unfortunately, Max von Sydow as Blofeld is a grave disappointment as he has
nothing to work with here. A missed opportunity if there ever was one. Kim Basinger is without
a doubt the blandest Bond girl to ever grace the screen and Fatima Blush played by Barbara
Carrera, is a cartoon.
Michael Reed --
I don't mind an aged Bond, but I do mind a terrible score, foolish scenes and over-the-top acting by Carerra and Brandauer. Too slow. The video game sequence is laughibly not right for a James Bond film.
Tom Zielinski --
Kevin McClory had pursued Sean Connery to do a remake of his Thunderball for many years. In 1983, he got his man. Come 2007, NSNA does not hold up especially well. The music is forgettable, the familiar EON trademarks are missing, the special effects are lacking, and James Bond playing a video game is more than a bit incongruous. But NSNA also has a rejuvenated and fit looking Sean Connery who seems to be enjoying himself greatly. The screenplay based on Fleming/McClory´s Thunderball novel and one of the best casts of any James Bond film makes this one memorable. Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max Von Sydow, Kim Basinger, Edward Fox are terrific. Even Barbara Carrera, Bernie Casey, and Rowan Atkinson are fun to watch. To McClory and Connery´s credit, this is a better James Bond film than several EON entries. Interestingly, EON acquired the rights to this bastard stepchild a few years ago.
|
