Customer Reviews

James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set

5 star:		(123)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I looked at this set in the store today and it really appears as if the contents actually are the 4 Ultimate Collectors Volumes inside this case with Craig's Casino Royale along side. And by the contents being the 4 Volumes, literally, it looks like they are inside this black box.

I opted for the Ulimate Collector's Bundle for $179, instead of this, since I purchased Casino Royale when it was released, and I am really just looking for all the previous movies from Connery to Brosnan in the remastered 2-disc versions.

Also of note, if you want all the Bond films- you have to order Never Say Never Again as a separate item, that is not part of the MGM/UA library.

Yes, it's all 21 movies with 21 bonus discs. All that's phenomenal. But the packaging is awful. That gorgeous box in the picture? It's the flimsiest fold-and-assemble cardboard out there. Inside, the movies are not presented in chronological order. Instead it's vol. 1-4 of the Ultimate Edition, stuck in this flimsy box. They're all thin-line cases with the liner notes stacked to the side in the box. You can't put them in the individual cases with their respective movies. Sure, you could buy 20 blank cases, but then it wouldn't fit in the box they gave you. Now all that's for the first twenty. Then stuck on the end, is the normal 2-DVD package of Casino Royale. It's added on like an after-thought.

This is great product, but with the absolute cheapest way of presenting the material imaginable. It's in no way comparable in quality to the Star Trek ten movie set. Truly, all they did was stick the old, hodge-podge Ultimate Edition sets and the Casino Royale two disc in a flimsy box.

CHEAP.

I'm okay with it because I got lucky and bought in on the $95.99 release day 24-hour super sale (which goes to show you just how much they're marked up). If I'd paid over $200 for this, I'd be livid.

With all that said, the movies themselves look great - digitally remastered, etc. Again, great content, very amatuer presentation.

I am deducting 1 star because the packaging is not worthy of the ultimate James Bond set.

While Europe and parts of Asia get the stunning attache case box set, the US and Canada get only a cardboard box. OK. A shiny cardboard box.

Inclusion of Casino Royale, notwitstanding.

Are you listening, MGM?

This is truly a great deal - under five dollars per disc for all 21 Bond films. There is no enhancement from the Bond set put out in February of this year other than the addition of Casino Royale, on loan rights-wise from Sony. The packaging looks a little ridiculous - two 5-film volumes on either side flanking Casino Royale in the middle, but other than that I can't complain. The only bone I have to pick is with the discount shown. It's not as big as you would think. Ammy shows the suggested retail being 290 dollars. That's correct - in Canada. In the U.S. the suggested retail price is 240 dollars, so you're not getting as big a discount as you think you are. Also note that if you have a favorite actor in the role of Bond, collecting by volume will not help you. Each volume has a collection of films from different time periods - this set is not organized chronologically as shown below:

Volume 1 - The Man with the Golden Gun / Goldfinger / The World Is Not Enough / Diamonds Are Forever / The Living Daylights
Volume 2 - A View to a Kill / Thunderball / Die Another Day / The Spy Who Loved Me / Licence to Kill
Volume 3 - GoldenEye / Live and Let Die / For Your Eyes Only / From Russia With Love / On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Volume 4 - Dr. No / You Only Live Twice / Octopus / Tomorrow Never Dies / Moonraker

I'm sure doing it this way was a marketing strategy, but it has its advantages to the viewer. It's rather fun to see Bond's character travel over a 50 year period from the time of the Cold War to the present where corporate and individual ambitions can be as threatening as Russia once was, and from the time where the women were there to merely be Bond's flavor of the day to the point where he has to deal with a woman as a boss.

This is not a review just a heads up of information I found on Movieweb about the upcoming release of this set.

MGM Home Entertainment will give fans of the unprecedented film series a view to a thrill with the release of the James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set on November 6, 2007. Featuring the complete MGM Bond library in The James Bond Ultimate Editions Volumes 1-4, recently restored and re-mastered for optimal sound and picture quality, as well the most recent 007 installment, Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig. The James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set includes all the fast-paced adventures, high-performance sports cars, futuristic gadgets, narrow escapes, explosive battles and the sexy, bold and brazen Bond girls, along with hours of extras, offering plenty of time to bond with Bond. Presented on two-disc special edition DVDs spanning 42 discs, each mission grants all-access to the chronicles of the agent's storied career from the Bond archives, including deleted scenes, rare interviews, documentaries, featurettes, interactive film guides, music videos, audio commentaries and more. The James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set will be available for the suggested retail price of $239.98 U.S. / $269.98 Canada. Prebook is October 10th, 2007.

Each film included in the James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set has recently been restored and re-mastered and presented in their original aspect ratio, with original burned in subtitles and captions, mono and stereo sound (in addition to 5.1 DTS Audio). The set features hours of bonus materials including audio commentaries on every Bond film, behind-the-scenes featurettes, documentaries and more. For specific information on each special feature, please consult the James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set fact sheet atwww.mgmpressroom.com.

Spanning more than 40 years beginning with the original London premiere of Dr. No on October 5th, 1962, the James Bond 007 films have become one of the most popular franchises world-wide. Packed with an arsenal of bonus materials from EON Production's archives, this mega-collection is a must-own for James Bond zealots, whether their favorite 007 is Sir Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig, the latest interpretation to introduce himself as "Bond, James Bond."

