James Bond - You Only Live Twice (Ultimate Edition 2 Disc Set) [1967]

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-08-06 rating:
Bond runs riot in Japan
You Only Live Twice has all the classic Bond ingredients that you would come to expect from a 007 movie: exotic locations, a deranged madman with a monorail (and a big cat here), gadgets, great music and a plot that involves averting World War 3.

The action is fast-paced and the bodycount is high. Interesting aspects include Bond turning Japanese, getting married (or at least pretending to), Little Nellie (the famous, lethal flying machine that Q packed into two suitcases) and help from the SIS (the Japanese equivalent of the CIA).

On the downside, the spaceship scenes now look so primitive that they're almost akin to Thunderbirds material, but hey, this was 1967 and I'm sure the producers did their best with the technology that was available at the time.

You Only Live Twice is classic Bond and the extra features make this a great package for the price. The feature on Maurice Binder, who created the famous gun barrel sequence and the credit sequences to a large number of Bond pics was particularly interesting.

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review by: date: 2007-12-12 rating:
The biggest and best of the special effects show Bonds
Faced with box-office rivalry from the spoof Casino Royale the same year, EON put aside their plans to follow Thunderball with OHMSS and pulled out all the stops to promise the biggest and best-paced Bond to date. While they failed to match the phenomenal success of Thunderball - still the biggest ticket seller in the series' history by a huge margin - this certainly is the best of the special effects show Bonds, and for many it's scarred, bald, Persian-cat stroking super-villain ensconced in his hollowed-out volcano lair plotting to start a world war is the quintessential Bond movie. Departing from Ian Fleming's novel in all but name and boasting a plot the producers were so taken with that they've used it at least twice since The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, both also directed by Lewis Gilbert), but by 1967 the series was already beginning to feed off itself - the pre-title sequence where Bond is killed is more or less borrowed from From Russia With Love.

After years as an offscreen presence voiced by Eric Pohlman, S.P.E.C.T.R.E.'s Ernst Stavro Blofeld finally makes his first on-screen appearance in the form of Donald Pleasance (causing that awkward continuity problem in the subsequent OHMSS where he fails to recognise Bond), with Charles Gray preceding his turn in the role on the side of the angels as our man in Japan, getting his vodka from the doorman at the Russian embassy ("among OTHER things"). This time the villains work for a large Japanese industrial company to cash-in on the Connery films' popularity in the Japanese market while offering some colorful locations, but action, not scenery, is the order of the day here. The action scenes themselves are terrific and often imaginatively shot (as with the long overhead helicopter shot in the fight at Kobe Docks) and the production values are still the best of the entire series. Visually it is certainly the best looking of the series thanks to Freddie Young's incredible photography, while Ken Adams production design is superb and the lush score marked a real turning point for John Barry.

Roald Dahl's screenplay strangely discards Blofeld's garden of death (too downbeat said the producers) and omits Bond's Japanese counterpart Tanaka's background as an ex-Kamikaze pilot (too sensitive) but has just the right internal logic to justify its outrageous elements, as well as some neat humorous touches (such as Bond being constantly castigated for his smoking). Although many fans were critical of his approach - Dahl made little secret of his opinion that Bond was a 'resourceful but rather insensitive fellow' - he is more astute about the character than many writers in the series, bringing Bond's smug superiority to the fore in lines like "You forget I took a First in Oriental languages at Cambridge."

It's particularly disappointing that the 2-disc set only includes five minutes of the very entertaining and surprisingly comprehensive hour-long Whicker's World special on the making of the film, which revealed Connery's fondness for Custard Creams. We do get the glossier and less interesting 48-minute Welcome to Japan, Mr Bond (which makes an injoke of the fact that OHMSS had originally been scheduled to be made that year by having an unseen actress complain that she was supposed to be Mrs Bond) and Ken Adams' home movie footage, but there's not enough new to justify the `Ultimate Edition' tag here.

