Rating: 
Summary: James in Japan
Review: Here James travels to Japan, where he learns how to be a bit of a ninja, courtesy of Tiger Tanaka, the head of the Japanese Secret Service. Tiger is sad that he didn't get his latch his mitts onto James when he was 12, so he could teach him how to draw his gonads up inside his body (a really nifty ninja trick, apparently). James' mission: to off the Evil Villain Shatterhead, and his wife (described by Tanaka as "to ugly to live"). Shatterhand has built what I can only describe as a Garden of Death, which kills anyone who enters it. Not only a Mad Scientist, but a Mad Gardener! Along the way James encounters a cutie named Kissy Suzuki (what is that, a girl's pink motor scooter?), a cute name and not nearly as ridiculous as, um, Miss Galore. Thrown in some volcanoes, hissing lakes of boiling mud, some sharks, some piranha and you have an enjoyable Bond novel. Good stuff. Fleming is a natural-born writer, although he does go over the top a bit with Shatterhand clanking around his garden in full Japanese armor. Still, this is fun stuff, and if you're a fan of James Bond (and who isn't) this is one novel that you shouldn't miss.
Rating: 
Summary: The First Valley Of Bond!
Review: The biggest problem with "You Only Live Twice" is that with Sean Connery wanting badly out of his 007 contract, his performance here is insipid and uninspired. As a result the film suffers in ways that its predecessors did not. Saddled with a mediocre screenplay, this is the weakest entry of the Connery era. Though its production is certainly of an epic nature, it simply lacks the entertaining quality of previous efforts. Not all is a misfire in this film however. There are certainly some impressive action set pieces, the best being the autogyro/helicopter dogfight. The locations are certainly exotic as practically the entire film takes place in Japan, and production Designer Ken Adam's set for Blofeld's Volcano lair is arguably the most fantanstic in the entire series. Lord knows "Austin Powers" borrowed a lot from this movie, including the physical blueprint of everyone's favorite megalomaniac of the absurd, Dr. Evil. Unfortunately the DVD, though packed with a few goodies, is also a bit of a disappointment as it lacks the number of extras that lesser films like "Live And Let Die" and "The Man With The Golden Gun" don't. We expect more from these DVD's, and certainly from Sean Connery.
Rating: 
Summary: one of the best connery films!
Review: I really don't see why people think this film is bad it's GREAT!
Donald Plesance is my favorite blofeld, the song is brilliant and the movie is packed with action. The plot would have been better if blofeld wanted to start something diffrent to war which shows that this film has a weak plot. There's also not many gadgets in it just a cigarette with a rocket in it and that's all i can think of. But every time i see this movie i really dont dislike it so i wont say it's bad for the rest of my life.The only other films i like better than this are Dr. No, Live And Let Die and A View To A Kill (my favourite) this is my second favourite connery film.
Rating: 
Summary: "YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, MR. BOND."
Review: I can't understand why everyone always puts "YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE" down so much. It's not as exciting as some of the best Bond movies ("GOLDFINGER", "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY", "DIE ANOTHER DAY"), but it is entertaining in its own way. We finally get to see Blofeld, played brilliantly by the late Donald Pleasance. I wish he had more screen time though. It's funny how Charles Gray is in this movie and then he winds up playing Blofeld in "DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER." This isn't a bad movie. Not in my Top 5 favorite Bond movies, but it's entertaining. Plus the title song by Nancy Sinatra is #7 on my all time Bond song list. (Behind FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, DIE ANOTHER DAY, ALL TIME HIGH, A VIEW TO A KILL, NOBODY DOES IT BETTER and LIVE AND LET DIE.)
Rating:
Summary: James Bond finally meets Blofeld!
Review: When I first saw this movie, I knew that the face of Ernst Stavro Blofeld was going to be revealed sometime at the end. I had read it somewhere. But even though I knew this, his face was still a genuine shock to me: His scar makes him really scary!
