The first NINE have mono tracks with the exception of Thunderball which was remixed in 5.1 for the THX laserdisc and this is the transfer used on the SE DVD. They are currently remixing and remastering the early films into 5.1 for the next release.
Ernest Rister You didn't like "Die Another Day" with Rosemund Pike~Miranda Frost or Halle Berry~Jinx and the Aston Martin Vanquish AKA Vanish? What a cool movie 'no pun intended'. I even have James and Miranda with her bedroom 'eyes' as my picture memory on the CX475P Sony Progressive DVD changer. Turning the changer on to that scene, turns me on!
I am only missing "In Her Majestys Secret Service" I have in on Vhs, but I never watch it.
I rank A View to a Kill just above Die Another Day and License to Kill. Die Another Daydidn't work for me - I like the semi-remotely-even-wildly-plausible Bond films. The goofier they get, the more I'm bored. License to Kill is a flat-out low budget stinkbomb. It looks like it was made for TV. A View to a Kill has a good chase on the streets of San Fran (as if it is possible to stage a bad car chase in San Fran), but thoe whole thing is just tired. Die Another Day is so "out there", it makes Moonraker blush.
I'd rather they just put out the old DVDs in singles - that way I can get Thunderball, From Russa With Love, Goldeneye, and the World Is Not Enough. The Connery and Prosnan films were the only ones I could watch over and over again.
that took my breath away, Ernest. i still consider LTK one of the only truly well concieved, intelligent, and well crafted films in that series. in fact, after each new Brosnan film, it only goes up further in my view.
the biggest plus for me is not whether it 'looks' like a tv movie ( i don't really think it does any more that most of them), but that the protagonist concocts a plan that doesn't rely so much on outracing fireballs as it does in manipulating certain, relatively benign events, manipulating the antagonists perception of these events, and chipping away at the villians organization from within. that is the way i expect a 'secret agent' to operate.
i don't care if the film uses the same "threat" as the average episode of Miami Vice- it's how it uses these elements that is important to me.
Percebe, yes i believe the remasterd films will see issue as conventional dvds before any HD dvds become avail. they will get released when the next Bond film hits theaters, so figure about fall '05 or summer/fall '06.
HD dvd still won't be a factor in that time frame (and even if they were, how good will the first generation discs really be?)
Agreed. Along with On Her Majesty's Secret Service, it's one of the series' most underrated entries IMO. And I don't think it's a coincidence that the films star Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby, the two most maligned Bond actors.
It's got great action sequences, an effective villain, a believable plot, and a refreshingly dark tone with a moody, vengeful Bond that hadn't been seen since Sean Connery played the role. About the only thing the movie got wrong was the music. The late Michael Kamen did some great action film scores, but no one can compete with John Barry.
AND SHIRLEY BASSEYS THEMES ARE THE BEST, SHE SHOULD DO THE NEXT BOND FILM FOR OLD TIMES SAKE. THERE IS NO SET OF PIPES, THAT EQUAL HERS. I WISH SHE WOULD DO A NEW CD OF ALL OF THE BOND THEMES, THAT SHE DIDN'T DO. I would love to hear her VERSION OF "DIE ANOTHER DAY", MADONNA, PALES next to MS. BASSEY. SHE IS THE BOND DIVA OF ALL TIME !!!!!!!!! AN ICON. AND WHILE WE ARE AT IT, HAVE SEAN CONNERY DO THE NEXT BOND, HE IS THE ONLY BOND !!!!!!!!!!!!
I used to love the memory of License to Kill -- Even though I hadn't seen the film in over ten years, I was ranting and raving about the thing, just to make sure I received it as a Christmas present.
Wow, what ten years can do to a guy -- what I remembered as streamlined now just looked cheap. The entire opening "parachute wedding" sequence was like toothpicks under my gums. Here I am, working off ten year old memories, telling all my friends who hadn't seen it how the film was the most plausible and realistic of the Bond films, then here comes the opening, with Bond dropping out of a Coast Guard helicopter to place a noose around he tail of private plane. Oy. You guys think you give me hell when I put my foot in it, that's nothing like the grief I took over License to Kill.
Yet another example of how age-old memories can be way, way, way off. Still, the brilliant making-of documentary on the DVD - which details the huge budgetary mess the filmmakers were in before shooting - is worthy of the purchase of the disc all by itself. I also think Timothy Dalton was never given his proper due -- a solidly-funded film and an excellent script. License to Kill could have been something special, but it was cut off at the knees by the producers and a director who looked like he was sleepwalking.
The truck chase at the end is still amazing, however, even today.
I can see why people have great feelings toward it - so did I -- but then I watched it again for the first time in a decade and realized it was sort a stinker after all.
Great plot. poor execution. If only the Bond films would return to a plot as lean and mean as License to Kill, with a director and producer willing to invest such a story with energy and excitement. Tarantino is jumping up and down offering to direct a Bond film, and Brosnan has said he would return to work with Tarantino -- Tarantino wants to return Bond to his roots. After Die Another Day and an army needing a fleet of hovercraft to pass over landmines (as if hovercraft don't exert pressure on the ground) and a giant satellite death ray (Christ, again with the space-ray)...Bond needs to get real again, stat. I'm all for Tarantino doing Bond, but it will never happen. Such good ideas are always rejected by upper management. They make too much sense.