Rating: 
Summary: THE LAST GREAT BOND / CONNERY FILM!!!
Review: Sometime in early 1967 Sean Connery announced that he was through with playing James Bond. So executive producers decided to try to make 1967's "You Only Live Twice" the best 007 adventure to date. The fifth Bond film was filled with so much action that the plot was met as semi weak compared to his earlier films.However You Only Live Twice is still one of the best Bond films in the series. Their are several action scenes are terrific especially the attack on the volcano space station and the Little Nelly pursuit. The setting in Japan was awesome and the volcano space station set was so neat looking! The acting in You Only Live Twice is quite good. Connery is spectacular as Bond as usual. Donald Pleasence plays Ernst Stavro Bolfeld wonderfully. I always thought he was the best Blofeld. Tetsuro Tamba plays Tiger Tanaka Bond's Japanese ally very well. Too bad he never appeared in the series again, I liked his character. Akiko Wakabayashi plays the adorable Aki but I felt killing her character off was pointless because they merely threw in Kissy played By Mie Hama to replace her and her character was far weaker. As for the villians well Teru Shimada plays the arrogant Mr. Osato and Karin Dor plays the beautiful yet diabolical Helga Brandt very well. And of course Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn return in theirrespcted rols as M, Money Penny and Q. You Only Live Twice's plot is quite underrated as it is deeper than people think Bond fakes his death near the beginning to fool enemy agents. Then he is sent to Japan to investigate the disappearance of Russian and American spacecrafts and uncovers a plot for a World War 3 against both Superpowers. Overall despite a few flaes You Only Live Twice is a classic Bond film that I feel is vastly underrated. Sure it's no Goldfinger or Dr.No but I feel it is still an essential Bond film because the action and the plot are both very good. Highly recommended!
Rating: 
Summary: Flat bond
Review: Out of the 9 bonds I've seen, I am most dissapointed with this one. Sure it has a lot of good things going for it. Exotic locations, beautiful girls, and some good action. The best scenes are Blofelds volcano lair, Blofelds pirahna fish, the space capsule, some good stuff. But it's just not as good as "From Russia With Love" "Goldfinger" or even "Moonraker" one of the silliest. Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay instead of the great Richard Maibaum. Ken Adam made some good sets, and Donald Pleasance is good as the first Blofeld. I am going to say that Sean Connery looks like he is about to fall asleep in this film. His performance is worse than "Diamonds are Forever." Except he was good in DAF. It's also a weak DVD, with very boring extras. It's really only for Bond fans, like me. James Bond likes his vodka martini "shaken not stirred." A Bond film is like that. But when Diiko Henderson mixes him a martini "stirred not shaken" you know there's trouble ahead. One more thing that bears mentioning, Little Nellie. One of Bond's coolest gadgets is in this film.
Rating: 
Summary: ...and once when you look death in the face
Review: Although Sean Connery seems less engaged here and looks positively silly disguised as a Japanese, Donald Pleasence's facially-disfigured Blofeld is easily the best of the series' three Blofelds. Ken Adam's sets, though, may be the true stars of this one. 8/10
Rating: 
Summary: The SPECTRE Trilogy concludes
Review: Taking place nine months after the tragic ending of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live Twice was the last of Ian Fleming's truly completed Bond books. (The Man With The Golden Gun, released after Fleming's untimely death, is considered by many to be only a first draft.) It also served as the conclusion to the trilogy, beginning in Thunderball and continuing through OHMSS, that detailed James Bond's epic battle against Ernest Stavro Blofeld, founder of SPECTRE and essentially the anti-Bond. (Blofeld, we are reminded, refrains from almost all excessive behavior -- even being described as a virgin in Thunderball though he later somehow contracted syphillis in the later books. Of course, while he doesn't smoke or drink, he does seem to spend a lot of time thinking up ways to blow up the world.) While Fleming's prose is better than ever in this novel (showing his uncanny ability to mix sophisticated urbanity with hardboiled cynicism), its still somewhat of a disappointing end to the trilogy. The plot does start out quite promisingly. Nine months following the death of his wife, James Bond has sunk into an alcoholic wave of depression. M, rather cold hearted in this book after being humanized in OHMSS, comes close to terminating his service