The story is original and imaginative, and the volcano lair is spectacular. The idea of the "spacejackings" really blew away. Even today I consider this movie to be one of the best of the Connery era. The fact that its plot would later be copied in "The Spy Who Loved Me", and to some point in "Tomorrow Never Dies", proves that this is one of the best stories ever in a Bond film, even more if you have in mind that "The Spy Who Loved Me" is often regarded as the best Moore episode.
I strongly recommend it, especially if you have already watched "From Russia With Love" and "Thunderball", so that the revelation of Blofeld's mug is all the more dramatic.
Rating:
Summary: Kill Bond! Now!
Review: 4 star. Rank 8 of 23. Kill bond Now! The movie begins with bonds death, the second time in 5 films that they tried this one. This Bond entry featured an amazing running battle inside a volcano. The plot reminded me of the Fleming book Moonraker, but hughly and brilliantly re-written to reflect the technology and political realities of the time of the movie
Rating:
Summary: The Travelog Bond
Review: You Only Live Twice is the third book in a trilogy that concerns the Bond nemises Blofeld. It helps to have read Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service to really enjoy You Only Live Twice. A shorter form of the book was published in Playboy. This novel is padded with touristy information about Japan. Most of the book is about Bond's visiting and experiencing Japan. A few action scene are interpersed throughout. Bond, recoving from the loss of his wife, has his double 0 number removed and goes to Japan to trade secrets with the Japanese. But Bond doesn't have anything the Japanese want. Still, the Japanese will give Bond the information he wants if he will kill a man for them--a mysterious Dr. Shatterhand and his wife, who have planted a garden filled with poisonous plants and animals. It seems that certain Japanese folk have been going to the garden to commit suicide by eating the plants. Bond does not want to do this until he sees a picture of the strange Doctor. The ending in the garden is quite action packed, though I would have liked to have seen more. The ending offers a nice twist--Bond loses his memory and decides he must go to Russia. The Bond is the book reflects the Bond of the early James Bond movies. It was written after Dr. No had been filmed. This book has nothing in common with the movie version except for some of the characters and location.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed but Pretty Good
Review: You Only Live Twice had gone down as one of Connery's most criticized Bond flick, but it seemed to be a well-rounded Bond film, in that it involves the archetypal elements of a Bond adventure (i.e. espionage, action, solid fight sequences, suspense) blended with a good dose of science fiction. In some way, You Only Live Twice became the turning point of the James Bond series as well. The plot is more promising and more involving. A mysterious spacecraft captured one American capsule and a Soviet capsule and both countries are pointing fingers at each other. Remaining neutral, the British send Bond out into the field, who is "assassinated" to take a good deal of pressure off his shoulders. M assigns Bond to venture off to Japan to tag up with "Tiger" Tanaka to verify if this spacecraft hails from Japan and to halt it from launching and in essence, Bond and Tanaka are off to thwart World War III. There isn't much surprise that SPECTRE is responsible. With so much promise, this edition of Bond is somewhat of a flop. The dialogue is stale, the villains are just par for the course and the pace of the movie isn't very consistent. For example, there is a lot more urgency from start until the Soviet spacecraft is hijacked. Up until the climactic volcano battle, there isn't much purpose in the sequences. We are taken into an in-depth look of Japanese culture, whether it is the ninja fighting technique or the lifestyle of poor harbor residents and fishermen. It is there that the movie gets quirky, with the perfectly executed climax saving the latter part of the movie. However, the biggest flaw of the film is Connery's seemingly uninspired outing. He wasn't much in shape and he seemed to 'pooh-pooh' everything as if it were just another walk in the park. Without his passion and energy as 007, You Only Live Twice would be a disappointment, compared to the classic Bond flicks before it and after it. Despite all the negative aspects of the movie, You Only Live Twice, much like its predecessors does not disappoint in entertainment value and it was influential in virtually every aspect of the Bond series, which either flopped those movies (i.e. Tomorrow Never Dies, Moonraker) or made them into modern-day classics (i.e. The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Goldeneye).
