James Bond Ultimate Collection – Volume One (Bronze Box/MGM DVD)
Picture/Sound/Extras/Films:
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) B+/B-/B/B+
Goldfinger (1964) B/B-/B+/B+
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) B/B-/B/B-
The Living Daylights (1987) B-/B-/B/C+
The World Is Not Enough (1999) B-/B-/B-/D
Diamonds Are Forever
Originally
set to shoot with John Gavin playing James Bond, United Artists decided they
did not want an unknown and eventually went after Sean Connery to bring him
back. Of course, he returned for this
last film he would do within the series and it relaunched the series into a new
direction of more comedy, as well as a more knowing wit that finally
acknowledged the counterculture in a very witty way. Part of it realized that Bond was one of the
sources of it and this film capitalizes on that.
To
recover from the box office disappointment of the now-classic Bond On Her Majesty’s Secret Service two
years before, persons linked to Goldfinger
were brought back, including director Guy Hamilton (his second Bond here, he
would direct three more in a row), singer Shirley Bassey and Connery. With a groundbreaking screenplay by Richard
Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz, the film was loaded with exceptionally witty humor,
al kinds of interesting sexual situations, the first major gay characters
(albeit psycho killers) in Mr. Wint & Mr. Kidd (from the novel), some of
Connery’s best one-liners and a plot that starts out as a smuggling thriller
before becoming entertainingly fantastic.
It is also not the most politically correct film, loaded with other
surprises.
A huge
hit in its time, the shifting of gears saved the series and the cast that
joined Connery was top-rate. A pre-Rocky Horror Picture Show Charles Gray
(who had already had a smaller part in You
Only Live Twice) became the third face-visible Blofeld, Jill St. John’s
Tiffany Case still ranks as one of the sexiest lead Bond Girls ever with
outfits by Donfeld that are some of the sexiest in cinema history, Lana Wood as
Plenty O’Toole is another winner, Jimmy Dean as the Howard Hughes-like Willard
Whyte is a hoot, Putter Smith & Bruce Glover play the killers, Bruce Cabot
is Blofeld’s no-good right-hand man, Norman Burton is one of the least
pretentious actors to play Felix Leiter, Joseph Furst is the amusingly (and
easily) frustrated Dr. Metz, Leonard Barr is the amusing Shady Tree and Mark
Laurence as a gangster who surfaces again in The Man With The Golden Gun.
Sid Haig and Valerie Perrine also show up in cameos, so the cast is
exceptional.
Also, the
money is on the screen and the film holds up exceptionally well for its age and
time. It is one of my favorites because
it goes all out like no other bond before or since. The adult humor would never be as adult or
clever, though the series would still reach these high levels to a lesser
extent. Connery fell right back into the
role and so much went right and worked here.
Taken as intended as a reaction to the counterculture, the film is a
heavyweight Bond classic.
For the
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image, Cinematographer Ted Moore, B.S.C., shot
the film in the classic Bond style and it would be the last Bond ever released
in three-strip dye-transfer Technicolor.
It would also be the last time he shot a scope-framed Bond in the
series. The original DVD used a very
dye-transfer-like IB (imbibition) print until the last reel and it was one of
the best looking in that older group of DVD editions. At first I had to do a double take, but the
improvements here are nothing short of stunning. This film looks just incredible and though it
is not always as dye-transfer looking, the detail and range of color actually
tops the older print and is demo quality for any home theater system. It is the best looking disc in this set and
even better than anything in the third and fourth sets!
For the
5.1 sound mixes, the film was a monophonic film, but has a great music score by
John Barry recorded originally in 1” eight-track masters. They were recently used for an expanded and
remastered CD and more recently, its music master tapes noted above were
transferred to a hard drive (Macintosh) at 24-bit/44.1kHz for the CD reissue
and future uses. Lukas Kendall from Film
Score Monthly Magazine (www.filmscoremonthly.com)
was involved when the EMI CD upgrades were being made and a fine CD release
resulted. It is unknown whether Lowry
and company used this master for their mixes here, but this is a decent mix
despite some limits.
Previously
only issued in monophonic sound (PCM for the LaserDiscs, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
for the DVDs) in all home video cases, the sound has been upgraded for Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 sound, though MGM has included the original mono as a
Dolby Digital 2.0 mix. John Barry did another
amazing score and though this is mostly better than the previous mono discs
going back to the original theatrical monophonic sound, there are a few
instances where the bass sound and sound effects overwhelm the bells, strings
and more subtle aspects of Barry’s score.
