I'd love to see Bond going back to Las Vegas, as It's changed so much since 71.
You'll see something left from the 70's around Fremont street.
I highly recomment the buffet in the M resort 10 miles out of town.
And be careful - most of the Vegas hotels add US$ 15,-- resort fee per day and you can't avoid it.
President of the 'Misty Eyes Club'.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I don't think that DAF is bad at all -- in fact, I like it. I just don't think it's as good as Connery's other films. It's as good or better than Moore's films, for which it is essentially the prototype, and I will watch it before LTK or any of the Brosnan Bonds.
I'd love to see Bond going back to Las Vegas, as It's changed so much since 71.
You'll see something left from the 70's around Fremont street.
I highly recomment the buffet in the M resort 10 miles out of town.
And be careful - most of the Vegas hotels add US$ 15,-- resort fee per day and you can't avoid it.
I agree about Fremont St.
It has the flavour of the 60s-70s Vegas before it tried to become family-friendly
I still groove to DAF. I was in Vegas during a mid-Seventies TV broadcast of DAF, so strange to see a movie partially set in a city you happen to be visiting as a kid. "Hey! There's where Bond drove the Mustang and did the U-turn!!!" )
The main redeeming feature about DAF is that it may have saved the franchise. After the perceived failure of OHMSS and Lazenby there was a real concern that Bond had had his day. Getting Connery back even in a naff movie like DAF put Bond back at the top of the box office and meant more movies would be made.
In retrospect OHMSS is now seen as a much better movie than DAF (and rightly so) but at the time this was not the case.
The producers had originally signed John Gavin to play Bond in DAF. I saw him in a low budget Bond ripoff called something like OSS Agent 117 and he was dire. If he had played Bond in DAF it might well have been the last Bond.
There's not much I like about Diamonds Are Forever. Connery's performance is appalling, as is his appearance, Tiffany Case is played as a bumbling imbecile, Blofeld is bizarrely reinterpreted as a camp ex-public schoolboy, Wint & Kidd seem like they've stepped out of an episode of Are You Being Served?, Plenty O' Toole serves no obvious purpose, and the plot is hopelessly confusing. Nonetheless, the PTS is fast-paced and exciting (if quite poorly directed) and I like the cameo appearance of Mrs Whistler, whose death is genuinely shocking (though not unexpected). I also rather like Putter Smith, who is visually perfect for his role, and who was an inspired bit of casting.
There's redeeming value in every Bond film. DAF is no exception. The film starts off pretty well, then comes apart when the action moves to Las Vegas.
Of merit:
* The brutal pre-title sequence, with Connery punching people all over the earth, strangling a woman with her bra, hurling scalpels into security guards, and strapping Blofeld onto an operating table and shoving him into boiling mud. "Welcome to hell, Blofeld!"
* The gorgeous theme song and equally gorgeous titles, plus the screaming cat link. DAF is one of Barry's very best scores.
* The intercutting of Bond's briefing with scenes of the diamond pipeline at work is skillfully done.
* Wint and Kidd, though sometimes overly campy, liven up the movie whenever they appear. Bond's final fight with them is outrageously entertaining.
* The elevator fight still stands out, four decades later, for its editing and sheer force.
* The scene of Bond trapped in the cremation chamber remains terrifying.
* Bond mountaineering up the Whyte House and killing fake Blofeld with a grappling dart to the forehead is still badass.
* Bambi and Thumper are feisty critters and give Bond a genuine challenge.
* The moon buggy chase and Vegas strip case are both excellent action sequences.
* Even a lazy, overweight Connery still carries more screen presence than almost anyone else.
DAF's problem is that it degenerates after a good beginning. The diamond-smuggling plot is shoved aside by the satellite nonsense, Tiffany goes from tough cookie to bimbo, the film dawdles too long in Vegas (the woman-into-gorilla scene is a waste of time), and the climax is a dull fight on an oil-rig which just reminds you how much better OHMSS did the helicopter-assault-on-the-villain's-base stuff. Richard Maibaum had originally scripted a colorful boat chase on Lake Mead, but the film succumbed to the low-budget woes that dogged Moore's first two films. The series did not recover until it regained a large budget and banished Guy Hamilton and Tom Mankiewicz.
There's redeeming value in every Bond film. DAF is no exception. The film starts off pretty well, then comes apart when the action moves to Las Vegas.
