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Never Say Never Again..."Yes, But My Martini's Still Dry"

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Comments

  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,413
    Ah yes of course. Yeah I think they weren’t going to hold it against someone in a crowd like that who hadn’t been on one for 14 years.
  • DaltonFanDaltonFan California
    Posts: 69
    Possibly the best one-liner in the entire Bond Franchise!
  • ColonelSunColonelSun
    Posts: 1,493
    DaltonFan wrote: »
    Possibly the best one-liner in the entire Bond Franchise!

    Yes, and I also love Bond's reply to Largo, who asks him, "Are you as good a loser as you are a winner?"
    Bond; "I wouldn't know, I've never lost."

  • STLCards3STLCards3
    Posts: 230
    Good: I thought Brandauer did a solid job as Largo.
    Plenty of eye-candy.
    The battle with Lupe was one of the best in the series.
    Bernie Casey was WAY better than most of the Leiters in the series

    Bad: The production quality
    The dated 1980's score and attire
    the climax
    zero chemisry between Bond and Bassinger
    the Domination game was a poor (and overly long) replacement for baccarat game



  • QBranchQBranch Always have an escape plan. Mine is watching James Bond films.
    Posts: 14,582
    I find it very relaxing to watch. Perfect film for a Sunday afternoon.
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,216
    NSNA was on the other day; despite it’s obvious shortcomings, I enjoyed it more than I anticipated. Connery was fantastic, as were much of the supporting cast. Like the superior Thunderball, the underwater scenes are a bit ponderous and the lack of a great score illustrates the importance of music .
    One thing that struck me about the production values and design is how much it reminded me of LTK; both look like a typical 80’s television show.!

    Connery looked so great, and slid back into the role so well, that one thing that crossed my mind, what if in an alternate universe, what if following FYEO Moore had called it a day and Connery returned for OP. Moore was great as t in the film but it would have been incredible as a curtain call for Connery.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,413
    One thing I only heard recently is that Rocky Taylor is the only stuntman to have doubled for two Bonds -Roger and Sean- in the same year as he worked on both this and Octopussy :)
  • ColonelSunColonelSun
    Posts: 1,493
    I have to say I really enjoy NSNA, particularly for Connery and many of the supporting cast. I do prefer the film to OP, AVTAK and DAD.
  • j_w_pepperj_w_pepper Born on the bayou, but I now hear a new dog barkin'
    edited May 2023 Posts: 9,040
    Quote from an interview between the Hamburger Abendblatt (the regional Hamburg paper) and Klaus Maria Brandauer published today. Translation by deepl.com, I find it ok:

    "(HA): You made it to Hollywood as one of the few Austrian actors (among others with the James Bond film "Never Say Never Again", 1983, "Out of Africa", 1985). You once described the Bond film as an operetta. Why?

    (KMB): In the 1930s and 1940s there were some actors from Austria and also from Hungary there. I wasn't the only one there. I was very lucky and that gave me a lot of pleasure. I won't tell you how many films I didn't make. And Bond, what else could it be but an operetta? I can also say they were cold war films. That's what they were there for. In the East is the devil, they said. There we take German people who play the bad guy - it can be an Austrian sometimes. It's a game. An excellent one, by the way. Also in terms of the text. It's fabulous. I like to watch it. The Bond I made, though, least of all."

    I think that the choice of Christoph Waltz for Blofeld is a direct continuation of Brandauer's role in NSNA. But I enjoyed Brandauer more.

    EDIT: I corrected the movie titles in the first paragraph. They were a correct translation of the German titles of the movies, but not equal to the original English titles.

  • RevelatorRevelator
    Posts: 2,918
    In his best moments Brandauer conveyed real creepiness and psychosis, whereas Waltz was doing his usual shtick and came across as campy.

    I've never heard the Bond films described as operetta before, but now that I think about it, the comparison is somehow apt.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,413
    Revelator wrote: »
    In his best moments Brandauer conveyed real creepiness and psychosis, whereas Waltz was doing his usual shtick and came across as campy.

