Celebrating 50 Years of James Bond on Blu-ray - Page 23

And Jane Seymour...

and sheriff JW Pepper!

I used to love The Spy Who Loved Me- came out the year of Star Wars, if memory serves- and I saw it multiple times, but when I saw it recently on the On Demand service of Comcast, I was shocked at how slow it seemed. I guess I ought to see all the Moore Bonds again and revise my ratings. The other two I liked were Live and Let Die and Octopussy.

If opinions here are any indication, there will never ever be a consensus on which films are the best. It seems to hinge on the ones you first saw when you were a teenager.

I always think of Licence to Kill as the Bond with the A-Team villains in it. I preferred The Living Daylights. Nice photography in that one, and no Bond movie with a John Barry score can be all bad.

LALD is not the best Bond movie, but is certainly my favorite Moore portrayal. The excellent theme song is also fabulously crafted into its score. And Kotto's not the best baddie, but he is significant (in Bond universe) as the first Black super-villain. Then there's the great half-hour boat/car chase I've previously mentioned.

Moore's Bond usually went overboard with the "cheese", but this particular movie is just plain fun!

Ughhhhh...


Deputy: "J.W., this fellow's from England, see, and he's over here workin' with our government, sort of a... secret agent."
Pepper: "Secret agent? On who's side?"

Casino Royale's ending was rather downbeat, unless you are considering it a single movie combined with QoS.

Yes, quite. I could do little but steel myself whenever he was on screen. Live And Let Die went on far too long owing to his scenes in that boat chase. Otherwise, it wasn't a bad film. Although I must confess I found the boat chase rather dull even besides JW Pepper.

I picked up several of the new Bonds seperately (and still plan to acquire a couple more). In terms of video quality, every film is a rather unique animal, with it's own strengths and weaknesses. Here's my take on some of them...

 

DR. NO (1962)

Amazing transfer considering when this was made. Very nice contrast, detail and color depth. (The color/contrast in this reminds me a bit of Lewis's The Nutty Professor on DVD, which was made around the same time). Some occasional clipping in the highlights. Vivid colors (esp. reds). There's a slight amount of edginess, but otherwise this is a pretty stellar looking catalog transfer. Very nice watch on my 34" CRT.

 

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967)

I was also fairly impressed with this film... considering its age. But the image isn't as good as Dr. No. Color is more muted and monochromatic. Heavy on browns (but nice browns imo). Not much differentiation in skin tones, which all look like different shades of brown. Good detail and contrast, but there is a subtle edginess and haloing visible on some high contrast edges (around Bond's dark jacket in the scenes with Moneypenny near the beginning, for example). Grain looks somewhat toned down, but is still visible, and there appears to be some subtle color filtration to bring out a bit more teal and red.

 

LIVE AND LET DIE (1973)

Image is generally on the contrasty side, though black levels appear somewhat elevated, and reds/facial tones often appear oversaturated giving the color a somewhat muddy appearance overall. There's not much ringing visible, but some occasional clipping, and most of the grain appears to have been removed. (A little more "grit" would've been nice considering the subject matter.) Some scenes look better graded than others. Interiors (esp. scenes in the cave near the end) generally look a bit better than exteriors.

 

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974)

This is the most problematic Bond transfer I've seen so far. Contrast is generally ok, but detail is poor (DNR and grain removal), and color is weak and unnatural looking. The color lacks depth and definition, and there is a kind of green-blue "haze" to much of the film. It almost looks like they forgot to color grade this one. Also noticeable ringing/EE. Still a pretty good movie though, in spite of the rather weak PQ.

 

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977)

Good detail on this, but the image is pretty contrasty (painfully so at times imo), and there is fairly obvious teal and red filtering on the image. Shadows get pretty dark and sometimes look a bit crushed, and faces and highlights often look rather washed out. If you're using 2.2 display gamma, bumping that up to 2.4 (the current standard) or 2.5 might help to tone down some of the highlights, but will crush more of the shadow detail. There is little or no EE visible though, and no obvious clipping, and some nice touches of color here and there. Triple X and Naomi both look stunning in their low-cut attire.

MOONRAKER (1979)

This is a little video-ish for my taste. Highlights are often clipped (clouds, and Bond's white helmet in the hang-glider closeups, for example). There's very little grain visible in the image (like it's been removed) and some noticeable edginess, esp. in darker scenes. Night scenes look a bit muddy and murky. Color and contrast are pretty good in most other scenes though. And detail is fairly decent overall.

 

LICENCE TO KILL (1989)

Pretty good natural-looking color, contrast and detail on this. There is some high-frequency EE though, which becomes especially noticeable in scenes with alot of high contrast details, esp. the temple and rocky landscapes near the end.

 

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (1999)

This is the darkest Bond transfer I've seen so far. The image exhibits pretty nice color, contrast and detail though. There is some subtle EE/ringing visible at times on high contrast edges. Very nice watch though on my CRT.

