Because Never Say Never Again is not an Eon-produced film, it has not been included in a number of subsequent reviews. Norman Wilner of MSN said that 1967's Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again "exist outside the 'official' continuity, [and] are excluded from this list, just as they're absent from MGM's megabox. But take my word for it; they're both pretty awful".[57] Of the more recent reviews, opinion on Never Say Never Again is still mixed: film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes lists the film with a 60% rating from 40 reviews.[58] The score is still more positive than some of the Eon films, with Rotten Tomatoes ranking Never Say Never Again 16th among all Bond films in 2008.[59] Empire gives the film three of a possible five stars, observing that "Connery was perhaps wise to call it quits the first time round".[60] IGN gave Never Say Never Again a score of 5 out of ten, claiming that the film "is more miss than hit".[61] The review also thought that the film was "marred with too many clunky exposition scenes and not enough moments of Bond being Bond".[61]

In 1995 Michael Sauter of Entertainment Weekly rated Never Say Never Again as the ninth best Bond film to that point, after seventeen films had been released. Sauter thought the film "is successful only as a portrait of an over-the-hill superhero."[62] He did admit, however that "even past his prime, Connery proves that nobody does it better".[62] James Berardinelli, in his review of Never Say Never Again, thinks the re-writing of the Thunderball story has led to a film which has "a hokey, jokey feel, [it] is possibly the worst-written Bond script of all".[63] Berardinelli concludes that "it's a major disappointment that, having lured back the original 007, the film makers couldn't offer him something better than this drawn-out, hackneyed story."[63] Critic Danny Peary wrote that "it was great to see Sean Connery return as James Bond after a dozen years".[64] He also thought the supporting cast was good, saying that Klaus Maria Brandauer's Largo was "neurotic, vulnerable ... one of the most complex of Bond's foes"[64] and that Barbara Carrera and Kim Basinger "make lasting impressions."[64] Peary also wrote that the "film is exotic, well acted, and stylishly directed ... It would be one of the best Bond films if the finale weren't disappointing. When will filmmakers realize that underwater fight scenes don't work because viewers usually can't tell the hero and villain apart and they know doubles are being used?"[64]