10 Most Bitterly Disappointing Movie Showdowns

7. Diamonds Are Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLS5jWRbBkM Bond showdowns can typically be relied upon to deliver exciting action set-pieces, though it's fair to say that some are of superior quality to others. 1971 saw the release of the seventh film in the series, Diamonds Are Forever, the sixth film to star Sean Connery as Bond who, after George Lazenby left the franchise, was tempted back to the role when United Artists offered him a then-record $1.25 million salary. It's perhaps the most disappointing of the Connery Bond films (I don't tend to include the non-Eon Never Say Never Again since it's essentially just a remake of Thunderball and Connery by this point looked far too old to be even remotely plausible in the role), and in keeping with this features one of the dullest showdowns of the entire series. By this point in the film series we'd become very accustomed to seeing Bond infiltrate the villain's lair and then later storm it at the film's climax, increasingly with the assistance of secret service special forces or regular army troops. You Only Live Twice had given us Blofeld's iconic and oft-parodied volcano base in Japan, coupled with invading ninja agents. On Her Majesty's Secret Service had treated us to stunning mountain vistas through Blofeld's research institute atop Piz Gloria in the Swiss Alps, where much of the film's action takes place, and culminates in a gripping bobsleigh chase between Bond and his nemesis. Compared with these two previous showdowns, the finale of Diamonds is anticlimactic to say the least, especially when Blofeld's base of operations is now revealed to be merely an oil rig off the Californian coast, a location that's also been completely absent for the entirety of the film, thus impeding any serious audience investment in it. The film has done relatively little thus far anyway to sustain much interest and it didn't help that Connery, though only 41, hadn't aged at all well during his decade spent as Bond. Coming back after four years' absence he no longer seemed as comfortable in the role and was certainly making far less effort to conceal his Scottish accent. Anyway, Bond gets captured only to promptly escape once the CIA begin a helicopter attack on the rig, but his contribution to the ensuing battle, though vital, is sorely lacking in excitement: Blofeld attempts to escape in what he calls a 'bathosub' and has a crane lower it down to the water. Bond gains control of the crane and crashes the sub into the control room, thus destroying the satellite control and foiling Blofeld's plan yet again, though leaving his fate ambiguous. And that's about it; no intense fistfight, no spectacular stunt, not even that much gunfire. Just sitting in a chair pulling some levers. You'd think Bond had morphed into one of his villains by the way he was behaving.