Review of You Only Live Twice (1967) by Jaime L — 21 Aug 2015

Where did it all go wrong? Up until this point the Bond franchise was doing so well at delivering solid, fun and thrilling spy action. You Only Live Twice doesnt try to sway from this formula, however it completely ignores everything that made the previous films special and hits us with this, below par effort.

Its not difficult to understand, there was a new director Gilbert, new DOP and a new writer, Roald Dahl, you know the childrens fiction writer? So how do they fare? Not so well, in the most ludicrous story submitted thus far, an America space shuttle is captured by an unidentified space craft, the Americans presume it to be the work of the Russians and threaten nuclear war should it happen again.

However the British believe it to be the work of the Japanese, thus sending Bond deep undercover, in order to get to the bottom of it, discovering a familiar faceless face to be behind it all. This film isnt so much as terrible as downright laughable.

Dahl clearly has no grasp on the Bond concept, failing at every turn to make his dialogue whitty, charismatic or threatening. Okay Bond is not the most diverse character ever, but Dahl completely misses the point here tenfold.

The story is already all over the place and having a tainted Bond, even with Connery trying his hardest to keep a sinking ship afloat, it is impossible to salvage. The visuals are also the dullest and flattest they have ever been, the effect work is a travesty, note flames throwers and lava that look horrendously fake, the quality of image is all over the joint and the magical style from previous outings is gone completely.

The story is flat, the acting is beige, the film looks forgettable and to top it all off, halfway through, they drop a bomb, leaving us with Bond turning Japanese for god knows what reason. Its easy to see why Connery left after this and I dont blame him, if I were involved in this, with the amount of money backing it, id most likely become a hermit.

None of the actors have anything to do here, christ even Donald Pleasance as Blofeld is completely over the top, i'll give him credit for putting in the effort but by the time he eventually shows face, you have laughed yourself so hard into submission, even he sticks out like a sore thumb, in a film which should be impossible to stick out.

You Only Live Twice is however still watchable, it contains a few moments of interest, mainly the theme song, but its main draw is that its so stupid its brilliant. This is one of the worst Bond movies made, but it is so over the top, so crazy and stupid, you will sit and watch for the sheer reason to cringe.

For Bond extremists only, for everyone else there's From Russia With Love.