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review by: date: 2007-11-19 rating:
You Only Live Twice - A Review
Here is my review for You Only Live Twice. Mainly set in Japan Bond is sent to investigate some spacecrafts myseriosely dissapearing it turns out once again that SPECTRE are trying to start WWIII. Sean Connery's performance is pretty wooden in this one but the gadgets are brilliant. Japan is a brilliant setting and Nancy Sinatra's title song is a classic. This is the definitive Bond film for eleven-year-olds to get their teeth into. It has ninja's, huge enemy bases, beautiful women, action, suspense etc. and the most important thing about this film is that we are introduced to the evil head of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavra Blofeld played masterfully by Donald Pleasence. An underrated gem.

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review by: skenn1701a date: 2007-08-22 rating:
Welcome to Japan, Mr Bond...
Ah, it is a tough call, trying to rate a movie as fun as this. Holding such an iconic status as it does, how do you keep your bias in check and look at the movie without those nostalgic rose coloured specs?
As witness for the defence, I would like to call Ken Adams - creator of the 1 million dollar volcano set, this action sequence at the end of the movie set a standard for Bond movies for a very long time... so much so that it is recreated in different guises in `The Spy who loved me', and `Moonraker'. It is certainly the most spectacular set and largest scale action sequence in a Bond movie yet.
Next witness - Sean Connery - yes, he seems a little more weary in the role than he did in Thunderball, but while not at his peak, he is still fit and charming enough to be the definitive James Bond (at least when not wearing insanely unconvincing Japanese prosthetics).
John Barry - who produces another great and imaginative score here, one of the last to sound truly original.
And then I call Little Nellie - the signature gadget for the film, a weapon loaded gyrocopter, is a great success, not just for the aerial action sequence, but also for getting `Q' out of the office and into the field for a change!

But then comes the witnesses for the prosecution... If I call Blofeld to the stand, then you will find what at first appears to be brilliant casting, turns out to be too little too late in the movie. Donald Pleasance as just the right creepiness for the role, but never truly brings the character to life, and demasking Blofeld only seems to tarnish some of the mythos that had been built up around him.
The same holds true if I call Bond's ladies to the stand. Helga Brandt may have a healthy chest, but is a pale pale imitation of the evil Fiona Volpe from Thunderball. And the Japanese ladies have a novelty value, but never appear to truly have an impact on Bond.
Then there is the screenplay. Roald Dahl is a genius, but somewhere between the story, the screenplay of the story and the screen, some magic has been left out. When I watched this with an audience, a third of them were sleeping through the middle sagging part of the movie.
Part of the joy, and also part of the problem is that some of the international flair has been left out of this movie to concentrate on one location - Japan. The location is therefore well explored in both culture and geography, but a certain variety and roving nature to Bond's exploits is missing.
I call the effects to the stand... Bond always worked best when the stories were timeless. By using a space age plot, the plot device, effects, and concept are all immediately dated. Bear in mind this movie was conceived long before man walked on the moon.
And then I'd like to call Little Nellie. Yes, the same Little Nellie called by the defence. Is it used craftily integrated into the plot? No, we see a scene where he is attacked predictably by helicopters, and goes through the gadgets one by one until they are all used and he goes home. It's just not as clever as say, the tear gas in the case from `From Russia with Love'.
Critically, there is the myth of Bond himself. Where in previous Bond movies he was a spy who through tradecraft and hard work (and occasionally seducing beautiful women) would find his way to the evil masterminds lair, here it is as if the character stumbles from one situation to the next, rather than driving events. This was to hold true for Bond for many years to come, with the exception of `On Her Majesty's Secret Service'.

The verdict? A hung jury... It is a movie that perhaps tries too hard to go bigger and better in many respects. And so we have a movie with two hats - It introduces some fun ideas, such as M and Moneypenny having a mobile office in a submarine - the first of many mobile offices for M, and seeing Bond in naval uniform for the first time. But it also fails to achieve the characterisation that had gone before and relies on the goodwill from previous movies a little too hard. Thus, we all love You Only Live Twice, but have to be honest, it is harmless fun, but not a classic. Majority verdict in favour of the defence.

