The later seasons got so bad and boring that it is a peasant surprise to revisit season one of this Sex and the City for guys. Looking back its striking how they got the different characterisations so right, and cast the leads so well: Jimmy Cagney-like Eric (feisty, short, loyal); head in the clouds Vince (talented, a bit lazy, reliant on friends to look after him and tell him the truth); likeable leech Turtle (simplistic, funny); and tormented Drama. It's the guys who give this heart but Drama who gives it depth because he makes it clear how fleeting fame and even work is in the industry - one or two wrong choices and it all goes away. Being a star is a tricky balancing act... and when the show forgot this in later seasons it really hurt.
Of course there is Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold - a lot sleazier in this season that he would later become (which was a lot more interesting character wise... that he was faithful to his wife) but still the same angry ruthless person, and his conflict with Eric is again something that would unfortunately be forgotten.
The women have no more depth than the men on Sex in the City but make good eye candy; the writing is sharp, the plot twists fun, it has a good over all arc (setting up Queen's Boulevard), and it remains enjoyable escapist TV.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Movie review - "The Blues Brothers" (1980) ***
Big lousy noisy cartoon musical which glories in its excess, pouring on the music numbers and car crashes with abandon. Actually in this CGI age it's enjoyable to see some good old fashioned cars spinning around and crashing through malls and the music is of course superb. The one number I didn't feel worked was "Think" by Aretha Franklin - a terrific song but a bit of a downer number because she's trying to persuade her husband not to run off and join the band.
John Belushi outshines Dan Akyroyd but Aykroyd offers solid support and heck it was his passion that got the whole thing going. The cameos and short bits are a lot of fun: I liked the musos and also John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Steven Spielberg, Frank Oz, Henry Gibson, Charles Napier, and so on. It's silly but it has its own integrity which I think is one of the reasons why it's struck such a chord. That, and the fact that its so easy to dress up as Blues Brothers.
John Belushi outshines Dan Akyroyd but Aykroyd offers solid support and heck it was his passion that got the whole thing going. The cameos and short bits are a lot of fun: I liked the musos and also John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Steven Spielberg, Frank Oz, Henry Gibson, Charles Napier, and so on. It's silly but it has its own integrity which I think is one of the reasons why it's struck such a chord. That, and the fact that its so easy to dress up as Blues Brothers.
Wednesday, October 09, 2013
Movie review - Bond#11 - "Moonraker" (1979) ***
Having revitalised the Bond series with The Spy Who Loved Me, Albert Broccoli and team promptly remade that movie with Moonraker and were rewarded with their biggest grossing work to date... but I think thats because Spy Who Loved Me was so good (and loved)... Moonraker cashed in on its popularity (the same way Thunderball performed so well off the back of the much more loved Goldfinger).
I can understand why they did what they did but it's a shame so much good stuff was jettinsoned from the novel: the heroine name Gala Brand, the villain's plan of setting off a bomb in London, the villain's backstory of being a secret Nazi. Instead there's another megalomaniac who wants to destroy the world and start anew - only in outer space instead of underwater. He employs Jaws and a series of other incompetent assassins and has trouble killing Bond.
Michael Londsale isn't bad as said villain, Hugo Drax - a little laid back. Richard Kiel is charismatic as Jaws although the character is completely neutered here - the genuinely scary baddy of Spy is now more Will E. Coyote, falling out of planes without parachutes and off cable cars and much more without a scratch. But this suits the tone of the movie which is Bond at his most cartoonish.
And if you can accept that you'll enjoy the movie. I loved this when I was eight and that's the ideal age to watch this. There is plenty of production value and action and it unfolds in a simple eight year old style - watching it I kept thinking of old serials, or 50s science fiction movies. One minute we're falling out of a plane, then we're in France pretending to be California, then Venice, then Brazil - going from location to location with the thinnest of pretexts.
