Fellman's Movie Reviews

You Only Live Twice is a personal favorite of mine. Maybe I’m a little biased and it’s just because I’m a big fan of the Japanese culture. Maybe it’s because I like ninjas and exploding helicopters. Either way, You Only Live Twice is one of the better Bond films in my opinion. How often do you see rival factions fight it out in a hollowed out volcano base with explosions going off around them? Not very often, I’m betting. And if you do, what do you do for a living? 

The one thing I will say about this movie is that you can kind of tell that Sean Connery is getting tired of playing James Bond at this point. You can almost see it in the scenes that he does. He’s not as into it as he was in the previous films. He’s not making out with the girls as hard as he was in the earlier movies. He’s not having as much fun when he cracks jokes like he did before. He just doesn’t have the same zeal for the job. Like, you can kind of tell when somebody just doesn’t want to be there and is just doing their job, you know? But, as an actor, you shouldn’t be able to tell that. That’s kind of what an actor is. But, I digress. 

The screenplay was actually written by Roald Dahl, of “James and the Giant Peach” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” fame. That’s not really important. I just thought that was an interesting piece of trivia that the guy who wrote “James and the Giant Peach” also wrote a James Bond movie. Who’d have thunk it?  

As far as reviews go, this was the first Bond movie that didn’t get better reviews than its predecessor. And the first Bond movie that didn’t make more money at the box office than the movie that came out before it. But, to be fair, this IS the fifth Bond movie. So, that’s actually a pretty good accomplishment when you think about it. It still hit #1 in theaters when it came out. It just didn’t stay there as long as From Russia with Love and Thunderball did. A lot of people attribute it to the oversaturation of the spy genre by the time You Only Live Twice came out. There were movies, and TV shows copying James Bond left and right.  

So, yeah. Go and see You Only Live Twice. It’s a great story. It’s the first time you actually get to see Blofeld. And there’s ninjas. I mean, what else can you ask for in a Bond movie, right? Although, it is Japan, and there are no giant robots. So, that is a little disappointing. But, go see it anyway. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…