Edited by ADU - 11/8/12 at 9:24pm

My waiting
Just paid off.
$129 shipped from Amazon.
Sweet.

Moore was "my" Bond growing up too. It's only through the release of the Blu-Rays that I finally delved into the Connery Bond cannon and now I'm a Connery-Is-Bond fan as well. Moving to Roger Moore, who seems physically so ineffetual and
seems mostly concerned with Austin-Power-like innuendo and eye-brow raises, is a bit painful now.

That said, I really, really was waiting for The Spy Who Loved Me to get to Blu Ray, as it was my first and favorite Bond growing up (who didn't have a crush on Barbara Bach?). I finally watched it with my kids and was mildly disappointed. It is often heldup as the best Moore Bond, combining big sets, locations, action, bond girls, and a Bond with at least some gravity in parts. However, perhaps it's growing up or just the influence of modern films, but the whole approach of the movie was still barely a notch
above an Austin Powers flick in terms of sophistication and tone. The dialogue, plot and acting are generally so incredibly shallow and simple-minded I started to feel like I was trapped somewhat watching a kid's movie. (Though I nonetheless enjoyed many moments, and my son liked it too, Jaws in particular). I've always loved the theme song as well.

To my shock, I think I actually enjoy the much derided Moonraker more! This is because I found The Spy Who Loved Me to ultimately be not much more sophisticated or able to be taken seriously, and if we are having fun...hey...why not go Moonraker, which is really big budget fun. In fact, there are some great moments in Moonraker: the opening sky-dive fight remains awesome, way more exciting than the cheesy ski-chase in Spy Who Loved Me. There is the great scene during Carnival in Rio, really beautifully done with Jaws approaching in his carnival costume. There are the cool outer space scenes (I liked them better than the underwater scenes in SWLM).

I much preferred Hugo Lonsdale's perfectly droll delivery as a villain over the chuffing, raving quality of the Karl Stromberg villain in SWLM.


And finally there is the FANTASTIC John Barry score for Moonraker. It's one of his most beautiful, haunting and evocative scores. I've been listening to it on CD for years and it adds so much to the movie, vs the particularly cheesy stuck-in-the-70's-discoized score of the SWLM. (And it's not like I don't like 70's music, I'm a huge fan of 70's music, soundtracks and otherwise. It's just that this was a particularly poor soundtrack that doesn't move from cheese-to-enjoyable).

Anyway...my 2 cents.

By that time Moore was having his way with the films, Live and Let Die was the only good Bond flick he was in, in spite of him and the lead actress, cause he was not messing with it.

The thing that kind of spoiled TSWLM for me, watching it a few years later on Blu, was the completely out of place, disco-ized score by Marvin Hamlisch. If it had been up to John Barry's better, more epic scores, it might have helped the film out.

I also always liked Jaws as a henchman. Henchmen in Bond movies are supposed to be a bit, um, unique. That's one thing these more modern versions, Daniel Craig's in particular, have forgotten.

In some respects I too think Moonraker is now better than TSWLM. Though, Barbara Bach was indeed crush-worthy as Agent XXX.

Blu Ray Bond 50: Complete Film Collection

Question regarding : Bond 50: The Complete 22 Film Collection

Not sure how I missed that release, but I did. I have 9 of the Bond in DVD I have been waiting to get changed out for Blu Ray.

Do you guys recommend getting Bond 50 Collection?

I already have all of the Bonds on Blu Ray except the 9 DVD that never came out on Blu Ray. Are there any differences on the Blu Ray versions I already have?

No, the discs for the movies that were released previously are effectively double-dips. That said, the big question is probably how much it would cost you to pick up the nine individual releases versus buying the set--it has been on sale for some fairly decent prices as of late, as has the UK version (there's one disc in the UK set that would be a problem for US BD players, IIRC, but that's probably a question for the original Bond 50 thread).

i've seen almost all of the Bond blu-rays at this point, and by far the most impressive transfer for me was FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. It's gorgeous, filmlike, highly detailed, and it "fills up my screen"

Dr. No looks better to me, as FRWL is just a teeny tiny bit more processed.

I agree Dr No is quite incredible as far as I'm concerned.

Art

In the FRWL 'love' scene Connery's face looks like wax.

Almost all of the Bond BDs are $7 in my area, pretty sure it's cheaper to buy individually.
Edited by wuther - 1/3/13 at 5:30pm

Anyone have any info about two different catalog numbers for the Bond 50 box set?

The product received from Amazon is Cat. #M129272BC. The UPC is printed on the box packaging as normal.
I saw one from Best Buy with Cat. # M126627. There was a UPC sticker applied on top of the shrinkwrap, apparently covering a UPC printed on the box packaging.
The rest of the packaging looks identical.

Strange, isn't it?

Strange, but true. I purchased a Bond 50 set from Best Buy back in December but never opened it. Subsequently, I got the $99 deal from Amazon. Before I returned one to Best Buy, I noticed that the one I purchased at Best Buy had a UPC on a sticker covering the standard UPC spot. The UPC on that sticker was different than the UPC on the one from Amazon.

