98 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

Topics merged.

[Cruiserweight]

My favorite Connery bond film which finds itself in the middle of the pack of the bond films for me.

[BoogieBond]

This one is quite low on the pile. But I still find it entertaining.
I do like the music. It's punchy in my opinion.
I do like the PTS with all its flaws, I find it a great laugh (dubbing, baddies head sliding into wood slats as he is chucked around by Connery )
I agree the fight in the elevator is quite good as well.
But...
Bonds talk with Blofeld in LV. Hmmm.. Not a hint of malice between them.
Connery bored and looking a lot older. I can't believe there is just 4 years between this and YOLT.
But it is still Connery. Lots of silliness, I wouldn't have this as more than a very occasional watch. But taken for itself(As say Moonraker or DAD is) It is OK.
But if you offered me this or Moonraker, no contest, Moonraker would win.

Edited by BoogieBond, 01 April 2008 - 07:15 PM.

[Mr. Blofeld]

I really want Lazenby back for this one, infact I'm gonna go and read Mr. Blofelds fan fiction again

5 star review btw.

Why, thanks!

My favorite Connery bond film for me.

You're demented, mate...

As for me, I proudly hate it.

[HH007]

I proudly hate it as well. I think it stands alongside AVTAK and DAD as being one of the dullest, dreariest, and most anemic films of the series.

[Nicolas Suszczyk]

A very good Bond film indeed. It's very 70's for my taste, but there are very important things on it, for example, Barry's soundtrack is one of the best in the series, the Las Vegas setting is outstanding, and also the villians Wint and Kidd, and the girls Lana Wood and Jill St. John. I love it. Really.

[coco1997]

Here's how I rate "DAF":

PROS:
-Great theme song and soundtrack by John Barry...as usual.
-Lana Wood was HOT.
-The Mustang stunt.
-Consistently funny humor throughout.

CONS:
-Embarrassing PTS.
-Total disregard for "OHMSS."
-Connery looks bad.
-Charles Gray was the weakest Blofeld.
-Unsatisfactory use of the Las Vegas locales.
-Jill St. John got irritating after a while.
-Wint & Kidd were a joke.
-A weak finale.

[john.steed]

A favorite of mine since I saw it back in 1971. Part of my view of it is purely sentiment. My first Bond film had been OHMSS, and after that I started reading the novels and managed to catch revivals of all the earlier Bonds except Goldfinger. Diamonds are Forever however was the first film that I followed as it got made and waited anxiously to see it. I loved it then and still do.

While I do wish that he was a few pounds lighter at the time, Connery is still my favorite Bond. Also loved the music and Jill St John was an excellent Bond Girl.

Perhaps the logic behind the story if a bit lacking it was and still is a fun ride.

[Turn]

A favorite of mine since I saw it back in 1971. Part of my view of it is purely sentiment. My first Bond film had been OHMSS, and after that I started reading the novels and managed to catch revivals of all the earlier Bonds except Goldfinger. Diamonds are Forever however was the first film that I followed as it got made and waited anxiously to see it. I loved it then and still do.

While I do wish that he was a few pounds lighter at the time, Connery is still my favorite Bond. Also loved the music and Jill St John was an excellent Bond Girl.

Perhaps the logic behind the story if a bit lacking it was and still is a fun ride.

Same here. This was the first Bond I saw when it was new, although I'd seen some of the earlier films in rereleases. I was but a preschool kid at the time. But I feel the same sentiments for DAF.

[chrisno1]

I recently watched DAF on dvd and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. I think it is always hard to judge a film so many years from its original outing. When DAF first came out there was universal expectation, chiefly because Connery was back as Bond, but also because the producers were promising a return to the slick, fantasy style of the

[Conlazmoodalbrocra]

DAF is just a bad movie after the great OHMSS. It also has the worst Felix Leither ever.

Completely and utterly agree. Over-the-top humour, a terrible prformance by Connery, a fat old man in this picture, a poorly written Felix and an uninspiring leading lady in Tiffany Case.

And Blofeld??? Least said about Gray's performance the better! The drag disguise really takes the biscuit - you'd never see Pleasance or Savalas pulling a stunt like that would you?