Yes, other Bonds have been like serials but the screenplays were better structured and there was some emotional undercurrent - for instance Spy had a great subplot where Bond and XXX were on opposite sides of the Cold War and he'd killed her boyfriend. Here Bond and Dr Goodhead both work for basically the same side and don't have any sort of personal confict. (This also means that Lois Chiles, who is as pretty and equally bad an actor as Barbara Bach, doesn't come across anywhere near as well because her character is much worse). The most emotional bit about this movie is that brief scene where Jaws realises he and his girlfriend won't fit in to his boss' plans for the perfect race of humans and changes sides (because this is such an archetypal theme which strikes such a universal chord I went with this).
But this has its own integrity. It's a silly movie which at least commits to being silly: a space station with a fleet of shuttles, a Noah's ark, a rocket launch platform in the Amazon, a platoon of space soldiers who NASA sends up to outer space at the first sign of a blip on the radar; sex in outerspace.When its stupidity stops being insulting it's almost endearing.
There's also some genuinely spectacular moments: the opening freefall action sequence (though this is marred by a silly Jaws end gag), an attempted murder of Bond on a centrifuge chamber, a fight on top of a cable car. Moore plods through with amiable lecherousness, having a good old time. I enjoyed seeing Geoffrey Keene repeat his turn as "Minister for Defence" in order to help Bernard Lee with his exposition (this was Lee's last appearance - he doesn't look well), Desmond Llewellyn has great fun as Q, and the women are pretty.
I can understand why they did what they did but it's a shame so much good stuff was jettinsoned from the novel: the heroine name Gala Brand, the villain's plan of setting off a bomb in London, the villain's backstory of being a secret Nazi. Instead there's another megalomaniac who wants to destroy the world and start anew - only in outer space instead of underwater. He employs Jaws and a series of other incompetent assassins and has trouble killing Bond.
Michael Londsale isn't bad as said villain, Hugo Drax - a little laid back. Richard Kiel is charismatic as Jaws although the character is completely neutered here - the genuinely scary baddy of Spy is now more Will E. Coyote, falling out of planes without parachutes and off cable cars and much more without a scratch. But this suits the tone of the movie which is Bond at his most cartoonish.
And if you can accept that you'll enjoy the movie. I loved this when I was eight and that's the ideal age to watch this. There is plenty of production value and action and it unfolds in a simple eight year old style - watching it I kept thinking of old serials, or 50s science fiction movies. One minute we're falling out of a plane, then we're in France pretending to be California, then Venice, then Brazil - going from location to location with the thinnest of pretexts.
Yes, other Bonds have been like serials but the screenplays were better structured and there was some emotional undercurrent - for instance Spy had a great subplot where Bond and XXX were on opposite sides of the Cold War and he'd killed her boyfriend. Here Bond and Dr Goodhead both work for basically the same side and don't have any sort of personal confict. (This also means that Lois Chiles, who is as pretty and equally bad an actor as Barbara Bach, doesn't come across anywhere near as well because her character is much worse). The most emotional bit about this movie is that brief scene where Jaws realises he and his girlfriend won't fit in to his boss' plans for the perfect race of humans and changes sides (because this is such an archetypal theme which strikes such a universal chord I went with this).
But this has its own integrity. It's a silly movie which at least commits to being silly: a space station with a fleet of shuttles, a Noah's ark, a rocket launch platform in the Amazon, a platoon of space soldiers who NASA sends up to outer space at the first sign of a blip on the radar; sex in outerspace.When its stupidity stops being insulting it's almost endearing.
There's also some genuinely spectacular moments: the opening freefall action sequence (though this is marred by a silly Jaws end gag), an attempted murder of Bond on a centrifuge chamber, a fight on top of a cable car. Moore plods through with amiable lecherousness, having a good old time. I enjoyed seeing Geoffrey Keene repeat his turn as "Minister for Defence" in order to help Bernard Lee with his exposition (this was Lee's last appearance - he doesn't look well), Desmond Llewellyn has great fun as Q, and the women are pretty.
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
Movie review - Bond#10 - "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) *****
Part of the success of the Bond film series lies in its incredible ability to reinvent and stay relevant - every time they're in a bit of a slump or threatening to get tired the producers seem to come up with a way of reinvigorating things. In the mid 70s Albert Broccoli was up against it - producer Harry Salztmann was facing tax problems, the last movie hadn't done that well, the public hadn't taken to Roger Moore the way they way with Sean Connery, they couldn't get a script that worked...
