A Few Words About A few words about...™ Moonraker -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Worth]

They're all available in 4K, without HDR. It looks to me like the films that were mastered in 4K originally - Dr. No through to Live and Let Die plus Moonraker - are from those existing masters, while everything else is from new 4K scans. I think Thunderball is also derived from a newer scan than the blu-ray.

But even the older titles display some noticeable differences between the blu-rays and the iTunes files. Live and Let Die, for example, looks much more natural and film-like on iTunes, without nearly as much grain-scrubbing as the blu. Dr. No is way too dark on iTunes, with seriously crushed blacks, and looks much better on disc. The others - from From Russia with Love through to Diamonds Are Forever - look pretty much the same on disc as they do on iTunes, with the streaming versions having the added advantage of no windowboxing. And of course, the upgraded titles look superior on iTunes.

 

[JoshZ]

They're all available in 4K, without HDR. It looks to me like the films that were mastered in 4K originally - Dr. No through to Live and Let Die plus Moonraker - are from those existing masters,

The Blu-ray for The Spy Who Loved Me was also from a 4k scan. (Unlike the others, however, the master was prepared by Fox rather than Lowry Digital.)

Thanks for the info. If 4k masters are available. one can hope that MGM will eventually get its act together and issue them on disc, either UHD or at least Blu-ray remasters.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Remember queuing round the block to watch Moonraker (and other great films of this period). This was before the multiplex when going to the cinema was a much bigger event than now. We (3) watched Mary Poppins Returns with about 6 other people last Thursday.

 

[brioni]

The restoration work in 2004 for the earlier films were all done in 4K so it could be used for DCP's as well as being scaled down to DVD UE's and subsequently the Blu's.

I'm taking a quick cursory look at the iTunes versions of From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. They have the newer MGM logo.

The framing of the 4K on Russia is identical to the Blu - that was always a tell tale on whether previous releases were new transfers. Whilst we now have 4 times the resolution, there is no additional detail there that I can make out. Skin pores and fabric details are there in the Blu as they are in the 4K. The skin tone on the clip i'm looking at has the reds dialled down slightly compared with the Blu. The Criterion which perhaps could be said is as closest to an approved transfer as there's ever been is more akin with the Blu.

I think we can safely say this is the same transfer, of what was a very pleasing filmic one in the first place.
Can I tell the difference between the 4K and 1080p, on a 55" TV? no not really! I'm fairly new to 4K though and this is the first classic i've looked at. I plan to install a 100+ inch projector screen in future so time and gear will tell more.

Much the same can be said for Goldfinger. Im not an expert in this sort of analysis though. Again the whole picture is slightly more towards green with about the same drop in red seen in Russia.
The Criterion has similar skin tones although the blues in the towels at the Fontainebleau are basically teal and noticeably different.

Again, we still have the fault in the remixed soundtrack where the sound of Bond closing the door and into the first bars of Goldfinger is absent.

We know bits and pieces of new work have been applied for the Bond 50 release and I thought there was yet another transfer done of Goldfinger, if there was it's not here yet and it would be appreciated if more restoration is done.

 

[Osato]

The restoration work in 2004 for the earlier films were all done in 4K so it could be used for DCP's as well as being scaled down to DVD UE's and subsequently the Blu's.

I'm taking a quick cursory look at the iTunes versions of From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. They have the newer MGM logo.

The framing of the 4K on Russia is identical to the Blu - that was always a tell tale on whether previous releases were new transfers. Whilst we now have 4 times the resolution, there is no additional detail there that I can make out. Skin pores and fabric details are there in the Blu as they are in the 4K. The skin tone on the clip i'm looking at has the reds dialled down slightly compared with the Blu. The Criterion which perhaps could be said is as closest to an approved transfer as there's ever been is more akin with the Blu.

I think we can safely say this is the same transfer, of what was a very pleasing filmic one in the first place.
Can I tell the difference between the 4K and 1080p, on a 55" TV? no not really! I'm fairly new to 4K though and this is the first classic i've looked at. I plan to install a 100+ inch projector screen in future so time and gear will tell more.

Much the same can be said for Goldfinger. Im not an expert in this sort of analysis though. Again the whole picture is slightly more towards green with about the same drop in red seen in Russia.
The Criterion has similar skin tones although the blues in the towels at the Fontainebleau are basically teal and noticeably different.

