MGM Press Release: BOND 50 (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Persianimmortal]

Count me as someone who likes Quantum of Solace - in fact moreso than Skyfall, which I personally think was a very shallow, cliched movie, and which will be the Craig Bond movie that will not wear well at all in times to come.

That's not to say I loved QoS when I first saw it. The first time I watched it, upon its release, I felt it was mediocre at best. But watching it at home on BD a while later, as a double feature with Casino Royale, I really appreciate the more mature focus of the movie, and consider it a fitting end to the story arc started in Casino Royale.

 

[FoxyMulder]

I watched Skyfall earlier in the week, i really enjoyed the banter between Bond and Moneypenny and enjoyed the pre-credits sequence leading all the way through the Adele song, i thought the first half was really good, i thought it had a reasonable final act too, i felt like many Bond films it could have done with some trimming, cut some of the fat out and reduce the running time for a leaner movie.

I didn't care for the bad guy, Javier Bardem is a good actor but his blond hair was distracting me and i felt they needed to have a really good final fight scene between Bond and Silva and we didn't get it, i'll probably enjoy it more on a second viewing.

I think Casino Royale is Daniel Craig's best Bond so far, unlike many i did enjoy Quantum Of Solace, great sound mix, when the theme tune played my subwoofer kicked in hard and it rocked the room, best bass in a Bond theme tune ever even if it's not the best song in a Bond film although i liked it.

I would like to see a tougher, rougher R rated cut of Quantum Of Solace, i also hope they keep the gadgets out of the next Bond film and don't go too far with the silly one liners, i think this Bond does not need gadgets and one liners, they were creeping in a little in Skyfall.

As for the Bond movies on blu ray, it doesn't matter if they scanned some in 4K, they ruined On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice and some of the other ones by contrast boosting them, removing detail in the process, changing colours, i would go so far as to say they contrast boosted to give the illusion of more detail, they look like really mediocre 4K scans or more likely the grain removal took the detail out after the scans and that's why i think they got the contrast boosted treatment, i'm holding out for new improved scans further down the line. Goldeneye is the worst looking of the releases, really bad one that.

 

[DVDvision]

GE on Blu is the old original DVD master. Not remastered from scratch. I say the way the Bond are handled is as bad as the Hammers, mostly misses, a couple of hits.

 

[Osato]

Count me as someone who likes Quantum of Solace - in fact moreso than Skyfall, which I personally think was a very shallow, cliched movie, and which will be the Craig Bond movie that will not wear well at all in times to come.

That's not to say I loved QoS when I first saw it. The first time I watched it, upon its release, I felt it was mediocre at best. But watching it at home on BD a while later, as a double feature with Casino Royale, I really appreciate the more mature focus of the movie, and consider it a fitting end to the story arc started in Casino Royale.

I actually tend to like Quantum a bit more than Casino Royale. Mostly the pacing of the film which is much tighter than Casino Royale. I agree it does a good job of tying up Casino Royale too. Hopefully the SE of Quantum is issued eventually.

I liked Skyfall a great deal too. It was much more straight forward than Quantum. Which maybe is a reason why the public liked it much more than Quantum?

 

[Persianimmortal]

I actually tend to like Quantum a bit more than Casino Royale. Mostly the pacing of the film which is much tighter than Casino Royale. I agree it does a good job of tying up Casino Royale too. Hopefully the SE of Quantum is issued eventually.

I liked Skyfall a great deal too. It was much more straight forward than Quantum. Which maybe is a reason why the public liked it much more than Quantum?

There's no question in my mind that Skyfall tries to correct some of the "errors" of Quantum of Solace, by injecting more straightforward action scenes and a more traditional Bond formula. So in Skyfall you get a more campy, "Bondesque" villain in Silva, you get the more traditional glamorous Bond Girl, you get the forced injection of fan service via things like the silver Aston Martin DB5, and you have what I consider a particularly silly and contrived chase sequence in the subway. With the exception of the initial Aston Martin chase scene, all of these things were absent from QoS. That's why I felt QoS was more mature, and genuinely moody, whereas Skyfall tends to relapse dangerously into the formulaic Bond territory we had headed into with Pierce Brosnan's last couple of outings, but with tacked-on angst.

I've only seen Skyfall once, on Blu (a blind buy), and to date I haven't had the urge to rewatch it, whereas both CR and QoS I've watched many times over the years. I'm truly surprised that so many fans rave about Skyfall being the "best Bond to date".

