|
| • Advanced Search • Help |
You Only Live Twice | Year: 1967 Classification: Action/Adventure Directed: - Lewis Gilbert - Lewis Gilbert (II) Actors/Actresses: - Sean Connery - Desmond Llewelyn - Akiko Wakabayashi - Donald Pleasence as Ernst Stavro Blofeld Talk About Your Guilty Pleasures . . . Yes, Sean Connery looks bored in his fifth outing as James Bond. Yes, the evil plot hatched by the bad guys this time around seems more silly than frightening. Yes, the long-awaited debut of Blofeld (Donald Pleasance) may have clashed with your preconceived notion of what he really looked like. Yes, that scene where a car is tossed into the ocean by a giant magnet is a howler. Yet, despite all its flaws, You Only Live Twice is remarkably entertaining! Call it the guilty pleasure of the franchise! Whether it's watching Bond dropping mini-parachute bombs on pursuing helicopters or watching an army of ninjas storm a hollowed-out volcano, you just can't turn away from the screen. Part of the film's effectiveness has to be attributed to the supporting cast. Although Connery seems uninspired through most of the film, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama, Tetsuro Tamba, and Karin Dor all infuse the film with a zany charm. Throw into the equation beautiful cinematography by Freddie Young, a great musical score by John Barry, grand production design by Ken Adams, and a semi-catchy title tune by Nancy Sinatra and you get a Bond film ranked in the second-tier of the series in terms of quality. While certainly a far cry from the intrigue and suspense of From Russia With Love, You Only Live Twice still distinguishes itself enough to put a goofy smile on your face every time you think of it. TWICE IS THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE Released in 1967, You Only Live Twice marked the fifth appearance of Sean Connery who had announced he was retiring from the role that made him famous in the first place five years earlier ( he would later return in Diamonds are Forever). The plot has Bond going to Japan where he must stop his arch nemisis Ernest Stavro Blofeld from starting another World War between the superpowers. YOLT has the best pre-title sequence where we see our hero faking his own death. YOLT has some breath-taking action scenes such as the little-Nellie chase sequence, the dock fight and the grand finale in Blofeld's secret base in the crater of a volcano. YOLT set the standard for the following Bond sequels in the way it had such elabrarate sets. Also this the first time we see the face of sinister criminal mastermind Blofeld. Entertaining Connery After four excellent Bond films comes Connery's 5th effort You Only Live Twice. Twice is possibly Connery's worst Bond film, yet it contains things previous OO7 films or Diamonds Are Forever lacked or had less of. YOLT has spectacular Oriental sets by Ken Adam, the most action of any Connery film (dock gunfight, space capsule hijack, car chase, helicopter battle, building fight, gunfight in Blofeld's crater), an ingenious idea for SPECTRE's headquarters (an inactive volcano crater), great costumes, the first appearance of SPECTRE No.1, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (played fairly well by Donald Pleasence), stunning cinematography, and an excellent pre-title (our hero faking his own death) However, this is not the best Connery pre-title it is edged out by two other pre-titles in Diamonds Are Forever and the best, Thunderball. Though Twice has some good things, it has some nagging faults, one of which is Connery's slightly wooden performance. The others are lack of good crisis situations, the script by Roald Dahl, and the killing of Aki. However, the worst thing is that Twice has so much potential with things like the Oriental setting, Sean Connery, Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE, great girls, beautiful cinmatography and costumes, lots of good action, a good pre-title, and a bit weak yet original plot. But for some odd reason, Twice is considered by some to be the worst official Connery film, including myself. Bottom Quartile of Bond Movies This is the fifth movie in the James Bond 007 series from 1967. Bond is once again trying to stop the evil SPECTRE organization. In this film we finally meet Ernst Blofeld, aka #1, the head of SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion). He is played by Donald Pleasence. Blofeld has come up with a plan to start a war between the US and Russia. Pleasence does a decent job of playing Blofeld, but he's no match for Telly Savales, who played Blofeld in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969), the best Bond film of all-time. This movie is lacking in pizzazz. There's no beautiful scenery, like in "For Your Eyes Only" (1981). It doesn't have the beautiful women and a great chase scene like "Goldfinger" (1964). The title track, sung by Nancy Sinatra, seems more fitting for a love story than a spy movie. I prefer title tracks such as "Live and Let Die" (1973), which really get your heart pumping and give you a feeling of purpose and suspense. The fight scenes are poorly executed. Sean Connery's fighting skills seem to be going down ever since "From Russia With Love" (1963), when he had a great fight scene on the Orient Express with Red Grant. I own the entire collection of Bond films, and this one is my least played out of all of them. This one is missing the intrigue that most of the others have. The only reason to see this film is that Mike Myers based his character Dr. Evil in his "Austin Powers" movies off of Donald Pleasence's Blofeld. In conclusion, I recommend all of the Bond movies mentioned in this review, except for this one. Buy You Only Live Twice at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on You Only Live Twice Search with the Priority Search Engine on You Only Live Twice This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
|
