DJariya

FYI, select titles from the James Bond movies are back on Amazon Prime video in 4K UHD. Just giving an FYI for those who may want to watch these again in 4K since only the Daniel Craig titles are on 4K physical media.
Here's what's available:

Thunderball
Quantum of Solace
From Russia with Love
Live and Let Die
You Only Live Twice
Diamonds are Forever
For Your Eyes Only
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
A View to a Kill
Moonraker
The Man with the Golden Gun
The Living Daylights
License to Kill
The World is Not Enough
Octopussy
Tomorrow Never Dies

TomOpus

Checked out a Connery one and a Moore one. Both looked pretty good.

ctyankee

From Russia With Love looks quite good. On Her Majesty's Secret Service does NOT, but that's probably largely due to the film stock used at the time of shooting. It's never looked good so ... just putting it in 4K doesn't offer much.

Mike86

Nice! A lot of those are ones I’m missing in my collection. My girlfriend and I can finally resume our Bond marathon we started earlier this year.

Mike86

Watched Thunderball tonight. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen it or if I have it’s been a very long time. Pretty enjoyable Bond flick overall. The premise for the story is good, but the film did feel a tad slow at times.

ctyankee

I think that's a fair assessment. Certainly, 10 minutes of editing could have reduced the bloat.

But, to be fair to history, Thunderball was the absolute height of Bond-mania coming on the heels of Goldfinger. Certainly, it's hard to argue that more Bond is what the audience wanted. Another factor is the editing (or lack thereof) at the time was much less ruthless. Films, in general, were permitted to take a while to get from A to B.

Mike86

Yeah, the film felt like it could have been trimmed by ten to fifteen minutes and that may have helped pick up the pace.

I watched the first three films earlier in the year, and to me they didn’t seem to have the pacing issues Thunderball has. Still a good movie though.

Spiderbite

Thunderball has James Bond at his best quip-wise. Recently watched it and that is what stood out. The humor is the best in this one without being too silly or dumb and has just the right amount.

Josh Z

Thunderball is my favorite Bond movie. However, the part where Bond rapes a masseuse at the beginning has certainly not aged well.

Mike86

Yeah.. my girlfriend found that uncomfortable. That is one thing with the Bond character. He’s really portrayed oftentimes as quite the pervert. Different eras, and its lessened over time, but still it can be awkward at times in the older films.

rocket1312

To me Thunderball should be the platonic ideal of what a Bond movie is and was. Goldfinger solidified the formula, but Thunderball has Spectre, the widescreen photography and international locales, and Bond doesn't spend the entire movie as Goldfinger's prisoner. It's also the last one before Connery completely checked out. Unfortunately it's just far too dull in spots. The underwater stuff goes on forever. They needed to take Goldfinger's lead and keep things around 100 minutes.

Josh Z

Thunderball's pacing is just fine, IMO. Modern audiences have just become accustomed to today's frenetic ADD cinema with no more than three minutes of plot between action scenes and explosions.

Mike86

I really don’t think so. Like I say I watched the prior three Bond movies in order (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Goldfinger) and none of them seemed to have pacing issues or felt long.

ctyankee

Agreed for the most part, plus perhaps the best of the John Barry scores (YOLT is great as well).

However, Thunderball starts in France, goes to England and then to the Bahamas. Hardly loaded with international locations, in fact, From Russia With Love had scenes in more countries.

rocket1312

Yeah no. From Russia with Love is my favorite movie in the series, at least until Casino Royale. I have 0 problem with the pace of older movies. Thunderball's underwater sequences, in particular, just aren't very exciting. And I don't think that's a particularly hot take.

I guess I was just comparing it to Goldfinger, which spends so much time in America.

Spiderbite

I have been rewatching these recently with my 16 year old son and have actually found myself telling him more than once that I hope he understands that you never treat a girl this way, or force yourself, or talk that way, or slap a girl, or...etc.

I am so glad we have gotten away from that "women love to be raped by men...they just don't know it yet" thing that seems so common in so many movies in the past. The whole..."just keep pushing and forcing yourself on her until she can't resist your rapey charms" is just so fucking gross.

Intentional rape is hard enough to watch in a movie but that kind of shit seems just as fucked up even if the woman does seem "willing" at the end of it. Ugh...excuse me while I go wash myself. It truly is disturbing just typing that.

Mike86

Yeah. Truthfully it’s been a long time since I’ve watched a lot of the older Bond films prior to starting to go through them this year. I always knew Bond was a womanizer, but there are definitely aspects that when watching now can be uncomfortable.

I think when I last watched a lot of the older films I either didn’t pay that much attention or I was young enough where I didn’t fully grasp the situations. I still like the films, but some of the sexual aspects are a bit hard to take.

ctyankee

Well said. Candidly, I thought that scene was troubling when I saw Goldfinger in 1964. I didn't see it as rape then. I saw it as sexual blackmail. It diminishes Bond as a ladies man.

In FRWL, there is a running gag (for lack of a better word) of the sex play between Tatiana and Bond involving oral sex and the black choker she first wears to bed. To get past the censors, Bond says something like ... "your mouth is the perfect size for me." That the choker was part of their sex play becomes obvious later in the film when Tatiana uses a choker (or ribbon) to tease Bond on the train. It is confirmed at the end, when Bond brings up the bedroom scene when he peers at the film of their lovemaking (that the Russians filmed) and Tatiana draws her hand to her throat as she recalls the event. This never bothered me as Tatiana certainly seems to have enjoyed the sex.

Mike86

So the Bond 24 film collection is $69.99 on Amazon currently. I’m almost tempted at that price. Thing is it’s the set without the digital copies and I own a majority of the films. Plus I kind of would like to wait to see if there’s a new set after No Time to Die releases and a potential 4K set.

Josh Z

A lot of the Blu-ray transfers in the existing box set are mediocre to poor. New 4K remasters have been completed and are available on streaming, but haven't made their way to physical media yet. No sense in buying that old Blu-ray set now.

E Unit

Agreed, unless you’re a hardcore fan, there’s some small extras that are on those discs. Even the old Bond 50 set has some extras the set on sale doesn’t have.

OldBoy

I do love having digital access as well as physical. I hope to watch them all in order one day. Before I die, that is...

TomOpus

Advantage of being old...I saw them in order theatrically as they were released. Guess I can die now.

OldBoy

that’s something at least. And that’s longest running series ever at 26. That’s quite an envious achievement actually. Would have loved to have done something like that. Best I can do is SW. would have loved to do like every Eastwood or Pechinpah western or all Scorsese theatrical. I know not series, but that would be cool. I guess 9-11 SW Universe movies isn’t too bad.

Josh Z

There are 36 Godzilla movies.