Technical Specs:
- Number of Discs: 42
- Audio/Language: English DTS / English 5.1 Dolby Surround / French 5.1 Dolby Surround
- Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Korean, Chinese Mandarin, Thai
- CC: Yes

this one star is not for the product itself but the price!
if you buy each of the four ultimate editions separately it would be around $104 since their just over $25 apiece here on amazon
add the 2 disc casino royale which is $9 and youve got the whole package for $113 instead of over $218 that they are charging for this set!

its ridiculous, this should be a better value, not a worse one

Waited to get all the Bonds as a package for a good number of years. This set is complete 95%. Visually very nice in digital restoration, great DTS 5.1 sound as well. Do not understand the order in which the actual movies are cased and presented, story lines carry over in Bond films, original order of release is significant for watching the collection, but that order must be organized by end user, it is NOT in this package when opened. Also, each DVD repeats "lead-in" tracks, as though each DVD is seperate from all others. Such repetition seems totally unnecessary as this product is sold as a SET, I do not need to view "ad's" for the set I have already just purchased! Only had to buy one other Bond film, Connery's last Bond "Never Say Never" to fill collection.

I just finished watching these 21 movies in chronological order of release. The picture and sound quality is absolutely amazing. They did such a good job with the frame by frame restoration that it looks as close to HD as SD can get. As to the sound, if you don't have a surround sound system, use this as an excuse to get one. I listened in DTS 5.1 with a surround system. A good bit of the enjoyment is from the stunningly clear, realistic sounds coming from in front and behind you, together with the pristine picture. Plenty of action scenes. When the bullets whiz by behind your head from one rear speaker to the other, you feel like ducking! At the same time you can have bombs going off in the subwoofer and other speakers and helicopters whirring by across speakers. Makes you feel in the center of the action.

The first 3 are full screen (Dr. No, To Russia With Love, and Goldfinger). It wasn't until the 4th movie (Thunderball) that the filming was done with Panavision's wide-screen lenses. Also the first 2 Roger Moore films (Live and let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun) are full screen. But all the others are wide screen. I prefer the wide screen myself - you get more of the original picture included. Full screen chops more off

The films are not in chronological order in the 4 boxes, so the first thing I did was to arrange them in that chronological order.

It's interesting to watch the evolution of the character. Sean Connery started it off with a style epitomizing the coolness of the 60s. The 70s and 80s Roger Moore 007 was still cool, but more comical and evolving more and more into including the campiness of the 70s. I believe they went too far in the comedy direction in this era, reaching the low point of the whole series in Octopussy, when James Bond is seen swinging from a vine doing the Tarzan yell.

Then came the two episodes with Timothy Dalton, which returned (thankfully) to a more serious vein, Licence To Kill being criticized by some as too serious. But I found it superior to the Moore flicks.

The four Brosnan films are all very good. The set also includes the 2006 release of Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig, who I think has potential to be the best 007 of all.

So there are the 21 movie discs and for each movie is a separate disc of special features, for a total of 42 discs. I have watched only a few of the special features -- I was so anxious to watch the movies themselves, but I did at least cursorily look at each of them. What I saw looked good, and I'm anxious to go back at some point and watch them. I did watch the little 4 or 5 minute featurette for each movie about the "exotic locations" at which it was fimed -- those were universally good. There is also a separate little pamphlet for each of the 21 movies, containing all sorts of interesting and useful info.

I would strongly recommend this set to anyone who enjoys James Bond movies. One caveat -- they are about to start releasing the Bond flicks in BluRay, so if you are into that you may want to check into it and wait a while.

The James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set is the perfect gift for the ultimate James Bond fan. The set contains four volumes containing two disks or five movies and five special features disks, including the most recent Casino Royale movie for a total of 42 DVD disks. However, there are several deficiencies to this collection, for example, each movie comes with an insert booklet which is outside of the DVD packaging and feels like an afterthought. Many a collector will tell you that they want the insert to be included with the movie packaging for extra protection. Also, the movies are not packaged in chronological order of release. James Bond fans know when a movie was released, the packaging forces you to review each box to find the movie to be viewed. Finally, in reviewing the actual movie packaging, it feels like this project was underway before the filming or release of Casino Royale which has been packed in the box separately and looks like it was yanked off the shelf to complete the set. Otherwise, the James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set is WONDERFUL and an excellent addition to your DVD collection!

This is an excellent choice for the Bond lover. I hadn't purchased any of the existing collections, so this was the ultimate way to go. It has all existing 21 EON bond films, Quantum of Solace hasn't been released to theatres yet.

This is all contained fairly substantial case. It comes in a nice slip cover box, with all 21 films in one compartment, and the booklets in too smaller ones. It doesn't take up a large amount of space, but is fairly heavy. It's not as some of the pictures sets that are the 4 collection boxes bundled in the box, they are all individual cases, and it looks much nicer.

It's interesting to watch the series evolve, from basic gadgets from Q to the most high-tech gear you could want from the Q-branch.

20 of the films are in the slim 2 disc DVD cases, with the movie and some bonus features on the main disc, and loads of extra packed into the second disc.

The 21st disc is the Widescreen Special Edition of Casino Royale. It is in a standard 2 disc DVD case, and squeeze into the package nicely.

There are 2 nice DK publishing booklets with info about Bond that fit into the case. Also included are 20 booklets that detail the story and info about the first 20 Bond movies, and have images of the theatre posters etc.

There isn't too much missing from this set, it's the Ultimate Collector's Set for a reason... The few things that are, really are minor though. It would have been nice to have the extra info booklet for Casino Royale to slot in with the others, as well as the matching slim case. Also there is no room for future expansion in the box.

To be complete, there are a couple of documentaries that I would have loved to have been included. I have picked them up seperately, and well as the last Sean Connery Bond film, Never Say Never Again. this one isn't included since it's not an official EON film.

Hopefully they offer a way to make future films match the rest of your collection.

Still money well spent.