Of merit:
* The brutal pre-title sequence, with Connery punching people all over the earth, strangling a woman with her bra, hurling scalpels into security guards, and strapping Blofeld onto an operating table and shoving him into boiling mud. "Welcome to hell, Blofeld!"
* The gorgeous theme song and equally gorgeous titles, plus the screaming cat link. DAF is one of Barry's very best scores.
* The intercutting of Bond's briefing with scenes of the diamond pipeline at work is skillfully done.
* Wint and Kidd, though sometimes overly campy, liven up the movie whenever they appear. Bond's final fight with them is outrageously entertaining.
* The elevator fight still stands out, four decades later, for its editing and sheer force.
* The scene of Bond trapped in the cremation chamber remains terrifying.
* Bond mountaineering up the Whyte House and killing fake Blofeld with a grappling dart to the forehead is still badass.
* Bambi and Thumper are feisty critters and give Bond a genuine challenge.
* The moon buggy chase and Vegas strip case are both excellent action sequences.
* Even a lazy, overweight Connery still carries more screen presence than almost anyone else.
DAF's problem is that it degenerates after a good beginning. The diamond-smuggling plot is shoved aside by the satellite nonsense, Tiffany goes from tough cookie to bimbo, the film dawdles too long in Vegas (the woman-into-gorilla scene is a waste of time), and the climax is a dull fight on an oil-rig which just reminds you how much better OHMSS did the helicopter-assault-on-the-villain's-base stuff. Richard Maibaum had originally scripted a colorful boat chase on Lake Mead, but the film succumbed to the low-budget woes that dogged Moore's first two films. The series did not recover until it regained a large budget and banished Guy Hamilton and Tom Mankiewicz.
You've got quite a good list there, most of which I agree with. But I absolutely abhor the Bambi and Thumper scene and I think the moon buggy chase is just silly. Neither of these is enough to ruin my enjoyment of the movie, though.
There's redeeming value in every Bond film. DAF is no exception. The film starts off pretty well, then comes apart when the action moves to Las Vegas.
Of merit:
* The brutal pre-title sequence, with Connery punching people all over the earth, strangling a woman with her bra, hurling scalpels into security guards, and strapping Blofeld onto an operating table and shoving him into boiling mud. "Welcome to hell, Blofeld!"
* The gorgeous theme song and equally gorgeous titles, plus the screaming cat link. DAF is one of Barry's very best scores.
* The intercutting of Bond's briefing with scenes of the diamond pipeline at work is skillfully done.
* Wint and Kidd, though sometimes overly campy, liven up the movie whenever they appear. Bond's final fight with them is outrageously entertaining.
* The elevator fight still stands out, four decades later, for its editing and sheer force.
* The scene of Bond trapped in the cremation chamber remains terrifying.
* Bond mountaineering up the Whyte House and killing fake Blofeld with a grappling dart to the forehead is still badass.
* Bambi and Thumper are feisty critters and give Bond a genuine challenge.
* The moon buggy chase and Vegas strip case are both excellent action sequences.
* Even a lazy, overweight Connery still carries more screen presence than almost anyone else.
DAF's problem is that it degenerates after a good beginning. The diamond-smuggling plot is shoved aside by the satellite nonsense, Tiffany goes from tough cookie to bimbo, the film dawdles too long in Vegas (the woman-into-gorilla scene is a waste of time), and the climax is a dull fight on an oil-rig which just reminds you how much better OHMSS did the helicopter-assault-on-the-villain's-base stuff. Richard Maibaum had originally scripted a colorful boat chase on Lake Mead, but the film succumbed to the low-budget woes that dogged Moore's first two films. The series did not recover until it regained a large budget and banished Guy Hamilton and Tom Mankiewicz.
Spot on. I've always said the same. It's terrific up until the oil rig stuff, which feels rushed in every sense. Blofeld's laser satellite scheme is a bit ho-hum. I prefer the simplicity of LIVE & LET DIE's drug scam by comparison. But the final face-off with Wint & Kidd makes up for it. I always love Mr. Wint's answer to Tiffany's enquiry as to the ingredients of La Bombe Surprise - "Ah, but then there would be no surprise, Madame."
