Diamonds are Forever (1971)

After some difficulties with George Lazenby, Sean Connery returned for Diamonds are Forever. Made on a budget of $7.1 million the film went on to make $116 million at the box office but gained a mixed response from fans and critics but in my opinion...

Well imagine yourself just watching the brilliant On Her Majesty’s Secret service, expecting a dark revenge film where James hunts down Blofeld after the murder of her wife only for that to be completely ignored and the film ends up being one of the campiest in the entire franchise. You wouldn’t be all too happy and I wasn’t.

It’s not the expectations that made the film as poor as it is though, many features of the film made it the mess it is. One of the most apparent is the performances, Sean Connery looks like he’s sleepwalking through the entire film, not only him but everyone is dull and uninteresting. The characters themselves are undeveloped and idiotic. One character suddenly changed completely in the space of a few minutes leaving you confused and slightly frustrated.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind a bit of campy Bond but Diamonds are Forever takes it to the extreme which, while fun at times, becomes cringe inducing. A lot of my viewing experience involved sighing and rolling my eyes. Maybe it’s just because I prefer a more grounded and dark Bond and this was ridiculous and silly but that doesn’t excuse its messy plot and characters. Even the score was dull and unimaginative which is really a first in the series at this point. Not only was the film incredibly boring but it dragged on far too long which just made it worse.

Any positives? Well some parts where fun and there were moments I didn’t want to switch the film off, one or two action scenes were pretty well shot but on the top of my head that’s all I can think of.

A dull boring mess and a huge disappointment after the stunning On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, I don’t HATE it but I don’t care for it, as long as I don’t have to watch it again for a few years I’ll be fine. The fact that this has nearly the exact same rating as OHMSS on IMDb is disgraceful

4.5/10