You Only Live Twice - A Review
Sweepy the Cat
Halifax, West Yorkshire, EnglaPosts: 986MI6 Agent
Following on the success of "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball" comes this film, bigger in both budget and scope then those two films. It also proved to be Sean Connery's last outing for four years and the so-called end of the 'classic' Bond films in the eyes of the general public. While it certainly has an epic feel to it the film lacks believability in terms of its leading man, its story, and its action sequences.
What you have in "You Only Live Twice" is Sean Connery back as James Bond, and he is basically trying to prevent the outbreak of World War III, which later becomes a very common theme in Bond films. It seems that there is some sort of mysterious space craft in the Earth's atmosphere that swallows up orbiting, manned spacecraft, instigating accusations on the planet below. At first, the USA got a ship swallowed, and accused the Russians, informing them that another ship would be put into orbit within a month and if anything happened, it would be considered an act of war. The situation is complicated when the Russians also send a ship into orbit that gets swallowed. Obviously, Britain disagrees from the beginning that the Russians were involved, given the object's landing point (the Sea of Japan area), and they send one of their agents (Bond, of course) to the vicinity to investigate.
With the unparalleled success of "Thunderball", the James Bond phenomenon had reached it's peak. The spy-craze was beginning to die down, and by the end of the decade, the television shows and movies based around secret agents would slowly dwindle. Worst still, Sean Connery had said that he was fed up with playing 007 and that the fifth film, "You Only Live Twice" would be his last. For most movie-goers, no Connery meant no Bond, so the producers, writer, and director decided to pull out all the stops and make "You Only Live Twice" as action-packed, as big, and, unfortunately, as formulaic as possible. Every series has its lows. With the first four Bond movies seeming to explore every possible detail of Ian Fleming's hero, many of the original crew members decide not to return for opus number 5. A ridiculous, far-fetched plot, a weak villain and gadget overkill are among the problems with the fifth 007 epic. It was clear by this point that the "golden days" of the early Connery era were over, and the series was now beginning to move toward flashier, bigger-budget movies with less of an emphasis on gripping, suspenseful plots.
Not everything fails, though. The first thirty minutes or so are suitably entertaining and the events build nicely on each other. The lush score by John Barry is absolutely beautiful, with every cue being better than the last. It's exciting, fresh, and fits every scene perfectly, while the dreamy title song is sung perfectly by Nancy Sinatra. Then there are the fantastic sets by Ken Adam, that are so big and imaginative that it's a shock that Adam didn't win an Oscar for them (not that his genius is in question). Osato's office and the classic volcano crater come to mind when someone thinks of the movie, with the other smaller sets also staying in the viewers mind after the end credits roll.
This is also by far the silliest of all his Bond movies, which is probably the reason that Mike Myers' Austin Powers seems to borrow from and mock this one the most. Sure, "Diamonds Are Forever" was the first Bond film to emphasize wit and high camp over serious spying, but this one is unintentionally funny. Given his small physical stature, Pleasance seems to portray Blofeld as suffering from some sort of short-man stigma, further complicated by a hideous scar. The fact that the incredibly silly plot was taken so seriously also has a bit of ironic humor to it as well, especially in light of the Bond movies to follow it in the early seventies which took good plots and characters too lightly.
The intended humor appears forced and there's no real interaction between the characters. For those reasons this also ranks as the most superficial of all the Connery Bonds. None of the things Bond does in this movie contribute to establishing his character in an manner whatsoever. Where is the rugged toughness he displayed in "Dr No" and "From Russia with Love"? What about the cool confidence he possessed in "Goldfinger" and perfected in "Thunderball"? Or The sophisticated wit and sense of irony we enjoyed so much in "Diamonds Are Forever"? Oh well, you can't get it right every time, and at least this movie contains another great John Barry score and a few very Bondian moments like the Kobe docks fight and Aki's death. Worth watching only after you've seen all the other Connery ones or if you're trying to introduce a child to the world of James Bond films.
