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I should preface these reviews by stating that I am a great fan
of the Bond films, as many of you reading this undoubtedly are.
But there is a continued debate over just who is the best Bond,
and I have somewhat of a theory on that. I've always found that
whichever Bond you were lucky enough to grow up with is gonna
be the one you prefer for the rest of your life. This is not a
100% bulletproof theory, of course, so don't send me a bunch of
email telling me I'm wrong if it didn't work out this way for
you. But stop and think about which Bond you have that unnatural
attachment to, and then remember which of the 007 adventures was
the first one you saw in a theater. Do they match up? Thought
so.
For me, my first was The Spy Who Loved Me, so I never suffered
from those "Roger Moore was too campy for Bond" feelings. Obviously,
since it was my "virgin" Bond experience, I had nothing
to rate it against and I loved it. But I've actually been a fan
of all the men who've played the world's favorite secret agent,
but with Moore being my first, he'll always hold a special place
in my heart. Wait, this is starting to get weird...
Quick, let's move on to the Bond girls. As I write this,
the latest Bond installment The World is Not Enough is due to
hit theaters in a month or so, and thus we shall have two new
inductees into the Bond Girl Hall of Shame. As a public service
to both Sophie Marceau and Denise Richards, I'd like to offer
some advice. Is it too late to get out of this film? If there
is one thing that Bond history has taught us, it's that once you're
a Bond girl you never go back... to acting in any other respectable
films, that is. Really, I'm serious.
Roll call, please? Barbara Bach - MIA; Lois Chiles - MIA; Carole
Bouquet - MIA; Maude Adams - MIA (but tattooed,) Tanya Roberts
- MIA (and usually naked,) Maryam D'Abo - serious MIA;
Carey Lowell - MIA (though she is dating Richard Gere), Isabella
Scorupco - should we fill out a missing persons report? And our
most recent Bond girl, Teri Hatcher - MIA and pregnant. (To be
fair, she never really had much of a film career before her Bond
flick, but did she really think that being cursed would help?)
The only breakout success was Live And Let Die's Jane Seymour,
but did anyone hear about her for nearly two decades until she
got that pioneer woman ER gig?
Still, as cursed as the Bond Girls have been, these new special
edition DVDs from MGM are a blessing. Each one sports a lovely
new anamorphic transfer that helps make Bond as state-of-the-art
as he ever was. Each release is also stuffed to the gills with
extras and menus so cool, you'll think Q were behind them. But
enough of my incoherent ramblings, let's get on to the discs.
Click on each title for below for the full review, and thoughts
on each collection follow below, as well as ratings for each set.
(And, if you happen to be reading this and it's now the year 2002,
well, you know that MGM is yet again releasing these sets, each
about six months apart. What flicks you get in which box might
be different, but all the discs are the same, even down to the
lame cover art.) So, jump in and enjoy...
Spotty moments aside, the seven discs included in the first James
Bond Collection definitely set a new high in terms of special
edition content and high quality audio and video transfers. This
might seem like an unfair criticism, but the one thing about the
set as a whole that I had the biggest problem with is that there
is so much supplemental material available here that the
sets taken as a whole are a bit overwhelming. What started with
me viewing just two of the first discs and thinking "WOW!,"
ended with me viewing them all and thinking, "yeah, they're the
same menus and extra features...again." It's almost an embarrassment
of riches; a huge package to explore, and one best in small doses.
By the time you get to Collection 2, however, there seems to
be a bit less in terms of supplements, such as smaller still galleries,
just one commentary instead of two, and less Bond oddities and
rare finds (such as the "milk commercial" on Live and
Let Die). However, there are more original featurettes on the
later sets (most of the newer Collection 2 and Collection 3 discs
feature an extra documentary,which more often than not makes up
for the lack of a second commentary), and these still stand tall
when stacked up against most other special editions the studios
put out these days.
So, after going through all these discs, I do have to give mighty
props to MGM. They have created not only the most comprehensive
DVD home video releases yet of the Bond series, but some very
entertaining and illuminating behind-the-scenes material. Fans
of the series and special editions in general should be more than
pleased with any of these sets, or each disc on its own. Well
recommended.
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