Why is there so much hating on DAF ?
AstonMartinLover
Posts: 12MI6 Agent
Personally I really loved that movie. It had great action, a great villain and an overall interesting story. I admit that the scene where he escapes the building in the desert with the space vehicule was really stupid but the rest of the movie, I think, was really good. For me the worst was Thunderball. I just can't sit through the whole movie. I find it so boring. Anyway, please tell me what you hated from Diamonds Are Forever.
Comments
Connery is overweight, under wigged and looks bored throughout
Charles Grey is totally miscasted as Blofeld. He's more urban than Bond and projects absolutely no menace.
Wint and Kidd are played for laughs rather than presenting any real threat to Bond as Grant or Oddjob did.
The events of OHMSS are skirted over. Even the PTS doesn't really make it plain why Bond is chasing Blofeld.
The fight where Bond kills Blofeld is a total letdown. Given that Blofeld killed Tracey this should have been up close and personal.
The final fight with Wint and Kydd is played for laughs.
The plot makes no sense as the laser is too small to do any real damage.
Plenty O'Toole is a golddigger and probably a lady of horizontal refreshment.
Don't you just love the matching uniforms for the SPECTRE guards. Looks like they should have been in a Flint or UNCLE movie.
M comes across like he can't stand the sight of Bond.
Felix is totally miscasted. This is not an unusual occurance in the Bond movies but definitely the worst example.
For me DAF is where the rot set in cnd continued throughout most of Roger Moore's reign.
But, It's a case of what Might of been. It could of been a great Film about Bond getting even
with Blofeld and finally Destroying SPECTRE. Instead they went for a Light Comedy/adventure
which was then used as a template for the next few outings.
Yeah you're right.
Good points ! Thanks for answering.
DAF is one of my favorites 2 ( Not best mind you )
One big problem with DAF and Bond aficionados is how highly regarded so many of us hold OHMSS. There is a real letdown with DAF in that regard. The one thing hindsight always forgets is THAT in 1971 the producers didn't want to tie anything to OHMSS. They considered it an abject failure and for over a decade treated OHMSS like it was NSNA and just pretended it did not exist.
Luckily that changed as the years went on. Hope that helps.
Again welcome aboard and cheers -{ -{ -{
Roger Moore 1927-2017
however,
this Bond film (yet again) surpases my expectations, its a great film!
I didnt think Connery looked fat or old, the elevator fight scene showed he could still kick butt if need be. The villians were hate worthy enough, and i didnt mind the escape scene in the desert one bit (actually laughed a lot at it). The redhead Bond girl didnt do too much for me but Plenty's hotness made me jump out of my seat!
Granted, there were a TON of either funny or downright hilarious moments (Blofeld getting jerked around while hung from a string takes the cake) or (Bond getting pissed at the Bond girl for switching the tapes back scene, lol!!) but this made the movie very entertainning. I still had a harder time watching AVTAK.
However I agree that as a follow up to OHMSS it is pretty lousy! I always felt it made more sense to swap DAF and OHMSS around in film order, this may seem a bit odd but allow me to explain (And if you see any flaws please enlighten me!)
DAF begins with Bond looking for Blofeld in Japan (At least I think its Japan lol) which if this film were released after YOLT would make perfect sense, as we are left at the end of that film with Blofeld escaping from his volcano in Japan. As everyone knows there is no mention of Tracy in DAF what so ever, however bond does seem pretty pissed and out for revenge in the beginning of the film, however this anger seems to just be gone later on!
Also in DAF we learn that Blofeld has been making doubles of himself using plastic surgery. This would explain why Blofeld would not necessarily notice bond in OHMSS, as this is the real blofeld and is yet to meet bond. Also in FYEO the blofeld character in the beginning of the film is wearing a neck brace and is in a wheel chair, which ties in perfectly with his accident in OHMSS.
An Old Bond
A silly villain
A girl, very sexy
The girls who were guarding William White, very silly
I always refer to it as the movie bad Connery 8-)
Thank you really much !
