Connery was looking long in the tooth by this point, and it wasn't all that interesting of a story. Guy Hamilton was hit and miss as a Bond director. This was a miss.

I still can't believe that Mr. Wint was Crispon Glovers dad in real life.

C+

I actually loved this Bond film, I thought it wasn't his best, but a nice solid comeback after Lazenby. Also my 2nd favorite Bond song. The end of the Legacy was strong

Dr. No- A
From Russia With Love- A+
Goldfinger- A+
Thunderball- A-
You only Live Twice- B+
Diamonds are Forever A

My first James Bond movie in theaters. This was released for the first time in 1975 (In India), which is when I watched the movie. This was originally released in the US in 1971. At that time it took a while for movies to be released in India. I also watched the six prior James Bond movies in the theaters, on their reissue in India.

A strange take on Howard Hughes by Jimmy Dean as Willard Whyte. The movie is fast paced and fun.

A-

Wow, you are old! Heh.

The last classy SC film. I love the "race" through Las Vegas. Classic.

B+

40

As old as my mother.

Nice, huh?

Thanks a lot.

Nah, it isn't so bad.

[font=century gothic]It's not my favorite. Actually I would put it #2 on the bottom, only ahead of A View to a Kill. I'm too tired to construct my complaints into sentences so I'll just list them.


* Connery phones it in - Although the elevator fight is pretty damn good.

* There are no action sequences. The oil rig finale doesn't even count as one. The car stunt was cool though.

* With the exception of Bond on a boat towards the beginning of the film, where is the Bond theme?

* The villian is not threatning. I blame it on both the actor and the script.


What I did like

* The Bond girls. Some of the best in the series.

* The fact they didn't change the villians sexuality from the book. Risky move, but it works.

* The Bond theme by Barry on the boat. Nice and jazzy, kind of a Vegas feel. Why didn't he use it in Vegas?

* The 007 theme on the oil rig. It makes the sequence more exciting than it really should be.

* The moon/dune buggy.


C+[/font]

Same grade as last time except I'll probably be a little more positive towards the film six years later.

I've never been a big fan of Diamonds are Forever. For the most part, I thought it was completely boring and completely wastes Connery's last outing as Bond. Well, it's still got it's fair share of problems, but the script isn't one of them outside of the first five minutes. How do you not even acknowledge Tracy's death in the last film. Sure Bond is on the hunt for Blofeld to open this movie, but it's never really implied that he's on the hunt for him in order to get revenge. This feels like it just as easily could've picked up after You Only Live Twice. That was probably a very intentional move on the producers part, but anyone who liked On Her Majesty's Secret Service gets absolutely robbed. However, in judging this film it's a very small problem because as I said, it seems like it was a very deliberate decision just to ignore the previous movie. So moving on, what I like about the script is that the dialog is very reminiscent of Goldfinger. There's a lot of quick back and forth here and there's quite a few laughs (the most in any Bond to this point). That's really the only thing that keeps Diamonds are Forever afloat though (aside from Connery). Everything else about the film is extremely forgettable (except Bambi and Thumper of course).

The two gay (heavily implied) henchman are given practically nothing to do except to quip back and forth to one another incessantly and you just want them to shut up after awhile (oh Oddjob, where have you gone?). Charles Gray is given nothing to do as Blofeld. There's an interesting idea of Blofeld creating doubles of himself but it goes nowhere fast. And Gray brings nothing whatsoever to the part. He's dull and he's by far the worst Blofeld, which is quite an achievement because half of the time Blofeld appears in the movies his face is never shown.

Another huge letdown is the action. The producer specifically brought Guy Hamilton back to produce "Goldfinger-like" results. However, unlike Goldfinger, this film has very little excitement. The fight in the elevator is a bright moment and almost as good as the fight on the train from From Russia with Love, but outside of that we get two lazy chases, one in the desert with moon buggy, and the other in the streets of Vegas. The first chase is absurd while the second one is shot with far too many long distance shots which cuts out any excitement the chase might have a had. And the finale on the oil rig is far too short to be anything memorable.

The script keeps things moving, but the lack of any decent action and one hell of a cheesy bad guy throw a wrench into what could've been a decent finale in the role of James Bond for Sean "I'm James fucking Bond Steve Jobs" Connery.

**½ (C+)

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) - ***** (A+)
2. Goldfinger (1964) - ***** (A+)
3. From Russia with Love (1963) - ****½ (A)
4. You Only Live Twice (1967) - *** (B)
5. Thunderball (1965) - *** (B)
6. Dr. No (1962) - *** (B)
7. Diamonds are Forever (1971) - **½ (C+)

I disagree completely, the action is pretty great in this one. That car chase in Vegas is extremely influential in the French Connection/ Bullitt sense, in fact FC was in production the same time as this. It's extremely awesome for it's time.

Mr. Wint/Kidd are weird/awful but creepy in their stiffness. And they still have one of the funniest deaths of all time. And They might have my favorite musical score in the entire series. Tiffany Chase is awful and Blowfeld's departure from the series is lame. But for some reason, Connery elevates everything, and I like the more thriller aspect of this entry. The action is probably the best of the series to this point (Overall, Each film has one action scene that is just better than at least one in here) so is the humor and music. I can take all the negatives of this film and still enjoy it more than most of the Moore outings.

The Golden Age of Bond is over. It must have been crazy to be alive in 73 and have 3 different Bond actors in the last 4 years.

From Russia With Love A+
Goldfinger A+
You Only Live Twice A+
On her Majesty's Secret Service A
Dr. No A-
Thunderball B+
Diamonds are Forever B+

This is even worse than You Only Live Twice, if I remember correctly.

Meh. One of my least favorite Bonds.

This one felt kinda lazy and by the numbers. It's almost as if the studio panicked from the mixed reception to On Her Majesty's Secret Service (the best old Bond) and just shoved this generic brand out there to please the complainers. They should have named the movie The Rise of Skywalker Bond. Still a decent watch though, and better than any of others from 70s and 80s that I've seen (so far).

5.3/10

I stand by it. Connery is completely there cut and paste. But the bond formula is this movie. It just ages more than most, thid has the heartbeat of a a super dark revenge Bond

Except it's not a revenge film and is the farthest thing from being dark. If it's anything it's a continuation of You Only Live Twice. Bond's wife never comes up. Bond never mentions her (you'd think he would) and Blofeld doesn't taunt him with her death (you'd think he would). They did everything to ignore Lazenby until the middle of Moore's run.