Blu-ray Review Spectre Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Randy Korstick]

I cannot get past Denise Richards being cast as a nuclear physicist in that one -- probably the second worst Bond girl casting after Tonya Roberts as a geologist in A View To a Kill.

Agreed Tonya Roberts glaring at the camera and shaking her hair as she reads her lines has to be the poster child for bad acting. The all time worst performance in any Bond movie. Other than her performance I actually find A View to a Kill to be fun in a Roger Moore bubble gum Bond kind a way. My least favorite Moore Bond is Octopussy. Just something dull and lifeless about that one which is odd for a Moore Bond film. It probably needed someone like Connery or Dalton to pull it off.

 

[Lord Dalek]

The main problem with Octopussy is its coming off of one of the best (and most highly underrated IMHO) Bonds in the shape of For Your Eyes Only which demonstrated that Moore's Bond didn't need to have that "lighter touch" he insisted on for most of his run. Although to be fair, the style whiplash isn't as bad with Octopussy as it is with the film that immediately proceeded FYEO.

Now you can say the same thing about Spectre (how they deliberately tried to make Skyfall II and failed miserably at it) but the difference for me it has some truly great moments whereas Octopussy is a real cure for insomnia once Bond takes off in his Aerostar jet.

 

[Worth]

The main problem with Octopussy is its coming off of one of the best (and most highly underrated IMHO) Bonds in the shape of For Your Eyes Only which demonstrated that Moore's Bond didn't need to have that "lighter touch" he insisted on for most of his run. Although to be fair, the style whiplash isn't as bad with Octopussy as it is with the film that immediately proceeded FYEO.

Now you can say the same thing about Spectre (how they deliberately tried to make Skyfall II and failed miserably at it) but the difference for me it has some truly great moments whereas Octopussy is a real cure for insomnia once Bond takes off in his Aerostar jet.

I'll take Moonraker and Octopussy over For your Eyes Only any day. For all of its silliness, Moonraker is at least of a piece, while Eyes lurches back and forth between broad comedy and serious thriller from scene to scene, and Glen is nowhere near expert enough a director to handle the sudden shifts in tone. It has its moments, but Eyes also lacks Moonraker's epic scale and saving graces - Jean Tournier's lush photography, Ken Adam's awesome sets and John Barry's majestic score.

 

[Robin9]

I cannot get past Denise Richards being cast as a nuclear physicist in that one -- probably the second worst Bond girl casting after Tonya Roberts as a geologist in A View To a Kill.

Well, each to their own etc. I don't have a problem with her. After all, plausibility is not what James Bond films are all about.

 

[Tony J Case]

Even worse than Madonna's Die Another Day?

Far and away worse than Die Another Day. Madonna is freakin' Freddy Mercury compared to the awful, awful song on Specter. And yes, when I rewatched it a week or so ago, it confirmed that it was at the bottom of the Bond Theme pile.

 

[George_W_K]

So I just watched this a second time and I have to say I liked it a lot better than the first time.

After I watched it the first time, I bought the 50 Anniversary set and watched all 23 previous films and finally SPECTRE again tonight. I'm wondering if the reason I liked this better was because my other Bond viewings were so recent compared to the couple of years gap from Skyfall to bluray SPECTRE release (when I first watched it).

I'm not a huge fan of the opening song, but I also don't think it's the worst.

I do wish they had recycled less of the Skyfall soundtrack and played more orchestration of the opening title like the older movies would do.

As for the bluray, I'm pleased with the audio, there was some really nice LFE moments and I especially liked the use of surrounds when Bond and Dave Bautista were fighting on the train.

Video was mostly clear, but the black levels were elevated. I wonder if that was the look they were going for but the black bars were black and the dark scenes were a lot grayer (brownish-gray?) than they were. I think the film would have looked better with better blacks, but if that was the director's intent, I'm fine with it.