The James Bond DVDs again? - Page 9

Well, it's never stated why Bond is obsessed with finding Blofeld at the beginning of DAF. And if it is in fact due to what happened to Tracy, then why is she never mentioned in the entire film? And why is Bond smiling when he discovers that Blofeld is alive halfway through the movie?

the difference between the instances you cite and the same point(s) in DAF- in DAF Bond is specifically coming at Blofeld with lethal malice. he kills his double right in front of him. he wants to execute him. blofeld reaction to this is unrealistic. he acts that way to fulfill a story convention rather than truly reacting in a way i would find believable.
its not so much the 'what' that happans that bothers me- its the 'how' we get there i find too unrealistic/unconvincing.

in a film like Moonraker (or even YOLT for that matter) the film right from the start establishes a tone and a sensability and maintains that for the most part (whether you enjoy it or not). DAF starts out logical, plausible and tough and eventually turns silly and overly contrived
jmo

Am I the only one who finds it hillarious that "Moonraker" is the film that is kept being brought up in defense of DAF? Surly this speaks of the quality of both film!

I loved Moonraker when I was 12, but having watched it about 3 months ago, I can't say I like it any more. It was just a cheap, terrible film, period.

I love the current discussion, and the passion that the people partaking in it have! Love this forum! Being more of a secondary Bond fan, this is a geat and facinating dialog bringing much more info than I would of thought DAF deserves.

just so its clear, i'm not arguing the merits/demerits of these films according to some empirical standard. i'm just trying to quantify why i still enjoy one vs another.

and taste changes.
14 yrs ago, i rented out DAF and Thunderball on LD so i could watch them in widescreen. i was excited as hell, but i only really enjoyed DAF (which i loved).
i hated Thunderball, found it turgid and wildly overrated.
10 yrs later i saw both again and was fascinated by Thunderball and turned off by DAF.

and i may feel differently again by the time i see these in HD.




but i'll always love Moonraker

And rightly so. Leaving aside the events of OHMSS (which may or may not precede DAF). Blofeld is exposed as the head of a crime syndicate that has ordered the death of many people of Bond's close acquaintance, in addition to threatening the deaths of untold millions. Bond already has more than sufficient cause to want Blofeld dead, even if he must do it without expressed authorization from M.


He does keep Bond at gunpoint until Bond is in the elevator. He then has Wint and Kidd do the deed for him because he evidently wants Bond to have a drowning death buried in a pipe. He still plans for Bond to be dead, but like most arrogant Bond villains, he fails to anticipate Bond's capacity for survival.


Moonraker was made at time when we thought we were living at the beginnings of the Space Age. Anything seemed within the realm of possibility in the very near future. It was an exciting time for movies and television, and writers and producers indulged their imaginations most freely. In the years that followed, society pulled away from space and we weren't in the Space Age anymore, nor even close to it. The "premature" Space Age ethos of the 1970s was no longer fashionable (and isn't now), and just about everything from the 1970s positing a near-future expansion of man into space fell from favor and now is regarded in our popular cuture mindest as being poor and misconceived, even labelled as cheesy despite millions of dollars and hours and hours of effort invested.

I will freely admit to some things in Moonraker being cringeworthingly goofy (Jaws' antics and his pairing with Dolly, for instance). But the space station was a marvel of imagination and design. Drax was an erudite, cultured, quite insane villain, a perfect foil for Moore's Bond. We got a very slick, very realistic technical set-up, with all of the traditional extravagant Bond elements mixed in and pushed into overdrive. I loved the '70s and how exciting it was back then, and Moonraker captures the spirit of the time perfectly. Don't watch it from the point of view that the Space Age was a false start. Watch it with the sensibility of the time, and it is a fun and imaginative film.

Licence to Kill was corrected. The bad sound editing on the 5.1 remix near the end of the film was fixed, with the lines now maching when the actor's move their mouths.

However, OHMSS has not been changed since its initial DVD release. It still remains a mix of the shorter cut common on old VHS tapes, and the long cut found on the laserdisc. It appears that they used the best reels they could find, and some leements were taken from the short cut, some from the long.