Yes John Barry's soundtrack was really good. Well, every John Barry's soundtracks were good actually. David Arnold did a pretty good job for TND but the rest is just "meh.." Anyway thanks for your opinion.
You're right. Some of the James Bond movies are hard to watch with "non-Bondfans". It always seems like I'm the only one really enjoying them for what they are.
Oh yeah, Plenty was really hot for a Bond girl ! And I remember that, in the oil platform fight scene, the exploding helicopters were really painful to watch(as they looked really really bad). But still it is my favorite Connery's film after Goldfinger(Immortal classic!!!).
That would make perfect sense.
- OHMSS getting ignored so zero mention of Tracy which is the biggest shame considering how awesome the opening sequence is. It would only make perfect sense why Bond was so angry and Hell-bent on killing Blofeld.
- The movie is an embarrassing campfest instead of being another serious gem to be proud of. I can't believe this was made by the same director who brought us Goldfinger.
- The plot is weak. Blofeld dopplegangers and a diamond powered satellite for a weapon? Seriously?
- Tiffany Case is an annoying bimbo unlike her novel version.
- Willard Whyte
- No Donald Pleasence. If Sean Connery came back so should have Pleasance to pick up where they left off in YOLT. Or they could at least been clever with the writing by revealing that Charles Grey was the real Bofeld who posed as Dikko Henderson and faked his death to meet James Bond up close and personal and that Donald Pleasance was a decoy.
- Ernst Stavro Blofeld being effeminate instead of being ruthless like how Pleasance potrayed him.
- That this was Connery's last official Bond movie.
I make plenty of positive comments about TMWTGG too, which I think similarly is a film of its time. I love the whole achingly grandiose, yet faded appearance of these early 70s Bonds. The series really needed both of these virtual failures to kick start the late 70s big-budget extravaganzas.
Back to DAF specifically, as has been mentioned, the S/T is superb, with some of my favourite Barry cues. Tiffany could be (!) a stronger character (by a considerable margin), but I think only later in the film are the weaknesses in characterisation truly shown up (I love the scenes in Holland where she is a cool and confident smuggler, but truly hate the Mary-Goodnightisms of the satellite control tape scene). The locations are terrific ... I wish more had been made of Amsterdam, but the Mortal Slumber crematorium is a truly creepy location. Vegas and the desert is so evocative. Remember in the early 70s, most Bond-watchers could only imagine the wonder of their favourite hero visiting this place of utter commercialisation stuck in the middle of a desert.
The henchmen were a new twist for cinema let alone a mainstream blockbuster ... we look back at it now and cringe at some of the affectations/stereotypical direction, but it was a pretty brave decision to do what they did. Add in the fact that one of the main allies was clearly shown to have a little problem with incontinence and you have - for the time - a truly bizarre selection of characters - enough to match the bizarreness of the locations ... and arguably the plot itself.
Then again, it was the 70s. There were no limits ...
Where it fails - and it's not perfect - are where it shoots and doesn't score. The oil rig climax is pretty tedious. And the costume design is horrific - purple and green bikinis? Pastels? It makes Lazenby's kilt look positively understated.
@merseytart
I'm broadly in agreement with you although it does have a couple of redeeming features but they both belong to Plenty O'Toole
Alimentary my dear Dr Leiter ... possibly the best Bondian quip ever.
The rest is quite good I think.
Plus if he wore round glasses and had some hair round the sides, danjaq_off would look like mr Kidd.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
Does anyone think the Moonscape scene in DAF, might of been an In joke about the "Fake" moon landing which as we all know was filmed in the nevada desert.
Now I wouldn't put it past the federal government to re-stage the original landing back on earth because the real space footage was so bad. But those guys were on the moon.
there's a hole in the earth around the north pole, Aliens work hand in hand with the Governments of the world, Hitler lives in south America, the Royal family are Reptiles. And the world ends in 2012.
You'd have to be crazy to disagree with any of that.
A fantastic score, two quirky henchmen, Jill St. John's lovely cheeks. etc. What's not to love? A fun romp.