You can compare to the mono whenever you notice this if you have a 5.1
system. The music still sounds good here
when it is not drowned out and the two-track stereo album master is likely
derived from three-track magnetic stereo.
This was upgraded to 5.1 by MiCasa Multimedia, which they did for all
the Bond’s to The Man With The Golden
Gun. They used the Bryston SP 1.7
multi-channel preamplifirer/processors for use in the James Bond remastering
upgrades, as well as SADiE PCM-H64 multichannel systems, though Lowry Digital
also was involved. There is also the
occasional new sound effect by Lunatek Music which is not bad here, though
replacing the cat’s meow before the Shirley Bassey theme is a disaster.
Instead
of sounding ominous and foreboding in its suggestion of life and death, the 5.1
version has a cat meow that sounds like one is being strangled by a
crack-addict! You can hear the
difference when comparing it to the original mono track. This version of the Bassey theme song is not
bad (the song is an all-time classic in the series), though the recording in
the original 1971 release differ from the hit record version a bit, but we’ll
investigate that another time.
Otherwise, they should have just left the cat alone!
Extras
carried over from the first Special Edition include a full length audio
commentary with Director Guy Hamilton and members of the Cast and Crew, Inside Diamonds
Are Forever Documentary narrated by Patrick Macnee, “Cubby” Broccoli - The Man Behind Bond
Documentary, terrific deleted scenes, television and radio spots. The new edition adds Sean Connery 1971: The
BBC Interview, Lesson # 007: Close Quarter Combat, deleted footage from the
climactic Oil Rig Attack, Satellite & Explosions Test Reel, alternate &
expanded Angles and Interactive Guide Into The World Of Diamonds Are Forever.
Goldfinger
After
doing a great B action film (Dr. No)
and doing everything Hitchcock possible in a smart thriller they could at the
time (From Russia With Love), the
Bond producers came up with a formula they thought would work and the result
was the landmark smash hit Goldfinger
in 1964. To start with, they decided to
up the ante in pace and action after the Orient Express sequence in From Russia With Love with a
swifter-paced pre-credit sequence like nothing that had ever been seen before. Of course, the title villain wants to rule
the world by monopolizing the precious metal contained in his name.
Arriving
in Miami, Bond crosses Auric Goldfinger when he discovers that he has an
assistant using a telescope and earpiece disguised as a hearing aid to help him
win at cards. She suffers one of the
most famous murders in cinema history and then Bond becomes more engrossed in
what turns out to be illegal dealings Bond will be sent in to contend
with.
For the
anamorphically enhanced 1.66 X 1 image, this is the first new work on the film
since the highly overrated 30th Anniversary print was struck. Prior to that, the best transfer was a color
rich (almost looking like an original three-strip dye-transfer Technicolor
print like the ones the film came out in to begin with) was the version on the
12” Criterion Collection LaserDisc, which had two versions. You could see the money on the screen in that
case vs. the 30th Anniversary print that had pale gold by comparison
and other issues. This included weak
green in shots with grass, definition issues, unfixed damage to the negative
and other issues that made it a big disappointment. Now, so much has been fixed that almost
everything is improved, but there is one aspect I am still stuck on and that is
the gold.
Watch the
scene where Bond and Goldfinger are playing golf. Yes, the grass is finally green like it
should be. However, the “gold standard”
is when bond throws the bar of Nazi gold on the ground. Look at both the color and texture of the
bar, as well as how realistic the bar looks form the depth and shadow of the
Nazi stamp in the corner of the bar.
Does it look like you would mistake it for a heavy bar you could
actually pick up? Video Red is a slight
issue here and I think the transfer just misses the mark, but I bet the Blu-ray
will not. We’ll see. Otherwise, this transfer does justice to the
classic camerawork of Ted Moore, A.S.C., even when looking like Michael
Powell’s 1960 classic thriller Peeping
Tom. That was shot by the great Otto
Heller, whose work on the 1965 Spy classic The
Ipcress File influenced films as vital as Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist.
For the
5.1 sound mixes, this was originally a monophonic film, but John Barry recorded
the score in stereo. The masters of the
music are either misplaced or lost for good, but other stereo sources still
exist and that was the material used for the CD reissue. MiCasa Multimedia (see Diamonds Are Forever’s audio specs above) said they were going to
use the original music masters for this upgrade, but if Capitol could not find
them, did MiCasa and Lowry? I don’t
know, but this mix is better than the endless monophonic versions on LaserDisc
(again including two PCM 2.0 Mono issues from The Criterion Collection, who
took extra care in their audio transfers) and DVD, but it still has some
limits.
