Diamonds Are Forever 1971

A real disaster of a flick that clearly reflects the uncertainty and disarray surrounding the franchise in the early ‘70s. With George Lazenby out of the picture and a small cavalcade of fill-ins dropping off for one reason or another, Eon pressed the panic button and brought Sean Connery out of mothballs for a swan song. It's a mistake from the very start. Not only does Connery look unreasonably old for the part, he badly overplays his confidence and worldliness, often coming off as desperate and smarmy.

The screen is crowded with gaudy sideshow characters, including a trashy, ditsy leading lady and two villainous hitmen who seem far more concerned with excessively elaborate setups than actually doing away with anybody. Even longtime nemesis Blofeld, who may have been the sole beacon of excellence in the equally-forgettable You Only Live Twice, is ruined by an awful recasting, horrendous new personality quirks and a master plan that makes no sense whatsoever. But that's par for the course, really, as the plot at large is peppered with so many dumb jokes and absurd asides that just keeping up with this swerving, goofball storyline is a challenge worthy of MI-6.

There's a good car chase midway through the second act (which loses some steam thanks to a similar pursuit, just a few minutes earlier, involving a freaking moon rover) and a few of the gags are so mind-blowingly stupid that I couldn't help but laugh. Otherwise, this is a completely insignificant chapter in the character's long, speckled history. Unless you're a dedicated completist, keep your distance.

It's tough to dislike a Bond film, especially one starring Sean Connery. And as disjointed and scattershot as the plot of this one is, I still like it.

It's goofy and feels patched together, but more than anything, it tries much too hard to be funny. Sometimes it works but it really cheapens the adventure. This movie more than any other Bond entry, had me screaming at the bad guy to "just shoot Bond already!!!". The villains go to great lengths to let Bond wriggle out of jam after jam.

I had to laugh at some of the effects. The explosions during the movie's climax look awful. I also laughed at a scene where security officers in old Ford LTDs chase Bond, who has hijacked some kind of moon rover-style vehicle. Bond leads them on a chase through the Nevada desert and car after car succumbs to the rough desert terrain. Bond's rover clearly loses a tire during one shot. The rover tire bounces across the screen but we flip back to Bond and he's still cruising along in the thing! A little editing would have been nice.

I also thought there were way too many people standing on the sidewalks watching Bond rip through the Las Vegas streets in a shiny red Mustang. If I didn't know better, I'd think that everyone in the casinos were told that a movie chase was being filmed on the streets outside. It's really obvious and totally distracts from the car chase. It smells like "Cannonball Run" to me.

Jill St. John prances around with next to nothing on which suits a Bond flick just fine, but she's an airhead and Bond girls are usually smart. But at second glance there' s a surplus of questionable casting here. Jimmy Dean as Williard Whyte and Norman Burton as Felix Leiter are truly awful in their roles. And Charles Gray's turn as big baddie Blofeld is ho-hum.

Still, when you add up the good and subtract the bad, the balance sheet is still is in the black and it's because of Ken Adam's fantastic sets and of course, Connery's magnetism and charm.

Granted, it's not the best Bond movie so far, not even the second best. But I like this more than OHMSS. And not because Connery was back. No, that probably wasn't the best idea but one born out of desperation. His age (althought just around 40 he looked older) is clearly showing by now and he isn't as convincing as he was before. I do agree that there is a lot of sillyness in this movie. But in some way that's what I expect from a Bond movie. Not a parody but certainly a wee bit over the top. But it seems to be more aimed at an american audience. The addition of well known, and beautiful, american actress Jill St. John seems to add to that.
There is no mentioning at all of what happened at the end of OHMSS and I think that was a deliberate attempt to bury that movie. We start out again with Bond chasing Blofeld (again played by a different actor) around the world and presumably killing him. Which is later revealed to be a Doppelgänger. Not a huge surprise for the audience I might add. The two henchman Wint and Kidd add a little bit of creepyness and overall you get the usual plot holes and errors also typical for a Bond movie.
But it was "Goodbye" for Mr. Connery who carried a lot of the 1960s Bond with him. The next one would by the premiere for Roger Moore (who was the initial first choice for the character) who carries Bond into the 1970s.