How could NSNA be improved?, cut n paste to make this Bond shine Options

[Kingdom Come]

1/ Change director.
2/ Change Connery's make-up artist.
3/ Bring in another writer (the brilliant Aaron Sorkin)
to redraft.
4/ Change all the sound people.
5/ Change Barbara Carrera!
6/ We want a 'proper' title sequence.

[Harmsway]

5/ Change Barbara Carrera!

What?!?!

Barbara Carrera is one of the best pieces of NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN!

[Qwerty]

5/ Change Barbara Carrera!

Why?

[dinovelvet]

5/ Change Barbara Carrera!

What?!?!

Barbara Carrera is one of the best pieces of NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN!

Yeah she was good. I think the casting of NSNA is fine as it is, although I would dump/change the scene where she forces Bond to write about her. That's just going too far with the 'talking villain' stuff.

[Andrew]

Cover up Connery's tattoo.

[DLibrasnow]

5/ Change Barbara Carrera!

Carrera was great in that movie, the best femme fatale that Bond has ever faced.

[Hotwinds]

If I had to change only one thing, it would be the musical soundtrack.

[Harmsway]

5/ Change Barbara Carrera!

Carrera was great in that movie, the best femme fatale that Bond has ever faced.

I perfera Luciana Paluzzi's Fiona Volpe, myself. Carrera's fantastic, though.

[cvheady007]

5/ Change Barbara Carrera!

Carrera was great in that movie, the best femme fatale that Bond has ever faced.

I perfera Luciana Paluzzi's Fiona Volpe, myself. Carrera's fantastic, though.

I was just thinking precisely the same thing.

The only thing I would have changed about NSNA would have been to have a traditional Bond score (had it been possible).

[Harmsway]

5/ Change Barbara Carrera!

Carrera was great in that movie, the best femme fatale that Bond has ever faced.

I perfer Luciana Paluzzi's Fiona Volpe, myself. Carrera's fantastic, though.

I was just thinking precisely the same thing.

The only thing I would have changed about NSNA would have been to have a traditional Bond score (had it been possible).

Well, I would have changed a bit more than that. I would have:

1) Gotten rid of the absolutely horrid costume designs
2) Cut that awful title song and replace it with underscore
3) Recast Kim Basinger
4) Restructure the second half, redoing the whole "Largo's African hideaway" sequence and removing the jet missile thingamabobs, as well as give the final battle some actual tension
5) Re-edited the film to make it a little more taut

But that's about it.

[stamper]

If I had to change only one thing, it would be the musical soundtrack.

http://neversaymccloryagain.ohmss-007.com/

I appears this recut / rescored version is the answer to us all !

This post has been edited by stamper: 20 February 2006 - 09:25

[Fro]

The biggest thing the film needed is a couple cuts and a John Barry score.

Irvin Kershner's direction is completely fine (in fact, pretty good). That's the same guy who directed "The Empire Strikes Back".

[hcmv007]

Never watch it again. Ever.

[WC]

Are we talking about what could've been done to the film in retrospect (ie a sort of fantasy reimagining) or what can be done to improve it as it stands now?

If we're talking about the first, I'd say get rid of Kim Basinger and reinstate that pre-title sequence which was supposed to involve some jousting with Connery as a knight chasing a villain through a car park. Also, get rid of Rowan Atkinson.

To make the best of it now though, I'd say:

a) put a gunbarrel at the start
have the training exercise be the pre-titles sequence
c) have a new title sequence
d) change parts of the soundtrack to include the Bond theme etc

[stamper]

I don't get it, I have on DVD that version you mention, I never watched the original one ever... again... after having seen the eonised cut

[WC]

I don't get it, I have on DVD that version you mention, I never watched the original one ever... again... after having seen the eonised cut

Which DVD version I mention? Is there something different on the DVD to the original?

[stamper]

Yes, all the things you guys wish to improve, reediting, new music score by Barry etc are in the eonised version.

