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Occasionally forgetting that he’s not making another Star Wars episode, Kershner doesn’t skimp on ideas, but he doesn’t bother to filter them in any way either, so he sets utterly stupid moments alongside amusingly silly ones. If the thirteenth-and-a-half Bond movie fails dramaturgically (zero build-up, an endlessly delayed ending), it excels in the degree of sexism that it contains. The somewhat cavemannish attitude towards women prevalent in the 1980s escalates with the elimination of a crazed feminist, which is one of the film’s several outright comedic scenes. Of course, there is an unhealthy amount of humour in many of the Roger Moore films, but even the worst of them had something essentially Bondian about them and were generally seriously intended. Never Say Never Again lacks that elementary seriousness, along with many other ingredients of Bond movies. I don’t understand why certain people had the need to show the world that Connery could still hold two joysticks at once. However, that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t entertained by this exceedingly strange non-Bond-centric Bond flick. Stepping out of and referencing the Bond universe (starting with the opening “simulation”) shows a humorous irreverence that would probably not be allowed in the official Bond films. 65% (01.07.2011)

When Sean Connery finished with the Bond series in 1971, he said something in the sense of never again... Unfortunately, after 12 years, he changed his mind and returned in a so-called unofficial Bond film with a distinctive title. But he is not responsible for the low quality of this film - on the contrary, it is pleasing to see that, years later, he still has sparkle and charm, even if he is not nearly as convincing in a tracksuit as he once was in Thunderball. Apropos – Thunderball. It was all its doing. The film's co-producer Kevin McClory realized he held the rights to the original script and decided to use them. Unfortunately, those rights were limited... to the characters and the story of Thunderball. So Never Say Never Again is a slightly different retelling classic about the kidnapping of atomic bombs. Different and worse. In the middle passage, where Young managed to captivate the audience with an excellent directorial style that is crucial for the Connery films, Irvin Kershner (director of the gem The Empire Strikes Back) flounders in both futility and bizarreness, and especially in the classic US action style, which is not suitable for Her Majesty's agent. He just can't induce the spirit of a real Bond movie, and that's the whole problem. Of course, the absence of the original Bond theme, replacing the endearingly conservative M with some annoying young bureaucrat, and so on and so forth... This time, Connery should have stayed with his “never again", because his Bond epilogue is at the level of the weakest Moore films. (15.11.2004)

It's not it. Being “unofficial” and controversial does not suit this film, and certainly not the James Bond theme. It often turns upside-down the traditional and repetitive trademarks. It starts with the opening theme, continues with different actors, and ends with a mediocre set-piece piece, although the main villain is brilliantly unpredictable. However, Sean Connery maintains his charisma and physical vitality even after 10 years. Unfortunately, he is alone in everything. Irvin Kershner is not a quality action director, he cannot escalate the pace and doesn't know how to handle action scenes. It was boring. (12.05.2014)

A strange (non)Bond movie. I had missed out on seeking it for a long time and I must say I didn't miss much. While Sean Connery is still at home in the lead role, and when it comes to action the viewer has something to watch, a lot of the rest of it is odd or downright bad. For example, a story ripped off from Thunderball that lacks any suspense and perhaps even meaning. Or Legrand's music, which is not even close to the quality of Barry's. Max von Sydow could have been a good Blofeld if he had been given proper space, and Klaus Maria Brandauer as the villain doesn't carry out any extra atrocities. Half an hour before the end, I was already bored, and the biggest shock was yet to come - yes, a horse jump that would not have made it into even the silliest Bond film with Roger Moore. Overall, it's weak, but there are some good scenes (for example, the opening and the whole recovery passage, including the fight in the gym). (16.01.2014)

Both the production team at Eon and McClory (owner of the rights to certain elements of the Bond universe that spawned this alternate shop) have tried to bring the plots more down to earth in their respective Bonds, as a reaction against the wackiness of the last Moore films (The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) full of space battles, submarine swallowers, lasers, and steel-toothed giants. And yet as befits the slimy old men in suits that the film's producers are, it didn't occur to anyone that the most unpleasant element was always above all the situation where a wrinkly old geezer sucks on a barely twenty-year-old beauty and she leaks through the bed because apparently nothing better has ever happened in her love life. Fifty-two year old Connery, who you'd give up your seat to on a streetcar, really does look more like a dirty old man with his lisp and combover, but the cheesy eighties ethos plays into his hands a bit here, where this unofficial episode has actually become more topical than the concurrently released true Bond film Octopussy. Apart from the high collars, there are video game fights, aerobics, a bunch of perms, high lady swimsuits, and crazy quasi-feminists. Combined with the setting in a tropical or subtropical region that raises constant beads of sweat on the foreheads of all involved, the entire cast, apart from the excellent villain, gives the impression of being over it, out of breath, and exhausted. Yet (like Octopussy with Grandpa Moore) these Bond films still retain heaps of ideas for action scenes, which despite the fact that they are all made up of stuntmen, still look far better and more thrilling than what we currently look at with the faces of real actors grafted onto digital bodies that can do who knows what kind of wickedness, but we know that the only ones doing the work are the graphics cards. (30.09.2019)