When I watch a new Bond, I have my notebook at the ready to take write down all of the key quote, plotlines and observations. I showed these notes to Pete the other day, he started to giggle at a few things I had written about You Only Live Twice.
My top notes were:
- SPACE
- Screen play by Roald Dahl?!
- Little Nellie
- MONORAIL
- Friggin Ninjas
From it’s start in space, I knew this Bond film was going to be pretty epic and end up at at the top of my favourite Bond list.
Before the title sequence has rolled, we are thrown into the story with a US Space capsule mysteriously disappearing and World War 3 nearly erupting as the US blame their Russian enemies. We also find our lovable hero in Hong Kong on a romantic encounter with a Chinese women when he is mysteriously assassinated in front of our very eyes. This scene also included one of Pete’s favourite lines - “You give good duck, Mr Bond.”
What also surprised me at the beginning was seeing Roald Dahl’s name on screen. The only things I knew he had written were his children's books, but it was great to see his name associated with this film.
The film includes some epic fight scenes. I’m don’t want to give away more of the story, but after Bond is chased from the Osato Chemicals, we see the enemies car lifted off the road by a helicopter wielding a giant magnet. This was pretty cool!
But more excitingly we are introduced to “Little Nelly”. When the contraption is first mentioned, I had no idea what he was referring too. Later on, with the return of Q, we are introduced to one of my favourite Bond gadgets, which I think is even better than the jet pack in Thunderball; the gun laden mini helicopter. The fight scene involving this little baby and four gunships is brilliant.
One of things I like about this film is that it is quite different to the other films in terms of locations. We have been to tropical islands in Dr. No and around the US with Goldfinger, but it was interesting to see James explore a totally different culture. I love the rapport he builds with Tiger and especially his scenes with Aki. It’s so sad when tragedy strikes. :(
This film also sees the introduction of one of the biggest villains from SPECTRE, who has been mentioned several times before, but we have never seen. We actually don’t see him to till the very end of the film, but he is a brilliant villain. His headquarters are in a frigging volcano that includes a bloody monorail (I love a good monorail). The final fight scene of this film is brilliant in terms of scale and destruction!
There are too many awesome parts of this film to mention, but I this is definitely at the top of my list to watch again. It was a great film, with a good story. Welcome back, Mr Bond.
I gave it 8/10.
What did you think? Is this your favourite Bond? Let me know in the comments below.
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