And yet, it somehow all magically came together. In part because they deployed a well established story (copying the structure of You Only Live Twice... which had been copied from Dr No), and stuffing it full of familiar ingredients: exotic locations, a Blofeld like-villain (he even has a shark infested pool to dispose of pesty female employees and who likes to kill people rather than pay them), an Odd-job like henchman, a Pussy Galore type spirited Bond girl, a fight on a train, a ski chase, a car chase involving a car with a lot of gadgets, Bond and the girl busted in flagrante delicto at the end.
But the villain is given a fresh twist and superbly cast (Curt Jurgens as a man with webbed hands who wants the world to live underwater); ditto the henchman (Richard Kiel as the vampire like Jaws) and girl (Barbara Bach who is actually a pretty bad actor but you don't notice because (a) she's so beautiful and (b) her character is so strong - easily the smartest, most powerful and imposing Bond girl yet, even more than Pussy Galore).
The ski sequence is very well done with perhaps the greatest end gag in the history of the series; the fight on the train is exciting, the car with gadgets outshines the one in Goldfinger; the battle at the end involving the captured submariners and their odd-red-uniform-wearing gaolers is better than the one in You Only Live Twice.
There is some originality, too: Jaws' teeth, the battle of the sexes between Bond and Barbara Bach (okay this wasn't super original but it was a first for Bond), the underwater lair (cue some fantastic Ken Adams sets with their massive spaces); I loved how the two captured subs are told to blow each other up and the fight amongst the pyramids is genuinely creepy and well shot.
Amidst all the spectacle and sexual banter, the screenwriters still allow some humanity: the fact Bond has killed Anya's boyfriend gives it some real edge, as does Bond shutting down conversation about his dead wife. I like how they referred to Bond's career as a naval officer. They've written to Roger Moore's strengths - he has a wonderful way with a line, loves the romance and fun of it, and is professional about his job (rather being joyously sadistic). He's superb as Bond here, and has every right to be proud of the movie.
In addition to the leads there's also a top rate support cast, including the ever reliable Shane Rimmer given a decent part; Caroline Munro as a sexy, flirty assassin (winking at Bond before trying to kill him); Milton Reid as a Tor Johnson like hitman; Edward de Souza as Bond's old Cambridge classmate. Desmond Llewellyn gets to go on location for a bit which must have been nice for him; Lois Maxwell and Bernard Lee are back (although was he supposed to be on the sub at the beginning of the film?). This movie also saw the introduction of new series regulars like Walter Gotell (who was in From Russia with Love admittedly) and Geoffrey Keene. Oh and Hammer horror fans will get a kick out of seeing Valerie Leon as a receptionist.
I've got the soundtrack and wasn't a fan of it to listen to (all that disco) but it works in the film and the title tune is an all time classic.
And yet, it somehow all magically came together. In part because they deployed a well established story (copying the structure of You Only Live Twice... which had been copied from Dr No), and stuffing it full of familiar ingredients: exotic locations, a Blofeld like-villain (he even has a shark infested pool to dispose of pesty female employees and who likes to kill people rather than pay them), an Odd-job like henchman, a Pussy Galore type spirited Bond girl, a fight on a train, a ski chase, a car chase involving a car with a lot of gadgets, Bond and the girl busted in flagrante delicto at the end.
But the villain is given a fresh twist and superbly cast (Curt Jurgens as a man with webbed hands who wants the world to live underwater); ditto the henchman (Richard Kiel as the vampire like Jaws) and girl (Barbara Bach who is actually a pretty bad actor but you don't notice because (a) she's so beautiful and (b) her character is so strong - easily the smartest, most powerful and imposing Bond girl yet, even more than Pussy Galore).
The ski sequence is very well done with perhaps the greatest end gag in the history of the series; the fight on the train is exciting, the car with gadgets outshines the one in Goldfinger; the battle at the end involving the captured submariners and their odd-red-uniform-wearing gaolers is better than the one in You Only Live Twice.
