• It’s the 7th and final time Connery played James Bond- probably the 5th or 6th best—it’s twelve years since his last (1971 Diamonds are Forever– the worst one) and he’s 53 years old here
  • The plot is essentially thunderball
  • Non- Eon Bond film—looks and feels different for sure if you’re a marathon
  • The DP is from Raiders of the Lost Ark (and has some of that look- which is a bit ironic because Spielberg was clearly influenced by James Bond), Kershner is, of course, coming off of directing Empire Strikes Back and I love the Bond girl (Kim Basinger in first archiveable film predating The Natural by a year) and European villains (Max von Sydow is only in one scene) but Klaus Maria Brandauer (after Mephisto and before Out of Africa) is excellent. He portrays intelligence and envy extremely well here
  • Unlike almost every other Bond girl Basinger can genuinely act even this early in her career.
  • I miss the Maurice Binder elaborate and gorgeous title sequences- he didn’t do this one
  • Solid over-the-hill jokes to update the script—“herbal enigma”
  • Lots of technology-heavy sequences: VCR’s, night-vision, infrared—the Domination video game and we even see a charity ball with everyone playing Centipede I think
  • Oddly enough Mr. Bean shows up for 5 minutes
  • Bahamas, some gorgeous establishing shots- south of France, too
  • The set design isn’t Thunderball or Goldfinger but it’s far superior to Diamonds are Forever – the underwater Arabian lair set piece is inspired
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 1983