Never Say Never Again

Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by

MGM

• Cert:
• Cat.no: 19882 DVD
• Running time: 128 minutes
• Year: 1983
• Pressing: 2001
• Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 16 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Pro Logic)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English (and hard of hearing)
• Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
• 16:9-enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: No
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £15.99
• Extras: Theatrical Trailer
  

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  Director:

  Irvin Kershner

  (The Empire Strikes Back, The Eyes of Laura Mars, Loving, Never Say Never Again, Robocop 2, S*P*Y*S, TV: SeaQuest DSV)

Producer:

Jack Schwartzman

Screenplay:

Lorenzo Semple Jr

(from a story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming)

Music:

Michael Legrand

Cast:

James Bond: Sean Connery
Largo: Klaus Maria Brandauer
Blofeld: Max Von Sydow
Fatima: Barbara Carerra
Domino: Kim Basinger
Felix Leiter: Bernie Casey
Q Algy: Alec McCowen
M: Edward Fox
Miss Moneypenny: Pamela Salem
Small-Fawcett: Rowan Atkinson

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Released in the same year asOctopussy,Never Say Never Againwas a return to the Bond franchise for Sean Connery.Released as a ‘rival’ Bond film by the now-defunct Orion Pictures,the differences are obvious immediately in that there’s no trademarkJohn Barry theme accompanied by a stroll from right-to-centre beforeturning and firing, the film opens with the theme tune played over actioninstead of having the action first followed by a glossy credit sequenceand there’s a change in cast members for key roles.

Often seen as a remake ofThunderballbecause S.P.E.C.T.R.E. are at their worst again in making threats withbombs, the use of characters with the same names – such as Largo (KlausMaria Brandauer), sent to do Blofeld’s (Max Von Sydow) bidding,plus Domino (Kim Basinger), the good Bond girl, with Barbara Carerraas the bad alternative who takes Connery through another underwater divingscene early on.

As it’s not an official Bond product there’s no other regular cast members,so Q is affectionately known as “Algy” for Algernon (Alec McCowen),M is played by Edward Fox, Miss Moneypenny by Pamela Salem andFelix Leiter changes skin colour to become Bernie Casey. There’s alsoa small role for British comedian Rowan Atkinson, best known thesedays for his role asMr Bean,as another bumbling idiot, Bond’s informant Nigel Small-Fawcett.

As for the film itself, it’ll never be the best Bond film ever made butkeeps you entertained for the two hours, despite occasionally dragging.

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The film is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen which occasionalprint scratches and flecks but on the whole it looks very watchable.The average bitrate is 6.5Mb/s, briefly peaking over 9Mb/s.

The sound is in Dolby Pro Logic, or so my Sony STR-DB930 amplifier says, butit really doesn’t sound like that and there’s certainly no sound FX thatstand out, with the first 30 minutes of the soundtrack even sounding muffled toa degree.

In the extras dept. there’s just an 80-second theatrical trailer inanamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen.

The disc contains a mere 16 chapters and both dialogue and subtitles arein English, the latter containing a hard of hearing option.The main menu contains animation and music but nothing like to theextravangance we’ve come to expect from the Bond collection.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALLReview copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.

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