-Lyle J.P.

I stopped defending it in the last viewing when the Pigeon did the double take. By the time the Space shuttles started shooting lazer beams (poorly matted lazer beams, by the generations standards.) I couldn't believe what I was watching.

I remember taking alot of flack about this through the years (I first saw this when it debuted on VHS in the 80's) and this latest viewing totally justified it. Too me, it is a cheap cash in attempt to get in on the Star Wars films with a series that had pretty much justified itself. I'm always amazed at talk to re-invent the Bond movies and character for the audience. The character is fine, just think up a decent story and put Bond in it, people well go see it.

Of course, I'll be buying Moonraker when these comes out, as these Ultimate editions look like the perfect way to add Bond to my collection. I'm too much of a completist when it comes to series, and I have had a hankering to watch all the Bonds in chronological order that this set well scratch.

Shoot Him!
the man is lethal- has escaped from innumerable death traps before and has just breeched your sanctum, discovered your identity and exercised lethal force-
shoot him!

its painfully contrived to go to the length of putting him in the elevator, gassing him, putting him into the trunk, driving him twenty miles out of the way and then putting him into a pipe alive.
what is the f#%*ing point? so that it will look like an accident when he's discovered?
it just doesn't wash that he gets out of that face to face alive.
and then to compound it, he is dispatched into the arms of W&K
Wint and Kidd are portrayed (up till then) as being ruthless and efficent.
what they do there is wholly out of character.

Well, Moonraker was really brought about hastily in response to the Star Wars phenomenon. I agree the movie can be painful to watch but I do enjoy the beginning when he's pushed out of the plane. It was the main inspiration for me to do sky diving.

DAF is fun to watch, but still a weak link in the series. OHMSS was done so well and close to the book I wish they had done that for the rest of the movies. Thunderball was somewhat close as was From Russia with Love (spectre for SMERSH). YOLT was a travesty to the Bond story since the book was about his revenge on Blofeld for what he did to Tracy, not DAF. The movie was completely different (with the exception of the locale... Japan, where in the book he stangles Blofeld and loses his memory shortly thereafter.)

My feelings on the Bond films are indeed influenced by the books and how the character was written. For that reason, I don't care too much for the Moore films as I felt he was still playing Bond as Simon Templar. My favorites from him are Live and Let Die and For Your Eyes Only, as they were the least campy of the Moore films.

For me, The Living Daylights is highly underrated. Dalton played Bond perfectly, as his character was close to the books. I also enjoyed the expanded adaptation of the short story on which the movie was based. For that reason it's in my top five.

That all being said, Connery for me, will always be Bond. Even as tired as his performance was in DAF, his presence made the movie fun, nonetheless.

Off topic-
just watched the movie Spy Who Came In From The Cold last night for the first time. Great Film! Great Spy Film.
great contrast (and antidote) to the Bond movies.
Burtons last monologue on what a spy is really packs a punch.

i rented it, but afterward was disappointed i hadn't purchased it (like i originally intended to). i will at some point now.

Funnily enough, Kevin McClory was going to make Thunderball with Richard Burton as Bond, before Saltzman and Broccoli struck a deal with him to co-produce the film.

Perhaps to make Bond look incompetent, to discredit him in addition to killing him.

No offense guys, but could you discuss this stuff somewhere else and leave this as the thread it was: info about the upcoming DVD releases.

Agreed. I find it annoying sifting thru the last 3 pages for new DVD news, only to find pointless arguments over which Bond films are good or bad. For the record, what is the latest word on the DVD re-releases? What's the current rumored release date for these? Early 2006? Late 2006? I'm tired of waiting...

I believe the most likely date is going to coincide with the eventual new movie release (late 2006).

The next Bond movie and the Bond DVD re-issues should ideally come out in 2007.

Sony is indeed missing a big marketing opportunity by not releasing a 007 film in 2007, but it's hard to rationalize a year-long delay on a multi-million dollar property because they want to highlight the last three digits in a year. It would be cool if it would have worked out that way but it's just not realistic to expect them to schedule the movie around it.

It would, however, be an ideal time to re-launch the set of movies on DVD. Imagine a year-long promotion.

