At the time You Only Live Twice was released, it was rumored to be the last Bond movie with Sean Connery in the title role. Connery broke his word, making two other James Bond movies-one "official," one "unofficial." You Only Live Twice is also unique because it is the only Bond movie written by Roald Dahl, the author famous for such books as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The Twits.
This time around the action starts when an American rocket is "eaten" by what is apparently a Russian rocket. Sean Connery is sent to Japan to investigate the situation, although the choice of Japan as a location seems rather arbitrary. After some fights and some sleuthing, Bond discovers a deadly team up of Japan and SPECTRE. Can Bond save the day?
The opening of You Only Live Twice makes it seem like Bond is dead but (SPOILER ALERT) he's really not! At the start of the movie, Bond and M are on a submarine dressed in naval outfits, although that is never really explained very well. Part of the movie takes advantage of the fact that this film takes place in Japan (the sumo wrestling, the saki, most of the outdoor scenery), while the climax of the movie takes place on a secret hideout which was actually a complex soundstage built for around a million dollars in London.
This movie has some neat sequences, but has a sluggish pace like Dr. No and From Russia With Love. While You Only Live Twice never reaches the mind-numbing halt achieved in Thunderball, it definitely has its share of slow spots. Bond makes a few clever quips, but doesn't seem as cool as a character as he was in Goldfinger. A sequence that is supposed to make Bond look more Japanese ends up making him look stupid instead. It will be interesting to see if George Lazenby has any unique qualities as Bond or if he'll try to emulate Connery.
I give You Only Live Twice **1/2 out of ****.

James Bond faks his death in order to SPECTRE off of his back. What's the next thing he does? He tries to locate the secret SPECTRE base in Japan, in order to disrupt their plans to start World War 3. Real smart way to get them to leave you alone, genius. Anyway, James Bond goes under-cover as an asian married on h honeymoon, in order to look for the secret base. After a serious lack of sumo wrestling, and ninjas, James Bond foils Blofeld once again. Don't act surprised, it's not like was a spoiler. There are 19 Bond movies, he wins in every one. Nothing fantastic happened, though I wasn't bored to tears. I guess I'm just getting to Bond movies.

coitus count: 4
Minutes of Mind Numbing Boredom: I don't know, about 30-45 maybe.

** out of ****