Diamonds Are Forever

Buy This Item Diamonds Are Forever by MGM (Video & DVD)  Available from Amazon  $7.49  on 8-30-2008     Sean Connery retired from the 007 franchise after <I>You Only Live Twice</I> (replaced by George Lazenby in the underrated and underperforming <I>On Her Majesty's Secret Service</I>) but was lured back for one last official appearance as James Bond in <I>Diamonds Are Forever</I>. He's in fine form--cool but ruthless--in a sharp precredits sequence hunting the unkillable Blofeld (a suavely menacing Charles Gray in this incarnation), but the MacGuffin of a story (involving diamond smuggling, a superlaser on a satellite, and Blofeld's latest plot to rule the world ) is full of the groaning tongue-in-cheek gags that Roger Moore would make his signature. <I>Goldfinger</I> director Guy Hamilton keeps the film zipping along gamely from one entertaining set piece to another, including a terrific car chase in a parking lot, a battle with a pair of bikini-clad killer gymnasts named Bambi and Thumper, and a deadly game with a bizarre pair of fey, sardonic killers who dispatch their victims with elaborate invention. Jill St. John is the brassy but not too bright American smuggler Tiffany Case, and country singer and pork sausage king Jimmy Dean costars as a reclusive billionaire with not-so-subtle parallels to Howard Hughes. Shirley Bassey belts out the memorable theme song, one of the series' best. Connery retired again after this one but he returned once more, for <I>Never Say Never Again</I> 15 years later for a rival production company. <I>--Sean Axmaker</I> Reader Reviews Sean Connery put on his tuxedo again as James Bond, after a one film hiatus, in 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever", which confirmed the long term trend of the franchise toward tougue-in-check humor and over-the-top action sequences. The movie opens with a nice action sequence as Bond ruthlessly hunts down and seemingly kills his old SPECTRE nemesis Blofeld. The movie proper concerns a plot by SPECTRE to steal diamonds for an unknown but diabolical purpose. Bond's efforts to insinuate himself inside the plot involve the cooperation of smuggler Tiffany Case (a fine performance by Jill St. John). The action shifts from Europe to Las Vegas and finally to an offshore oil rig for a spectacular climax as Bond races to save the world from a high capacity laser built by Blofeld (in a nicely urbane performance by Charles Gray). In an final sequence, Bond confronts Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, two pesky and offbeat assassins who have trailed him throughout the movie. "Diamonds Are Forever" moves briskly enough to create a suspensful storyline punctuated with witty one-liners delivered with deadpan timing by Bond. Connerly retired from the role after this movie, turning it over to Roger Moore, who tended to emphasize humor over menace in his characterization of Bond.

Diamonds Are Forever Available from Amazon Price: $7.49 Updated on 8-30-2008.

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