Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pearce Brosnan.
Writers:
Various
Here is the final set, the culmination, of the "canon" Bond films on DVD.
I'm certainly glad to see MGM getting these discs out, and doing such a
great job on them too - as their predecessors, they all have punchy new
anamorphic transfers and loads of great extra features. But I must
admit, I'm a bit perplexed; I'm honestly not really sure why James Bond
is so popular.
From a modern perspective, Mr. Bond runs the gamut of sexist, exploitive,
ruthless, promiscuous, and if that ain't enough, he has a relatively, um,
casual attitude about killing. All this stuff certainly runs against
current Y2K sensibilities. But I swear, ask around and you'll find one
thing to be true: most guys want to be him, while most women want to be
with him!
Well, finally, you get a chance to explore this great mystery on your own
because you now have access to all the Bond flicks on DVD. In the Bond
Giftset #3, you'll see some of the best and worst Broccoli has offered
over the years. Spend quality time with a load of gypsies (before and
after the shootout) in From Russia with Love, guess ahead of time
that Bond will score bigtime, even with a pig-faced wife in You Only
Live Twice, argue about the resemblance, or lack thereof, between
Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan in The Living Daylights ,or
wonder why Connery would return to the famous role for what certainly
ranks as a treatise in pure, unadulterated campiness (could it have been
the money?) in Diamonds on Forever.
Also included in this set is my most hated Bond movie, A View to A
Kill. Bond tackles (ahem) his first, really, really ugly leading
lady, a lanky and nearly hairless Grace Jones (I swear she used to be a
guy). And it's such a boring flick that even the bizarrely sinister
Christopher Walken - typically a great bad guy - can't save it.
Fortunately, MGM also threw my favorite into this set as well:
Octopussy (no, it's not because of the title). Forget ugly
chicks, Bond bounces between Maud Adams and Kristina Wayborn while he's
not running from alligators or tigers. This one mixes just the right
amount of camp to be humorous - dig that yo-yo wielding madman - with a
gaggle of great action sequences. These include the opening with the
Acrostar Mini Jet, and the final "bookend" where Bond fights the evil
Gobinda on an airplane fuselage in mid-flight. And if that isn't enough,
we get to hear Louis Jordan's suave accent as he repeats "Octopussy,
Octopussy, Octopussy..." Great stuff, all of it.
Visually, the films all look very nice. Some show their age, such as
From Russia with Love, but I must say that MGM has worked hard to
give us some top-notch transfers. The audio also ranks pretty nicely,
though MGM tended toward original theatrical mix for these discs (meaning
largely mono). While purists argue for this type of treatment, I really
don't think it would've hurt too much to whip up a 5.1 remix of some of
the newer movies at the very least. Be that as it may, these are still
quality discs.
They're also packed with features. Five-star stuff all around. The best
part is that these all include documentaries in some form or another.
And these are the juicy, informative type that go into the honest details
behind the movies. On Octopussy's alone, I learned that one of
the stuntmen was seriously injured - they even show the scene! - but
fully recovered. Heck, they even talk about the name of the film being
a minor (ahem again) sexual innuendo - I'd always wondered if Broccoli
noticed that.
Any Bond fan out there can buy this set without a single qualm. MGM has
created a near-perfect collection for the world's only perfect secret
agent.
Oh yes, and I haven't forgotten a bit of diversion...
It's a little-known fact that Albert Broccoli and Eon Productions toyed
with the idea of gay secret agent (maybe this explains the whole Grace
Jones debacle). In the end, of course, they decided to forego that
route, offering for posterior's sake not one, but ten reasons. And here
they are...
The Top 10 Reasons Why James Bond Is Not Gay
10. It's already bad enough being nicknamed Albert "Cubby" Broccoli.
9. Way too tempting to add an "s" to the end of "Thunderball."
8. Applying the "have sex with evil villain to bring them over to side
of good" rule eliminates captivating story line.
7. Way too tempting to add an "age" to the end of "Bond."
6. Not enough conflict in the recent movies: a female "M" would have
simply understood Bond.
5. Impossible to change the title sequence silhouettes for the British
Censors.
4. Too hard to substitute Moneypenny's annoying sexual banter with
Felix's annoying sexual banter.
3. Creates awkward camera angle whenever using magnetic watch trick on
someone's fly.
2. Way too tempting to refer to "Q" as "QT."
1. A male version of "Octopussy" is just too horrible to imagine!
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
