Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Genre

Action | Thriller

Director

Guy Hamilton

Country

UK | USA

Cast

Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray, Jimmy Dean, Bruce Glover, Norman Burton, Joseph Furst, Lana Wood, Bruce Cabot, Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewelyn, Lois Maxwell, Joe Robinson, Marc Lawrence, Sid Haig, Leonard Barr, Laurence Naismith, David Bauer, Ed Bishop, David de Keyser, Lola Larson, Trina Parks

Storyline

After traveling the world in his quest to kill Blofeld (Charles Gray), James Bond (Sean Connery) is ordered to investigate what he believes is a simple case of diamond smuggling. He soon discovers the extent of the problem and travels to America where a millionaire casino owner is suspected to be behind it all.

Opinion

Do you remember that song that goes like "You only need the light when it's burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow"? Well, it should have continued like "Only know you love George Lazenby when you get an uninspired Sean Connery".

A weak and tedious entry, "Diamonds Are Forever" doesn't have the same quality as its predecessors, but does have the license not to thrill.

There are so many problems with this one, it's hard to decide where to start. I'll go with the plot, I guess. A lousy plot stuck in the middle of a bad crime film and an even worse science fiction flick. It completely lacks suspense, and if you are looking for plot twists you better try with another film. Both boring and confusing, Bond moving from place to place and Blofeld's evil scheme in the background is basically what happens in a nutshell.

The film lacks the excitement of Sean Connery's earlier film, the running time seems not to be running at all, and nothing memorable really happens. And it's frustrating because the film started off quite well, with action, a decent idea and a great song - the desert chase scene is nice, and the Las Vegan chase scene is decent, but that's all.

Then there are the characters. George Lazenby left and took away all of Bond's humanity. The Bond girl is anything but memorable, and the villains are awful. I said villains because there's Blofeld - what a surprise, I really wasn't expecting that - and a gay hitmen duo who don't know each other's first names, and the only entertaining thing they do is dying.

And at last the acting. I don't think it can get any worse. Sean Connery lacks in charisma, and delivers every single line with the same bored expression like he doesn't give a shit. He also aged quite badly and that doesn't certainly help. Jill St. John is nothing but eye-candy. But that's a problem with that: her acting is so poor, it's hard to look at her, and listen to her annoyingly delivered lines. Blofeld has a new face, again. They casted Charles Gray this time, the same actor who played the British field-agent in Japan in "You Only Live Twice". I guess nobody cares if people get confused about it. And the perfonrance: a mess. He has no menace and probably makes the worst Blofeld and villain ever.

Hopefully things will change with Roger Moore.