What James Bond film needs to be released in the next boxed set? (1 Viewer)

[Walter Kittel]

Favorites by actor


Goldfinger

OHMSS

Live and Let Die

The Living Daylights

Goldeneye

Casino Royale


With the exception of Connery, the first effort from every other actor.


Another (sort of) Moonraker fan here. Not the best but certainly not the worst. Big fan of Ken Adam's set design on this film.


- Walter.

 

[Kevin EK]

Not to be immodest, but I was thankfully able to do a review of Moonraker as part of the third volume of Bond Blus a couple of years ago.

Like the UE DVD, the Blu is just loaded with extra content.


My favorite bit is probably the Roger Moore commentary - and my favorite moment remains when he says that working on a movie is like going on a cruise, where you see the same people for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next couple of months. His summation: "I was fortunate to get on the right ones."


In spite of its silliness, Moonraker is also loaded with some of the best villain one-liners in the whole series.


"Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him."

"James Bond. You appear with all the tediousness of an unloved season."

"Mr. Bond, you confound all my attempts to plan an amusing death for you."

"You missed, Mr. Bond." "Did I?"

 

[benbess]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK

Not to be immodest, but I was thankfully able to do a review of Moonraker as part of the third volume of Bond Blus a couple of years ago.

Like the UE DVD, the Blu is just loaded with extra content.


My favorite bit is probably the Roger Moore commentary - and my favorite moment remains when he says that working on a movie is like going on a cruise, where you see the same people for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next couple of months. His summation: "I was fortunate to get on the right ones."


In spite of its silliness, Moonraker is also loaded with some of the best villain one-liners in the whole series.


"Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him."

"James Bond. You appear with all the tediousness of an unloved season."

"Mr. Bond, you confound all my attempts to plan an amusing death for you."

"You missed, Mr. Bond." "Did I?"

Yes, those are good lines. Another fan--it's amazing. Can you post a link to your review--I'd like to read it.

 

[Worth]

I was ten years old when I saw Moonraker in the theatre, which is probably the perfect age to see it, so I've always had an affection for it. I can understand why many people dislike it, as it's more straight up comedy than spy thriller, but it does exactly what it sets out to do, which is more than can be said of some of the other Bonds.


It also has stunning design, great photography, an excellent score, terrific (for the time) special effects, and most importantly, it's a lot of fun, which is something that's sorely missing from the recent, grim outings.

 

[Osato]

Originally Posted by Worth

I was ten years old when I saw Moonraker in the theatre, which is probably the perfect age to see it, so I've always had an affection for it. I can understand why many people dislike it, as it's more straight up comedy than spy thriller, but it does exactly what it sets out to do, which is more than can be said of some of the other Bonds.


It also has stunning design, great photography, an excellent score, terrific (for the time) special effects, and most importantly, it's a lot of fun, which is something that's sorely missing from the recent, grim outings.

Agreed.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Originally Posted by benbess

Perhaps this has already been done, but...Vote for one bond from each of the Bond stars....


Here are mine:


Goldfinger

OHMSS

For Your Eyes Only

License to Kill

Goldeneye

Casino Royale

I'll play:


Goldfinger

OHMSS

The Spy Who Loved Me

The Living Daylights

Goldeneye

Casino Royale

 

[Matt Hough]

Originally Posted by Scott Merryfield





I'll play:


Goldfinger

OHMSS

The Spy Who Loved Me

The Living Daylights

Goldeneye

Casino Royale

Scott, those would all be my choices as well.

 

[Kevin EK]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/forum/thread/284863/htf-blu-ray-review-james-bond-volume-three-recommended


I do need to caution you that when this review was changed over from the old site format, it sandwiched everything together into a ginormous paragraph...


CORRECTION: I think it's legible now. Let me know if you have any problems with it.

 

[Osato]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK


I do need to caution you that when this review was changed over from the old site format, it sandwiched everything together into a ginormous paragraph...


CORRECTION: I think it's legible now. Let me know if you have any problems with it.

Thanks for the review Kevin. I thought Goldfinger and Moonraker looked and sounded amazing. I watched a few minutes of The World Is Not Enough when I first purchased it. It's not one of my favorites. I did read some other reviews that felt the transfer was just ok/good and the audio on this one was just ok. For the video other reviews echoed your comments about the contrast and black levels...


I do know that TWINE was a 2K scan transfer and Goldfinger and Moonraker are 4K scans.

I will give TWINE a spin today and see what I think.

 

[Kevin EK]

Tim, if I'm remembering correctly, one of the complaints had to do with the windowboxing of the main title sequence, which was done to make sure that the credits didn't go off the edge of the screen. Unfortunately, that also turns the central circle in the design into a squashed oval. I found a textless version of the title sequences in the 007 menu, which applies to all of the Bond Blus.


There was also a very slight framing issue with the end credits for Moonraker, where the last names of some of the crew disappear off the right edge of the screen...

 

[Osato]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK

Tim, if I'm remembering correctly, one of the complaints had to do with the windowboxing of the main title sequence, which was done to make sure that the credits didn't go off the edge of the screen. Unfortunately, that also turns the central circle in the design into a squashed oval. I found a textless version of the title sequences in the 007 menu, which applies to all of the Bond Blus.


