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You Only Live Twice

You Only Live Twice

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love IT
Review: This is a very good action movie. If your on James Bond fan get this movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst of the 1960's Bond Films
Review: With the depature of Terence Young (who directed the first four James Bond films), the James Bond series produced its first bad film. The film was made in 1967, and has dated very badly.

One of the major problems with the film is the production design which makes everything in the SPECTRE headquarters look like cheap metallic plastic (which it probably was). The film direction is pure hack work, and has badly done action sequences.

The special effects for the outer space scenes look like something from a cheap 1950's science fiction film. Considering that Stanley Kubrick was making the timeless 2001 during this period, you think the producers of the James Bond series could at least have paid for credible special effects.

The final problem is the plot point where James Bond is supposed to assume a Japanese entity and marry a Japanese wife. To make him look Japanese, they put some flesh colored Japanese eye make-up on him, which he doesn't have in later scenes. I doubt if any SPECTRE agents could have been fooled by a six foot Japanese fisherman with clearly western features.

Sean Connery is starting to look bored and uncomfortable in this film. He probably knew he was in a sub-standard film in the first place, and phones in much of his acting.

The next Bond film "Diamonds are Forever" is even worse, and ended in Connery leaving the James Bond series forever (except for the 1980's film "Never Say Never Again".

Rating: 5 stars
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: 2 stars
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: 4 stars
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: 3 stars
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: 5 stars
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: 5 stars
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: 3 stars
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: 5 stars
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.


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