James Bond 007 -You Only Live Twice Blu-ray (1967)

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.

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE contained elements of espionage, action, thrills, adventure and science fiction. Looking back it somehow worked loosely when put together yet till this day I can not determine what the cohesive element was. Looking at it closely the film is a real dichotomy of styles. The first hour is excellently filmed and works very well. We get to see James Bond the spy, working with recognition codes, breaking into safes, going under cover and the like. There is an excellently choreographed fight scene between Bond and a sumo wrestler. This is also the first time he developed a good working relationship with a fellow intelligence head, Tiger Tanaka, similar to that of Kerim Bey in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. We also see that "M" has absolute confidence in his man. "This is the big one," he tells Bond knowing that 007 is the only one capable of pulling off this assignment. There is also quite a bit of very witty dialog in the first hour of this film. In the first hour the pace is deliberate, but never boring or unentertaining. It ends with Bond flying "Little Nellie," delivered by "Q," into an aerial dogfight with four helicopters. As it moves into the second hour more of the science fiction and fantasy elements start to take center stage. The film starts to look untidy and meanders along till it gets to the excellently filmed battle between Tanaka's ninjas and Blofeld's private army in his Volcano lair. It's not a bad Bond film, but it should have been a lot better. I think the culprit was the editing. Russian and American manned space capsules were being snatched out of orbit by an "intruder missile." Bond had to find the location and the identity of those responsible before World War III breaks out. The filmmakers decided not to surprise us at the end of the film, but instead show us, not Bond, that this "intruder missile" is in fact owned by SPECTRE and is being launched from Blofeld's Volcano lair in Japan. That comes a little past the hour mark. That being the case there was a good opportunity to develop suspense, as Bond has to locate the launch site. When Bond finally does find the volcano he has very little reaction to his discovery. He in fact seems to have come prepared with suction cup kneepads, which he uses to climb upside down and into the volcano. Tanaka shows up with his men, the battle ensues and Bond saves the day. It just could have been done much better considering how well the first half of the film was handled. The massive sets designed by Ken Adam were highly innovative and stylized and are probably the best of the entire series. M's office aboard the submarine, M-1, was also pretty innovative incorporating furniture and decorations from his office from the Ministry of Defense back in London. John Barry wrote a brilliant score. His music for the "Capsule in Space" was eerily ominous. He also incorporated sections of the "James Bond Theme" very effectively subsequent to Henderson's death and the fight in Osato's office. Barry's "Mountains and Sunset" went beautifully with Freddie Young's Cinematography. This and his score for ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE were the last to contain his best action pieces for the series. These were little snippets here and there written to give the action a little more punch. I thought Sean Connery gave some his best performances as James Bond in this film. Bond's scene with Henderson was very good. His repartee with Moneypenney was one of his best. Sean Connery did return as James Bond in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER but one era had already ended with ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE and a new one would begin with his return.

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I love this picture. The previous reviewers had problems with it. It has everything a Bond picture should have. The scenery is magnificent, the gadgets are up to standard, the production quality is as good as the previous Bond efforts, the villain is a typical jerk, and the title song sung by Nancy Sinatra is the best I've ever heard in a Bond picture.

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After James Bond (Sean Connery) has participated in faking his own murder in Hong Kong, to give him "more elbow room" in the words of his superior, M (Bernard Lee), he is dispatched to Japan to investigate the mysterious disappearance of both American and Soviet space crafts which threatens to spark World War III.

Working together with Japanese secret service leader Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), he meets beautiful Japanese agent Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi), who helps Bond through several close shaves.

Working with a Japanese Secret Service Ninja force, he locates the sabotage to the shadowy organization SPECTRE, led by the sinister Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence).

After Aki is murdered by SPECTRE agents (She dies after ingesting poison dropped into the bed she shares with Bond), Bond teams up, in a faked marriage with the attractive Kissy Suzuki Mie Hama).

Together with the Ninja force they penetrate Blofeld's massive headquarters, hidden in a volcano, where the final battle ensues.