As I said, I never opened the one from Best Buy but I'm 99.9% certain that the ONLY difference was that UPC sticker. I suspect Best Buy puts them on there so people cant remove the shrink wrap, view or copy the movies, and then put fresh shrink wrap on the package before returning it. The UPC sticker would get lost in the process and Best Buy would probably refuse to accept the return.

Mark

I was able to pre-order Octopussy from amazon today for $10. I went to Walmart a few weeks back but could only find their Sean Connery exclusive. I also remembered that I hat going into Walmart. Only need GoldenEye now.

I missed out on the Black Friday Deals for the Bond 50 Blu Ray set, I am really glad it's back on sale for the Skyfall release (Which I already ordered from Amazon). I just have to wait until Wed when I get paid to buy the full set from Amazon. And luckily for me I only have 1 Bond movie on Blu-Ray, Quantum of Solace, 13 others on DVD. So that whole lot will be going on Ebay. And what's even better is that I bought a new TV this past week; LG 60" - LG 60LM7200, and I can't wait to watch all 22 Bond movies for the first time (for me) on Blu-Ray including 8 I've never seen at all.

So this was my Valentine's Day present along with Skyfall. I think she's a keeper!

I waited to say much until I was able to watch the set, but that day has finally arrived! I watched all 50 some odd hours of Bond in less then a month! I did not watch any of the bonus material, but that stuff generally does not interest me.. although with this set, I do plan to go back through and do that as well.

I am in my mid twenties and have only seen a handful of Bond films, mostly the popular ones played on regular tv, so this was my first time watching most of the films and was awesome to watch them all in order over such a short period of time and to now have them all on blu ray. Here are my thoughts-

CONS-

WHY DOES QUANTUM OF SOLACE HAVE A DIFFERENT MENU THEN THE REST!!?!?!? Grr. Also, if they are going to leave a space open for the Skyfall disc, WHAT GIVE IT DIFFERENT COVER ART!?!?!. Those two things really bother me.

The first few films were almost hard to watch. It was difficult to remember these were done in the 60's, but with that in mind- they were pretty fricken cool. GPS/TV in a car!? Nowadays it's so common, but was neat to watch this knowing that was unheard of at the time.

I wish I would have taken notes on each film as I watched them, so without being too specific- I felt a few of the movies could have been better remastered for blu ray and that they could have tied them together better in some instances.. I remember on at least two occasions watching one film being impressed with the improvement over the last only to watch the next feeling they took a step backwards. Was that from the get-go or was it just some laziness when transferring to blu ray? I'll probably never know.

PROS-

Overall extremely satisfied. My favorite film was Die Another Day. I just felt like they tied in a lot of past references and really included everything. I don't know exactly what it was, but I really loved that movie.

ALL (or mostly all anyway) films in ONE place with blu-ray quality. This will be in my will.

Although Skyfall was a seperate purchase, there was a space for the disc in the set, so will touch on it- AWESOME film. Without giving away spoliers, loved how it included past references. Loved how it kept with the Bond theme of fast cars, gun fights, and pretty women... BUT finally really revealed a lot more about the characters. There were also enough characters replaced/added with young actors, leaving a lot of future potential... I am worried about this Bond's age, but excited for future films.

Not sure how to say it, but just fricken sweet and Skyfall was an excellent movie to complete this set. Other then a few quirks, this set kicks butt. I typically store by blu-rays behind cabinet doors and think that displaying them is tacky... but not this one. This box set has earned a permanent place on my tv stand for all to see.

The enthusiasm is appreciated, but you may wish to revisit that opinion in a few years.

I just did a quick google search and found this ranking:
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/the-best-and-worst-james-bond-movies-a-ranked-list

Apparently it is rated the worst Bond film according to them.. grr

I don't know. I liked how he used a lot of gadgets from past films. I liked the invisible car. I really liked the plot starting in North Korea. I thought it was one of the few films that really took a couple unpredictable paths. I also liked that he had to defy MI6 for arguably personal vengeance. The diamonds, the gadgets.. Idk.... Or maybe it was just Halle Berry?

Either way, will certainly revisit my opinion in the future.

It's often voted the worst Bond film by a majority of fans.

The problem with the film is that it starts off promisingly and then quickly devolves into stupidity. It has too many just plain dumb things in it, like the invisible car and that atrocious parasailing scene. And the plot doesn't make a damn bit of sense. Bond's in prison for a year, and in that time the Korean baddie gets radical plastic surgery, becomes a famous a billionaire, builds a huge multi-national corporation, and is knighted by the Queen of England? Wha...???

Let's not forget the henchman with diamonds stuck in his face, who needs to have experimental DNA therapy that will somehow magically make them fall out, rather than... you know... just picking them out with tweezers.

Also, Madonna's in it. So there's that.