Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
Diamonds Are Forever won’t stick in your memory forever, but it’ll occupy two hours and give you a bit of a callback to the better bits of Connery as Bond, even if it doesn’t reach the potential peak.
“A diamond smuggling investigation leads James Bond to Las Vegas where he uncovers an evil plot involving a rich business tycoon.”
Director: Guy Hamilton
Writers: Tom Mankiewicz, Richard Maibaum, Ian Fleming
Cast: Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, Jimmy Dean, Bruce Cabot, Desmond Llewelyn, Bernard Lee
Release Date: December 17, 1971
IMDB
Diamonds Are Forever is a return and a second sendoff to Sean Connery as James Bond. George Lazenby took a damn good shot at playing 007 in 1969, but the company wanted Connery back and paid him $1,250,000, which was a fortune for that time. If you pay close attention, there are references to his one film absence in the movie.
In terms of the film itself, Diamonds Are Forever is like a sandwich with delicate deli meat sandwiched between cheap pieces of white Wonder Bread. The start of the movie is choppy, rushed, and dissatisfying. The ending is overblown with gunfire and tonally different from its best parts.
The meat and potatoes of Diamonds Are Forever are actually quite good. The back-and-forth quips between Bond and Blofeld are well-written and not overwrought with one-liners. The character of Bond does more sleuthing than karate chopping, and the character of Tiffany Case is one of the more intriguing Bond girls of Bond’s tenure. Mr. Kidd and Mr. Wint are amusing side characters who bring the most fun to the movie, and having them disassociated from the main plot makes it all the more fun.
Diamonds Are Forever won’t stick in your memory forever, but it’ll occupy two hours and give you a bit of a callback to the better bits of Connery as Bond, even if it doesn’t reach the potential peak.
STANKO RATING: C
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