Do you guys browse this forum ??? the url was posted several times

http://neversaymccloryagain.ohmss-007.com/

Click on the link, to get to the site, where you can download excerpts of the improved version of NSNA (once you get to the index page, you have to click on the other links to access features, I hope it's not too complicated)

[WC]

Yes, all the things you guys wish to improve, reediting, new music score by Barry etc are in the eonised version.

Do you guys browse this forum ??? the url was posted several times

http://neversaymccloryagain.ohmss-007.com/

Click on the link, to get to the site, where you can download excerpts of the improved version of NSNA (once you get to the index page, you have to click on the other links to access features, I hope it's not too complicated)

Well I had a look at a few of the samples. Some of it is quite cool, but I actually found the TND soundtrack really distracting and out of place. And I didn't like the History Repeating during the title sequence. I would've kept the score completely to John Barry instead of all these others, and only from the Connery movies. Also, I would've kept the actual Never Say Never Again title piece. At the moment, with the Shirley Bassey, it looks a bit fan-made and as if someone just edited together a nifty little movie clip. The Lani Hall song would've cut out that distraction and allowed viewers to focus on the film instead of all the little tricks and "look how clever I was here" sort of thing.

[Blofelds Cat]

Well I had a look at a few of the samples. Some of it is quite cool, but I actually found the TND soundtrack really distracting and out of place. And I didn't like the History Repeating during the title sequence. I would've kept the score completely to John Barry instead of all these others, and only from the Connery movies. Also, I would've kept the actual Never Say Never Again title piece. At the moment, with the Shirley Bassey, it looks a bit fan-made and as if someone just edited together a nifty little movie clip. The Lani Hall song would've cut out that distraction and allowed viewers to focus on the film instead of all the little tricks and "look how clever I was here" sort of thing.

Never Say McClory Again was never meant to replace or supplant NSNA.

Naturally the title sequence looks 'fan made' because the visuals were not custom-designed. I have neither the software nor the patience to composite a new title sequence.

To infuse NSNA with the Eon soul, the Lani Hall song had to go. Shirley Bassey was the only choice to sing the 'new' title song and History Repeating is perfect on many levels of meaning.

It was not my intent to say, 'look how clever I was here' during any part of the project. There were problems to be worked around and I did so in as seamless and unobtrusive a manner as possible. In doing so there had to be tradeoffs - notably in the area of burned-in title removal or cropping.

It is simply impossible to produce a perfect recut from a composite work such as a DVD.

Never Say McClory Again should be judged on its own merit, not strictly in comparison to something else.

As for the music, I agree that an exclusively Barry/Connnery score would have been the ideal but the practical reality is there are no appropriate Barry cues for every scene that requires music.

Barry is more represented in the new soundtrack than any other composer but I defy anyone to name a Barry cue that works better than Bond 77 in the motorcycle chase scene. I listened to every cue of every 007 soundtrack and selected tracks for their relevance to the pace and spirit of a given scene. From all the feedback I have received, I nailed the music about 90% of the time for the common taste (everyone has passages they don't like but not everyone dislikes the same passages).

Never Say McClory Again is an alternative to NSNA and as such should not be taken seriously.

cheers,

Blofelds Cat
Producer of Never Say McClory Again
Le Bastard sad magnifique

[dunmall]

I would probably leave the film as is but I would love to see a movie about making the movie.... but then again I'd like to see one of those for CR 67 too!

[A Kristatos]

5/ Change Barbara Carrera!

What?!?!

Barbara Carrera is one of the best pieces of NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN!

Yeah she was good. I think the casting of NSNA is fine as it is, although I would dump/change the scene where she forces Bond to write about her. That's just going too far with the 'talking villain' stuff.

Yeah, you're not kidding! At least here, her feelings toward Bond probably were the reason she hesitated killing him. A better (or should I say worse) example of going too far with the talking villain occurs in Moonraker when Drax just stands around mumbling something almost inaudible and not pulling the trigger before Bond sends him on his "giant leap" for mankind! Ugghh!!! No wonder the "fallacy of the talking killer" is made fun of so much in the Austin Powers movies! If Carrera or Drax did not want to kill Bond, they could have just had Scott Evil do it for them!

