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You Only Live Twice

You Only Live Twice

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Most Action-packed Of The Connery Bonds
Review: You Only Live Twice remains one of the best of the James Bond films, combining an intriguing premise - albiet one with some prohlems - with a strong mixture of great cimematogrophy, great action, and a strong cast.

Twice's primary strength lies in introducing James to Japan. Here Bond is a fish out of water, as the film plays up his struggle to adapt to a culture so different from the ones he's encountered before. It is this quality that helps explain what many other reviewers claim to be a phoned-in quality to Sean Connery's performance. Connery was disenchanted with the Bond series, for sure, and some of his athletic moves lack the crispness one would expect, but Connery's performance, despite a few portions where he really does phone it in, is still superb.

The basic plot revolves around the disappearence of several spacecraft. The disappearence of the US ship Jupiter 16 opens the film, highlighted by John Barry's genuinely frightening music cue as another spacecraft remorselessly approaches the ship and encases it within its belly, severing the lifeline of an astronaut and letting him float to spatial asphyxiation. The uncredited roles of Ed "Colonel Straker" Bishop (of UFO and Captain Scalet & The Mysterons) and Shane "Scott Tracy" Rimmer as tracking station technicians add strikingly to the scene.

The US and Soviet Russia blame each other for the disappearences, to the point where both go to nuclear alert - much to the delight of the real culprits, SPECTRE. Donald Pleasance marks the series' first appearence of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, until now seen only at angles hiding his scarred face. Pleasance completely commands the role, making Blofeld a genuine menace with the ugly scar on his face and his ruthless disposal of inept followers.

Karin Dor is the film's femme fatale, Number 11, first seducing James (how much most male viewers wished the film had carried through to completion the sex that ensues upon Bond's disrobing of her), then trapping him on a stricken airplane. Blofeld finds that Bond is alive and takes his revenge by dropping Number 11 into an indoor pool filled with piranhas - one of the most chilling scenes of a film series replete with such.

The film's major action set piece is an assault by Japanese SIS on a "dead" volcano that is SPECTRE's hideout. The battle is exceptionally harrowing, machines guns and death exploding everywhere, and is among director Lewis Gilbert's finest moments. The contrast of the chaos at the volcano and the tense calm at The Pentagon as the US prepares to attack Russia is chilling.

The film's special effects are generally amateurish by modern standards, regrettable because otherwise the film is very elaborate and entertaining and is a favorite of the Connery Bonds.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I would have rated it 100 stars!!!!!!!!1
Review: I just watched this movie last night. Although I've already seen it, This is a great movie to watch. Of all the Bond films, this is the second best. The first is "The ___ ___ _____ me" Anyways, Blofeld plays an extroidinary role in this movie. Great action. Plot: An American shuttle is captured by a war lord. Blofeld. He is obsessed with starting a war with the Russians, and the Americans. The Events of this could start World domination unless James Bond can do something about it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best Connery film!
Review: This is the best Bond Sean Connery was in. I really like the action! Great! And you finally get to see Ernest Blofeld! (Mike Myers got the idea for the look of Dr. Evil in "Austin Powers" from Blofeld.) A nice song, too. The title perfectly tells what happens to Bond, he gets killed, and gets another life. A great movie!!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Oriental caper climaxes well, then ends flaccidly
Review: The research for this book is admirable. Reading it,one really almost feels as if he's taken his own personal tour of Japan.The cultural study is very interesting as well, but the story itself drags a bit.Once Bond lands on Kissy Suzuki's(where does Fleming come up with these names!) Island, things move at a snail's pace. After "Bondo-san" lands on Shatterhand's island, though, the excitement picks up quite nicely. The almost dreamlike quality of the island of death was really fascinating.As the action led to the final showdown, the suspense grew, and I found the climax riveting and quite well-envisioned. The epilogue , however, would have been best if it had been left unwritten.What a flaccid denoument.All in all, an enjoyable read, and it's detractions should not keep one from checking it out.Welcome to Japan!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Forget it
Review: For me, that can't be Bond! After writing such a masterpiece as OHMSS, Ian Fleming did this to all of us: No action, no fun- where is James Bond?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sean Connery Is James Bond!!
Review: The fifth bond movie in the series and the second best Connery film (after Goldfinger). It's got the lot. The girls, the gadgets, the first apperance of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, a fantastic score by the amazing John Barry, the enormous sets (that naturally get blown to pieces) and 007 gets killed, and then married in that order!! Great stuff proving once again that Thomas Sean Connery of Fountainbridge, Edinburgh is STILL licenced to thrill as the ONLY James Bond worth watching! Sorry Roger!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The Ending Almost Gave Me a Heart Attack!
Review: Why? Why, did he do this to Bond? He left the all powerful Bond, without a memory in a strange place, and everyone including M, thought he was dead? What's the deal? However, this books earns it's two stars from the events just before the end. When, Bond sneaks around Dr. Shatterhand's (Blofeld's) castle. I'm just glad the ending in the book, wasn't portrayed in the movie. Now, that I think about it though, this book is absolutly nothing like the movie!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ANY SEAN CONNERY MOVIE IS A MUST SEE!!!
Review: UNFORTUNATELY 5 IS NOT ENOUGH STARS FOR HIS FILMS. CONNERY SET THE MOOD FOR THE BOND SAGA AND NOONE HAS YET TO TOUCH HIS BOND STANDARD.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A gripping storyline, but an unsatisfying ending.
Review: Ian Fleming's James Bond is a timeless character and in, "You Only Live Twice", he embarks on an exciting and gripping mission. However, the indestructable James Bond of old just doesn't seem the same. Fleming's story just lacks the punch that made his other books page-turners. Finally I was disapointed with the end of the story, it didn't seem to have enough closure and it made me, a devoted Bond fan, ask "why" Fleming would do this to his indestructable Bond.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Quite An Ending!
Review: This book, for those of you who would like to see the basis for the movie, is not like the movie at all. The only sameness is the Japan setting.

The story: James Bond is a mess after his wife was murdered. His boss considers firing him, but changes his mind and gives Bond a different kind of assignment: to get a device known as "the vacuum cleaner" from the Japanese. After much interesting negotiation, Bond is told that he can have the machine in exchange for a favor. Bond accepts the terms, and soon realizes that this favor involves an old enemy: Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

This book was well-written, and was Fleming's last finished novel. The new characters are great, as well. The only trouble is that the book reads too much as a travelogue of Japan. The ending will surprise many. Personally, I think Fleming should have stopped here, and not gone on to the disastrous Man With the Golden Gun.


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