Connery has always said From Russia With Love was his favorite Bond film and he didn't like how EON eventually moved away from grounded storytelling into the realm of camp and special effects.
Never Say Never Again turned out to be one of the campiest films in the series.
What can you say...money talks
shareI agree. He really didn't evidently care to play Bond as serious character in DAF or NSNA. He apparently had a pretty horrid experience during filming of You Only Live Twice in 1967 and this really sourced his feelings on playing Bond. He just didn't to take it seriously after that. He won't even talk about Bond now, typical Scottish man bitterness lol.
shareWell NSNA is not near as campy as DAF in my opinion.
shareI agree with you. Connery was better in NSNA. He was basically having fun with it I think. Enjoying himself. But a little too much if you ask me. It's basically Connery playing an alternate Roger Moore incarnation.
Diamonds is clearly a complete piss-take on Connery part. It definitely phoned in that performance!
I didn't mind Connery's performance in DAF, and I do not understand why a lot of people had a problem with him there. As far as playing an alternate Roger Moore in NSNA, I think he does a better job of playing an alternate Roger Moore, than Roger Moore does at playing Roger Moore. So it works for me.
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He supposedly made NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN because his career had taken a massive nosedive in the '70s, with many box office bombs. I've noticed a lot of people look back at this film as crap, but back then it was a big hit.
The original draft titled "WARHEAD" was apparently more campy and over the top. I would have loved to see that version made.
http://www.freewebs.com/demonictoys/
https://www.datalounge.com/thread/21631960-anyone-follow-james-bond-films-
With Connery his reasons for leaving, coming back, then coming back again basically boiled down to money.share
The second time is interesting because Never Say Never Again was independent from the other Bond Films. It's a complicated story, but a screenwriter who worked with Fleming in the early days wound up wth the rights to the story which was originally made as Thunderball. He shopped it around, and the money was so good Connery came back. In fact, he shopped it a second time and was threatening to make it again with Dalton until Sony quietly wrote him a giant check to get the story rights back.
It's not my favorite Bond film (the big scene with the killer video game is absurd), but I sort of like seeing Connery in his early 50's playing Bond as an older, wiser, and a bit slower character.
—Anonymous
reply 28 Yesterday at 8:58 AM
I think this film highlights the issues of having the lead actor also be a producer with significant creative control. We are currently witnessing the same problems with the Daniel Craig films. He's the first actor portraying Bond to ever be credited as a producer in the official Eon series.
shareNot anywhere near as campy as Diamonds Are Forever.
shareIt wasn't campy compared to the Bond films made in the 70s.
The Bond movies had never been realistic, but by then they were getting really over the top to the point that they were practically parodies. For example, in Live and Let Die Bond kills a villain by making him swallow a pill that causes him to blow up like a balloon and fly to the ceiling before exploding.