One of my favorite Bond movies, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE delivers everything you want in a Bond flick. Let's see: exotic locales: Japan & outer space.
Great villains: This is the first time we actually see Ernst Stavro Blofeld after glimpses of the white cat stroking bad guy in Thunderball. Donald Pleasance plays him with great style and menace. Just try to watch him now and not think of Mike Meyers and Dr. Evil, a direct play off of Pleasance in this film.
A great villain's lair: Blofeld's operation takes place entirely in a hollowed out volcano in Japan, actually the biggest and most expensive movie set ever built at the time, in 1967. At the cost of a million dollars, designer Ken Adam gives us a full size rocket ship, helipad, working monorail and a whole lot to blow up!
Classic Connery lines: 'The things I do for England" "I might just retire here..."
and so many terrific 007 moments including Little Nellie's mini helicopter battle over Japan, Bond's "death" and burial at sea, Nancy Sinatra's great theme song and the exciting ninja invasion of the volcano.
This is one of John Barry's best Bond scores and new 007 director Lewis Gilbert brings a light touch. Connery announced that this was his LAST Bond film and that he would never play Bond again. Of course James Bond would return in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" two years later with a distinctly different look. You Only Live Twice is a great Bond film, filled to it's volcano top with action, wit, beautiful women and bad guys. A 007 A grade.
(This is the first Bond film we watched in our new BOND 50 collectible Blu-Ray set and the sound and picture are amazing. Fully digitally remastered, this is like seeing the films newly released in theaters. The sound, DTS Master 5.1 will blow you away!)
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