There is some originality, too: Jaws' teeth, the battle of the sexes between Bond and Barbara Bach (okay this wasn't super original but it was a first for Bond), the underwater lair (cue some fantastic Ken Adams sets with their massive spaces); I loved how the two captured subs are told to blow each other up and the fight amongst the pyramids is genuinely creepy and well shot.
Amidst all the spectacle and sexual banter, the screenwriters still allow some humanity: the fact Bond has killed Anya's boyfriend gives it some real edge, as does Bond shutting down conversation about his dead wife. I like how they referred to Bond's career as a naval officer. They've written to Roger Moore's strengths - he has a wonderful way with a line, loves the romance and fun of it, and is professional about his job (rather being joyously sadistic). He's superb as Bond here, and has every right to be proud of the movie.
In addition to the leads there's also a top rate support cast, including the ever reliable Shane Rimmer given a decent part; Caroline Munro as a sexy, flirty assassin (winking at Bond before trying to kill him); Milton Reid as a Tor Johnson like hitman; Edward de Souza as Bond's old Cambridge classmate. Desmond Llewellyn gets to go on location for a bit which must have been nice for him; Lois Maxwell and Bernard Lee are back (although was he supposed to be on the sub at the beginning of the film?). This movie also saw the introduction of new series regulars like Walter Gotell (who was in From Russia with Love admittedly) and Geoffrey Keene. Oh and Hammer horror fans will get a kick out of seeing Valerie Leon as a receptionist.
I've got the soundtrack and wasn't a fan of it to listen to (all that disco) but it works in the film and the title tune is an all time classic.
Sunday, October 06, 2013
Movie review - "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) ***
The spirit of the 70s is strong in this classic zombie flick - even though the zombies are slow moving and dumb, easy to walk past and kill, the authorities are incapable of stopping them; it's general panic stations, the only people who look keen to take them out are rednecks, journalists and SWAT team members want to run away.
The four leads aren't the best actors in the world but all have defined characters - the honorable black guy, the balding white dude who has a romance with the black guy and goes nuts, the silly helicopter pilot, the stunned girl (who remains disappointingly whimpy throughout the movie). All have one thing in common - they consistently make bad decisions.
The setting is clever (a shopping mall), the music rhythmically intense, the action sequences impress, the running time is too long. Enjoyable gore, silly zombie fighting tactics, and plenty of NRA propaganda underneath a thin veneer of redneck bashing.
The four leads aren't the best actors in the world but all have defined characters - the honorable black guy, the balding white dude who has a romance with the black guy and goes nuts, the silly helicopter pilot, the stunned girl (who remains disappointingly whimpy throughout the movie). All have one thing in common - they consistently make bad decisions.
The setting is clever (a shopping mall), the music rhythmically intense, the action sequences impress, the running time is too long. Enjoyable gore, silly zombie fighting tactics, and plenty of NRA propaganda underneath a thin veneer of redneck bashing.
Saturday, October 05, 2013
Movie review - Bond#9 - "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974) **1/2
Everyone has their own least favourite Bond film but I don't think anyone would get too much flak if they named this one. Still, I was surprised that it wasn't as bad as I'd remembered... even if I'd remembered it as really, really bad.
The frustrating thing is like Diamonds Are Forever there is a good movie inside here, wanting to get out, and we get glimpses of it. The relationship between government assassin Bond and assassin-for-hire Scaramanga was a strong one - men with much in common - and an excellent basis for drama. The filmmakers helped things by casting Christopher Lee in the role of Scaramanga - good looking, charismatic, believably ruthless... and also a clear contemporary of Roger Moore's. Indeed the characterisation of Scaramanga is better in the film in the novel, where he was more a two bit gangster; here he has more humanity and ambition.
It was a shame though they lost the section in the novel where Bond went undercover as Scaramanga's helper - this could have seen some interesting scenes between the two along the lines of Bond and Robert Davi in Licence to Kill. However they went with the assassin knowing Bond's identity from the get-go (I think to set up the use of the Bond mannequin which is how he ultimately beats Scaramanga.. still, it's a shame since it could have given their relationship more progression).