What does the Ultimate Edition have to offer to persuade you to part with your cash? Truth be told, this is where it gets interesting. The picture is flawless, yes, but it is the sound that really becomes 3 dimensional in the dts mix, giving the rockets shooting into space much more realism and depth than the on screen effects do. Even background noises are clearer and dialogue sparkling, thanks to some nifty digital remastering.
All the extras from the Special Edition are present and correct, and everyone should watch the superb (as usual) half hour documentary `Inside You Only Live Twice'. Also included for the first time though are three items. Firstly, some of Ken Adams home video footage of location scouting and then shooting of the movie, which is great fun to watch to see both the construction of the set and Sean Connery clowning around at every opportunity. Then there is a short segment from Whickers World, which is an entertaining period fluff piece promoting the movie - while still acknowledging its campness and humour make it an antidote for the times. Finally an oddity, a one hour special `Welcome to Japan, Mr Bond' which uses MoneyPenny and Q in specially shot scenes to frame a selection of clips from the movies to this point. Interesting for fans of Q especially, this purports to be Moneypenny musing over who it can be that James Bond will marry.
All in all, I can only recommend this DVD as a worthwhile watch, while acknowledging it is just not as finely crafted as its predecessors. This Ultimate Edition series once again proves to be the best and most comprehensive way to see the movie.



review by: Cheese anyone? date: 2007-07-21 rating:
The best Bond for more reasons than one....
I can remember watching this film even when I was quite little. I'd refer to it by a memorable scene; "The one were the space rocket that eats the other rocksts". Now however, many years on, and knowing the title of the film (obviously) nothing's changed, and I still get the same sense of excitement watching it as I did when I was young.
To me, this is Bond ta his peak. "Why?" your likely to ask, considering he had so many more outings, in many different 'bodies'. That's what i'm going to explain.
For me, Sean Connery was the perfect choice for Bond - he looked incredibly smooth and natural when firing his Walther PPK (without the scrunched up face that Roger Moore had) and in this film especially, he comes into his own. Although he was in one more Bond film, "Diamonds are Forever" (though I honestly don't class it as a Bond film!) this to me was his final true outing. And respectively, he uses all the characteristics we've seen from him in the previous films - wit, charm, careful one liners, and his invaluable Lisence to Kiss whoever he pleases!
But among all this, we have an element that makes this the most watchable Bond movie of the whole saga, and thats the fact that he is more mature in this film. And rightfully so, he's based in Japan. The plot, if you have not been informed, see's a suspicious space-craft holding hostage other space-crafts by "eating them!" (or more to the point, opening up its top section, and taking them in!). So,it's Bonds job to find out who is doing this and why? But since we already know Blowfelt is behind this scheme, we already know why - its domination.
The element of adventure makes this film so appealing if you have the kid inside you. With gorgeous locations that rival Thailands Phi Phi islands, and a beatiful soundtrack to go with it, how can you not admire this film? Another thing that adds to the relaxed manner of the screenplay is the way in which Bond is not under so much pressure as in other films, and constantly giving out suspiciously accurate facts and figures. Their is one however in this film. He is given a vodka martini, and states that its precise temperature - "98.2 degress fereheight" apparently. Very handy, he has a built in thermostat too! But this would be his only clinical observation throughout the film, as its great to see him take Japanese baths, only to discover Japanese men don't have hairy chests! His role in becoming a Japanese person is also a fun part of the film.
As you have no doubt read, i've frequently said just how 'nice' this film is. And thats what sets it apart from other Bond films. It may not be a true book adaptation, and it may lack the raw spy theme thats present in other Bond films, but this to me tops the lot on a warm summers evening when your looking for a good film.

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