    I don’t disagree; I think Brandauer is excellent. But to be fair NSNA has a rubbish Blofeld too :)
  • 007HallY007HallY
    Posts: 4,162
    Bradauer’s performance is one I’ve actually always been on the fence about. The cast in NSNA is a mixed bag anyway for me (it ranges from the likes of Fox’s M and Von Sydow’s Blofeld, both of which I find awful, to Casey’s Leiter and Carera as Fatima Blush who give performances that rival many in the EON series). I sort of get what he was trying to do with his Largo. It’s interesting seeing someone who’s outwardly charming and good looking but is actually a creepy sociopath.

    Maybe it’s the material he’s given or maybe his performance is slightly too toned down for my taste, but I just never felt his Largo reached the heights of being genuinely scary. A bit creepy maybe, but not especially threatening.
  • DEKE_RIVERSDEKE_RIVERS
    Posts: 1,368
    mtm wrote: »
    I always think it's a weird choice to move the action from the Bahamas to the French Riveria, because they don't really contrast onscreen and you could be forgiven for not really noticing that Bond has travelled halfway around the world. I get that obviously they need to be by the sea because of the whole yacht thing, but the Eon Bond films use and contrast their locations better.

    LALD and LTK have the same problem.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited October 2023 Posts: 16,413
    007HallY wrote: »
    Bradauer’s performance is one I’ve actually always been on the fence about. The cast in NSNA is a mixed bag anyway for me (it ranges from the likes of Fox’s M and Von Sydow’s Blofeld, both of which I find awful, to Casey’s Leiter and Carera as Fatima Blush who give performances that rival many in the EON series). I sort of get what he was trying to do with his Largo. It’s interesting seeing someone who’s outwardly charming and good looking but is actually a creepy sociopath.

    Maybe it’s the material he’s given or maybe his performance is slightly too toned down for my taste, but I just never felt his Largo reached the heights of being genuinely scary. A bit creepy maybe, but not especially threatening.

    I think he's close enough to being scary, he does seem a little more on the edge than the usual Bond villain. I definitely get the impression that Zorin was inspired by him, Bond villains hadn't really gone full psycho before and then suddenly we have two, young, blond ones in a row- a little suspicious!
  • 007HallY007HallY
    Posts: 4,162
    mtm wrote: »
    007HallY wrote: »
    Bradauer’s performance is one I’ve actually always been on the fence about. The cast in NSNA is a mixed bag anyway for me (it ranges from the likes of Fox’s M and Von Sydow’s Blofeld, both of which I find awful, to Casey’s Leiter and Carera as Fatima Blush who give performances that rival many in the EON series). I sort of get what he was trying to do with his Largo. It’s interesting seeing someone who’s outwardly charming and good looking but is actually a creepy sociopath.

    Maybe it’s the material he’s given or maybe his performance is slightly too toned down for my taste, but I just never felt his Largo reached the heights of being genuinely scary. A bit creepy maybe, but not especially threatening.

    I think he's close enough to being scary, he does seem a little more on the edge than the usual Bond villain. I definitely get the impression that Zorin was inspired by him, Bond villains hadn't really gone full psycho before and then suddenly we have two, young, blond ones in a row- a little suspicious!

    Good point. And hey, getting Zorin out of that isn’t a bad thing. I do think Walken has a more natural charisma/weirdness to him that makes him more suited to playing a Bind villain.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,281
    Revelator wrote: »
    In his best moments Brandauer conveyed real creepiness and psychosis, whereas Waltz was doing his usual shtick and came across as campy.

    I've never heard the Bond films described as operetta before, but now that I think about it, the comparison is somehow apt.

    I think I've said this on here before (I know I have on Twitter, same username btw) but I count the following Bond villains (both literary and film) as the maddest of the lot: YOLT novel Blofeld, Max Largo, Max Zorin and David Dragonpol (Gardner's NSF). Witness how both Largo and Zorin use an axe as a weapon. The scene where Largo smashes the room up with the axe is madness at its finest. Ditto YOLT Blofeld luring suicidal Japanese to his Garden of Death, Zorin carrying out the treacherous mine massacre and Dragonpol killing notable victims simply because he's good at it and he can.
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