[I never miss]

DAF is greater than the sum of its parts IMHO. I hated it as a child, and would only watch it very, very occasionally.
About 5 years ago I decided to revisit it as an adult and I was really pleasantly surprised. It's an enjoyable piece of fluff, nothing more, nothing less. Strangely, perhaps because of its episodic nature, I find it to be one of the most rewatchable Bond movies.

[DaveBond21]

It is down near the bottom of my list, but it's still a Bond film, and gets a 6 from me.

I've always liked this review of the movie from the nostalgia site TV Cream:-

Diamonds Are Forever

Connery's comeback caper, easily the best 'non-serious' Bond of the lot. It's endearingly daft without being offensively stupid (yes, Moonraker, we're looking at you), goes all over the place without getting tedious, and features the great more-than-just-a-dodgy-stereotype sub-villains Kidd and Wint.

OK, so Charles Gray is a disappointingly avuncular Blofeld, Jill 'Tiffany Case' St. John and Lana 'Plenty O'Toole' Wood don't do much, and the theme song's by Shirley bleedin' Bassey again, but what a plot! Directionless, profligate, vulgar and wantonly episodic, just how Bond should be. You can imagine the scene - with only weeks to go until shooting starts, round the big conference table a hundred harried writers nervously pitch their little bits of business - "OK, so there's this robotic pipe-welder, right..." "There's a bomb hidden in a big fake trifle..." "Bond fights two feisty kung fu ladies in bikinis!" "How about we have Q playing the fruit machines?" "... and so the car goes up on two wheels..." "... he sticks the marching band cassette down her pants..." "... false fingerprints..." "... TWO Blofelds..." "... a moon buggy!!" - and Good Old Cubby, at head of table, holds up his hand for silence, takes a drag on his cigar, leans forward and says, "Fellas... we'll shoot 'em all!" And we're so glad he did.

[ChrissBond007]

6/10 (actually 6.5)

Not a bad movie, just Connery's weakest peformance in the role (of the EON ones, not counting NSNA), it should have been a great adventure if Lazenby returned and Peter Hunt directed it.

The plot is just weak, Blofeld that wants to destroy some placec with a satellite! Also too much comedy, I really miss some harder edged moments in this one. Connery looks just tired, not a great choice for Blofeld, but the Bondgirl are actually quite good and so are Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd. My favourite moment is when Plenty is throwing in the pool, I really love the confrontation. But the whole movie isn't that good, weak plot, some poor acting and too much comedy. It has his moments, but I can't believe that it was from the same director as Goldfinger.

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

My review of Diamonds Are Forever:
Where to begin? Well, to start, Connery looks OLD! His acting in this movie is just yawn-inducing, IMO. He had better performances in the first Bond movies. He just looks and acts bored with the role.
The stunts are not really that great, with the exception of the car chase in Las Vegas. But even then, someone managed to screw that up with the car flipping on it's other side in the alley. There's also a scene where Bond steals a moon buggy(???) and drives into the desert. It's just awful, and not that exciting.
The plot is just stupid and confusing (what was Blofeld doing???? I don't even know!). The villains are not that intimidating, either, particularly Blofeld. I even preferred Telly Savalas to Charles Gray.
The worst part of DAF?: Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. They're portrayed better in the novel than in the actual film. They're not that scary, but are, IMO, portrayed as incompetent.
For me, this is THE worst of all of the Bond films. The characters are idiotic, the stunts are boring, and the plot is so confusing. If I could get rid of any Bond movie, this would probably be the one.
My rating: 1/10

[Turn]

The worst part of DAF?: Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. They're portrayed better in the novel than in the actual film. They're not that scary, but are, IMO, portrayed as incompetent.

Wint and Kidd aren't meant to be scary, they are portrayed campy. I do think, however, the more dangerous take on the characters from the novel would be interesting.

You may not like them, that's fine, but how can you say they are portrayed as incompetent? They are very effective killers because nobody suspects them. Look at how effectively they bump off the membrs of the pipeline and stay above suspicion.

They outlast all the other villains in the movie right up until the epilogue and Bond figures them out by chance that he recognized Wint's aftershave.

Their only real incompetance as far as Bond goes is putting him an escapable death trap like a pipeline instead of just shooting him and dumping him in there.

