You Only Live Twice

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Overall rating

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Starring: Sean Connery, Donald Pleasance

Tagline: Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay? Huh?

The Film: Donald Pleasance is Dr. Evil – I mean, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the SPECTRE leader who has only been seen as a hand stroking a cat until this
film. Bond and the Japanese Secret Service (yeah, right …) team up to stop
SPECTRE from hijacking pre-Apollo space capsules with a giant space capsule
that opens up and swallows the good ones. Look for: the British government
being smarter and more reasonable than the U.S. government. Long for: the
days when international terrorist organizations were this cute and silly.
As a Bond film goes, it’s more coherent but much less fun than “Goldfinger,”
and not nearly as good as “Dr. No” or “Thunderball.”

Rating: 3/5

Relatively uninspiring documentaries round out this disc, as with the other Connery Bond films. Decent sound and pictures, again, but little material to make you really want to own this on disc.

Rating: 3/5

Easter Eggs: If only …

Five Degrees of Seperation

Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory — What Roald Dahl does best. James and the Giant Peach — What Roald Dahl does second-best. Dr. No — What Sean Connery does best. As Bond, at least.

Tags: 007, james bond, sean connery