Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Wonderful character development!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

James bond only has sex with one women in this movie. Underachiever! He has 3 or 4 dames in all the previous movies. I guess we'll see is Roger Moore can do better.

With a gap of one film, Sean Connery returned to the role of James Bond for the last time (as part of the official series), and what he gets is certainly action packed, thrilling and completely entertaining, but seems to be minus the spark and the likability. He's on the case of a diamond smuggling ring run by another white cat carrying villain (Charles Gray) where there's more to the story than just diamonds. Along the way, Bond goes through a crematorium, car chases in Las Vegas and takes on two tough kicking women's gymnasts. Then, his encounters with Gray appear confusing thanks to the multiple lookalikes he has, several meeting some fascinating if gruesome demises.Gray in drag makes Gene Hackman in "The Bird Cage" look like Marilyn Monroe, but fortunately that's just a quick blur. I wasn't crazy about the Bond girls in this entry, with an obnoxious characterization by Jill St. John and an unmemorable performance by Lana Wood. The two fast moving gymnasts may be challenging partners for Connery but I really wanted to see them get more than they ended up getting. Gray does make a fascinating bad guy, and there are some moments where you may be biting your knuckles may be sore from biting them. But many of the twists and situations are weak and unconvincing, and that makes this less likable. Still, there's another Shirley Bassey song to get the action started, indeed one of the best themes.

"Oh, James..." becomes a joke here. Middle-aged Connery (offering the first glimpse of his oncoming paunch) appears bored, tired, rather over the whole Bond thing. Jill is lovely but just provides the eye candy and the last gasps of the T & A jokes for this genre. Poor Lana Wood reaches the pinnacle of her career here only to be tossed off a balcony into a shallow pool without her top on. How any one of their careers survived this film is amazing!? Sean purposely killed Bond off in this one although one could see the blase weariness crawling over him in the previous 'You Only Live Twice'. Unfortunate for the films that follow in this series that forever more Bond becomes a parody of a spy--a cartoon man. Lazenby was too pretty, Moore too old, the others just a yawn. One went to see them only for the special effects. This particular film does not age well especially because of the boobie and fag jokes popular at the time. One can almost feel the liberation movements of later years rising in the background like a drumbeat. "Your days are numbered." The Bond character here would be equally at home on the Vegas stage of the time with Sammy, Dino et al boozing and broading their way into early bloated deaths. Goodbye James! Nice knowing you.

That's exactly what this movie is,a disappointment.After the great On Her Majesty's Secret Service,everyone(at the time)was disappointed,there was no Sean Connery!So even though Sean didn't want to return,money convinced him,and,we got Diamonds Are Forever.Let's start with the pros,I like the opening,it does a great job of continuing from the events of the last,you feel genuine anger in Bond,but it ends very anticlimactically.There's also a great fight scene in an elevator,that is very well choreographed.I also like the Bond Girl,she's tough and doesn't take any crap from anyone,and the score is great as usual.It's also cool how this movie makes fun of how pop culture was at the time.My last pro is Blofeld's henchmen Mr.Wint and Mr.Kidd,they're creative villains and are creepy and entertaining to watch.Now,onto the many,many,cons.The tone of this movie is awful,it feels like a bad parody of the franchise and has many unfunny scenes,in fact,most things that happen are just to make lame jokes,the secondary Bond Girl,who's in the movie for like 2 minutes,serves nothing to the plot and is really just there to look pretty and have Connery joke about her name.Speaking of the plot,it's all over the place,and very convoluted.And the action,it's really uninteresting,besides the elevator fight and driving a car on two wheels.Blofeld is not intimidating at all,and quite boring.The last con,Sean Connery,he feels bored,lazy,and too relaxed,which I guess works for the tone,but it is still a bad performance for Sean's standards in the franchise.All in all,Diamonds Are Forever is a disappointing follow up to a great movie in the franchise,although it has a few good scenes and characters,the rest of the movie is unfunny,too campy for Sean Connery's Bond movies,and lacks excitement.