Re: James Bond Update
 

FYI, 20 of the 24 Bond movies are available to stream on EPIX, Hulu and Amazon Prime video. They are all in 4K UHD on EPIX and Amazon Prime video.
The Daniel Craig Bond movies are as follows:

Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace: HBO

Skyfall and Spectre: PPV VOD on various providers.

Netflix has the 4 Brosnan movies: Goldeneye, The World is not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day


Just thought I would pass this off for anyone who's too lazy to pull out their Bond discs.

Re: James Bond Update
 

I have a good chunk of the films on Blu-ray (I own fourteen of the twenty-four). I’ve sort of been looking for a deal on the complete (to date at least) set. I might wait though the more I think about it since No Time to Die will be the last film with Craig in the role and that way the next box set will feel a bit more complete at least as far as the actors who have portrayed Bond. That or I suppose I could just fill in the missing gaps, but the box set would be nice to condense so many films into a bigger set versus having so many individual releases.

Re: James Bond Update
 

Since it sounds like they’ve done the whole series in 4K, it seems like the home video release of No Time to Die would be the ideal time to release a complete 4K set. And the previous complete sets have always dropped to about $100-125 within 1-2 years of release (often around Christmas time). So if you want 4K’s I think it’s probably best if you can be patient for a couple years.

Re: James Bond Update
 

I’m not necessarily the type who’s crazy about needing everything 4K. Plus a twenty-five disc 4K set would be pretty expensive for a while most likely.

Re: James Bond Update
 

Neither am I, but a good number of the existing Bond Blu-rays have crappy transfers. The worst is probably GoldenEye. If the excuse of upgrading to 4k means those movies got new masters, they're worth it for that alone.

Re: James Bond Update
 

Yeah, the Bond Blu-rays are pretty subpar for the most part. GoldenEye is particularly egregious, but the first 7 (or whichever ones had those early 4k transfers) are some of the worst examples of Lowry garbage this side of Star Wars.

​​​Has anyone seen the streaming 4k for these? Are they good? New transfers?

Re: James Bond Update
 

I watched Goldeneye in 4K yesterday on EPIX. Honestly the transfer was meh. There was nothing about it that made it look any better than the current HD BD transfer.

It looks like a movie from 25 years ago.

Re: James Bond Update
 

Did you actually compare to the Blu-ray, though? That particular Blu-ray is just terrible. It's sourced from an ancient master created around 1998. Very noisy, poor detail, lots of smeariness and edge enhancement.

Even a mediocre 4k transfer would qualify as a huge improvement over that Blu-ray.

Re: James Bond Update
 

I did not. I'll have to put in my Goldeneye BD from the Bond box set and see.

Granted, I had not seen Goldeneye since I originally bought that Bond box set years ago.

Re: James Bond Update
 

The most recent Craig Bond BDs have been excellent. There is almost no difference between the BDs and UHDs for CR and QoS. Skyfall looks amazing in 4K as it is a pure digital transfer. Spectre is a little better on UHD than BD. If you are going to upgrade anything it should be Skyfall.

Re: James Bond Update
 

IMDB did a Bond Movie bracket. I don't really disagree with the outcome of the match-ups, but do with however they did the seeding :

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/dvdtalk...29f47bdbc.jpeg

Goldfinger and Skyfall don't get a First Round bye? WTF? They should be #1 Seeds. How does Die Another Day get a bye?

Re: James Bond Update
 

Nothing about the organization of that bracket makes a lick of sense to me.

Re: James Bond Update
 

That bracket is busted before it even started.

And Casino Royale the winner??? Easily the most overrated Bond film next to Goldeneye.

And it is a joke that Spectre, Man With The Golden Gun and Skyfall are in the top 8.

What the fuck ever...

Re: James Bond Update
 

CR really did revitalize series and landmark for that. But it was a truly perfect though little more gritty Bond movie. I think it’s highly rewatchable...

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I really think people's nostalgia for the video game colors their memory of Goldeneye, because there is no way that movie should be in the finals of that bracket.

Re: James Bond Update
 

Yeah, Goldeneye is good but overrated in my opinion. Casino Royale is better but I’m not sure I agree with it being the overall best of them all. My girlfriend and I are going through all the Bond films, just started last night with Dr. No actually. I’m curious to see which ones hold up best as a lot of them I haven’t seen in ages, and there are a handful I haven’t seen or haven’t seen all the way through.

Re: James Bond Update
 

That is great to hear. I recently bought the 4K BD of Skyfall and I'm just waiting to find a moment to really sit down and watch it.