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

The worst part of DAF?: Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd. They're portrayed better in the novel than in the actual film. They're not that scary, but are, IMO, portrayed as incompetent.

Wint and Kidd aren't meant to be scary, they are portrayed campy. I do think, however, the more dangerous take on the characters from the novel would be interesting.

You may not like them, that's fine, but how can you say they are portrayed as incompetent? They are very effective killers because nobody suspects them. Look at how effectively they bump off the membrs of the pipeline and stay above suspicion.

They outlast all the other villains in the movie right up until the epilogue and Bond figures them out by chance that he recognized Wint's aftershave.

Their only real incompetance as far as Bond goes is putting him an escapable death trap like a pipeline instead of just shooting him and dumping him in there.

I just feel like those characters are very poorly written. That's what I meant by incompetent. I should have explained it a little better. If the producers/writers had decided to use Wint and Kidd from the novel, and not made them campy, that would have been a little more interesting. Instead, we get camp Wint and Kidd.

[danielcraigisjamesbond007]

DAF is just a bad movie after the great OHMSS. It also has the worst Felix Leither ever.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'd say <!-- CBN - FILM TAG BEGIN tld --><a target='_blank' href='http://www.commanderbond.net/index.cgi?action=Category&CID=109'><b class='film'>The Living Daylights</b></a><!-- CBN - FILM TAG END -->'s Felix Leiter might just barely have him beat for the worst though.

What about the Felix from Goldfinger?

[McThing]

I didn't mind the movie but yeah they would have done a little better staying closer to the book. There were some excellent characters that could have been great on screen.

[Righty007]

Diamonds Are Forever isn't the greatest Bond film ever and Sean Connery's worst outing but it does have Felix Leiter and Jill St. John...



She wasn't the best Bond girl ever "but the compensations speak for themselves."

[chrisno1]

In 2008 I watched all the Bond movies and wrote a series of reviews for another site. The aim was to watch them in order in the run up to the premiere of QOS. I succeeded and the reviews were well received.
However, subsequently, I have re-read my reviews and re-watched a number of the movies (the BFI had a whole 007 season earlier this year and I saw quite a few on the big screen again!).
This is my updated review for Diamonds Are Forever.

It's also an update on my review earlier in theis thread, although my rating has changed and gone up one point!

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
REVISED REVIEW 10/01/10

Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman took as the template for Diamonds Are Forever their most satisfying film, Goldfinger, which had first launched 007 into international success. To that end they recruited Richard Maibaum to write and Guy Hamilton to direct, but half way through pre-production, Maibaum’s ideas were thrown out and Hollywood writer Tom Mankiewicz was drafted in to supply a new script. This Americanisation of Bond continued with an almost exclusively American cast and crew and, at one point, the actor John Gavin signed to play James Bond. It is with some relief that we have Sean Connery back, though he looks a little overweight and a trifle bored.

Further more, precious little of Ian Fleming’s James Bond has remained. The novel isn’t one of his best, being more of a tribute to Mickey Spillane with its Mafia-style gangsters and gambling rackets. While his hero follows a long winded smuggling trail from Africa via London to New York, Saratoga and ultimately Las Vegas, Fleming gives us some well etched characters and a few eventful highlights. Some of these do make it into the film – the destruction of a helicopter in Sierra Leone, the meeting with Tiffany, a jockey is drowned in boiling mud, a car chase in Las Vegas and a fight on the Queen Mary.

The movie follows a similar meandering path through a series of not very exciting set pieces until it reaches an unsatisfactory climax. The film starts with a strange pre-title sequence involving mud baths and plastic surgery. Bond kills his nemesis Blofeld, but there is precious little mention as to why he is so viciously pursuing this megalomaniac, it’s as if he’s seen it all before. And so have we it appears, as Shirley Bassey sings over another attractive Maurice Binder credit sequence; a return to form for both.

There after Bond gets involved in a glitzy diamond caper featuring two gay assassins, a beautiful heroine who veers from cocky and smart to dumb and helpless, a reclusive millionaire, a funeral parlour of the most sinister kind, a confrontation with not one but two Blofeld’s, a particle beam laser satellite, fights in elevators, some high jinx in a moon buggy, battles on oil rigs and a series of dead pan one-liners that keep us equally amused and bemused.