Before Blofeld tries to kill Bond, he reminds him "You Only Live Twice", referring to his earlier faked death.

The chemistry between Bond and the exquisite Aki is perfect, and in the scene where a marriage is proposed and Bond thinks it is Aki, Aki's face lights up.

No less stunning is Mie Hama as Kissy Suzuki, an expert swimmer and fighter, and one of the sexiest Bond girl ever.

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You can tell when a movie has been influential because of imitation ("The Incredibles")and parody ("Austin Powers")40 plus years AFTER it was released. Although some elements are even less believable 45 years later (Bond passing as a Japanese fisherman? Really?)Roald Dahl's script and the sharp direction of Lewis Gilbert keep "You Only Live Twice" entertaining and the unexpected opening sequence where Bond is assassinated only to be resurrected later adds to the fantasy elements of the film.

Bond travels to Japan to find out who is behind snatching U.S. and Soviet spacecraft in an attempt to cause war between the two superpowers. To investigate this case which Bond believes Blofeld (Donald Pleasence) to be behind, he must appear to be dead so that his enemies won't expect him.

Production designer Ken Adams creates one of his most impressive sets, Dahl's script introduces key elements that will become part of every Bond film in the future (to one degree or another)and director Lewis Gilbert does a nice job setting up the action sequences creating one of the seminal Bond films. Although the Bond films would often go bigger (not much more than this admittedly), I don't think they ever got better. Gilbert is so confident directing the film that he even borrows the "punch" shot from Hitcock's "Strangers on a Train" and "North by Northwest" (where when our hero is hit it appears that WE are a nice use of point-of-view rarely used beyond Hitchcock's films).

In a nice touch Charles Gray who appears as Henderson here appears in "Diamonds are Forever" playing Blofeld (I do find it curious though that EON productions chose not to cast the same actor as Blofeld in more than one film although, at least in the case of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", the character is played by the late bald actor Telly Savalas)in Connery's next-to-last appearance as Bond (his last would be, of course, in the "Thunderball" remake "Never Say Never Again").

The film was so successful that "You Only Live Twice" was used as a template for later Bond movies such as "The Spy Who Loved Me".

"You Only Live Twice" receives a nice looking restoration from Lowry and a very nice HD transfer. The film has nice depth and detail. There are still a few flaws that crop up now and again (for example during a couple of shots of the volcano there's a noticeable line right in the middle of the frame)but, on the whole, "You Only Live Twice".

The sequences that tend to be soft and look the worse for wear are some of the composite shots used in the film which was unavoidable. This also includes the stock footage of the volano erupting at the conclusion of the film.

The DTS lossless audio sounds marvelous highlighting John Barry's marvelous and often melodic score.

The special features have largely been ported over from the previous DVD edition of the film. We get a commentary track that features director Lewis Gilbert (among others)combined with others from the production crew.

Unfortunately no deleted scenes survived for this Blu-ray edition (unlike "Diamonds Are Forever" for example).

We do get "Welcome to Japan Mr. Bond" a made for TV program to promote the film featuring Moneypenny discussing Bond's various adventures. It's a cool vintage extra for fans of the series and is presented in HD.

We also get excerpts from "Whicker's World" a BBC documentary we also get a brief behind-the-scenes glimpse at the locations narrated by production designer Ken Adam.

"Inside 'You Only Live Twice'" is a well made documentary on the making of the movie. We also get a documentary on the opening titles created by the late Maurice Binder for the Bond films. The two short documentaries are presented in standard definition. We also get the storyboard sequence for the plane crash as well as a brief glimpse at the exotic locations used for the film hosted by Maude Adams.

Also included are theatrical trailers for the film, a TV ad, radio spots and "Image Database" which inclues various stills and promo shots for the film.

It's tough to name a favorite Connery Bond film but when it comes to sheer spectacle "You Only Live Twice" was the biggest and boldest of the Bond adventures with its stunning final assault on the volcano lair of Blofeld influencing an entire generation of Spy films. Although my favorite remains "From Russia with Love" followed by "Goldfinger", "You Only Live Twice" is certainly up there with those two films.