I will not re-purchase a Bond film until after the HD Format Wars.

I still feel bad that I have the original Moonraker disc which has one layer devoted to widescreen and one to fullscreen, but I could not bring myself to buy the special edition. I would like to have Thunderball, but now I might as well wait it out for a giant HD set. I have it in my Netflix queue. I remember it as being the best of the oldies, but I still doubt it will be one I must watch repeatedly, but worth having in the ultimate collection. I should bring myself to watch From Russia With Love again too since it's raved about, but I was bored stiff as a kid. To Netflix I go.

First just a general point as I've read so many complaints about continuity errors in the Bond films. I think it is better to just accept them as being part of the Bond experience rather than nit-picking them.

However, I see your point. They would have been better off saying 'transporting' or 'possessing' the diamonds than saying touching. If you noticed the old woman made a point of opening the hollow book and decidedly not touching the diamonds ... so if they are going to make a point of how she doesn't touch the diamonds, her outcome doesn't fit.

and so it goes.

It does seem odd that a company would go to the expense of preparing a shedload of extras, then go to the extra expense of having them all classified at the BBFC (at considerable cost), only to sit on them for a year or two, but I agree with the above posts, I doubt we'll see much in the way of any new release until mid-to-late 2006 at the earliest. Certainly, this year is already overflowing with headline-grabbing titles such as the Batman re-rleases, and the last Star Wars film, not to mention all the big Summer movies that will no doubt make it to the shelves before the new year.

I'm still just very happy we're getting an uncut Licence to Kill at last - that's more than I thought we'd get.

Anyone any idea whats happening with the audio on the rest of the films?

They their soundtracks probably good denough already

Blimey, so much vitriol levelled at You Only Live Twice and Moonraker, two of my fave Bond films! I've always loved the scale of YOLT ( Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) "This is the big one, 007", as M puts it early on), and the music and settings are wonderful too, while Moonraker is the first Bond film I remember going to see at the cinema so it will always have a special place in the list of Bonds.

As someone else earlier said, I can find something enjoyable in all the Bond films.

Back on topic, it does seem odd to clear things so early at the BBFC then wait before releasing them, but there are always budget reasons for doing something so one has to assume that if the budget is there now to clear them then it makes sense to do so.

Based on various sites, I believe all the Bond films will be restored and 5.1 now (Mono, Stereo versions upgraded).

Here's that link again:

: )

http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/articl...ons.php3?t=&s=

Again. New video transfers for all the films!

5.1 audio for Dr. No - Golden Gun.

Looking forward to it. There are some other story links on the page above. Check them out for some great info on these discs.

I wonder if they will go to releasing them in 4 waves versus 3?

I know there exists a deleted scene or two from Moonraker. Specifically a scene with Drax in the set below the Moonraker shuttle. The set is later seen when Bond and Holly are captured, etc.

A View To A Kill I believe has a scene with protestors at the Zorin oil rig.

Not sure there are any that are significant that they need to be in the film, but for DVD extras they would be of interest I think. Especially with comment or introduction about them and the reasons for being cut.

Is anyone aware of other scenes?

Also, I know there was books written from the film screenplays for some of the Bond films. Do these books contain some of the extras scenes not included in the films?

Thanks for posting!

Sounds like Sir Roger Moore will be recording audio commentaries in September for his 7 films!!!

http://commanderbond.net/Public/Stories/2879-1.shtml

In addition a really great article about Lowry Digital (who is mastering the picture for the new Bond discs). There's some great info in here on the new dvd's that are coming in 2006!

http://www.mi6.co.uk/news/index.php?itemid=2671

I received an email update from the official Roger Moore website about the new commentaries for the dvd's. It was dated 9-17-05:

Subject: Today Sir Roger is recording the first of seven commentaries of Bond


Today Sir Roger is recording the first of seven commentaries for the
new release of his Bond films next year.

He's recording them in Monaco with a crew from the USA and is starting
with A VIEW TO A KILL.

The other titles will be recorded over the next three days.

Is he doing them solo or will he have company?

Like, maybe, Christopher Walken? Man, that would be cool...