[krypt]

I wish Sony/MGM would do a "remastered" special edition DVD of NSNA along the lines of the fan-edit. Gunbarrel start, training exercise as pre-titles sequence, new title sequence and inclusions of the James Bond theme in the score would work wonders.

[Daddy Bond]

Where to begin?

Well, I just don't dislike NSNA as a Bond movie, I dislike it as a movie, period.

What an awful film!

1. I would have gotten rid of the title song (and burned the orignal recording for being one of the most awful pieces of music I have ever heard). What were they thinking? Why didn't someone notice (in previewing the film before release) what a terrible "tune" this is?
2. Replace Kim Basinger. My second most irritating Bond girl after those in AVTAK.
3. Dumped the entire pre-title sequence. Too 70's, too terrible, too boring.
4. Didn't like the guy who played M one bit.
5. Cut A LOT of film, this film needs some MAJOR editing, it drags (IN MANY scenes) worse than the underwater scenes in TB.
6. Fired the fashion consultant and blackballed them from Hollywood. What awful outfits the ladies wore. YUCK!
7. Come up with SOME music that sounded Bond-like (something similar to the theme from OHMSS).
8. While I like Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean, I don't like him as a spy - just SILLY!.
9. Add music in MANY places. The film is flat and quite (like much of the motorcycle chase).

[WhiteKnight2000]

I've just seen the Double O Heaven (NSMA) cut of NSNA and it's amazing.

You guys really need to get hold of the full DVD, the clips on the site are just the tip of the iceberg. I watched the whole film with a smile on my face. The re-edit now plays as the greatest hits Bond movie that DAD was trying to be and failed.



This post has been edited by WhiteKnight2000: 22 July 2006 - 12:23

[Mharkin]

Overall NSNA was a kinda good movie but Connery was to old then and i dont think that Maclory should of made it in the first place - the bond franchise would have done better without it

[WhiteKnight2000]

Connery was younger than Moore at the time.

[Turn]

Overall NSNA was a kinda good movie but Connery was to old then and i dont think that Maclory should of made it in the first place - the bond franchise would have done better without it

One of the refreshing parts of NSNA was that they made reference to Bond's age rather than trying to make him 30-something as EON has always done. It made for a nice change of pace and proved even an older Bond was as good as a younger one.

[The Richmond Spy]

If it had involved some of the same actors as the regular series (besides Sean, of course.) Even if it was just Lois Maxwell or Desmond or someone with very little screen time (I'm sure this would have been impossible though.) To me, the biggest flaw in this film is that it doesn't feel like a Bond film in a lot of scenes.

[Scottlee]

Just my sort of topic this, given that I really don't like NSNA much. Okay, improvements that could be made...

- Recast Von Sydow. Anyone else will do.
- Recast Kim Basinger. Anyone else will do
- Insert the EON gunbarrel and traditional title sequence.
- Replace "Jack" with a serious, suave, M16 lover of Fatima's that she betrays after his task his done. Think Michael Billington in TSWME suave.
- Insert the proper Q and the proper Moneypenny of the time.
- Change the character names so it isn't obviously a Thunderball remake. At least distance the two films as far apart as say AVTAK is from GF.
- Get a proper budget for the final 20 minutes of the film, which as it stands looks shoddy and cheap.
- Get rid of that ridiculous horse jump and think up a better way for Bond to escape the castle.

[Strangelove]

Improving Never Say Never Again is very easy. Just cut and paste Die Another Day over it. That's an improvement. Or maybe put Gigli over it. Or Isthar. Or Attack of the Clones.

Seriously, it needed a different director and screenwriter. The dialogue is wrought with awful cliches, and Kershner doesn't have the appropriate style. Also, bring in a different composer.

This post has been edited by Strangelove: 29 July 2006 - 06:31