John
Barry did one of his best known scores here, though there are a few instances
where the bass sound and sound effects overwhelm the bells, strings and more
subtle aspects of Barry’s score. You can
compare to the mono whenever you notice this if you have a 5.1 system. The music still sounds good here when it is
not drowned out and the two-track stereo album master likely used here is
likely derived from three-track magnetic stereo.
Extras
repeated from the Special Edition DVD and 12” LaserDisc box set include two
full length audio commentary tracks: one with director Guy Hamilton, the other
with cast and crew, The Making Of Goldfinger narrated by Patrick
Macnee, The Goldfinger Phenomenon, original publicity featurette, original theatrical
trailers, TV Spots, stills and radio spots.
Newly added extras include Sean Connery from the Set of Goldfinger,
Screen Tests (Theodore Bikel included), On
Tour With The Aston Martin DB-5, Honor Blackman Open-Ended Interview where
anyone could pretend to interview the actress to promote the film and an Interactive
Guide Into The World Of Goldfinger.
The Man With The Golden Gun
The
second Roger Moore Bond would be co-producer Harry Saltzman’s last. After Live
& Let Die, “Cubby” Broccoli agreed to let Harry go for the same style
and form thinking they would have another hit.
They landed Christopher Lee (Ian Fleming’s cousin) in the title role of
the hitman, Francisco “Pistols” Scaramanga, plus leading ladies Britt Ekland (a
big sex symbol at the time) and rising star Maud Adams were all appealing
choices. Even future TV star Herve Villechaize
would play the hitman of the piece named Nick Nack, looking like a miniature
version of Oddjob from Goldfinger at
times. It may sound ridiculous, but that
was the kind of wacky counterculture sense Saltzman was pushing, thinking
people would want to see the series go even more comic than the classic Connery
Bonds.
It made
sense as the first two such Bonds, the previous two (Diamonds Are Forever, Live
& Let Die) were big hits. The
problem was, the film took too many liberties with Bond and from the
resurfacing of Sheriff Pepper in Thailand (!?!) to another boat chase to Bond’s
awkward ability not to be able to defend himself. Tom Mankiewicz’s screenplay goes for broke in
the comedy (some thought it played at times like a Pink Panther film) and castration politics department as even
Bond’s closest allies have some contempt (cartoonish at that) for him in at
least one or two scenes. However, the
beautiful locations, cast, jokes that do work, great music, attempts to do
something different, interesting attempt to absorb the martial arts film cycle
of the time, general sense of the 1970s and possibilities (not all realized) of
the showdown between bond and Scaramanga have turned this box office failure
into a cult favorite. It also remains
the highest-rated Bond film in network TV history and with cable, satellite and
other such media alternatives, will likely hold that crown for good.
Lee is
particularly good as Scaramanga and you can tell all are having fun making this
film, even when it is rough and even gets rough. This was made at a time when Lee was in rare
form as when he made the original Wicker
Man. More of a legend than ever
before, this Bond will remain a one-of-a-kind favorite for a long time to come
and is far from the worst film in the series.
For the
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image, shot by cinematographers Ted Moore and
Oswald Morris (who finished for Moore due to health reasons) was always a
standout in previous optical disc home video releases. It was the last Bond to be released
letterboxed in the old 12” LaserDisc format and was one of the best in that
format. The previous Special Edition DVD
was also a winner, using the same then-impressive source material. Now, a painstaking restoration done
frame-by-frame at 4,000 progressive digital High Definition video lines each is
the new master and in just about all cases, surpasses the original transfer, as
good as it could be.
The only
issues are as follows. Daylight
sometimes seems a tad less bright than previous versions, the opening shot of
Nick Nack bringing champagne to Scaramanga has lost some of its immediate
impressiveness for whatever reason despite still looking good, the color in the
title sequences is slightly less vivid than it should be versus the great work
DeLuxe processed and looks even pale by comparison to the original footage and
a few other color instances have similar issues. Then there is the opening, where the optical
was cleaned nicely, but the rest of the scene might have been made to match to
its slight detriment. However, a Blu-ray
version may prove much of all that is the limitation of standard DVD. Also, there are so many amazing shots that
look great here that it made me remember how good they looked when I saw the
film back in 1974!
