I remember seeing this the Summer it was released. The press had amped up “The Battle of the Bonds” between the “official” Roger Moore release Octopussy and this, Sean Connery’s return to the role after 12 years at the age of 52.

NSNA is a loose remake of Thunderball, and came about due to a rights issue. (Basically Ian Fleming’s original novel lifted heavily from a story he had worked on with producer Kevin McLory, who after a ton of litigation ended up with the rights to remake the same Bond story). It was quite a coup that he managed to land Connery for this one-off final Bond outing. 

The film narrowly beats out the Moore entry in terms of quality, which in itself set a very low bar. I did like the jokes that acknowledged that this ageing Bond is somewhat past his sell-by date; but the whole effort has a very cheesy 80s vibe to it, down to the entirely bland jazzy score, which rather makes one want to rewatch the original, far classier Thunderball.

The best thing about it is Barbara Carrera as outrageous Spectre assassin Fatima Blush. Once Bond dispatches her (via an exploding fountain pen, no less), the movie rather runs out of steam. Kim Basinger is totally forgettable as the love interest, and whilst Klaus Maria Brandauer tries hard to give some depth to the baddie there are no moments in NSNA that rival the Connery Bonds from the 60s.

These photos are from a UK press screening I attended. I’ve had many chances over the years to also buy the poster for this one, but have passed – it just doesn’t quite have the same appeal for me of the classic “official” Connery Bond movies.

UPDATE: I did recently pick up the Spanish version of the poster, featuring the same image. I still can’t decide if I like this one enough to keep it or flip it. For now, I will hold onto it!