A Few Words About A few words about...™ Goldeneye -- in Blu-ray (2 Viewers)

[JoshZ]

Noted for review later today. Anything else?

I don't think the disc is unwatchable, but throughout, it looks like a very old, over-processed transfer. Textures are frequently smeary. Edge ringing is a recurring problem. Black levels are crushed. The movie needs a new scan.

 

[Osato]

With the less then positive review this blu-ray is getting, I jumped ahead last night after having seen On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which looked great, to Goldeneye to see what all the fuss was about.
I also like Goldeneye. I have the laserdisc and DTS laserdisc from back in the day, 1996 or so. I've seen this movie quite a few times and on the Ultimate Edition and earlier DVD releases. But recently, I've held off watching in anticipation of the blu ray. So I don't have a fresh memory of my last viewing.
If there was excessive DNR, I don't know where to look to see it. I'm watching on a 65" plasma rated the best plasma of 2011. It's reasonably calibrated and produces an excellenent image from the best blu-ray releases. So, like the Connery blu-rays I've already seen, Goldeneye to me is looking pretty good!
There are close-ups on Brosnan's face where I see lines and stubble. I always look at hair as a good indication. I can see a lot of hair texture and I can see the early few bits of gray hair showing on Brosnan. I've never seen Izabella Scorupco look so good. But perhaps her face was scrubbed from the DNR?
If this blu-ray was badly converted, it's technically outside of my knowledge to see it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
The only thing that bugged me during my viewing of this disc was a certain desaturation or some kind of darkness was happening. Like i was wearing sunglasses. The car chase scene with the Aston Martin and Ferrari looked a little like a nightnscene filmed in the day, but made to look like a night shot. But it also looked like an early morning scene. I was thinking maybe the image might look brighter during the Cuba scenes. But it was similarly filtered. I popped in the Ultimate Edition DVD and it looked the same. So it must be the same source. But it looked awful to me after seeing the blu ray! So perhaps this film always looked this way.
I agree it had a very weak film score by Serra. Should have convinced John Barry to come back.

Agreed. I watched a bit of Goldneye and didn't see anything glaring. I will give it a full look very soon.

 

[MishaLauenstein]

Finally got to Goldeneye in my Bluray viewing (derailed somewhat by a local theatre having a Bond Festival a few months ago.)

Forgot that there were so many problems with this disc, and therefore didn't notice them.

I had taped the Elizabeth Hurley special when it first aired (and realized that I have never watched it again).

Before sending the VHS off to its final resting place I decided to do a side-by-side comparison with the Bluray just in case something had been cut.

I was expecting the Coming Up sequences to be missing, so was pleasantly surprised that they are present.

The VHS ad was unexpected, however it is placed in a ad break than on the KCPQ broadcast that I have.

The closing credits appear to have been completely remade, and are an improvement on the original.

Unfortunately, there is one thing missing: the Simpsons footage has been completely excised, with Hurley's voice-over being repositioned over the Saturday Night Live footage as a result.

So, while the VHS is still being retired, I will have to keep the digital copy I made for my side-by-side comparison.

Also, to respond to an earlier post, my disk contains both the shorter and the extended versions of the gun barrel promo.

 

[Osato]

I'm not sure what Lowry did in 2005 but their process wasn't so perfect back then, see Star Wars as another example, i'd like to see all the Bond films re-visited, see them correctly colour timed and get rid of the contrast boosting, retain the film grain, do it right, i think these films on blu ray could look amazing, some people already think they look amazing, i don't, i hope five years from now i am writing on this very forum about how great the new Bond releases look in 4K or Ultra HD as the consumer electronics association have decided to call it, of course i'll just settle for a quality 1080p blu ray which hasn't had excessive digital manipulation.

Maybe in 2015 for 4k blu ray release and bond 24??

 

[andySu]

This is why I haven't touched these Bond films on bluray with barge pole. The Ultimate Bond on DVD looked dodgy. I prefer the earlier DVD editions I don't care for Bond Mono being dtsHDMA 5.1. I might buy some of Bond on Laserdisc least I know I won't be getting messed with around with this crap feast of DNR. The studios are bloody cheeky buggers.