For the
5.1 sound mixes, they are both a bit more bass heavy at times than they should
be, especially with the title song and similar end theme sung by Lulu where her
singing is too low and the mix lacks depth and soundstage to an annoying
extent. This sounded better on CD and LP
without the phony compression, plus the original score was recorded in 16-track
magnetic stereo, so there is no excuse for the sound to be anything less than
stunning but those tracks were likely not used since EMI never got around to
upgrading them for the CD reissue. The
big highlight here is the score by John Barry, which was later licensed (it
seems) a hundred times for low-grade martial arts films that did not want to
pay for new music. Were all these uses
actually licensed? Nevertheless, it is
one of his most underrated works and it sounds good here as it did when the
previous DVD offered a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix with Pro Logic
surrounds. We get a Dolby Digital 2.0
Mono mix here, but it is a shame the Pro Logic mix was not carried over to this
version.
A problem
as annoying as the Lulu mix (like she’s singing through a pillow sort of) is
added sound effects in two scenes that seem slightly out of sync. One is Scaramanga shooting off his gun just
before the title sequence that you can tell is different gunshots because the
new version has an unintentionally funny whine of last bullet flying away,
while the original theatrical sound here (in Dolby 2.0 Mono) reminds us that
the gunshots were more serious in tone and delivery, alerting the audience that
Scaramanga was a serious mortal threat to Bond. Now, it sounds like he will have him over for
laughs so they can have a slap-happy time and watch bad sitcoms!
The other
Bond throwing some karate blows before jumping out a bamboo window, which
throws off the amusing moment of escape.
They just do not work, but will hopefully be fixed (with the theme song
and some minor picture issues) on the Blu-ray version, no matter what sound
format (Dolby, DTS, PCM) is finally included.
See more about the restoration of this film in the Diamonds Are Forever section at the top.
Extras
from the previous DVD Special Edition include audio commentary track by
Director Guy Hamilton, the Cast & Crew, Inside
The Man With The Golden Gun
Documentary narrated by Patrick Macnee, Double-0
Stuntmen Documentary, stills, original TV Ads & Radio Spots. New extras include another brand-new audio commentary
with Roger Moore, original theatrical trailer with a sound mix that has the
music mistakenly drowning out the dialogue though it was not that way before, Roger
Moore and Hervé Villechaize on TV’s The
Russell Harty Show, On Location With The Man With The Golden Gun, Guy Hamilton: The Director Speaks, Girls
Fighting, vintage American Thrill Show
Stunt Film (with optional commentary), The
Road to Bond: Stunt Coordinator W.J. Milligan Jr. and Interactive Guide
Into the World of The Man With The Golden Gun.
The Living Daylights
The debut
of Timothy Dalton has its moments and the Broccoli Touch, but has become one of
the most dated films in the series as Bond essentially becomes Lawrence Of Arabia to help Muslim
insurgents destroy Soviet Union forces in Afghanistan. After 9/11, this obviously does not hold up
any better than after the USSR collapsed, but there are some good moments
outside of that part of the plot that are the purest Cold War storytelling
since For Your Eyes Only and this
would be (unbeknownst to fans, the studio and the producers) the last Cold War
Bond ever made. Considering its
connection to the next global war with Islamo-Fascism, it sadly plays like a
dark victory, yet the film is a classy entry thanks to first-time Bond Timothy
Dalton really trying to being a new sense of bulk and physicality to the role.
After a
deadly training exercise leaves a clue reviving a Soviet spy hunting operation,
Bond must investigate who is starting a new hit list and a defector (Jerone
Krabbe) might be the key to discovering the truth. Is a Russian higher up (John Rhys-Davies)
responsible or could a mad old school General Whittaker (Joe Don Baker in the
first of two roles he would play in the series) be behind a disturbing plot to
severely damage British Intelligence? It
is one of the better films and “Cubby” Broccoli’s attempt to go back to a
smarter Bond without so much overt humor.
Unfortunately, Dalton was not too good comically.
For the
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image, it is not too much of an improvement
from the older DVD, but is still preferred over that first issue. Offering many beautiful visual moments from
cinematographer Alec Mills, this looked much better in the several 35mm prints
I saw of it at the time and hopefully that will be more fully realized in the
inevitable Blu-ray edition.
For the
5.1 sound mixes, the film was originally issued in Dolby’s old analog A-type
noise reduction format, but even the new Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 mixes
will not allow you to hear the title theme sung by A-Ha. Rykodisc upgraded the soundtrack in an
exceptional CD a few years ago and that material carried over to the new EMI
CD, so it is no surprise that the music here sounds good since the recording is
relatively recent and has been in circulation more than most Bond scores. Also featuring two Chrissie Hynde songs
credited to The Pretenders (Where Has
Everybody Gone?, If There Was A Man),
this would sadly be John Barry’s last score for the series and the music has
never totally recovered since.
