You Only Live Twice (1967)

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Starring: Sean Connery, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama

James Bond and the Japanese Secret Service must find and stop the true culprit of a series of space hijackings, before war is provoked between Russia and the United States.

Hunky Scottish actor Sean Connery returns as superspy 007 James Bond. (Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewellyn also return as Bond’s boss ‘M’, Moneypenny who likes to flirt with Bond, and gadgets inventor ‘Q’, respectively).

The film starts with Bond being killed. Oh, but off course we know its not to be true. Nope, its an elaborate plan for Bond to set his next mission into motion. (A Bit too elaborate, I’d say, complete with a sea burial).

The James Bond franchise heads into space for this adventure, with a spaceship being hijacked by a large space craft. The plot does get a bit complicated, but in short it revolves around SPECTRE villain Blofeld (Donald Pleasance) trying to start a war between the USA and Russia. The stunts are bigger and the gadgets are impressive, but in general I didn’t find the movie all that exciting – not until the climax, that is.

Bond is once again falling for women out to kill him, and manages to get all the information he requires with his charm. The Bond movies sure do have a flair for the dramatic. Not to mention the flaws, conveniences, way too many close calls, and credibility issues. I suppose the action is meant to compensate for this. Bond somehow always seems to know everything about places he’s never been to before…

The Bond films also sure do like to waste time with moments that don’t contribute to the film and could have been cut – and mostly serve as ‘comic relief’ in a way. Just like ‘Dr. No’ we only get to see the antagonist, Blofeld, during the final 20 minutes. The most memorable part about the movie is the rocket base in a volcano crater, and the good, action-packed climax inside.

‘You only live twice’ was a box office success, earning $111.6 million on a budget of $9.5 million.

Would I watch it again? No.