Again, we still have the fault in the remixed soundtrack where the sound of Bond closing the door and into the first bars of Goldfinger is absent.

We know bits and pieces of new work have been applied for the Bond 50 release and I thought there was yet another transfer done of Goldfinger, if there was it's not here yet and it would be appreciated if more restoration is done.

Thanks for the review with your thoughts. I appreciate it.

I believe golden gun and for your eyes only on should have new 4K masters.

Moonraker states it is 4K in the
Lowry credits. Spy and goldeneye had new mastering for blu ray. Not sure if both received new 4K scans.

13 months until Bond 25.

I hope there are some chances to see some of the older Bond films theatrically this year.

 

[Tino]

13 months until Bond 25.

We hope. Ya never know.

 

[commander richardson]

Remember queuing round the block to watch Moonraker (and other great films of this period). This was before the multiplex when going to the cinema was a much bigger event than now. We (3) watched Mary Poppins Returns with about 6 other people last Thursday.

When I interviewed John Barry in Paris during the music recording at Studio Davout he said he was going to try something different musically on this particular Bond film. You may notice that certain action scenes do not have music immediately on commencement but later on during the scene the music starts. This is what he meant but I guess most viewers would not notice.

 

[JoshZ]

Lowry credits. Spy and goldeneye had new mastering for blu ray. Not sure if both received new 4K scans.

GoldenEye was definitely not remastered for the Blu-ray. That movie's the worst disc of the bunch.

It does look different from the Lowry-scanned "Ultimate Edition" DVD, though. I believe MGM responded to complaints about the Lowry transfer being overly cropped on all 4 sides of the frame by digging up an even older master.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

GoldenEye was definitely not remastered for the Blu-ray. That movie's the worst disc of the bunch.

It does look different from the Lowry-scanned "Ultimate Edition" DVD, though. I believe MGM responded to complaints about the Lowry transfer being overly cropped on all 4 sides of the frame by digging up an even older master.

So the question becomes, is the 4k iTunes version different from the Blu-ray transfer and the UE DVD transfer? Did they finally get this one right in HD?

 

[Worth]

So the question becomes, is the 4k iTunes version different from the Blu-ray transfer and the UE DVD transfer? Did they finally get this one right in HD?

Yes and yes. Goldeneye and Octopussy are the most noticeable iTunes upgrades.

 

[Tino]

All the iTunes 4K transfers are superior to the Blu rays in every way in my opinion. Definite upgrades.

Especially when viewed on my 4K 65” LG OLED.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I ended up picking up the Connery bundle since I didn't have any digital copies of the film.

I sampled the opening sequences of each, from the gun barrel through the first scene after the main titles.

To me, they appeared to be utilizing the same scans that were used on the 2006 DVDs and subsequent Blu-rays. The difference was, these 4K versions were missing the alterations that made the DVDs and BDs problematic. Film grain has not been scrubbed away, yielding an image that looks more film-like than the disc versions. And significantly, the title sequences have not been squeezed.

The big question for me will be comparing how the Blu-rays look to these streaming versions, when viewed on a 100" 1080p projector. On the 4K TV, the stream was the clear winner, but that may not be the case on a larger display.

 

[brioni]

I took a 2nd look tonight at the Goldfinger pre-credit, my Panasonic is nothing special - non HDR LED, but did feel there was slightly more clarity in the picture and yes more film-like.
I do think Russia and Goldfinger were strong blu-rays, its a shame it was all very hit and miss because the poorer titles seemed to mar the very good work done elsewhere. The upgrade was huge in some cases and added detail was incredible like never seen before.

 

[Osato]

When I interviewed John Barry in Paris during the music recording at Studio Davout he said he was going to try something different musically on this particular Bond film. You may notice that certain action scenes do not have music immediately on commencement but later on during the scene the music starts. This is what he meant but I guess most viewers would not notice.

Where is the interview?

Wish you could’ve told him to be sure to have the tapes labeled better so that they were not “lost”.
I know the tapes are not “lost” but this is what was quoted a few years ago. Lost is easier to say then we didn’t look for them.

 

[Osato]

I ended up picking up the Connery bundle since I didn't have any digital copies of the film.

I sampled the opening sequences of each, from the gun barrel through the first scene after the main titles.

