THE STORY: Newly restored and re-mastered with optimal sound and picture quality and presented with an arsenal of never-before-seen bonus materials, The James Bond Ultimate Edition Volume 1 and The James Bond Ultimate Edition Volume 2 arrive on DVD November 7 from MGM Home Entertainment. Featuring some of 007’s most popular adventures spanning the agent’s storied career, these collections include two-disc treatments for each of Bond’s thrilling missions. A perfect sampling for the beginning of a comprehensive 007 library, The James Bond Ultimate Edition Volume 1 includes Goldfinger, The World Is Not Enough, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun and The Living Daylights and The James Bond Ultimate Edition Volume 2 includes Thunderball, Die Another Day, The Spy Who Loved Me, A View To A Kill and Licence To Kill. The James Bond Ultimate Edition Volumes 3 & 4, available on December 12, include GoldenEye, Live & Let Die, From Russia With Love, For Your Eyes Only, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Tomorrow Never Dies, You Only Live Twice, Dr. No, Octopussy and Moonraker. Each all-new DVD features never-before-seen footage from the Bond archives, including long-anticipated deleted scenes. Other bonus material includes rare interviews, long sought-after documentaries, new menus, interactive film guides, brand new featurettes and, for the first time ever on a Bond DVD, new audio commentaries by Sir Roger Moore.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN – The usual gadgets and stunts take a back seat to humor in this installment of the popular spy series. Superagent 007 is pulled from a missing persons case in order to track down a legendary hit man using custom-made golden bullets to silence his targets. Lately the sniper has been stirring up a lot of trouble on the world scene, and Bond goes after him with an arsenal of wit, innuendo, and double entendres. But once he unearths the murderer’s clandestine Hong Kong lair, our hero discovers that the two cases are hopelessly intertwined — and connected to a dastardly plot for world domination.
GOLDFINGER – In James Bond’s third cinematic adventure, the dangerously suave spy (Sean Connery) must stop the criminal capitalist Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) from contaminating Fort Knox’s gold with atomic radiation. Aiding the villain is the alluring Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) and the imposing Oddjob (Harold Sakata). Bond, on the other hand, is armed with his trademark charm and, of course, a slew of gadgets, courtesy of Q (Desmond Llewelyn). Encountering the usual bevy of beautiful women and perilous traps, 007 sets out for America to foil Goldfinger’s financial fiasco.
Based on Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel, GOLDFINGER marks the appearance of a more carefree, wisecracking Bond and is widely considered to be one of the best films in the series. In fact, with stylized elements such as the gold-painted girl, the wince-inducing laser beam, Oddjob’s razor-sharp bowler hat, and Bond’s modified Aston Martin car, the film is quite possibly the most memorable Bond outing, and would be famously parodied decades later in the AUSTIN POWERS series, particularly GOLDMEMBER.
JAMES BOND
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH – Greed, revenge, world dominance, high-tech terrorism – it’s all in a day’s work for James Bond, who races to defuse an international power struggle with the world’s oil supply hanging in the balance in The World is Not Enough, the 19th installment in the longest-running and most successful film franchise in cinema history.
From the banks of the Nervion River in Bilbao, Spain, to a spectacular high-speed boat chase up London’s River Thames and through the highlands of Scotland, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan, in his third appearance in the role of the world’s best-known secret agent) barely survives a potential nuclear explosion in a vast oil pipeline in Turkey – all in the name of protecting beautiful oil heiress Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) from notorious international terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle).
With nuclear weapons expert Dr. Christmas Jones (Denise Richards) at his side, Bond travels to Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea and Istanbul. There, a former enemy (Robbie Coltrane) becomes a formidable ally before the final dramatic showdown in the claustrophobic confines of a nuclear submarine beneath the surface of the Bosphorus Sea.
The World is Not Enough is an exhilarating adventure that takes all of the compelling elements expected of the Bond series and sets them against the background of a contemporary crisis on the cutting edge of today’s news. Clearly, James Bond – Agent 007 – is back.
The World is Not Enough also stars Desmond Llewelyn, who returns as weapons and gadget wizard Q, as well as Dame Judi Dench as M and Samantha Bond as Moneypenny. Robbie Coltrane reprises the character of double agent Valentin Zukovsky. The film also features John Cleese (A Fish Called Wanda) as Q’s assistant, Serena Scott Thomas (Diana: Her True Story) as Dr. Holly Warmflash, who ministers to Bond, Maria Grazia Cucinotta (Il Postino) as Cigar Girl and music artist Goldie as Bull, Zukovsky’s chauffeur.
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER – Superspy James Bond (Sean Connery) gets tangled up in the wild world of international diamond smuggling. But hold on–the mission is not quite so simple as it seems; his chase of the jewel thieves leads him to conspirators with plans for unleashing a nuclear armageddon on an unsuspecting planet. The majority of the action takes place on the gaudy, glittering streets of Las Vegas, as Bond negotiates the grotesque terrain with his customary aplomb and fancy mechanical gadgets. As always, he manages to dally with several sexy bombshells along the way, including the wonderful Lana Wood as Plenty O’Toole. Connery is as suave and entertaining as ever, taking on the menacing Charles Gray, who is trying his hand at playing Bond’s archenemy, Blofeld. Look for the car chase down a narrow alley.
