Action Hero MoviesThis movie — the third in the trilogy that was slowly rolled out over the course of 15 years — follows the pattern of the first two in how it’s similar in concept but each subsequent movie is a bit weaker than the one before it. However, this movie makes an extra big mistake in how it tries to give funny lines to pretty much all the cast. As such, I rate this movie Below Average.
Star: Rowan Atkinson
If you loved the original Johnny English from 2003 you’ll probably like this one too, although for me it’s slightly inferior. It’s a bit muddled and the original inspiration seems to have somewhat dwindled, however there’s still a lot of the good stuff in one form or another.
I rate it Bang Average for much the same reasons as I rated the original Above Average, while considering that this sequel seems slightly less cohesive — it’s slightly more muddled and lacks the beautiful Natalie Imbruglia of course — something the team probably realised by the time they made the third, hence the casting of Olga Kurylenko for that one.
This is a rare example of a really good action comedy, that’s actually regularly funny, even to the scarcely amused.
Rowan Atkinson, best known as the star of Mr Bean, plays the accident-prone but oft-lucky lead agent from MI7, assisted by his subordinate played by Ben Miller, as well as Interpol agent played by Natalie Imbruglia, tasked with stopping the criminal mastermind played by John Malkovich from becoming King of England and turning the UK into one big prison island.
I rate this movie Above Average for an action hero movie, because it lacks a slick action hero and all that comes with one, but is rather funny and quite well made with a strong cast.
Sequels
If you enjoyed this movie and want more, you’re in luck since there were a couple of sequels released over the course of the next 15 years: Johnny English Reborn (2011) with Gillian Anderson (from The X-Files) and Johnny English Strikes Again (2018) with Olga Kurylenko (from Hitman, Oblivion, etc).
This was Sean Connery‘s one-off return as James Bond after over a decade out. His last outing as Bond being in 1971 with Diamonds Are Forever and he was already looking aged compared to his debut with Dr No in 1962.
Never Say Never Again was one of only two Bond movies ever produced outside of Eon Productions – the other being Casino Royale (1967), although that was just a dull satire so struggles to even qualify as a Bond movie.
Never Say Never Again gets off to a respectable start, as a health farm used by MI6 agents seems to have been infiltrated by some enemy Spectre agents. It gets a bit slow and messy and the movie progresses, but the action & intrigue pick up nicely in the second hour, before dying down again and becoming very slow and tedious towards the end.
Interesting gadgets afforded to Bond by Q in this movie include a special motorbike and a fountain pen that shoots.
There are some scuba scenes in this movie too – one of them involves Bond needing to deal with a bunch of sharks.
Cast members
Sean Connery rolls back the years to deliver a strong performance as an aging James Bond.
Bond girls in this movie include Barbara Carrera as Fatima Blush, and Kim Basinger as Domino Vitali. They both do a fair job.
The main antagonist, Maximillian Largo, is played quite convincingly by Klaus Maria Brandauer.
Bernie Casey does a decent job as Felix Leiter from the American CIA.
We also get a minor part by Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) who entertainingly plays Bond’s assistant in one scene.
Rating
In summary, Never Say Never Again is a respectable movie, funded by Warner Bros, and almost of competes with the usual Bond standard, although I’d say it’s comfortably Connery’s worst Bond movie. It’s in dire need of editing to make it more concise, and some better cinematography because the angles are really lazy from time to time while the sound effects only prolong the boring bits. Because Connery’s getting so old here, he doesn’t have so much of his usual smooth & charming demeanour – although he’s still trying, it’s not so convincing any more – he looks more like a grandfather than a bachelor now. He’s still a great actor though. All things considered, I’d probably rate it So-So, slightly lower than Roger Moore’s worst Bond movie which was probably For Your Eyes Only (1981) which I rated Lower-OK.
Fun fact
Never Say Never Again also goes down in history as being the movie where Steven Seagal was hired to teach Sean Connery some Aikido, and during the course of training, Seagal broke Connery’s wrist! This may have set the filming of this movie back a bit, and it may have also set Seagal’s career back a bit too – he never made his own movie debut until Above The Law (1988). As with most broken joint injuries, Connery’s wrist never fully healed. In fact, he never actually knew his wrist was broken until over a decade later, when he discovered it was still broken in 1995, according to an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1996.