Some other positive things about the movie: Herve Villechaize's Nick Nack is one of the best villain henchman's ever. (Scaramanga also has a third - some random black guy who hangs around the island and sexually harasses Britt Ekland.) Maud Adams is beautiful, and one of the best in the surprisingly long list of doomed-Bond-beauties; her death packs a surprising emotional wallop and Britt Ekland never seems like a good enough substitute (killing a love interest too late in a Bond film is always fraught with danger eg You Only Live Twice). We get extra Bernard Miles in this one (his eyes seem bloodshot in one scene) and some intriguing Moneypenny-Bond banter when she snaps at him at the beginning.
There is also much pleasing location work - Macau, Thailand, Hong Kong. Scaramanga's island lair is very beautiful (I didn't mind it being underpopulated), there are several good looking girls, an impressive car jump stunt (though hampered by a silly slide whistle sound effect that accompanies it), some interesting gimmick bits (a car that turns into a plane, a cigarette lighter that turns into a gun), and a couple of scenes I found genuinely compelling: visiting the gun manufacturer in Macau, the death of Maud Adams, Bond and Scaramanga at lunch and on the beach.
Now for the bad stuff: I think it was a mistake to bring in Marc Lawrence so soon after him being in Diamonds Are Forever; Guy Hamilton's handling feels lethargic and tired most of the time; the film is needlessly overlong; the stuff about the Solex feels tacked on and not thought out; the final shoot out between Bond and Scaramanga has some good moments but feels undercooked and too indebted to Lady from Shanghai (this needed to be a classic encounter along the lines of the train fight with Red Grant); Clifton James' unfunny redneck sheriff is agonisingly awful and should never have been brought back; I loathed the poorly integrated kung fu sequence and the two fighting expert girls (every Bond film has villains delay killing him but bundling him off to a kung fu school...?); the title song is crap (loud and stupid); and Britt Ekland's heroine, while very hot, is too ditzy and stupid... it's like a retread of Jill St John's Tiffany Case, having her walk around in a bikini and knock things over.
The case of Ekland is typical of the film. They could have done something really interesting with the character she plays - Mary Goodnight, James Bond's secretary... I mean, what would a person like that be like? What history does she have with him? But they muff it. It's also annoying they dropped the best bit about the novel: the opening sequence where a brainwashed Bond tries to kill M. (NB This was used in a later Bond film.) Still, watching it again after many years absence, I was surprised how often I got into it.
The frustrating thing is like Diamonds Are Forever there is a good movie inside here, wanting to get out, and we get glimpses of it. The relationship between government assassin Bond and assassin-for-hire Scaramanga was a strong one - men with much in common - and an excellent basis for drama. The filmmakers helped things by casting Christopher Lee in the role of Scaramanga - good looking, charismatic, believably ruthless... and also a clear contemporary of Roger Moore's. Indeed the characterisation of Scaramanga is better in the film in the novel, where he was more a two bit gangster; here he has more humanity and ambition.
It was a shame though they lost the section in the novel where Bond went undercover as Scaramanga's helper - this could have seen some interesting scenes between the two along the lines of Bond and Robert Davi in Licence to Kill. However they went with the assassin knowing Bond's identity from the get-go (I think to set up the use of the Bond mannequin which is how he ultimately beats Scaramanga.. still, it's a shame since it could have given their relationship more progression).
Some other positive things about the movie: Herve Villechaize's Nick Nack is one of the best villain henchman's ever. (Scaramanga also has a third - some random black guy who hangs around the island and sexually harasses Britt Ekland.) Maud Adams is beautiful, and one of the best in the surprisingly long list of doomed-Bond-beauties; her death packs a surprising emotional wallop and Britt Ekland never seems like a good enough substitute (killing a love interest too late in a Bond film is always fraught with danger eg You Only Live Twice). We get extra Bernard Miles in this one (his eyes seem bloodshot in one scene) and some intriguing Moneypenny-Bond banter when she snaps at him at the beginning.