To me, they appeared to be utilizing the same scans that were used on the 2006 DVDs and subsequent Blu-rays. The difference was, these 4K versions were missing the alterations that made the DVDs and BDs problematic. Film grain has not been scrubbed away, yielding an image that looks more film-like than the disc versions. And significantly, the title sequences have not been squeezed.

The big question for me will be comparing how the Blu-rays look to these streaming versions, when viewed on a 100" 1080p projector. On the 4K TV, the stream was the clear winner, but that may not be the case on a larger display.

Was Diamonds Are Forever included? I love that film. Visited Las Vegas and some of the sites from it this spring. Including the gypsum plant!!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Was Diamonds Are Forever included? I love that film. Visited Las Vegas and some of the sites from it this spring. Including the gypsum plant!!

Yes, all six of the EON-produced Connery Bond films are included!

 

[Osato]

Yes and yes. Goldeneye and Octopussy are the most noticeable iTunes upgrades.

It’s almost not fun if there isn’t something to complain about the Goldeneye transfer. It’s become a pastime to not pick that transfer!!

How was Octopussy improved? Nice to hear that it’s at an all time high!!!

 

[brioni]

When I interviewed John Barry in Paris during the music recording at Studio Davout he said he was going to try something different musically on this particular Bond film. You may notice that certain action scenes do not have music immediately on commencement but later on during the scene the music starts. This is what he meant but I guess most viewers would not notice.

That’s one of the things I love about Barry. One of the best moments of this is during the tuk tuk chase in Octopussy when the blade goes into Bond and we get that killer John Barry sting. The level of impact goes up tenfold. Brilliant.

Although in an interview with Michael Schelle from his book ‘The Score’, he mentions how he spots the film and gives an earlier example:

Your High Road to China score embraces broad, soaring themes to accompany the soaring airplane and the sprawling scenery. But the airplane is so loud it drowns out your score. What kinds of problems need to be worked out in balancing sound effects and music in the final mix?

This is the big fight, always. The prime examples I can give actually refer to the James Bond movies. At the time we did Goldfinger, certain movies had exaggerated sound effects. But with Goldfinger, they really, really did it—with the hits and the screeching car sounds and the runaway trains and the fist fights—everything was just way over the top, very noisy. I was frustrated, so I asked if we could have the senior sound editor involved with the music score. For one car-chase scene, as an example, I suggested that the sound effects could be at high volume for the first part, but then we would find a given point where something changes in the action—another element of danger or an imminent escape—where the effects would then dis-solve into my music for the second part. The music would lift the emotions and the effects would be subliminal, except maybe for the last five seconds, where everything effects and music would crescendo to a fevered pitch. So, on a lot of the Bond movies, I would work side by side with the sound guys. And the formula worked very well. If you ask people why the Bond chase scenes worked, they don't really know. But I believe it's because of this careful blending of effects and music. When I get a movie nowadays, and we enter into that "action" area, I use the same approach: find out what the sounds are, and fade the music in and out of the effects. In the five-minute buffalo hunt in Dances With Wolves, for example, they initially had laid a very loud temp track over the entire scene, but I pushed for beginning it with only the sounds of the buffalo, which were such terrific sounds by themselves, without music. Let’s give the audience the feeling of what that must have been like if they were there — let’s give that to them first, and then I’ll come in when some element changes and the effects can fade into the background.

Trademark Barry.

When he wanted to do something new with Moonraker, its mentioned in Burlingames book that we was after a more symphonic sound and had aspirations of doing a double LP full of music. This is what he may have been getting at.

Obviously that didn’t materialise, perhaps he had ideas to also create album only tracks to pad this out like Hamlisch did?

He then infamously criticised Lewis Gilbert as we know he was less than impressed with the final mix.

 

[Rick Thompson]

Another reason why Moonraker is the weakest of the Bonds, with too much cartoonish comedy and a plot with no grounding in any reality. The only good thing about it is the villain's line to his henchman, "Look after Mister Bond. See that some harm comes to him."

 

[Tino]

It’s almost not fun if there isn’t something to complain about the Goldeneye transfer. It’s become a pastime to not pick that transfer!!

How was Octopussy improved? Nice to hear that it’s at an all time high!!!

I’m really surprised you haven’t bought the 4K versions on iTunes Osato. What’s holding you back? You’re obviously a huge Bond fan and they were just all on sale.

Waiting for UHD discs that may never show up is a gamble don’t you think?