Rating:
Summary: Quirky but memorable Bond adventure
Review: One of the quirkier James Bond films, which causes me to love and loathe it in equal measure, You Only Live Twice was Sean Connery's fifth and penultimate go-round as James Bond ( I don't count Never Say Never Again, and neither should you). The plot deals with Bond's efforts to figure out who is capturing American and Soviet rockets. I love it because like all the great Bond movies, it feels like a travelogue - you get to see a lot of Japan, where most of the movie takes place; a change in director to Lewis Gilbert makes the whole movie feel more epic; the volcano set, where the villain hides out, is a classic; and "Little Nellie", the little helicopter, is a great gadget that we should all be using by now. Why aren't we?!! What DON'T I like? First off, our man JB doesn't really do a whole lot. He mainly gets carried along by the plot as needed - he doesn't even drive a car at all in this movie (it's the only one where that happens). Also, the whole thing feels strangely half-formed. There are parts where you might think your DVD player has skipped a chapter - I mean, you don't even learn the Bond girl's name until the credits! The whole thing is just a little too far over the top- giant sets, giant plot. The plots got this big when Roger Moore took over, but he was more capable of handling it by treating the whole thing with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. Sean Connery was just too much of a man's man to deal with hollowed-out volcanoes. Check it out, though - you may disagree. It's still mindlessly enjoyable if you don't think about it too much. The score and title song are great, and it's fun seeing where Mike Myers came up with virtually every joke in the Austin Powers movies.
Rating:
Summary: You'll Only Watch It Once
Review: There exists general agreement among fans that YOL2 is the weakest Connery chapter. There are a number of reasons offered for this, an important one of which is the surprisingly weak script from Roald Dahl. Modern viewers will recognize a number of stereotypical "idiotic bad guy" cliches that have been thoroughly lampooned since this film's 1967 release. The film also lacks particularly frightening villains; what tension is in it is created more by American and Russian stupidity than by the malevolence of a challenging anatgonist. Others blame Connery, suggesting that he had lost interest in portraying the character by the time of this episode, although he returned for DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, the film after the next (and the not-canon NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN). Finally, strict action or special effects fans will compare this movie unfavourably to THUNDERBALL. In some ways, however, YOL2 also demonstrates a recovery from the direction that THUNDERBALL threatened to take the franchise in. Bond has returned to the humoursly charming womanizer of GOLDFINGER; he's more clown and less lout. Even if one has difficulty suspending disbelief when confronted by the ridiculous orbital manueverings and badly dated sfx, Connery's dry one-liners help to keep one laughing with the film, rather than at it. Bond, while still as supercompetent as he was and will be, is also slightly more human and forced to work a little harder to foil SPECTRE's plot to plunge the world into WWIII. SPECTRE, the criminal organization that will dominate the next two films and was a plot device for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and THUNDERBALL, finally gets a (disfigured) human face in this movie, as Blofeld (played by the uninspiring Donald Pleasence) is revealed after Bond is captured a second time. YOL2 can, in some ways, be seen as a rather slow chapter moving the larger SPECTRE arc along to its climax in the next film, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. The real weakness of YOL2 is its heavy reliance on the exoticism of Japan to carry the movie. To the modern action movie fan Japan has long since lost its "mysterious Orient" quality, and so gratuitous scenes involving sumo wrestling, geishas and gun-toting ninjas come across as embarassingly colonial instead of intriguingly foreign. The Japanese characters, including the two Bond women (Akiko Wakabayashi as the delicately competent Aki and Mia Hami as the courageous Kissy), manage, in some occasions, to escape their stereotyping, and Tetsuro Tamba's 'Tiger' Tanaka is a worthy member of the "helpful local" Bond gallery, YOL2 is the first Bond movie that is not plagued by overdubbing problems. In fact, the production complaint I have is that the 007 theme is stretched, too loud to be background, over the long helicopter battle sequence. This is a substantial improvement from its predecessors for those used to today's big-budget action movies. The casual Bond fan will probably enjoy watching YOL2, but purchasing it for repeated viewing is probably for the collector or serious devotee only.
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