There is also much pleasing location work - Macau, Thailand, Hong Kong. Scaramanga's island lair is very beautiful (I didn't mind it being underpopulated), there are several good looking girls, an impressive car jump stunt (though hampered by a silly slide whistle sound effect that accompanies it), some interesting gimmick bits (a car that turns into a plane, a cigarette lighter that turns into a gun), and a couple of scenes I found genuinely compelling: visiting the gun manufacturer in Macau, the death of Maud Adams, Bond and Scaramanga at lunch and on the beach.
Now for the bad stuff: I think it was a mistake to bring in Marc Lawrence so soon after him being in Diamonds Are Forever; Guy Hamilton's handling feels lethargic and tired most of the time; the film is needlessly overlong; the stuff about the Solex feels tacked on and not thought out; the final shoot out between Bond and Scaramanga has some good moments but feels undercooked and too indebted to Lady from Shanghai (this needed to be a classic encounter along the lines of the train fight with Red Grant); Clifton James' unfunny redneck sheriff is agonisingly awful and should never have been brought back; I loathed the poorly integrated kung fu sequence and the two fighting expert girls (every Bond film has villains delay killing him but bundling him off to a kung fu school...?); the title song is crap (loud and stupid); and Britt Ekland's heroine, while very hot, is too ditzy and stupid... it's like a retread of Jill St John's Tiffany Case, having her walk around in a bikini and knock things over.
The case of Ekland is typical of the film. They could have done something really interesting with the character she plays - Mary Goodnight, James Bond's secretary... I mean, what would a person like that be like? What history does she have with him? But they muff it. It's also annoying they dropped the best bit about the novel: the opening sequence where a brainwashed Bond tries to kill M. (NB This was used in a later Bond film.) Still, watching it again after many years absence, I was surprised how often I got into it.
Thursday, October 03, 2013
Movie review - Bond#7 - "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) **
The film industry recession of the late 60s and relative disappointment of On Her Majesty's Secret Service shook the faith of United Artists, who offered Sean Connery the keys to the bank if he'd return to the role of James Bond. It worked, and the movie was a hit - which doesn't change the fact it's not that good, and Connery gives his weakest performance as Bond to date.
It had only been a few years but Connery looked a lot older and heavier with his least convincing toupee; he lacks sophistication and lumbers around like an aging football player gone slightly to seed. He also looks not very happy to be there.
It's a pity because I was looking for some emotional stuff from Bond in the wake of his wife's death in the previous film; they could have borrowed from the opening chapter of the book You Only Live Twice and have a boozing Bond, shattered and on the verge of collapse. But instead there's a mostly unmemorable pre-credit sequence where Bond tracks down Blofeld, then kills him in an unexciting fight scene.
I say "mostly unmemorable" because there are some good gimmicks and bits in it - someone saying "hit me" before being hit, and a woman being strangled in her bikini. And to be fair Diamonds Are Forever has a few good bits - funny lines, little gimmicky moments like the fake fingerprints. But as a narrative whole it's a failure.
The story isn't much - Bond follows a diamond smuggling trail from Amsterdam to Las Vegas, which involves him going undercover as a smuggler. Undercover stories almost always work but the script throws away opportunities wholesale - there's no real stakes (emotional or life and death) if Tiffany Case realises Bond was a liar, and Bond always has this massive support crew nearby to help him out.
No doubt worried about the low key drama that was unfolding, the screenwriters then throw in a third act plot about the diamonds being used by Blofeld to create a ray gun which feels uncooked and stupid, plus a twist with Blofeld pretending to be a reclusive billionaire, which is actually a great idea, but really badly done.
So much of this is stupid - instead of killing Bond, Blofeld arranges for him to be taken out to the desert alive to be left for dead (I recognise the baddies not killing Bond was a regular feature of the series but this movie pushes it to ridiculous proportions Blofeld kidnaps Tiffany Case for absolutely no good reason; Bofeld lets Bond come on board the oil rig and doesn't kill him at the end; Bond goes to Whyte's house on his own for no good reason when Felix Leiter is there as well.