 

[DVDvision]

Quantum That's editing because Of made Solace barely sense. there Somewhere decent probably in Bond , there's film. a

 

[larryKR]

There's lots to like in Quantum but I wouldn't say it's a better film than Skyfall. I like Craig's version of an angst Bond in QoS, unpredictable, a loose cannon, a concern for M. He is sometimes cold and detached and then he can become warm and fuzzy with the Camille character. What I hate about Quantum is the editing. One example, the extreme quick cuts in the opening car chase are supposed to disorient the viewer and rack up the tension, but for me the scene is frustrating to watch and comes off as lazy film making. Frankenheimer made great car chases decades ago.

 

[Osato]

Somewhat of a sidebar, but is anyone aware of the Free Collector's Edition 007 Trailer DVD that MGM offered in 2002 and 2003 via 007.com?

I had a VHS tape years ago (before DVD) that had a trailer from each of the films (Dr. No - A View To A Kill). I enjoyed having it to watch the trailers in order. I know its pretty redundant at this point, but still would've been interested in this dvd that MGM offered.

http://web.archive.org/web/20021123081525/http://www.007.com/

Click on Bond 20 and it will bring up the Die Another Day page. Then scroll down. Here's a picture of it.

I have been unable to locate one online or via ebay as well.
Thanks!

Happy 35th Anniversary to Moonraker as well!!!!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

A while ago, I made a custom DVD that just had all of the main title sequences in a row... little bit of a pain to do, but a lot of fun to watch when completed. Now if I only I could remember where I left it..

 

[Osato]

A while ago, I made a custom DVD that just had all of the main title sequences in a row... little bit of a pain to do, but a lot of fun to watch when completed. Now if I only I could remember where I left it..

awesome. I set up a search on ebay to try and locate this disc from MGM. I'm surprised I never ordered it just to have for the collectable part of it.

They should do a blu ray or DVD with all of the trailers, tv spots and radio spots for the Bond films. Then you could set up a way to customize which ones to play, etc.

I think it would be cool.

 

[Tommy R]

Quantum That's editing because Of made Solace barely sense. there Somewhere decent probably in Bond , there's film. a

lol! My feelings EXACTLY! I know there's a good film in there somewhere, I can see what they were going for and like what they were going for, but I guess that they didn't give themselves enough time in post to put it all together. I think Roger Moore himself commented that it had no geography on who was who or something of the sort.

 

[Osato]

Goldfinger steelcase coming to the UK... No new extras..



http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/collecting_goldfinger_50th_anniversary_steelbook.php3?t=&s=&id=03697

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

Goldfinger steelcase coming to the UK... No new extras..



http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/collecting_goldfinger_50th_anniversary_steelbook.php3?t=&s=&id=03697

I heard about this on Commander Bond forums. They also add someone to the cast they have never added before: Jason Fricchione. It is said he is a professional voice artist. Wonder who he could have dubbed in this film?

 

[brioni]

No one in Goldfinger, that's for sure.

Its a nice looking package and rightly the film should be celebrated for the 50 but then I though shame there is nothing new as they badly need to commission John Cork to create some new documentaries for this and Thunderball. Both are too short and quite old because they were done for the laserdisc, then ported to DVD, then ported to Blu.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

But then why does the packaging list him?

Then again, this packaging also claims this film was released in 1965, and that is not true.

 

[brioni]

I've not seen any other details apart from Osato's link. It seems this guy has lent his voice to some of more recent animations - was he even born when this film was made?!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1723600/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

 

[Gary Seven]

I heard about this on Commander Bond forums. They also add someone to the cast they have never added before: Jason Fricchione. It is said he is a professional voice artist. Wonder who he could have dubbed in this film?

The actor who played Goldfinger was dubbed. His accent was too thick for the film.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

I'm gald they no longer dub the Bond girls. It used to be a tradition when the franchise began in 1962. But the tradition was broken when Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore) became the first Bond girl to actually use her voice in the franchise. Since then, it became less and less of a standard to dub them, to the point where the tradition is now non-existent.

It made sense in the long-run. She had already been an established star in her native Britain (including two seasons of The Avengers), had a very distinctive voice (and a cool one at that, too), and the film Goldfinger succeeded in making her established internationally.

 

[Worth]

I'm gald they no longer dub the Bond girls.

It would have been an improvement in a few cases - Tanya Roberts and Denise Richards immediately coming to mind.

 

[brioni]

The actor who played Goldfinger was dubbed. His accent was too thick for the film.

His name was Michael Collins.