They and most consumers think because its HD digital it has to look smooth and perfect like some cheap rated Q magazine. Its a milking thing and they can keep it, I don't care to own 4K projector if 100 of them fell off the back end of lorry, I wouldn't sell them on ebay for 50pence. Now if the studios handed jerked me as consumer around over and over again, I wouldn't be so snotty and cynical about it all. I would embrace it. but they've had their chance more than twice.

Their just shooting themselves in the foot and will soon lose the market as no one will ever trust them again.

I'll keep Godleneye on dts THX laserdisc I like the fast sound action instant playback when jogging back on cool sound scene, Tomorrow Never Dies on dts laserdisc is cool and the region 2 DVD early pressing as missing machine gun shot, when Bond and Bond-girl make an escape from Carver's office tower. And I'm I got no faith for the bluray might have the same missing sound effect knowing my luck.

Goldfinger looks dodgy with the smoothyDNR look not keen on the Dolby Digital 5.1, I'd sooner it be mono. Just play it back with a beefed up sub bass arrays and it would be great.

Octopussy is dodgy, Dolby 5.1 Its dreadful. I prefer the Dolby Stereo matrix,The re-mix doesn't sound like 70mm release to me it sounds too fake with split surrounds and I'm sure it wasn't released with stereo surrounds back in 1983.

The only one Bond no pictured is that Skyfall and the Dolby mix bored me. I didn't care for it in dtsHDMA 5.1 and its not been watched since it was released on bluray last year. I don't care for blonde, Bond.

I'd rather watch the Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.

Pinewood studios did a fun License To Kill (1989) with truck case towards the end and Bond, clinging on to the truck with Sanchez, shooting him with an Uzi, and all the bullet ricochets, ringing out the Bond theme. When you play mute each channel the tone of it all changes. When you play all the channels together it sounds the Bond them. Da-da-ta-da-ta-da. Da-da-ta-da-ta-da. Da-DAH Da-DAH.

 

[JohnMor]

Now if the studios handed jerked me as consumer around over and over again...

Um, did you maybe mean "hadn't jerked me" by any chance?

 

[Mark-P]

Andy, all the Bond Blu-rays contain original theatrical mixes (whether it be mono or Dolby Surround) alongside the 5.1 remixes, albeit the original soundtracks are not lossless.

 

[andySu]

Andy, all the Bond Blu-rays contain original theatrical mixes (whether it be mono or Dolby Surround) alongside the 5.1 remixes, albeit the original soundtracks are not lossless.

Mark, I might still have some off-air recorded in NICAM, umm, what Bond film? Think? Mmm, Octopussy recoded off ITV around 1992? That had a nice tonal Dolby film sound to it and even the little details of imperfections that is the stuff that gets me on an All Time High. I'd like to do a waterfall on that NICAM to VHS Hi-Fi vs laserdisc vs DVD vs bluray.

I need a VHS pro player as like the industrial look of the players if I was going to buy anther VHS deck. It also has the reel change over dots that depends on the pan and scan as the films where aired more like looking W/S with tiny narrow borders.

 

[Simon Massey]

Like the picture Andy - that Goldeneye laserdisc (and the Terminator 2 Special Edition) were my first discs and my first step beyond VHS into home cinema

 

[charlesgunn]

Andy, all the Bond Blu-rays contain original theatrical mixes (whether it be mono or Dolby Surround) alongside the 5.1 remixes, albeit the original soundtracks are not lossless.

Not true for the UK releases.
The only UK Blurays to contain the theatrical mixes are those that were new to Blu in the Bond 50 boxset.
None of the titles that had their own individual releases prior to the boxset contain the theatrical mix.
And those same titles were region locked for the US discs but region free for the UK.
I listen to the 5.1 mixes so I'm not sure offhand about Licence to Kill and Golden Gun as both these did get released in some European countries but not the UK

 

[atfree]

The Bond's are one series that I will always double-dip (or, by now, triple/quadruple dip. The Bond 50 set, with the noted comments about transfer quality, etc, was a steal at the $125 I paid in 2012 (less than $6 a film). It will be interesting to see if we get a "remastered" or 4k set in 2015 to correspond with Bond 24. If so, I will buying it.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Quadruple dip? I've stopped counting, but as long as there's me and there's James Bond being issued on home video, there will be money changing hands.

