You Only Live Twice

There’s little doubt that You Only Live Twice, to a far more pronounced extent than its four predecessors, suffers from a severe case of overlength that’s virtually impossible to ignore, as screenwriter Roald Dahl consistently places the emphasis on the minutia of entirely tedious elements. The storyline, which follows Sean Connery’s James Bond as he travels to Japan to uncover a diabolical plot by SPECTRE’s notorious leader (Donald Pleasence’s Ernst Stavro Blofeld), subsequently finds itself adorned with several undeniably needless sequences and set-pieces, including Bond’s trip to a ninja training facility and a surprisingly underwhelming dogfight involving several helicopters. Connery’s expectedly affable work as the world’s most famous secret agent certainly proves instrumental in securing You Only Live Twice‘s mild success, though it does go without saying that Pleasence’s indelible work as Blofeld (“this organization does not tolerate failure”) remains the most memorable aspect within the proceedings. Even the over-the-top finale – wherein Bond and a team of ninjas penetrate Blofeld’s massive volcano lair – eventually manages to wear out its welcome as a result of its hopelessly padded-out modus operandi, which ultimately does ensure that the film comes off as an awfully minor entry within Connery’s 007 run.

**1/2 out of ****