On the Special Edition of DAF they talked about Howard Hughes being a big 007 fan.He wasn't a stupid man and Jimmy Dean
wasn't too keen to star in a movie in which he is so obviously being emulated (Willard Whyte) especially since Dean was actually
working under contract at one of Hughes' casinos!
I must be one of the few who doesn't think Jill St John is all that attractive.
I don't think she's all that special, either. Of course it's all a matter of personal taste, but Ms. St. John loses major points from me when Connery slips the cassette tape into her bikini bottom and it is apparent that she is absolutely flat back there! )
Comments
I never want to go there again!
1. GE 2. MR 3. OP 4. TMWTGG 5. TSWLM 6. TND 7. TWINE 8.DN 9. GF 10. AVTAK
You'll see something left from the 70's around Fremont street.
I highly recomment the buffet in the M resort 10 miles out of town.
And be careful - most of the Vegas hotels add US$ 15,-- resort fee per day and you can't avoid it.
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
I agree about Fremont St.
It has the flavour of the 60s-70s Vegas before it tried to become family-friendly
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
In retrospect OHMSS is now seen as a much better movie than DAF (and rightly so) but at the time this was not the case.
The producers had originally signed John Gavin to play Bond in DAF. I saw him in a low budget Bond ripoff called something like OSS Agent 117 and he was dire. If he had played Bond in DAF it might well have been the last Bond.
Of merit:
* The brutal pre-title sequence, with Connery punching people all over the earth, strangling a woman with her bra, hurling scalpels into security guards, and strapping Blofeld onto an operating table and shoving him into boiling mud. "Welcome to hell, Blofeld!"
* The gorgeous theme song and equally gorgeous titles, plus the screaming cat link. DAF is one of Barry's very best scores.
* The intercutting of Bond's briefing with scenes of the diamond pipeline at work is skillfully done.
* Wint and Kidd, though sometimes overly campy, liven up the movie whenever they appear. Bond's final fight with them is outrageously entertaining.
* The elevator fight still stands out, four decades later, for its editing and sheer force.
* The scene of Bond trapped in the cremation chamber remains terrifying.
* Bond mountaineering up the Whyte House and killing fake Blofeld with a grappling dart to the forehead is still badass.
* Bambi and Thumper are feisty critters and give Bond a genuine challenge.
* The moon buggy chase and Vegas strip case are both excellent action sequences.
* Even a lazy, overweight Connery still carries more screen presence than almost anyone else.
DAF's problem is that it degenerates after a good beginning. The diamond-smuggling plot is shoved aside by the satellite nonsense, Tiffany goes from tough cookie to bimbo, the film dawdles too long in Vegas (the woman-into-gorilla scene is a waste of time), and the climax is a dull fight on an oil-rig which just reminds you how much better OHMSS did the helicopter-assault-on-the-villain's-base stuff. Richard Maibaum had originally scripted a colorful boat chase on Lake Mead, but the film succumbed to the low-budget woes that dogged Moore's first two films. The series did not recover until it regained a large budget and banished Guy Hamilton and Tom Mankiewicz.
You've got quite a good list there, most of which I agree with. But I absolutely abhor the Bambi and Thumper scene and I think the moon buggy chase is just silly. Neither of these is enough to ruin my enjoyment of the movie, though.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
Sadly, her Character became a Wimp as soon as she got taken by Blofeld.
You mean Tiffany got naked and begged to be taken by Blofeld?
a smile on my face.
Spot on. I've always said the same. It's terrific up until the oil rig stuff, which feels rushed in every sense. Blofeld's laser satellite scheme is a bit ho-hum. I prefer the simplicity of LIVE & LET DIE's drug scam by comparison. But the final face-off with Wint & Kidd makes up for it. I always love Mr. Wint's answer to Tiffany's enquiry as to the ingredients of La Bombe Surprise - "Ah, but then there would be no surprise, Madame."
No way! Turn off the sound and it's Halle by a mile!
Keep the sound on and Halle still wins! ;%
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
wasn't too keen to star in a movie in which he is so obviously being emulated (Willard Whyte) especially since Dean was actually
working under contract at one of Hughes' casinos!
I don't think she's all that special, either. Of course it's all a matter of personal taste, but Ms. St. John loses major points from me when Connery slips the cassette tape into her bikini bottom and it is apparent that she is absolutely flat back there!