James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set [DVD]

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 offThe 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.

I could carry on about remastering and the fact that all are in DTS but, if you're here, you already know . Let us just say that they look far better than the previous Special Edition releases and I believe it is due to the fact that the movie and special features have been separated to two discs and all the space can be used to produce quality picture and sound. Now on to the meat and potatoes of why this is worth the money, the second discs.On those discs are the special features, most of which are ported over from the old editions with some new Featurettes. One is very confusing which is just a collection of clips but billed as an interactive guide to the movie that had me shrugging "why go to the trouble?". In all, a very good package if you couldn't afford the previous editions. However...you WILL have to buy the ultimate set if you want the two disc versions. The single discs Ultimates are just that. The movie only and no special features.Inside the Big Box are the collectors sets offered in four volumes with the Casino Royal SE. Being the obsessive compulsive I am, the movies being out of order bugged me and I immediately corrected that problem. I could have done without the separate volume boxes, like the Costco version, but they wanted more and I am a cheapskate.Now there are PAL SE sets that are far more cool than this packaging - the best of the bunch comes in an attache case. Believe me I would love to have that on my shelf but, having just bought the five disc Blade Runner attache gave me a realistic perspective. A rectangular box fits nicely on my dvd shelves whereas the attache is parked on my laserdisc shelves with all the other oddball packaging. Also there is a certain Dork factor built into special packaging so I try to keep the bragging to a minimum around others because they won't get why I would spend a penny more than I should for "just a movie".Well that extra penny is for a series that stays on it's toes and tries to keep up with the times while retaining the Bond cliches we have come to expect and enjoy. I saw most of these movies when they first came out and they really haven't lost thier luster. Whether nostalgic or current I enjoy a couple of hours of fantasy and all the behind-the-scenes info I can get.Honestly, we are pretty lucky there are people and companies willing to put out this type of collection. While it may seem like a marketing scheme (or really is), the true winner is the die hard fan. We, all, have had to be patient and wait for our favorite movies to reach DVD and I see more care and attention being directed to ALL audiences, not just the flavor of the week.So those who would bitch about the slim cases or high price or anything else that doesn't matter need to keep their money and leave SEs like this to those of us who get what it's all about.

Every y thing from dr.no to spectre without octopuses and never say never...great movies