Extras from
the original Special Edition include full length audio commentary with Director
John Glen joined by members of the cast and crew, Inside The Living Daylights
featurette narrated by Patrick Macnee, Ian
Fleming: 007's Creator featurette, “The
Living Daylights” Music Video Performed by a-ha, The Making of 'The Living
Daylights' Music Video, theatrical trailers, TV spots, stills &
radio spots. Newly added extras include
deleted scenes with intros by Glen, Happy
Anniversary 007 program, Silver Anniversary Featurettes, Timothy Dalton:
The New James Bond/Vienna Press Conference, Timothy Dalton: On Acting, Dalton and
d'Abo interviews, The Ice Chase Outtakes
- deleted footage with Glen’s narration and Interactive Guide Into The World Of
The
Living Daylights.
The World Is Not Enough
One of
the worst films in the series, this third Pierce Brosnan entry eventually led
to his premature departure as the more technologized, ridiculous, overblown
direction the series should have spiked after Tomorrow Never Dies made him less and less relevant. It was successful cash out that Brosnan just
never recovered from. The plot involves
a high-up government double cross with more double crosses to the point of
being a mess. Sophie Marceau is the
daughter of a man who was killed in a plot involving an energy pipeline and
nuclear arms. Denise Richards is a nuclear
scientist whose body and outfits will re-remind everyone that they call it a
bikini because that’s where they dropped the early atom bombs, not unlike the
way her performance bombs out here, and the solid actor Robert Carlyle is
wasted in an underwritten role as a criminal mastermind impervious to pain. That aspect is never seen though.
Coming
off of Desperate Measures, director
Michael Apted should have made this one a home run, but it is far more of an
also-run that never picks up, never coheres, never has any joy, fun, edge and a
subplot involving Judi Dench as “M” is one of the dumbest you will ever
see. Being a fan, every time someone
asked me what I though, I told them I called it “The Bond Is Not Enough” since it was so vapid and unwatchable. Too bad it did not at least help Carlyle go
on to more fame.
For the
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image, this looks about the same as the
previous DVDs, which means it is not so good looking at all. This was the only Bond lensed by the late,
great cinematographer Adrian Biddle (V
For Vendetta, James Cameron’s Aliens,
Event Horizon; all reviewed
elsewhere on this site) and is one of the primary reasons this film was a
hit. That’s how good he was and this
film deserves an even better picture upgrade, one the eventual Blu-ray version
will hopefully deliver.
For the
5.1 sound mixes, this was an across-the-board digital theatrical release in
Dolby EX, DTS ES and SDDS, has a very bad mix, very disappointing title song
performed by the much savvier band Garbage who did not create it to begin with,
so we cannot hold them responsible. Danny
Arnold and the usually savvy lyricist Don Black blew it with this throw-away
song by a band that is far from it.
Arnold’s score reflects absolute boredom with the narrative, what there
is of it, and this sound mix overall is not up to the previous Brosnan releases
to begin with. This actually has less
surround design and character than GoldenEye
or Tomorrow Never Dies, making it
sound more like every other bad big budget action mix out there. It has not aged well either to boot.
Extras
from the older special edition include feature length audio commentary by
Director Michael Apted, production designer Peter Lamont, second unit director
Vic Armstrong & composer David Arnold, The
Making Of The World Is Not Enough
Documentary narrated by Patrick Macnee, The
Secrets of 007: Featuring Alternate Video Options, stills, original
theatrical trailer and “The World Is Not
Enough” Music Video by the band Garbage.
New extras include deleted scenes/alternate angles with introductions by
Apted, alternate angle/expanded angle scene: The Thames Boat Chase, James
Bond Down River - Original 1999 Featurette, Creating An Icon: Making The Teaser Trailer, Hong Kong Press
Conference and Interactive Guide Into the World of The World Is Not Enough.
All
titles in all sets come with eight-page booklets devoted to each film. For coverage of the Bond Blu-rays and other Bond
DVD sets, you can check into the following links:
BLU-RAY
WAVE ONE:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7716/James+Bond+Blu-ray+Wave+One
VOLUME
TWO
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5056/James+Bond+Ultimate+Edition
VOLUME
THREE
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4708/James+Bond+Ultimate+Edition+–+Vol
VOLUME
FOUR
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4709/James+Bond+Ultimate+Collection
- Nicholas Sheffo