I am admittedly biased here because I don't like my Bond films to be overly American and this is the most American Bond yet. The old stylish 60s look is gone, with too many ugly shirts and cars, the two girls Bond beds are American (and noisily so too), the character actors are over familiar American gangster types, Vegas in the day looks too tacky, there's the least memorable Felix Leiter yet. And I couldn't help feeling Blofeld didn't belong in America.
Jill St John is pretty and spunky, has a good character name, looks good in a bikini and wrapped in that white fur, but lacks spark, bravery and a sense of danger/death; also she is far too dim, especially her shenanigans at the end with the tape. It's a shame they couldn't have kept some of the man-hating, wounded-bird aspect to Tiffany's character from the novel - it would have given her somewhere to go dramatically and been more interesting than the mercenary, wise-cracking ditz here... but clearly by the way the filmmakers avoided Bond having any trauma in the fall out from his wife's death they didn't want to create a Bond film with any emotional depth. It's a real shame because the direct follow up to On Her Majesty's Secret Service should have had some depth.
Plenty O'Toole has spectacular cleavage, a funny stunt fall into a pool and a tragic end that doesn't make too much sense if you think about and she's too jokey for us to care much what happens to her. But at least she's better than Jimmy Dean's Willard Whyte, who is appalling - I can't believe the filmmakers miscast so badly; he's meant to be this recluse a la Howard Hughes, which could have been a marvellous creepy, intriguing character but and instead they have this jokey well adjusted Texan who always seems to be on the toilet. Not for one moment do you believe he is a reclusive billionaire; a hick moronic Texas oilman lately but not some mogul. To make things worse he takes part in the helicopter attack on the oil rig at the end - get stuffed! He is not Draco. In the pantheon of "Bond allies" in the series, Dean's Willard Whyte would rank right down the bottom.
The moon buggy chase and following car chase through Vegas is dull as is the final battle on an oil rig (oil rigs are never as exciting as I think they'll be - they look so great but they never seem to result in any decent action ssequences). I enjoyed the circus and funeral parlour scenes and there's a decent fight in an elevator between Bond and Peter Franks (an attempt to reprise the Red Grant fight on the train in From Russia with Love) - but it might have meant more had we gotten to know the character of Peter Franks first.
Charles Gray is an absolutely dreadful Blofeld; not only is he a whimp he seems bored most of the time, and monumentally uninterested in his own plan. Donald Pleasance's Blofeld at least had ambition and scope, Telly Savalas' was human and genuinely tough - Grey is just dull. There is absolutely no tension between him and Bond over Tracey's death from the previous film, which would have given this a massive lift; Blofeld is a moron, a pushover and an all-round unworthy opponent. It's a disgraceful treatment of one of the great Bond villains.
Okay some good things: I liked multiple Blofelds, Bambi and Thumper are entertaining henchwomen, Bruce Glover and Putter Smith are fun as the two gay killers. Shirley Bassey sings a first rate theme song and fans will enjoy Shane Rimmer popping up as one of Whyte's assistants. But I was surprised how awful this was. Dull, unexotic, lacking any sort of logic.
It had only been a few years but Connery looked a lot older and heavier with his least convincing toupee; he lacks sophistication and lumbers around like an aging football player gone slightly to seed. He also looks not very happy to be there.
It's a pity because I was looking for some emotional stuff from Bond in the wake of his wife's death in the previous film; they could have borrowed from the opening chapter of the book You Only Live Twice and have a boozing Bond, shattered and on the verge of collapse. But instead there's a mostly unmemorable pre-credit sequence where Bond tracks down Blofeld, then kills him in an unexciting fight scene.
I say "mostly unmemorable" because there are some good gimmicks and bits in it - someone saying "hit me" before being hit, and a woman being strangled in her bikini. And to be fair Diamonds Are Forever has a few good bits - funny lines, little gimmicky moments like the fake fingerprints. But as a narrative whole it's a failure.
