Day five of the Bond Film Marathon, film 5: You Only Live Twice.
This can be seen as one of the weaker films in the franchise and for Connery's tenure as Bond, but I'll reserve that for Diamonds Are Forever, and I'll get to that one later. This film sways HEAVILY away from the Fleming novel, and I mean HEAVILY. It discards most if not all of what Ian Fleming had written in the novel and the film's screenwriter, novelist Roald Dahl, only uses few characters and few locations from the book for an almost completely unrelated film from the book. It does drag on a bit, though It's still a lot of fun. We see a different side now.…

Part of:
Dr. No-vember or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bond Films

Oh the things I do for England.
-James Bond

With Thunderball being the biggest box office hit of the series up to that point, one doesn't have to wonder why You Only Live Twice feels like it's simply following a formula. This really is James Bond on autopilot with Sean Connery clearly not in the same shape he was in a mere two years earlier.

The story itself is even more over the top then Thunderball's and almost becomes a parody of itself. Fans of the Austin Powers films will recognize a lot of the elements here. As goofy as some of it is…

On the one hand, You Only Live Twice is perhaps one of the more mercilessly satirised James Bond movies (the Austin Powers trilogy, in particular, apes wholesale from it), yet it might also be one of the least remembered in terms of the Sean Connery movies to some extent; I know I had forgotten plenty about the nuts and bolts of this one in the many years since I watched it. And while that's understandable given its propensity to lose focus at certain points, as well as not quite knowing what it wants to be, it might also be one of Connery's better films in the role - grandiose, with a genuine sense of exotic travelogue, and one of the…

Continuing my journey to see every single 007 film before the release of Skyfall, I just got finished watching the fifth Bond film, You Only Live Twice which would (supposedly) mark the end of the end of the Connery Era.

Before the release of You Only Live Twice, Sean Connery announced that this will be his final outing as Bond. With this being (supposedly) the final time he would play Bond, I just wish he gave a better performance. It's not that he's bad; it's just that he isn't as good or sharp as his four previous films. Ever since Dr. No, Connery got better and better as he got more comfortable in the role but here, he seems bored…

A Roger Moore Bond film before its time. While Ken Adam's production design remains impressive to this day, and I don't doubt that the allure of the then-unfamiliar (to Western audiences) Far East would have provided a thrilling spectacle at the time, watching it in 2012 it seems positively quaint. Growing increasingly disillusioned with the series, Sean Connery all but sleepwalks through the role, and his aloof, almost scornful demeanour clashes badly with the absurd goings-on around him, threatening to turn the film into a spoof of the more outlandish aspects of GOLDFINGER and THUNDERBALL. (YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE is, incidentally, the film from which the AUSTIN POWERS films take most of their cues.)

It's never genuinely boring but it's…

20 years ago when I was an impressionable youth, Roger Moore was my Bond. I didn't care about any other actor, I just wanted to watch A View To A Kill on a constant loop. That was until one rainy Sunday afternoon I sat bored in front of the TV and this started. I was hooked. "Roger who?" I thought. Well maybe not that hooked, but this film blew me away and while Moore was my gateway drug, You Only Live Twice was that high that got it's claws into me for life.
This film may have an extreme over-reliance for gadgetry but I can't help but giggle along like that 12 year old me as the helicopter magnet dropped…

With Bond fever will underway, Sean Connery treks to the East in this adventure where he finally faces Ernst Stavro Bofeld (Donald Pleasence) face to face.

Launching sabotage attacks on US and Russian spaceships in the attempt to provoke World War 3, MI6 sends 007 to Japan where their section operatives have reported the trace of rocket landings in the area. Battling those who want to keep SPECTRE's operations a secret with the help of Japanese SIS allies Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba) and Aki (Aki Wakabayashi) and Q-Branch's ingenious one man helicopter 'Little Nellie', Bond investigates and fights his way across the country to find the source of the sabotage before time runs out.

To the finale in the magnificent…

Day five of the Bond Film Marathon, film 5: You Only Live Twice.
This can be seen as one of the weaker films in the franchise and for Connery's tenure as Bond, but I'll reserve that for Diamonds Are Forever, and I'll get to that one later. This film sways HEAVILY away from the Fleming novel, and I mean HEAVILY. It discards most if not all of what Ian Fleming had written in the novel and the film's screenwriter, novelist Roald Dahl, only uses few characters and few locations from the book for an almost completely unrelated film from the book. It does drag on a bit, though It's still a lot of fun. We see a different side now.…

I think it's safe to say, at least as it relates to Sean Connery's version of the character, that this is the ultimate "James Bond" film. By that, I don't mean to comment on the quality of the film or its success at telling a story, but rather at they way the film incorporates themes, formulas, and elements that have come to be expected from the franchise. When you look at these elements - action scenes, spectacle, Bond girls, exotic locations, faceless henchmen, evil and diabolical villains, impressive sets, one-liners - there can be no denying that You Only Live Twice has them all.

For many, this film is simply known for taking place in Japan and Sean Connery's horrible…

Terwijl Nancy Sinatra een prima opening zingt, wrijf ik in mijn handen. Het script van You Only Live Twice is geschreven door Roald Dahl. Dé Roald Dahl!

Binnen een paar minuten is 007 al opgestaan uit de ogenschijnlijke dood waarmee de film begint. James Bond heeft geen tijd om te sterven, want hij moet naar Japan. In een kring om de aarde worden ruimtecapsules opgeslokt door een groot ruimteschip en Bond moet uitzoeken wie daar achter zit, voordat er een nucleaire oorlog uitbreekt tussen Amerika en Rusland.

Dat James Bond in het land van de rijzende zon is, wordt al snel duidelijk, want alle clichés worden van stal gehaald. Sumoworstelaars, kimono's, zeepmeisjes en zelfs ninja's. Een leger ninja's.

Er zitten…