If you want to see Connery at his best, see "Goldfinger" or "From Russia With Love".
6.3/10
What you have in "You Only Live Twice" is Sean Connery back as James Bond, and he is basically trying to prevent the outbreak of World War III, which later becomes a very common theme in Bond films. It seems that there is some sort of mysterious space craft in the Earth's atmosphere that swallows up orbiting, manned spacecraft, instigating accusations on the planet below. At first, the USA got a ship swallowed, and accused the Russians, informing them that another ship would be put into orbit within a month and if anything happened, it would be considered an act of war. The situation is complicated when the Russians also send a ship into orbit that gets swallowed. Obviously, Britain disagrees from the beginning that the Russians were involved, given the object's landing point (the Sea of Japan area), and they send one of their agents (Bond, of course) to the vicinity to investigate.
With the unparalleled success of "Thunderball", the James Bond phenomenon had reached it's peak. The spy-craze was beginning to die down, and by the end of the decade, the television shows and movies based around secret agents would slowly dwindle. Worst still, Sean Connery had said that he was fed up with playing 007 and that the fifth film, "You Only Live Twice" would be his last. For most movie-goers, no Connery meant no Bond, so the producers, writer, and director decided to pull out all the stops and make "You Only Live Twice" as action-packed, as big, and, unfortunately, as formulaic as possible. Every series has its lows. With the first four Bond movies seeming to explore every possible detail of Ian Fleming's hero, many of the original crew members decide not to return for opus number 5. A ridiculous, far-fetched plot, a weak villain and gadget overkill are among the problems with the fifth 007 epic. It was clear by this point that the "golden days" of the early Connery era were over, and the series was now beginning to move toward flashier, bigger-budget movies with less of an emphasis on gripping, suspenseful plots.
Not everything fails, though. The first thirty minutes or so are suitably entertaining and the events build nicely on each other. The lush score by John Barry is absolutely beautiful, with every cue being better than the last. It's exciting, fresh, and fits every scene perfectly, while the dreamy title song is sung perfectly by Nancy Sinatra. Then there are the fantastic sets by Ken Adam, that are so big and imaginative that it's a shock that Adam didn't win an Oscar for them (not that his genius is in question). Osato's office and the classic volcano crater come to mind when someone thinks of the movie, with the other smaller sets also staying in the viewers mind after the end credits roll.
This is also by far the silliest of all his Bond movies, which is probably the reason that Mike Myers' Austin Powers seems to borrow from and mock this one the most. Sure, "Diamonds Are Forever" was the first Bond film to emphasize wit and high camp over serious spying, but this one is unintentionally funny. Given his small physical stature, Pleasance seems to portray Blofeld as suffering from some sort of short-man stigma, further complicated by a hideous scar. The fact that the incredibly silly plot was taken so seriously also has a bit of ironic humor to it as well, especially in light of the Bond movies to follow it in the early seventies which took good plots and characters too lightly.
The intended humor appears forced and there's no real interaction between the characters. For those reasons this also ranks as the most superficial of all the Connery Bonds. None of the things Bond does in this movie contribute to establishing his character in an manner whatsoever. Where is the rugged toughness he displayed in "Dr No" and "From Russia with Love"? What about the cool confidence he possessed in "Goldfinger" and perfected in "Thunderball"? Or The sophisticated wit and sense of irony we enjoyed so much in "Diamonds Are Forever"? Oh well, you can't get it right every time, and at least this movie contains another great John Barry score and a few very Bondian moments like the Kobe docks fight and Aki's death. Worth watching only after you've seen all the other Connery ones or if you're trying to introduce a child to the world of James Bond films.
If you want to see Connery at his best, see "Goldfinger" or "From Russia With Love".
6.3/10
Comments
Posted by a user from Luoyang, China on IMDB on 7 August 2001.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062512/usercomments?count=101&filter=love;start=88
So please, give us your own thoughts. All your doing here is infringing on others and wasting our time, and they'll all just be deleted.