The story isn't much - Bond follows a diamond smuggling trail from Amsterdam to Las Vegas, which involves him going undercover as a smuggler. Undercover stories almost always work but the script throws away opportunities wholesale - there's no real stakes (emotional or life and death) if Tiffany Case realises Bond was a liar, and Bond always has this massive support crew nearby to help him out.
No doubt worried about the low key drama that was unfolding, the screenwriters then throw in a third act plot about the diamonds being used by Blofeld to create a ray gun which feels uncooked and stupid, plus a twist with Blofeld pretending to be a reclusive billionaire, which is actually a great idea, but really badly done.
So much of this is stupid - instead of killing Bond, Blofeld arranges for him to be taken out to the desert alive to be left for dead (I recognise the baddies not killing Bond was a regular feature of the series but this movie pushes it to ridiculous proportions Blofeld kidnaps Tiffany Case for absolutely no good reason; Bofeld lets Bond come on board the oil rig and doesn't kill him at the end; Bond goes to Whyte's house on his own for no good reason when Felix Leiter is there as well.
I am admittedly biased here because I don't like my Bond films to be overly American and this is the most American Bond yet. The old stylish 60s look is gone, with too many ugly shirts and cars, the two girls Bond beds are American (and noisily so too), the character actors are over familiar American gangster types, Vegas in the day looks too tacky, there's the least memorable Felix Leiter yet. And I couldn't help feeling Blofeld didn't belong in America.
Jill St John is pretty and spunky, has a good character name, looks good in a bikini and wrapped in that white fur, but lacks spark, bravery and a sense of danger/death; also she is far too dim, especially her shenanigans at the end with the tape. It's a shame they couldn't have kept some of the man-hating, wounded-bird aspect to Tiffany's character from the novel - it would have given her somewhere to go dramatically and been more interesting than the mercenary, wise-cracking ditz here... but clearly by the way the filmmakers avoided Bond having any trauma in the fall out from his wife's death they didn't want to create a Bond film with any emotional depth. It's a real shame because the direct follow up to On Her Majesty's Secret Service should have had some depth.
Plenty O'Toole has spectacular cleavage, a funny stunt fall into a pool and a tragic end that doesn't make too much sense if you think about and she's too jokey for us to care much what happens to her. But at least she's better than Jimmy Dean's Willard Whyte, who is appalling - I can't believe the filmmakers miscast so badly; he's meant to be this recluse a la Howard Hughes, which could have been a marvellous creepy, intriguing character but and instead they have this jokey well adjusted Texan who always seems to be on the toilet. Not for one moment do you believe he is a reclusive billionaire; a hick moronic Texas oilman lately but not some mogul. To make things worse he takes part in the helicopter attack on the oil rig at the end - get stuffed! He is not Draco. In the pantheon of "Bond allies" in the series, Dean's Willard Whyte would rank right down the bottom.
The moon buggy chase and following car chase through Vegas is dull as is the final battle on an oil rig (oil rigs are never as exciting as I think they'll be - they look so great but they never seem to result in any decent action ssequences). I enjoyed the circus and funeral parlour scenes and there's a decent fight in an elevator between Bond and Peter Franks (an attempt to reprise the Red Grant fight on the train in From Russia with Love) - but it might have meant more had we gotten to know the character of Peter Franks first.
Charles Gray is an absolutely dreadful Blofeld; not only is he a whimp he seems bored most of the time, and monumentally uninterested in his own plan. Donald Pleasance's Blofeld at least had ambition and scope, Telly Savalas' was human and genuinely tough - Grey is just dull. There is absolutely no tension between him and Bond over Tracey's death from the previous film, which would have given this a massive lift; Blofeld is a moron, a pushover and an all-round unworthy opponent. It's a disgraceful treatment of one of the great Bond villains.
Okay some good things: I liked multiple Blofelds, Bambi and Thumper are entertaining henchwomen, Bruce Glover and Putter Smith are fun as the two gay killers. Shirley Bassey sings a first rate theme song and fans will enjoy Shane Rimmer popping up as one of Whyte's assistants. But I was surprised how awful this was. Dull, unexotic, lacking any sort of logic.
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