By YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, James Bond no longer resembled the Ian Fleming character at all and of all the movies based on the Fleming novels, this one is the least like the book. In fact, other than being set in Japan and the title, the stories are nothing alike. The film is not at all realistic like the books and is a loud proclamation that that Bond is dead as it ushers in a "comic book" Bond who is all gadgets and plot holes. While I grudgingly will admit that the Roald Dahl (yes, THAT Dahl--the "Willie Wonka" guy) script is very exciting and high on the "cool factor", it is also silly and ridiculous throughout.

Some of the cool gadgets are the helicopter with an electro-magnet to pick up the baddies in their car as well Bond's own mini-copter. Really exciting stuff--but also the stuff of serials and comics--as was the volcano lair of Blofeld. In fact, for the first time, a Bond villain more resembles Dr. Evil from AUSTIN POWERS than anything else!! While there were too many dumb gadgets and silliness to talk about them all, I'll mention a few that DIDN'T work and were just dumb. First, the death scene and Bond's subsequent launching out of a submarine was so dumb--way too dumb. But worst was towards the middle when the Japanese secret service had the "brilliant" idea of disguising Bond as a Japanese man!!! With Connery's nose, height and Scottish accent, this was about as believable as trying to convince everyone that Bill Cosby was Japanese!!! This idiocy sinks to a new low in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE--unfortunately, it only got worse in later films.

Despite these many complaints, I still give the film a 7 because it's super-entertaining--more so than the previous film (THUNDERBALL). There are more thrills in this film than two Bond films--too bad the silly plot points weren't worked out--making the film seem like it could have used a good edit.

My vote for the best Sean Connery Bond film goes to Goldfinger, which is also a contender for the best ever Bond too. You Only Live Twice is one of the best of the series for me. Why? Well the cinematography and locations once again are stunning and the music and theme song are really quite memorable. The pacing is brisk, the story is great and eventful and the script is suitably arch. Sean Connery is still his suave and charismatic self, while Donald Pleasance's Blofeld is one of the all-time great screen villains even though most of the time he is unseen. Add to that an explosive climax set in a secret base that is definitive and forever parodied and you have a truly great Bond entry. 10/10 Bethany Cox

You Only Live Twice was the fifth James Bond film with Sean Connery and the basic premise of it kind of dismays me. After four films with Bond battling SPECTRE and foiling their evil plans, you would think that the powers would consider SPECTRE's involvement in any kind of dirty business on this globe.

But that's not what happens here. SPECTRE under the leadership of Donald Pleasance as Ernest Stavro Blofeld has developed its own space technology, courtesy of Japanese industrialist Teru Shimada. They've set up shop on a small Japanese volcanic island inside the crater of a dead volcano that has a retractable dome covering like the Rogers Center in Toronto. And they're going about the business capturing US and Soviet satellites right out of orbit.

The tone of this film is set in the beginning at that conference where the sides are accusing each other of heating up the Cold War. But Her Majesty's government says cool down boys, we're sending our best man in. My problem is that I can't believe the two superpowers wouldn't think that SPECTRE's involvement isn't a possibility all on their own.

But with Sean Connery on the scene do you doubt that he will bring the truth out and the culprits to his own brand of Bondian justice?

I've seen all the Connery Bond films and You Only Live Twice is the weakest of the bunch. Not to say it doesn't have its moments. My favorite is Connery in Little Nell, the airborne equivalent of his Ashton-Martin special car where Connery dispatches some SPECTRE sent helicopters. He also has a nice fight scene with Ronald Rich who is Pleasance's bodyguard. But next to Odd Job from Goldfinger, Rich was a ham and egger.

You Only Live Twice has Connery collaborating with the Japanese Secret Service in the person of Tetsuro Tamba and a couple Oriental lovelies in Mie Hama and Akika Wakabayashi. He also gets to deal with Karin Dor, an assassin from SPECTRE all now Bond girls in good standing. Tamba has an army of Ninjas, as skilled with automatic weaponry as they are with martial arts. Had this film been done a few years later, I could have seen Bruce Lee collaborating with James Bond.

Now that would really have been a memorable film.