James Bond 007: Never Say McClory Again

The editor's stated intention is to bring this in line with other Bond films and essentially make it feel 'more Bond'. I think the result here is a really mixed bag in that respect, and also not any more enjoyable for me than the original (not very good) film...so I unfortunately can't recommend it.

I won't go into the many, many issues with the original movie (you can read a review I wrote here if you'd like to know: https://letterboxd.com/nottheacademy/film/never-say-never-again/) but I was hoping they'd be fixed in this film, at least somewhat. This movie could honestly do with a radical edit, and this isn't it. The main things changed here are the music choices... now some of the score replacements DO feel more 'Bond'...because they're from other Bond films. But many feel wildly wrong, and they almost all stick out like a sore thumb, whether matching Bond or not. All the Bond song remixes just scream "fanedit" to me, whereas I was looking for more subtle changes that would make me FORGET I wasn't watching a non-canon Bond film.

There are also some scenes which are edited with little tweaks here and there, and some of them (notably the beginning) actually make the scene less clear and slightly confusing. Some scenes are zoomed in on, pan & scan style, which is obvious and looks pretty bad. In fact, the quality of the video is really pretty bad throughout much of this, and the audio isn't blended in that well at many points.

I see that this worked for some people, and they got their Bond jollies, but sadly it was a chore for me. I felt every minute of the last 30 minutes of the film, and was kicking myself for not just rewatching Thunderball instead. I don't blame the editor for this just not being a very good movie to start, but I think there is room to cut this down a lot more, render the video better, and make more nuanced music replacements. I appreciate the effort here, but it just didn't work for me.

Never Say McClory Again by Blofeld’s Cat

Hands down, my least favorite 007 film. Connery simply too old.
He was 53 at this stage, and could better have played M (Lee began at 52).
When this came out theatrically, I had such hopes for it.
Likewise this edit.

Did not like the audio work.
Quite distracting trying to place one theme with another movie.
Absolutely no idea of what was cut from the video aside from the wry comment about “endorsements.”
It seemed like all the other asinine humor jokes were left in the movie.
Video game battle with Largo remained, along with Fox’s foppish portrayal of M.
Carrera still smokin’ and still a ridiculous, pitiful caricature.
This edit should have / could have been so much better.

May 27, 2010

I like the idea, and I like most of the new music selection used and the way it all developed (if some of it is not perfectly timed). Yet the technical quality of the DVD authoring was sorely lacking. A motion blur-like “effect” was present all through it, no doubt courtesy of Canopus ProCoder, and the end credits fail, interrupt, and mix themselves with a defective menu screen.

As for the video edit, pretty well done overall, but I felt that some character aspects could have been “EONized” as well. I mean, cutting the lines of “buddy” Q saying he missed Bond, or “dumb” Moneypenny’s “Ooh!” in her first scene (thankfully we lost her “be careful”), and the likes. Also, I detested what you did to the motorcycle chase, cutting back and forth from the car to the bike again and again and again. Looked like the work of a kid who had just discovered Windows Movie Maker and was trying to show off, sorry. Everything else, I liked fine.

With a better DVD, this might have been a 7, or even an 8. Due to technical issues, I can’t rate it higher than a 5.