After watching this today I now have the distinction of saying I've seen every James Bond movie! Other than that I also have to say Diamonds are Forever is pretty good. You may be wondering why I like all of the hated films. It's not like enjoying the oft-considered low points of the series is impossible, but if you've read my Dr. No review and you think the reason I like them is because I'm too forgiving and biased, let me rub it off one more time by saying that I am not forgiving! The fact that Dr. No was the first was the reason I still gave it 3 stars. I'll admit I did want to like all of the Bond films (And pretty much did), but there have been some big disappointments and, yes, I do have a least favorite one: Dr. No. (I'm sorry if this whole "I'm not biased" thing is getting annoying, but I just want to make it clear.)
All right, let's get down to the point. In Diamonds Are Forever, Bond investigates a diamond smuggling operation and eventually finds out that Ernst Stavro Blofeld is associated with it as well, although he thought he killed him in the beginning. The movie starts a little more differently than the others, with the first scene showing Bond beating up a guy and asking for the location of Blofeld. He eventually finds his cloning station and "kills" Blofeld by pushing him into a boiling pool of mud. This was a pretty good way to start the film, but it's too short and is sort of forgettable. Shirley Bassey contributes her second theme song, which is easily one of the best. The rest of the film kicks off mainly with Bond impersonating smuggler Peter Franks while getting the location of the diamonds and Wint and Kidd giving the diamonds to associates and killing them afterwards. Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) was not the most stunning Bond girl. The award for hottest Bond woman goes to Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher) from Tomorrow Never Dies. But John was still pretty and was a very cool and even threatening character at first. However, that personality wears off as she gets dumber and more helpless as the film goes on. Although Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd are very offensive, they still make good henchmen. There are also plenty of good lines ("Named after your father perhaps?"). The action such as the moon buggy chase is a little silly, but it's still OK. Overall, DAF is a very solid movie for almost the whole time. However, the good flow of the film slightly wears down towards the end. Although I love big battles in James Bond movies, the fight on the oil rig in this one is kind of boring. It mainly just takes the two previous films, You Only Live Twice and OHMSS, and combines their much better ending battles. To make matters worse, the explosion effects in this film are INCREDIBLY LAME!!!!!! If this had won any awards for best special effects, I would have conked myself on the head with a softball bat to make sure I wasn't in some kind of dream. The dialogue also gets really dumb too ("All of your troubles are behind you." and "She had such nice cheeks."), and Guy Hamilton spent way too much time filming Tiffany Case's butt. BLECH! I hope we never see that again. Norman Burton did a pretty bad job of playing Felix Leiter and is the worst Leiter of them all (One review here stated that he looked like a shopping clerk. I'd have to disagree: He looks more like a used car salesman.). I think the main reason I'm saying all this is because the film seemed to jump to the ending too quickly, which disappointed me. But even with an extra ten minutes of good scenes in between, the ending would still be bad. Bond's disposal of Wint and Kidd on the cruise is very funny and concludes the film well though. All in all, Diamonds Are Forever is not the four star movie it came close to being, but it's still a solid entry and is at least worth a look. But it's not the most underrated Bond film. That award most likely goes to the brilliant Die Another Day (Reading all of those negative reviews for DAD today made me sick. Hey purists: Sometimes things have to change!).
My rating: 3.5 out of 5.
All right, let's get down to the point. In Diamonds Are Forever, Bond investigates a diamond smuggling operation and eventually finds out that Ernst Stavro Blofeld is associated with it as well, although he thought he killed him in the beginning. The movie starts a little more differently than the others, with the first scene showing Bond beating up a guy and asking for the location of Blofeld. He eventually finds his cloning station and "kills" Blofeld by pushing him into a boiling pool of mud. This was a pretty good way to start the film, but it's too short and is sort of forgettable. Shirley Bassey contributes her second theme song, which is easily one of the best. The rest of the film kicks off mainly with Bond impersonating smuggler Peter Franks while getting the location of the diamonds and Wint and Kidd giving the diamonds to associates and killing them afterwards. Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) was not the most stunning Bond girl. The award for hottest Bond woman goes to Paris Carver (Teri Hatcher) from Tomorrow Never Dies. But John was still pretty and was a very cool and even threatening character at first. However, that personality wears off as she gets dumber and more helpless as the film goes on. Although Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd are very offensive, they still make good henchmen. There are also plenty of good lines ("Named after your father perhaps?"). The action such as the moon buggy chase is a little silly, but it's still OK. Overall, DAF is a very solid movie for almost the whole time. However, the good flow of the film slightly wears down towards the end. Although I love big battles in James Bond movies, the fight on the oil rig in this one is kind of boring. It mainly just takes the two previous films, You Only Live Twice and OHMSS, and combines their much better ending battles. To make matters worse, the explosion effects in this film are INCREDIBLY LAME!!!!!! If this had won any awards for best special effects, I would have conked myself on the head with a softball bat to make sure I wasn't in some kind of dream. The dialogue also gets really dumb too ("All of your troubles are behind you." and "She had such nice cheeks."), and Guy Hamilton spent way too much time filming Tiffany Case's butt. BLECH! I hope we never see that again. Norman Burton did a pretty bad job of playing Felix Leiter and is the worst Leiter of them all (One review here stated that he looked like a shopping clerk. I'd have to disagree: He looks more like a used car salesman.). I think the main reason I'm saying all this is because the film seemed to jump to the ending too quickly, which disappointed me. But even with an extra ten minutes of good scenes in between, the ending would still be bad. Bond's disposal of Wint and Kidd on the cruise is very funny and concludes the film well though. All in all, Diamonds Are Forever is not the four star movie it came close to being, but it's still a solid entry and is at least worth a look. But it's not the most underrated Bond film. That award most likely goes to the brilliant Die Another Day (Reading all of those negative reviews for DAD today made me sick. Hey purists: Sometimes things have to change!).
My rating: 3.5 out of 5.