Re: James Bond Update
 

I think Skyfall and Spectre are both vastly superior than their blu counterparts. CR and Quantum are better, but seem inconsistent in parts, mostly in darker scenes.

I’m also going through all the Bond films, but on Amazon Prime since they’re all on there in 4K. So far, Dr No, Russia, and Goldfinger look really good compared to the blus and an overall improvement. Thunderball and You Only Live Twice are not all that great. Majesty’s Secret Service is an improvement, but not as good as the original three. This is where I am right now.

Re: James Bond Update
 

I never cared too much for Goldeneye; I thought it was a thoroughly average, by-the-numbers Bond movie. Nothing special. Adequate. When Martin Campbell came back for Casino Royale, I rolled my eyes. Boy was I wrong on that one. CR is top 3 for me.

My favorite will always be From Russia With Love. A perfect Bond movie, a perfect espionage action thriller, and a stone classic that is almost 100% true to the novel. Almost. The book's ending would have made for an amazing cliffhanger.

Not that anybody asked or cares, but here's my ranking of the "official" films:

1. From Russia With Love
2. Casino Royale
3. Skyfall
4. Goldfinger
5. The Spy Who Loved Me
6. Dr. No
7. The Living Daylights
8. Live and Let Die
9. The World Is Not Enough
10. Tomorrow Never Dies
11. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
12. Thunderball
13. Spectre
14. Goldeneye
15. License To Kill
16. For Your Eyes Only
17. Moonraker
18. You Only Live Twice
19. Octopussy
20. Quantum of Solace
21. Die Another Day
22. The Man With The Golden Gun
23. Diamonds Are Forever
24. A View To A Kill

The Top 19 range from movies I absolute love and think are classics, to movies that I enjoy despite their flaws. 20-24, I don't bother with.

Re: James Bond Update
 

See to me License to Kill is one of my favorite of the Bond movies. I really like Dalton as Bond a lot. Like I say I haven’t seen all of them and some not in years, but I think that would be one of my top two or three at least. Goldfinger is up there too simply because I think it’s iconic/memorable in so many ways.

Re: James Bond Update
 

Tut tut. That's Licence to Kill, gentlemen.

Re: James Bond Update
 

Always loved that movie, and to my mind it's the way I could see a real spy accomplishing his mission- by causing the enemy to destroy his own organization from within through deception and disinformation.
Stuff like the semi popping a wheelie never bothered me much. That's turn your head and you'll miss it shit. In terms of plot and storyline, it may not be perfect but it's still one of the savviest takes on the character IMO.

I love CR as a film, and possibly an elseworld's style take on the character. Lumping all Craig's films in with the previous cycles is odd to me though. It's like rebooting X-men and making Wolverine a wealthy playboy who hangs at the X mansion and only moonlights as a metal taloned superhero. Just because you call him Logan/Wolverine and he shares some surface affections, is he really that character? Fleming's Bond, that all the previous versions paid some deference to, was of a specific class, education, taste and temperament. Cary Grant and Jimmy Cagney were both accomplished performers- but casting them in the same role definitely changes the taste of the final dish.

Re: James Bond Update
 

As Hokeyboy said, I feel From Russia with Love is most often tapped as the best. Yet in this bracket it draws a second-round matchup with Goldfinger. :lol:

Re: James Bond Update
 

I really enjoyed The Living Daylights which, to me, felt almost like a completely satisfying James Bond movie (*cough* Joe Don Baker *cough*) and License To Kill was good too. The latter started out going into territory that no Bond films except for her OHMSS went, until it turned into a standard Bond film at the end (and got a wee bit over the top).

Dalton was a great Bond and should have been in an A-list Bond movie. While he didn't have Connery's screen charisma (who does, really??) or Moore's playful Gentleman Spy air, he brought something unique and enjoyable to the franchise.

Re: James Bond Update
 

I think Dalton was really good as well. If there was a mistake it was that they made him pissed off for most of both movies. He should have had a chance to show a little more charm but came off as dour. Still was an excellent Bond.

Funny story : I saw Licence To Kill the day it came out with my friend Mike. A day or two later, I went to a Dodgers game with Mike who back then had access to Club Level seats. Suddenly I start to smell this stench wafting towards me. I realized that someone has the audacity to be smoking a CIGAR in the stands. I tell my friend that I am going to tell this asshole off, I don't care who it is. You can't smoke a cigar at a baseball game. I get up, storm over there and see it's Robert Davi huffing on a huge stogie. I turn around and head back to my seat. I tell my friend that I don't want to be fed to a shark and would just deal with it.