Hacker Cinema
Never Say Never Again
1983 · Film · 134 min
Part of James Bond Collection
Directed by Irvin Kershner
James Bond returns as the secret agent 007 to battle the evil organization SPECTRE. Bond must defeat Largo, who has stolen two atomic warheads for nuclear blackmail. But Bond has an ally in Largo's girlfriend, the willowy Domino, who falls for Bond and seeks revenge.
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6 comments on Hacker News
I've never really been a bond fan, but of course the craig era eschews much of the almost 100% of the camp of previous generations. Except (and you'll need to pardon me, i've seen each of these movies at most once and they don't really stick in my brain at all) maybe the villan who's face had been eaten by acid or something, it's not jawz or oddjob levels of camp but it's getting there.
Earlier bonds i've seen a few here and there but missed many. Like I've seen moonraker, but never thunderball, view to a kill but not goldeneye, octopussy but not never say never again. I couldn't tell you what any of the plots were (other than i'm pretty sure they go to a moon base in moonraker) or which villan goes with which film. Bond, to me, has always been kind of a mystery to me, how do these terrible films keep getting made?
I will also say that 'yes' to thor rangnarok, no to 'love and thunder' which i thought got mired in too many plots and had too many inappropriately timed jokes. Like do the Jane arc or do the Gor arc, but if you do either right they don't both fit in the film. So instead they opted to do a half assed version of each.
sigh
Let me guess: you were born in the 70s to 80s, and the 80s/90s were a formative time for you? That is because you don't remember all the shit that played in whatever golden time period you're imagining. You only remember the hits. You're not accurately remembering the broad distribution of what was on the radio and in theaters in the past, which also contained a lot of crap that you likely never would have wasted your money on. Terrible movies got dumped to TV specials or direct-to-video (today they get dumped to streaming platforms), so even if we filter to what was released in theaters, we're missing a lot of crap.
But how about we look at the top grossing films of 1983 [1], 30 years ago? Some of these hold up and are the classics you remember, like #1 Star Wars Return of the Jedi (still a franchise though), #2 Terms of Endearment, #4 Trading Places, #5 WarGames, #10 Risky Business, #11 National Lampoon's Vacation, #13 The Big Chill, #16 Scarface. Bonafide classics, no question there.
But go even a little down the list and you get middling sequels and formulaic franchise films: #6 Octopussy (formulaic Bond film, which was the Marvel of its time), #7 Sudden Impact (Dirty Harry sequel, not great), #8 Staying Alive (Saturday Night Fever sequel, not great), #12 Superman III (one of the worst Superman films of all time, but ahead of Superman IV), #14 Never Say Never Again (another Bond film, better than Octopussy, but still two in one year), #15 Jaws 3-D (one of the worst action films of all time), #20 Psycho II (another meh sequel).
And these are the top 20 movies ranked on how many people paid to see them in the theaters. There are hundreds of others that were regularly shown in theaters that I'm sure you can't recall. Some are classics now (Videodrome, Monty Python's Meaning of Life), but most are not.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/list/ls051080169/
Rowan Atkinson appears in "Never Say Never Again" as a character that is almost Mr. Bean. It's not really a cameo though.
Minnie Driver had a cameo in "Goldeneye", and Madonna had a small role in one of the Brosnan flicks. Richard Branson also appeared in one of the Brosnan films.
Other than that, it's mostly production folks:
https://www.007museum.com/Bond_cameos.htm
I love his Bond films, just pure fun. And, god, he was sexy. They don’t make ‘em like they used to!
Few favorites:
- You Only Live Twice (1967)
- Never Say Never Again (1983)
- Goldfinger (1964)
Very interesting historical example! (I did not know this about the film industry.)
But when I think of the 80's, I think of awesome concepts for films. When I think of the early 2000's I remember...nothing outstanding?
Compare for yourself:
http://www.imdb.com/search/title/?release_date=1980,1989&title_type=feature
(Many of which I had in mind as I wrote the first paragraph.)
And:
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls057556971/
I've seen many of those films: I couldn't remember a single one. Also throwaway films like Bond films are in the list.
There were between 5 and 9 Bond films in the 80s depending on how you count (for example License to Kill, For your eyes only, The living daylights, Octopussy, A view to Kill, Never say never again, The Naked Face, Bonds are Forever) not one of which made it to the first cited list above, edged out by better and more memorable stories and films.
Who is going to remember "Up in the air" in ten years?
The fact is, although there are twice as many (my first link shows 50, my second list 100), there is hardly a concept among them.
So the interesting fact you've stated about the eighties can be seen very, very clearly. The concepts from the 2000s...simply suck. Your additional information about the market history of concepts is most interesting.
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EDIT: in response to ajmurmann's reply below:
So I consider those worse concepts than the concepts embodied in the first list, movies from the 80s. Really look at the two lists (really) and see the strength of the concept behind them. They're worlds apart (to me.)
I realize this will be a subjective judgment. Look at the overall impression, not just one or two films.
Of all movies to quote, he picks Never Say Never Again...