Hamilton and Mankiewicz appear to forsake all sense of danger here in favour of a stream of jokes, both verbal and visual, which while often funny, dilute the tension or distract from the action. Bond is hardly threatened in this film; early on he suffers near death in a burning coffin, but subsequently he is never in the slightest peril and after every turn there is a quip and a wink. Charles Grey suffers from this dependency too. While sleek and urbane, his Blofeld is certainly no monster. He reminds me of Cesar Romero’s Joker: all grand ambition, but without any substance behind the sweet talking exterior. Grey doesn’t laugh as much, but he has the best jokes.

There is however plenty to admire in Diamonds Are Forever. I like Jill St. John as Tiffany, especially early on when she trades one liners with Bond; it is a pity Mankiewicz can think of nothing original for her to do in the second half of the film and she pales into an insignificant, though sexy, bikini clad bimbo. I like Wint and Kidd, who are the strangest heavies in a Bond film, dedicated to death and to each other, all with a nice turn of ironic phrase. I like the four minute wonder of Lana Wood’s Plenty, a good time girl whose impact is similar to that of Shirley Eaton. I like Ken Adam’s sets, the interiors of which are decorated opulently and so well photographed by Ted Moore they seem to sparkle like the Las Vegas skyline Bond mountaineers around. I like John Barry’s music, with its catchy tunes for each character, its tinkling piano replicating the sound of a Las Vegas lounge bar, its haunting theme song and the flush of strings when SPECTRE’s ultimate weapon is revealed. There is also a tremendous fight in a lift shaft that recalls Bond’s struggle to the death with Grant in From Russia With Love; at its end Connery looks suitably exhausted.

Diamonds Are Forever isn’t a bad James Bond film, but it is a Bond film by numbers and unfortunately this time the numbers do not add up, which is particularly disappointing after the return to reality of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. That film over came a faltering star to emerge a relative success thanks to a strong narrative and an enthusiastic cast. Here Connery’s star is also faltering, but no one is giving him much support.

RATING 6 from 10

Edited by chrisno1, 15 January 2010 - 04:32 PM.

[Brannigan]

This is my favorite Bond movie, though even I admit its not the best. There are a number of reasons I like this movie: the score for one is great. It captures the swanky Las Vegas Lounge sound perfectly. I like the fact that every known Las Vegas Cliche is explored in the movie (example: mobsters (guys at Slumber, Inc), hustlers (Plenty) neon (car chase down Fremont Street), etc). But I think the thing most enduring for DAF for me is the fact that I have visited all remaining filming locations in the movie from the mortuary to the Whyte House. This brings DAF closer to home for me. Unlike most Bond films set around the world, DAF's USA locations are easier to access for someone without a lot of money to travel. I have explored the Whyte House (Las Vegas Hilton), Slumber Inc (Palms Mortuary in Henderson, NV), Willard Whyte Techtronics (Pabco Gypsum north of Las Vegas), Willard Whytes Summer Home (Elrod House, Palm Springs, CA) among the other locations. This makes for a unique personal experience for me for a Bond movie. DAF is seriously flawed in its plot holes, but it more than makes up for this in its fun. In all I gave it a rating of a 6.

[SecretAgentFan]

This one I did not remember very favourably at all. I loved the song and the score but apart from that nothing really stuck in my memory.

Now I´ve seen it again - AND I LOVED IT!

Sure, it´s the first really campy Bond film and totally over the top. But it´s also engagingly entertaining, sly and sardonic. It has Bond really investigating and spying. It has Connery clearly having fun in the role (the moment in which he matter-of-factly steps on the roof of the elevator is probably one of the most Bondian scenes ever). There is never a dull moment. It has beautiful Bond girls. A great set of villains. Superb car chases and stunt work. And one of the best fight sequences in the series (the elevator fight with Peter Franks).

So - DAF really shot up high in my best list after re-watching it. One should give it a chance unless one prefers Bond to be serious and down-to-earth.