but instead, gives Bond a mission designed to respark his love of espionage. Bond is sent to Japan to try to convince the head of the Japanese secret service -- Tiger Tanaka -- to ally himself with the English. These sections of the book are very strong. Bond's mission is believable, the plot (which is quite cynical while detailing how even allies like America and England are actually rivals when it comes to espionage) is compelling, and Tiger Tanaka is one of Fleming's strongest connections. The scenes in which Bond learns about Japanese culture (while containing the well-meaning condascension that of which Fleming -- like most writers of that era regardless of genre or nationality -- was often guilty) are well-written and actually quite interesting. Quite late in the book, Tanaka recruits Bond to investigate the Suicide Gardens of the mysterious Dr. Shatterhand (again, a very promising premise -- Shatterhand basically has constructed a garden of poisonous plants designed to encourage visitors to commit suicide). This investigation leads to Bond's final battle with Blofeld and it is here that the book, unfortunately, disappoints. Blofeld feels like a tacked-on addition and, unlike the previous books, his plot makes absolutely no sense. (Fleming even admits this when Bond concludes that Blofeld's gone insane -- however, his scheme is so ludicrous that it actually detracts from his status as a worthy antagonist to Bond.) Whereas the previous books made Blofeld as fascinating a character as Bond, in this book both of them feel a little bit bland and as a result, their final battle doesn't carry the emotional wallop one might have hoped for. However, in Fleming's defense, it should be noted that he was quite ill when he wrote this book and it is a testament to his often maligned talents that, even while ailing, he still managed to create a book that -- while uneven as a whole -- still contained some fantastically strong early scenes and a character as vivid as Tiger Tanaka. No, this book is not perfect or even one of the best Bond novels but it will still be enoyed by fans of the original Fleming novels.
Rating:
Summary: The biggest 007 production of them all.
Review: The Ken Adam sets, the exotic Japanese locations and women,
the space ships, and the ninja all look magnificent in this
production. And I think the fight Bond has with the big
henchman in the office is the best of the entire series.
And just look at all those ninja sliding down ropes into
the best villian's hideout ever designed. Throw in a
great title sequence and song, with the death of James Bond
at the beginning and you've got a movie that, inspite of
it's size, moves at a fast pace. I rank this in the top
five of Bond films as well as some of the best photography
of any movie.
Rating:
Summary: You are only aloud to live twice, From Bond 5 To Bond 20
Review: This is the 5nd Bond film in the Series starring Sean Connery. Here is some info on Bond 20 starring Pierce Brosnan Latest news on Bond 20, no name yet, but here is the cast list JAMES BOND - Pierce Brosnan
Gala Brand - Rosamund Pike
Jinx - Halle Berry
Jack Wade - Joe Don Baker
Miss Moneypenny - Samantha Bond
M - Dame Judi Dench
Q - John Cleese
Tanner - Michael Kitchen
Nurse Warmflash - Serena Scott Thomas
Robinson - Colin Salmon
Admiral Roebuck - Geoffrey Palmer Some of the cast does not have confirmed roles Produced by Michael G Wilson & Barbara Broccoli
Music by David Arnold
Production Designer Peter Lamont
SFX supervisor Chris Corbould
Action Unit Director Vic Armstrong
Executive Producer Anthony Waye
Costumes By Lindy Hemming
Directed By Lee Tamahori
Currently being made by EON productions, at Pinewood Studios in London
Will be released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer & United Artists
Christmas 2002
Rating:
Summary: "Entertaining spectacle."
Review: Connery returns in this entertaining spectacle, with Bond investigating space shuttle dissapearances in Tokyo. The movie's first half is solid and very well done, right up until Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) is killed off. Then the movie begins to fall flat, with a plot that stretches the limits of plausibilty. The unveiling of Blofeld is also rather a dissapointment, with Doanld Pleasance effecting a rather lifeless prescence as the notorious head of SPECTRE. Still, Sean Connery plays the part of Bond with much more poise and humor than menace than in his previous outings, and is better than he was in THUNDERBALL. The sets by Ken Adam are simply marvelous as well. The direction from Lewis Glbert is pretty good and the script by Roal Dahl (yes,Roal Dahl) is reasonably witty. Not as good as good as THUNDERBALL and doesn't hold a candle to the first three films, but is still enjoyable overall.