There was also a very slight framing issue with the end credits for Moonraker, where the last names of some of the crew disappear off the right edge of the screen...

Gotcha. I wonder what happened with both films and sequences there?

I watched about half of The World Is Not Enough on blu ray, which is about all I could take. Anyway. I can see the contrast issue a bit in some scenes especially the darker ones which this film has a lot of. Overall though the color is very good, aside from the issue with blacks. I also felt that the film looks better than the DVD version. The transfer itself is just pretty grim, which is how I think Michael Apted wanted it to be though.

I thought the sound was very good too.

I wish I was more familiar with the film to comment further, but like I said it's not one of my favorites.

I wonder if in addition to the other 9 bond films and maybe the Quantum SE, if MGM and Fox will be addressing the previous issues with the UE DVD's and blu rays?

Overall I am very very pleased with the work Fox and MGM have done with Bond on blu ray.

 

[Nelson Au]

It feels like a never ending list of little problems to fix for each iteration of bond film releases keeps growing!


Color timing, framing, subtitles, etc. Too bad Thunderball also shrinks the main titles so they fit.

 

[Kevin EK]

What happened with the Main Titles sequences is that for at least the last two go-rounds with the UE sets and the Blus, a choice was made to make sure that no matter what TV set you used, you could see all of the text of the credits being displayed. To do this, they windowboxed these sequences, mushing in the right and left sides a little and compressing the center. The wider the frame, the more pronounced the mushing in. So the 2.35:1 Bond films reallly show the effect of this. Essentially, the movie plays normally until you get into the beginning of the title song and everything compresses. When the song is finished and the scene begins, say, at M's office, the first shot is still windowboxed, but as soon as you're out of that shot, things go back to normal.


To allow the fans to see an uncompressed, non-windowboxed version of the titles, the discs also include a textless, "pure" version of the song and title sequence. For this, you can see the full sequence in its proper ratio, but the downside is that there are no titles, since is the base for which they would normally add titles in various languages.


This issue affects all of the Bond films - but most particularly, it affects the ones starting with Thunderball.


The framing problem on the Moonraker end titles looks like a simple mistake to me.

 

[Osato]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK

What happened with the Main Titles sequences is that for at least the last two go-rounds with the UE sets and the Blus, a choice was made to make sure that no matter what TV set you used, you could see all of the text of the credits being displayed. To do this, they windowboxed these sequences, mushing in the right and left sides a little and compressing the center. The wider the frame, the more pronounced the mushing in. So the 2.35:1 Bond films reallly show the effect of this. Essentially, the movie plays normally until you get into the beginning of the title song and everything compresses. When the song is finished and the scene begins, say, at M's office, the first shot is still windowboxed, but as soon as you're out of that shot, things go back to normal.


To allow the fans to see an uncompressed, non-windowboxed version of the titles, the discs also include a textless, "pure" version of the song and title sequence. For this, you can see the full sequence in its proper ratio, but the downside is that there are no titles, since is the base for which they would normally add titles in various languages.


This issue affects all of the Bond films - but most particularly, it affects the ones starting with Thunderball.


The framing problem on the Moonraker end titles looks like a simple mistake to me.

Interesting. Thanks for the informative post about this Kevin!

 

[Osato]

Originally Posted by Nelson Au


Color timing, framing, subtitles, etc. Too bad Thunderball also shrinks the main titles so they fit.

: )

Yeah, it does start to add up. Overall I'm still very happy with the Bond films on blu ray.

It will be curious to see what MGM and Fox issue and address or fix in the future in terms of Bond on blu ray.

 

[Osato]

While not an official Bond film, Casino Royale 1967 is out now on blu ray at Best Buy stores. It's an exclusive blu ray title and only available in the US at Best Buy.

I have the film on DVD and have no plans on upgrading to blu ray. I've watched the film once and that's about all I could take.

However I know the film does have it's following!!!


Now hopefully MGM and Fox can let us know what the plan is for the other 9 James Bond films on blu ray?!?!?!


It would be really great to know what the plan is.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Thanks for the information regarding the 1967 version of Casino Royale. This has always been a guilty pleasure film for me and I was able to snag a copy at a local Best Buy during lunch. I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the MGM catalog titles of late, so I am hopeful that this release features a satisfying transfer. With any luck, I will know tonight.


- Walter.

 

[Osato]

Originally Posted by Walter Kittel

Thanks for the information regarding the 1967 version of Casino Royale. This has always been a guilty pleasure film for me and I was able to snag a copy at a local Best Buy during lunch. I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the MGM catalog titles of late, so I am hopeful that this release features a satisfying transfer. With any luck, I will know tonight.


- Walter.

Of course! Glad you were able to get it picked up! I should probably start a thread on it as I did not see one. I think many others would like to know and it was really under the radar the way they released it!

I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on the transfer and audio too!

 

[Kevin EK]

Of course, if we could get a copy of the original TV movie of Casino Royale with Barry Nelson, that would be something...

 

[Osato]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK

Of course, if we could get a copy of the original TV movie of Casino Royale with Barry Nelson, that would be something...

It's included on the first DVD issue of Casino Royale 67.