[chrisno1]

Sure, it´s the first really campy Bond film and totally over the top. But it´s also engagingly entertaining, sly and sardonic. It has Bond really investigating and spying. It has Connery clearly having fun in the role (the moment in which he matter-of-factly steps on the roof of the elevator is probably one of the most Bondian scenes ever). There is never a dull moment. It has beautiful Bond girls. A great set of villains. Superb car chases and stunt work. And one of the best fight sequences in the series (the elevator fight with Peter Franks).

No issues with those points. Indeed the scene on the external elevator and Bond's subsequent confrontation with not 1 but 2 Blofeld's are two of the movies most "cinematic" moments, in that the acting, direction, production design, photography, editing, music and script all come together BRILLIANTLY. I am a big fan of lots of things in DAF (music, Tiffany, etc) but I do feel the camp-ness is over the top and Connery's laid back approach (while better than YOLT) only serves to advertise that he was in it for the money. In terms of continuity it loses a lot of votes for me and I don't think the 3 Blofeld's idea is really necesary.

DAF does have some wonderful lines in it though:
"Making mud pies 007?"
"Right idea, wrong pussy." oooo-eerrr
"One of us smells like a tart's bouduair, old chap, and I'm afraid it's me."
"Great shot." - "I didn't know there was a pool down there."
"Of course once you eliminated the first model, there was an understandable lack of volunteers."
"Your pitiful little country hasn't even been threatend."
"Weren't you a blonde when I came in?" - "Well, as long as the collars and cuffs match."
"There is no year for sherry, 007" - "I was referring to the original vintage on which the sherry is based, sir. 1859"
"Alimentary, my dear Mr Lieter."

[Genuine Felix Leiter]

The first half hour of DAF is tremendous, okay. I love it, watching it, you easily get caught up in the pace and the sheer madness of events on screen that you somewhat forget that it really ought to be the follow up to OHMSS, which seems to be forgotten about, somewhat. The briefing scene at the start between Bond, M and Sir Donald Munger is good fun, the intercutting between it and the diamond thefts is nicely handled and the film's subsequent sequence in Holland is fantastic. Jill St John is wonderfully sexy and seemingly strong as Tiffany, the fight scene between Bond and the real Peter Franks one of the best in the series, nearly on a par with Connery's tussle with Red Grant and John Barry's music is delightful. It's when the film moves to Las Vegas it starts to somewhat fall apart, the atmosphere becoming a bit gaudy by Bond standards, the car chase, although good fun, seeming to belong more in a Burt Reynolds film, and Tiffany becoming more and more weaker, the strong confident lady that we were introduced to giving way to a standard damsel in distress, whose only role is to strut around in a bikini at the film's climax (hey, not that I'm complaining). Charles Grey is a very over the top Blofeld, but its his performance as well as the characters of Wint and Kidd that I love the most about it and which bring some genuine laughs and fun to proceedings, even though they could be considered monstroubly un-politically correct in this day and age. It's a hard film to hate, in some ways, but strangely hard to love as well.

[SecretAgentFan]

"We do function in your absence, 007."

I presume that this line was a wink to the fact that Connery was sorely missed in OHMSS. In fact, despite the PTS in which Bond tracks down Blofeld with no holds barred (which might point to him avenging Tracy) there never is any mentioning of Tracy´s death or his last mission on Piz Gloria. One might also assume that Bond tries to find Blofeld after he had escaped from Japan.

So, if you consider DAF to be a quasi-sequel to OHMSS in a way that QOS was a quasi-sequel to CR, DAF seems weird and out of tune.

Watched as an entry of its own (and of its times as all Bond films are testament to the time in which they are made), I think it´s one of the best.

[Attempting Re-entry]

Watched this on Saturday night (my kids' first Bond film!) and we were all absolutely enthralled.

Great fun, Connery is cool and hard (I simply don't get the mean-spirited criticisms of his appearance and weight on this thread; I'll even let him off with the short tie) and Lana Wood and Jill St John are simply fantastic.

It's a top 10 Bond film for me. Supercool gunbarrel, as well.

[FLEMINGFAN]

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>OLD PRO'S GRACE
A "Diamonds Are Forever" Opinion by ACE</span>

ACE

Wonderful review.

[elizabeth]

I give it a 4. Not the best and kind of mysterious, to me.

[scaramunga]

One of my favorite of the Connery's. I never get tired of watching this film. : ) It's so much fun!