Review of Never Say Never Again

A slower, mellower, more relaxed Bond film, in keeping with the middle-aged (though still witty and spry) Bond who stars in it. Some terrific individual sequences (the opening, the fight with the comic-book superhuman henchman, the interactive video game - people say it's dated but I think it's still way cool, the tango dance, the bike / car chase, the final Bond-Fatima confrontation, Bond's ecsape from captivity, etc.) do not quite add up to a satisfying whole, and the climax is particularly weak and deflated. On the other hand, Connery has a lot of fun, Brandauer is a mischievous villain, Von Sydow is the most authoritative Blofeld ever (though he is underused, despite being third-billed), and Carrera is probably the best Bond villainess since....Luciana Paluzzi of the original "Thunderball"? There have been worse "official" Bond films for sure (Connery himself has starred in one of them). **1/2 out of 4.