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS – In this installment of the James Bond series, Agent 007 (Timothy Dalton) is assigned to protect a Russian defector (Maryam d’Abo) from the KGB. When the defection proves to be an elaborate ploy, Bond woos her anyway, and together they follow a trail to a crooked American arms dealer supplying weapons to Afghanistan. Dalton finally assumes the role of Bond after refusing it 16 years earlier with DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. The film is loosely based on Ian Fleming’s short story.
THE EXTRAS:
* Disc 1: Goldfinger (1964)
* THE COMPLETE SPECIAL FEATURES LIBRARY: MISSION DOSSIER
* Audio Commentary Featuring Guy Hamilton
* Audio Commentary Featuring Cast and Crew
* Disc 2: Goldfinger Bonus Disc
* DECLASSIFIED: MI6 VAULT Sean Connery From the Set of Goldfinger Screen Tests
* On Tour With the Aston Martin DB-5
* Honor Blackman Open-Ended Interview
* 007 MISSION CONTROL Interactive Guide Into the World of Goldfinger
*The Making of Goldfinger
* The Goldfinger Phenomenon
* Original Publicity Featurette
* MINISTRY OF PROPAGANDA Original Trailers, TV Spots, Photo Gallery & Radio Communications
* Disc 3: The World Is Not Enough (1999)
* THE COMPLETE SPECIAL FEATURES LIBRARY: MISSION DOSSIER
* Audio Commentary Featuring Director Michael Apted
* Audio Commentary Featuring Peter Lamont, David Arnold and Vic Armstrong
* Disc 4: The World Is Not Enough Bonus Disc
* DECLASSIFIED: MI6 VAULT Deleted Scenes and Alternate Angles With Introductions by Director Michael 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
* 007 MISSION CONTROL Interactive Guide Into the World of The World Is Not Enough
* The Making of The World Is Not Enough
* Bond Cocktail
* Tribute to Desmond Llewelyn
* Garbage ‘The World Is Not Enough’ Music Video
* The Secrets of 007
* MINISTRY OF PROPAGANDA Original Trailer & Photo Gallery
* Disc 5: Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
* THE COMPLETE SPECIAL FEATURES LIBRARY: MISSION DOSSIER
* Audio Commentary Featuring Director Guy Hamilton and Members of the Cast and Crew
* Disc 6: Diamonds Are Forever Bonus Disc
* DECLASSIFIED: MI6 VAULT Deleted Scenes
* Sean Connery 1971: The BBC Interview
* Lesson # 007: Close Quarter Combat
* Deleted Footage – Oil Rig Attack
* Satellite & Explosions Test Reel Alternate & Expanded Angles 007
* 007 MISSION CONTROL Interactive Guide Into the World of Diamonds Are Forever
* Inside Diamonds Are Forever
* Cubby Broccoli – The Man Behind Bond
* MINISTRY OF PROPAGANDA Original Trailers, TV Spots, Photo Gallery & Radio Communications
* Disc 7: The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
* Newly Recorded Audio Commentary Featuring Sir Roger Moore
* THE COMPLETE SPECIAL FEATURES LIBRARY: MISSION DOSSIER
* Audio Commentary Featuring Director Guy Hamilton and Members of the Cast and Crew
* Disc 8: The Man With The Golden Gun Bonus Disc
* DECLASSIFIED: MI6 VAULT Roger Moore and Hervé Villechaize – The Russell Harty Show
* On Location With The Man With the Golden Gun
* Guy Hamilton: The Director Speaks
* The Man With The Golden Gun Girls Fighting
* American Thrill Show Stunt Film
* The Road to Bond: Stunt Coordinator W.J. Millian Jr.
* 007 MISSION CONTROL Interactive Guide Into the World of The Man With the Golden Gun
* Inside The Man With the Golden Gun
* An Original Documentary Double-O Stuntmen: A Look at the Greatest Stunts and Stunt Performers in the Bond Films
* MINISTRY OF PROPAGANDA Original Trailers, TV Spots, Photo Gallery & Radio Communications
* Disc 9: The Living Daylights (1987)
* THE COMPLETE SPECIAL FEATURES LIBRARY: MISSION DOSSIER
* Audio Commentary Featuring Director John Glen and Members of the Cast and Crew
* Disc 10: The Living Daylights Bonus Disc
* DECLASSIFIED: MI6 VAULT Deleted Scenes With Introduction by John Glen
* Happy Anniversary, 007 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 Director John Glen Narration
* 007 MISSION CONTROL Interactive Guide Into the World of The Living Daylights
* Inside The Living Daylights
* Ian Fleming: 007’s Creator
* a-ha ‘The Living Daylights’ Music Video
* The Making of ‘The Living Daylights’ Music Video
* MINISTRY OF PROPAGANDA Original Trailers, TV Spots, Photo Gallery & Radio Communications
FRANKLY: At the end of the day this is a massive box set and anyone interested in this review will be someone that has watched some or all of the James Bond movies in this set. We were sent The Man With The Golden Gun as a frame of reference for the video quality and extra features.
Certainly James Bond Ultimate Collection Volume 1 was released to appeal to holiday gift giving for Bond fans—but it would be a treat. If I woke to find this under the tree it would be a nice surprise. The extras are massive and the video quality is great. Even when a featurette wasn’t long they still added a wealth of interesting information that will be adored by die-hard fans. Nothing is more interesting than the gadgets and women. What else is there to watch Bond for?
The set retails for around $90 but goes for $58.49 on Amazon which makes this a major bargain.
+ Charlie Craine
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