Film Review: You Only Live Twice (1967) B-

Date Viewed: 7/21/06
Venue: DVD

You Only Live Twice is the final James Bond film to star Sean Connery in the 1960s, and to many people it represents the last of Bond in its purest form. Before anyone else played the part and before the series got a case of the sillies.

Bond again tangles with the uberterrorists in SPECTRE, this time in Japan. The whole endevour is nicely set up, with the Brits elaborately faking Bond's death in Hong Kong, freeing him to investigate the abduction of several U.S. and Russian spacecraft before escalating Cold War tensions can lead to World War III.

The Japanese locales (including a real sumo match!), landscape, and (admittedly) women really help the film stand out from it's nascent Bond bretheren.

However, You Only Live Twice suffers from an absolutely glacial second act. By the end of act one, everyone, you, me, even Bond knows pretty much where SPECTRE is and what they're doing. But it takes us for-ever to actually get up and go after them. Instead we waste a lot of time watching Bond go through a wholly unconvincing attempt to make him look more Japanese (he's basically given Mr. Spock's hair-do). The second's act's only saving grace is a helicopter dogfight with Bond in a tricked-out (thanks, Q) mini-copter.

The final act finally arrives and things pick back up. The face of SPECTRE (the never-before-seen Blofeld) is revealed to be Donald Pleasence, whose appearence would go on to inspire (or basically be copied by) Mike Myers' Dr. Evil. We're also treated to a giant hundreds-of-ninjas-attack-underground-lair climax. There's just something cool about seeing dozens of ninjas onscreen all at once. Although I've got a problem with ninjas wielding pistols and rifles...there's something rather un-ninja about that.

You Only Live Twice is two-thirds of a really good James Bond film. The first and third acts are everything a Bond film should be. There's intrigue, exotic locations, beautiful women, and exciting action. But I just can't get over the grinding halt that is the second act. You Only Live Twice isn't the yawnathon Thunderball is, but its just not quite good enough to be on par with the likes of Goldfinger, From Russia With Love, or even Dr. No.