 

[atfree]

Quadruple dip? I've stopped counting, but as long as there's me and there's James Bond being issued on home video, there will be money changing hands.

Yep....I've owned every incarnation of the Bond series, encompassing VHS, multiple DVD editions, and now BD. Just tell when and how much and I'm in.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Yeah, I'm in that boat too...no lasers but I think each one at least once on VHS (some two or three times), at least twice on DVD, and now Blu-ray.. And if they redo the Blu-rays and fix the title sequences I'll buy them again. I'd also love to have the original mono tracks presented in a lossless format next time. Strangely, the Netflix HD streams I've seen didn't have the squeezed titles. I'm jealous that the stream is in some regards better than the disc.

 

[Osato]

The Bond's are one series that I will always double-dip (or, by now, triple/quadruple dip. The Bond 50 set, with the noted comments about transfer quality, etc, was a steal at the $125 I paid in 2012 (less than $6 a film). It will be interesting to see if we get a "remastered" or 4k set in 2015 to correspond with Bond 24. If so, I will buying it.

+1Same here.Bond on DVD was the reason I got a DVD player in 1998.I had them on VHS before that.

 

[Osato]

Yep....I've owned every incarnation of the Bond series, encompassing VHS, multiple DVD editions, and now BD. Just tell when and how much and I'm in.

Never mind the 4k upgrade for an uhdtv and possibly a new receiver to boot right??I'm with you. I'll pick them up when they are out. I'm curious if some of the films will be released with bond 24 next fall.

 

[atfree]

Never mind the 4k upgrade for an uhdtv and possibly a new receiver to boot right??I'm with you. I'll pick them up when they are out. I'm curious if some of the films will be released with bond 24 next fall.

No to the new equipment. Since 4k players, etc won't be out til December of 2015 (if they make their goal) and Bond 24 comes out in November 2015, I'd assume any remastered set would be BD. I'm not in for 4k....

 

[Matt Hough]

I owned the VHS tapes in regular and then widescreen. I only bought my favorite Bonds on laserdisc, but I did have them all on DVD in both Special and Ultimate Editions. And, of course, now all the Blu-rays. I said at the time I'd never buy them again, but I said that about The Wizard of Oz, and there I was buying it again in 3D (and loving every minute of it). So, I'll "never say never again" though I would be very surprised if I didn't do the same with any other reincarnations of them: only buy the ones I really like which would be about 10 of them.

 

[charlesgunn]

I started with Bond on my own home VHS recordings in 1981.
A couple of years later I bought them on the big box rental VHS releases.
Bought them again 10 years later on VHS when they were remastered for widescreen - although I didn't buy them all in widescreen
A couple of years after that I bought the Laserdiscs of all that were available including then new release Goldeneye.
In 1998 there were about 7 released in standard non special edtion dvd ( in the US only . No UK releases at that point beyond Brosnan)- bought those too before MGM announced their moratorium.

Then bought the SE dvd set.
Then bought the UE dvd set.

Then bought all the individual Bluray releases.
Then got the Bond 50 Blu set.

No more please.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I started with Bond on my own home VHS recordings in 1981.
A couple of years later I bought them on the big box rental VHS releases.
Bought them again 10 years later on VHS when they were remastered for widescreen - although I didn't buy them all in widescreen
A couple of years after that I bought the Laserdiscs of all that were available including then new release Goldeneye.
In 1998 there were about 7 released in standard non special edtion dvd ( in the US only . No UK releases at that point beyond Brosnan)- bought those too before MGM announced their moratorium.

Then bought the SE dvd set.
Then bought the UE dvd set.

Then bought all the individual Bluray releases.
Then got the Bond 50 Blu set.

No more please.

You'll surely take a much improved transfer of Goldeneye if they offer it.