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Ranking James Bond Films: #23 – “You Only Live Twice” (1967)
Alright, we have our first bad Sean Connery James Bond movie. It has happened.
“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.”
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Writers: Harold Jack Bloom, Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming, Geoffrey Jenkins
Cast: Sean Connery, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama, Bernard Lee, Donald Pleasence, Desmond Llewelyn
Release Date: June 13, 1967
IMDB
Alright, we have our first bad Sean Connery James Bond movie. It has happened.
You Only Live Twice takes place in Japan. Bond pairs with the Japanese secret service to find and stop a series of spaceship hijackings. The United States and Russia blame each other for the outer space kidnappings, which means that the Cold War is about to become another World War.
You Only Live Twice is not worth watching twice. Director Lewis Gilbert’s first of three Bond movies has the pressure of revealing Blofeld, and if not for this scarred eye, then You Only Live Twice can be utterly forgotten. The movie has not aged well. Bond is seducing every woman, and it just doesn’t make sense. I am not saying it normally does, but it is egregiously bad. And Bond becoming Japanese and the concept of a Ninja army had me confuzzled. So Tanaka just had this compound of Ninjas training this entire time?
Also, there isn’t a whisper of an evil superpowered henchman. No villain Bond faces off against seems dangerous enough to beat him, which means fewer catchphrases.
Thunderball reached a ridiculous level, but it still managed to be a good movie. You Only Live Twice lacks the backbone of competency to hold it up.
STANKO RATING: D+
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Ranking James Bond Films: #24 – “License To Kill” (1989)
Rather than staying the course and touching up smaller cracks from a solid reboot, director John Glen and Dalton decided to take another sharp turn with License To Kill.
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