Customer Reviews

James Bond Blu-ray Collection: Volume Three (Moonraker / The World is Not Enough / Goldfinger)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I hope that everyone who had problems playing the first 2 Bond collections had them addressed by now because Volume 3's layout and features is consistent with the previous two. All players that received firmware upgrades after October 2008 should be able to play this set.

Here is my evaluation of the current Bond Blu-ray collection (a work in progress as I'm not fully done with the viewing) - and it's not unlike my impression of the first 2.

_____________________________________________
THE GOOD:
- Incredible video quality, most likely better than what the audience saw on release date on some of the older movies.
- Lots of extras, most of them worth watching or listening to.
- Beautiful, innovative packaging.

THE NOT SO GOOD:
- The sound restoration not as good as the video on the early Bonds.
- Some of the 'extras' sections would benefit from a 'play all' option.
- The boxes could be a bit slimmer.
- May require upgrades on certain players if they haven't been upgraded since September-October 2008.
_____________________________________________

The overall impression is of quality, inside and out. The box could be a little smaller but the packaging is exquisite. There's a transparent plastic slide cover over a solid cardboard box holding a small binder on which the individual movie disks are attached to pages. Each movie comes on one disc holding the movie itself and in incredible amount of extras.

The menu interface is well organized and there's even some humor in labeling. For example, the option that plays the movie is labeled 'The Mission' while the historic promotional material is found under 'The Propaganda'. Depending on which section you may be, menu options branch into further sub-menus.

The extras are numerous and, for the most part interesting. There are features on the restoration process and we get to learn who did what, why and how. Then, we see contemporary documentaries on the making of the movie and so on. The Goldfinger disc, for example, includes actual radio interviews with Sean Connery, 2 major documentaries on 'the making of' and 'the world of' Goldfinger, about 30 minutes each, original trailers, screen tests, an interview with Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore), even a feature on Bond's Aston Martin. And, amazingly, it all fits on one disc.

The area where some of the older installments show their age is the sound. The audio options include the original sound track which, in the older releases is 'mono' but all movies come with DTS-HD Master Audio 24-bit 5.1 surround as the default. The sound wasn't upgraded and improved to the degree that the picture was but, it's understandable. Going from mono to 5.1 surround is the equivalent of upgrading from black and white to full-color 3-D in the world of images. Commentary sound tracks featuring the director and the cast and crew are also included.

When it comes to the video quality, the best that I can say is that you've got to see it to believe it. The restoration of the older movies started with the actual original negative, which is the one reference copy that's almost never touched. Once the copy was digitized as a 4000 lines resolution digital copy (Bluray is 1080) every frame was reprocessed to eliminate any possible defects from 'dirty optics', such as the proverbial hair that we sometimes see on the older movies to scratches, bad exposure, color brilliance. The restorers' goal for the end result, and this concerns the video only, not the sound quality, was to deliver what would appear to be a contemporary movie with a 60's or 70's theme rather than a 60's or 70's movies. In my view, they succeeded and, surprisingly, the 1964 Goldfinger looks as good as the 1979 Moonraker.

My overall rating is a solid five-stars. Just about everything in this release is superlative: the physical packaging, the interface design, the extras, the video quality. The sound is not so good on the older movies but, given the state of sound restoration technologies, I did not feel compelled to remove a star because the old movies sounded more or less like they did on release date or better.

As a James Bond fan, I've owned movies on VHS, Laser Disc, DVD and now Blu-Ray and I can tell you Watching then on Blu-Ray is like watching them for the first time. MGM has done a great job restoring theese films, the detailing is great, I've noticed thing in the movies I've seen 20 or 30 times. These are a must own for any collection.

If you are viewing the picture for this product, it would seem that it is in the same package as the previous James Bond Blu Rays. That is not the case. It looks cheaper than the previous released versions.

The James Bond story has been around for some time. Now when I want recall and enjoy, I pick one and play.

For 007 lovers an excellent choice to renew or start a collection. Image looks great and I hope Number 4 comes out soon.

The James Bond films in the Blu-ray, in word: FANTASTIC.

We compared the old 1962 Dr. No to the new blu-ray DR. No and all anybody in our household could say was: WOW!

I purchased 3, 3 packs - 9 different movies in all and they are all great.

The movie comes alive, we have a 1080p, 52" screen with a 5.1 surround system.

The packaging was great and I received the package (3 dvds in one package) was great. Each movie is set in its own case with all three set in one very nice sturdy case.

If you're a James Bond fan, then get these blu-ray upgrades: they're well worth it.

Excellent video transfer with DTS Master Audio. Must have for James Bond fans. Volume 1 and 2 were the best in terms of better James Bond films. This one has Goldfinger - one of my favorite and Bluray transfer is excellent. Moonraker is the weakest of them all. But fun none-the-less.

Was, is, and always shall be great! However, I want Casino Royale 1954, and Casino Royal 1967 as well as Spymaker 1990--all in Blu-ray!

I'm of two minds about this set. You get one movie from three different Bonds: Pierce Brosnan (the silly The World Is Not Enough, his weakest entry), Roger Moore (Moonraker, also not his best) and Sean Connery (Goldfinger, the greatest Bond film of them all and the mold for all the Bonds that would follow). The good news is that the films look simply amazing; they have been restored with tremendous care and loaded down with extras. The bad news is that it's such a random collection of Bond movies that don't really belong together. All you do is frustrate fans. Anyone who would buy this would also buy the complete Sean Connery set or the complete Roger Moore set and surely that's the only logical way to package them? Visit me at michaelgiltz dot com.

I've been a Bond fan for sometime now and have previously purchased the DVD sets and was satisfied with watching them on an upconverting DVD player, that is until I realized how bad they were. I just recently recieved the first installment of the Blu-Ray versions and am totally blown away by their frame by frame re-mastering of these films. One of the commentaries in the special features refered to the re-masters like "watching a movie set in the 60's, not made in the 60's" and it is so true. If you are a bond fan at all and you have the means for a blu-ray player by all means put these on the top of your list. It is truely like watching a new movie. I've since given the DVD versions away and look forward to each release of the entire series.