Diamonds Are Forever (1971)'s comments

Do you want to let us know what you think? Just login, after which you will be redirected back here and you can leave your comments.

Adamov10

Asif this is on the action list

BORING!

9 years ago

Earring72

Over the top, camp, Americanized James Bond movie.....but great fun with some good action and everything what you expect from a Bond movie.

9 years 7 months ago

The last of the EON productions featuring Sean Connery, he's still not as old as Roger Moore was when he first started. Connery sticks to his usual business: kicking ass and throwing out one-liners. The movie wants to take itself seriously at times, but then it suddenly dives into late-sixties/early-seventies camp. spoiler

There are stronger movies in the franchise for sure, but the spoiler

is truly worth the price of admission. I consider Never Say Never Again to be the last in this series, so jump straight to this if you're dying to see Connery as 007 again.

9 years 10 months ago

CinemaDump

This is my second time watching Diamonds are Forever as I've been going through the series for fun once again. For the first time, I wasn't all that impressed with Diamonds even though it was considered a huge victory getting Sean Connery to come back as James Bond. A record-setting $1.25 million salary was what it took to get Sean back in the fold, despite his insistence that he didn't want to do Bond anymore. According to the US Department of Labor, that's $7.2 million in 2014 dollars. Quite a far cry from the $20 million salaries we see today.

So as I was saying, I wasn't that impressed with Diamonds Are Forever back when I first saw it. It isn't very original and it still isn't the second time watching it. Does that make it any less fun? I don't think so. My opinion of Diamonds has definitely softened for some reason. As far as Bond movies go, this is far from the best but it gets the job done.

Sean Connery was 41 when DAF came out but he honestly looks a little bit older. It opens to a prelude of Bond attempting to kill his old foe Ernst Stavro Blofeld. These intros are usually pretty fun but this one is a bit awkward at times. The camera avoids showing Sean Connery right away in order to build anticipation for his exciting return. Back then it could have maybe been exciting but now it just seems choppy.

I'm glad they brought back Shirley Bassey to do the title song though. DAF's opening credits aren't the most breathtaking but there are some pretty nice parts. However, Shirley Bassey's singing is what makes this sequence good.

The story involves James Bond on a mission to track a diamond smuggling operation. It would appear that the goal of the operation is to lower the prices of diamonds on the market. Or it could be something else more nefarious, who knows right?

Compared to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, DAF is a total departure. I think that producers Saltzman and Broccoli wanted to pretend OHMSS never happened because it grossed only half of You Only Live Twice and critical reception was really harsh. That's changed if you look at reviews today. At the time though, the desire to erase OHMSS is unfortunate for certain things.

For starters, Diamonds is definitely more campy overall. The action isn't as amazing as the ski chases in OHMSS but it's definitely passable. It's set for the most part in Las Vegas and I like choices of American cars. I'm a big car guy so seeing the Mustang Mach 1 in a chase is pretty cool. There's also a ridiculous moon buggy chase through the desert that's actually pretty amusing.

Tiffany Case who is the Bond girl this time comes off as a self-assured woman but seems to lose this quality as the movie progresses. In comparison to Tracy from OHMSS, that's pretty disappointing. Tracy is without a doubt the strongest female character seen in a James Bond movie but it looks this approach has been totally abandoned.

Despite this negativity, I did enjoy DAF quite a bit all the same. We're not quite at Roger Moore campiness yet but the groundwork is being laid out. One thing I liked a lot were the two villain characters of Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint. They're just there to spit out funny lines but it works. They're actually quite good at their jobs so they're not there just for show.

Diamonds Are Forever is the weakest of Sean Connery's Bond movies but after seeing it a second time, I've warmed up to it. Before OHMSS, a James Bond formula was being created and is now back on track. Whether this is a good or bad thing, James Bond transcends regular criticism and even though DAF isn't terribly original, it's a fun ride and it was nice to get Sean Connery back for one last time (Let's not talk about Never Say Never Again unless we have to).

6.5/10

10 years ago

Apdiddy

Fairly awful Bond movie. Sean Connery was out of place for it and Roger Moore would have been right at home with it -- pretty much the start of the 'comical Bond' phase. Jill St John and Lana Wood are worth watching and that's it. Although I somewhat liked Jimmy Dean in this as well.

11 years 6 months ago

SpacedJ

Somewhere in heaven, Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz are drinking Martinis explaining to their friends how they made one of James Bond's easily escapable exotic death scenarios "laying pipe".

11 months 3 weeks ago

Nilsmedskills

I like this one. Stop hating.

2 years 4 months ago

Xondar

What a boring movie. I've seen every Bond film at least three times, and on rewatch I could only remember maybe three scenes from this stinker.

Also, Bond is incredibly abusive toward women in this movie. He strangles one woman with her own swimsuit top, cuffs another in the face, and holds two more under water in a deliberate attempt at torture. Pretty gross.

3 years 5 months ago

ClassicLady

Good golly, this is bad. I love looking at Sean Connery but even his handsome self couldn’t save this one for me.

4 years 7 months ago

DisneyStitch

The classic Bond formula is missing here, and it comes across as rather comical more than once. Just goes to show I think how relatively fragile Bond's hyper-reality is. If you push it too far then things start to unravel quickly. This one shoots the moon by going over the top, it really shows.

5 years 2 months ago

Siskoid

After the box office disappointment of OHMSS, Connery was convinced to return to the role in Diamonds Are Forever. So does director Guy Hamilton, for better or worse. Mostly for worse. Hamilton's big on using U.S. locations which lack the glamor of more exotic locales. Las Vegas at this point isn't that glam, folks. The movie's also big on crazy vehicles, going way overboard with it - a moon rover? Day of the Daleks trikes? a floating ball? - which isn't helped by Hamilton's dull approach to such action. Throw in a lame Blofeld, a pair of gay sociopath assassins whose motivations really aren't clear, and the worst Bond girl yet (Jill St.John's character turns into an idiot for no reason in the second half of the movie), and you've got phoned-in silliness (another giant laser plot?), and a poor film for Connery's Bond to go out on.

8 years 10 months ago

Scratch47

Oh God, very very bad. Laughably so though. Does it count if I fell asleep during this (more than once?!)

12 years ago

kaffy

After watching "Moonraker," this movie is downright brilliant. The theme song is a little passé at this point in thanks to a certain Mr.West, but with a little effort it is possible to rap along with the theme song. St.John's hair looks ridiculous by today's standards and it's a little hard to swallow her "hot girl" act when she looks like a very mobile piece of cotton candy. However, this is made up for once Thumper and Bambi spoiler

.

11 years 2 months ago

hugeposuer

Easily the worst out of the Eon collection, but it's still loads of fun. Lots of laughs too.

12 years 4 months ago