Rating:
Summary: First Bond film to dispose of Ian Fleming, but still good
Review: One of the best of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels was "You Only Live Twice," the story about James Bond avenging his wife's death at the hands of Ernst Stavro Blofeld. But producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli were put off by the books obsession with death (and the fact that the preceeding book, OHMSS, hadn't been made into a movie yet) and hired Roald Dahl to throw together a story about stolen spacecraft. Although You Only Live Twice could have been a lot better on the silver screen, it is still an enjoyable film. Japan is a great setting for what was supposed to be Sean Connery's final Bond. The directing by Lewis Gilbert is superb. He puts an interesting twst on several scenes, including a frantic rooftop fight that is shot with a wide angle rather than a closeup. The plot is fantastic and somewhat silly but it doesn't need to be realistic. This is a Bond movie, after all. The story gives Connery the opportunity to partake in several scenes that have become part of the Bond legend. The helicopter chase is exciting (and dangerous for the aerial cameraman, as I later learned), and the battle inside the impressive hollow mountain (as later spoofed by the Simpsons) is classic Bond action. Bond even tries to board SPECTRE's rocket, foreshadowing what would come in Moonraker. My biggest complaint with this film is Blofeld himself. After concealing his face in the other Bond movies, his revealing is very anti-climactic. Donald Pleasance never lived up to the meanacing, mysterious Blofeld portrayed by Anthony Dawson in From Russia With Love and Thunderball. And, after seeing Mike Myers's hillarious Dr. Evil, you can never take him seriously. You Only Live Twice is classic James Bond fun and excitement. It is also the inspiration for another great movie franchise, Austin Powers. If you like either series of movies, make sure to watch You Only Live Twice.
Rating:
Summary: JAMES BONDs Dichotomy of Styles East meets West
Review: YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE contained elements of espionage, action, thrills, adventure and science fiction. Looking back it somehow worked loosely when put together yet till this day I can not determine what the cohesive element was. Looking at it closely the film is a real dichotomy of styles. The first hour is excellently filmed and works very well. We get to see James Bond the spy, working with recognition codes, breaking into safes, going under cover and the like. There is an excellently choreographed fight scene between Bond and a sumo wrestler. This is also the first time he developed a good working relationship with a fellow intelligence head, Tiger Tanaka, similar to that of Kerim Bey in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. We also see that "M" has absolute confidence in his man. "This is the big one," he tells Bond knowing that 007 is the only one capable of pulling off this assignment. There is also quite a bit of very witty dialog in the first hour of this film. In the first hour the pace is deliberate, but never boring or unentertaining. It ends with Bond flying "Little Nellie," delivered by "Q," into an aerial dogfight with four helicopters. As it moves into the second hour more of the science fiction and fantasy elements start to take center stage. The film starts to look untidy and meanders along till it gets to the excellently filmed battle between Tanaka's ninjas and Blofeld's private army in his Volcano lair. It's not a bad Bond film, but it should have been a lot better. I think the culprit was the editing. Russian and American manned space capsules were being snatched out of orbit by an "intruder missile." Bond had to find the location and the identity of those responsible before World War III breaks out. The filmmakers decided not to surprise us at the end of the film, but instead show us, not Bond, that this "intruder missile" is in fact owned by SPECTRE and is being launched from Blofeld's Volcano lair in Japan. That comes a little past the hour mark. That being the case there was a good opportunity to develop suspense, as Bond has to locate the launch site. When Bond finally does find the volcano he has very little reaction to his discovery. He in fact seems to have come prepared with suction cup kneepads, which he uses to climb upside down and into the volcano. Tanaka shows up with his men, the battle ensues and Bond saves the day. It just could have been done much better considering how well the first half of the film was handled. The massive sets designed by Ken Adam were highly innovative and stylized and are probably the best of the entire series. M's office aboard the submarine, M-1, was also pretty innovative incorporating furniture and decorations from his office from the Ministry of Defense back in London. John Barry wrote a brilliant score. His music for the "Capsule in Space" was eerily ominous. He also incorporated sections of the "James Bond Theme" very effectively subsequent to Henderson's death and the fight in Osato's office. Barry's "Mountains and Sunset" went beautifully with Freddie Young's Cinematography. This and his score for ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE were the last to contain his best action pieces for the series. These were little snippets here and there written to give the action a little more punch. I thought Sean Connery gave some his best performances as James Bond in this film. Bond's scene with Henderson was very good. His repartee with Moneypenney was one of his best. Sean Connery did return as James Bond in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER but one era had already ended with ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE and a new one would begin with his return. This DVD is the best print available to date. It is a vast improvement over the letterbox print on Laser Disc. The extras are always welcome but the primary focus for me is always the print of the film. I can't complain.
Rating:
Summary: Mindless Entertainment
Review: I am a big fan of the James Bond series, and have seen the movies enough to memorize most of the lines. This one is one of the weaker ones, with a silly plot, stereotypical portrayal of the Japenese culture, and almost comical special effects. However, when ever I want to kick back, put my brain into neutral and enjoy myself, this is the movie I get out first!
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