James Bond Ultimate Edition - Vol. 1 (1974)

James Bond faces plots to corner the gold market, attacks on an oil tycoon's daughter, a diamond smuggling ring, a million dollar assassin, and the black market sale of Russian arms by a rogue general.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: NR
Release Date: 6-NOV-2007
Media Type: DVD Product Description

Even the not-great ones are still pretty good!

Welcome to Volume 1 of the Ultimate James Bond DVD collection!

This first one contains five films. One, "Goldfinger", is the best of the franchise. The others... well, they're at least tolerable (though there's a scene with a slide whistle in "The Man with the Golden Gun" that's completely inexcusable).

You can get these movies seperately in single-disc form, or you can do what I did and buy this collection! Not only do you get all the movies in pristine new transfers, along with 5.1 surround, but you also get a second disc for each movie loaded with more extras than you can imagine. Behind-the-scenes stuff, rare outtakes, radio ads, trailers (check out some of the black and white TV trailers for "Goldfinger"!). It's pretty comprehensive for each movie.

As for the films themselves, well... like I said, one of the five is excellent. I wouldn't buy this set for the others in it, but they are worth having if you're a completist. "Goldfinger" is wonderful. "Diamonds are Forever", "The Living Daylights" and "The World is Not Enough" are reasonably entertaining. "The Man With the Golden Gun" is saved from a world of total suck by having Christopher Lee as the bad guy and also has some pretty impessive sets. Not really worth watching otherwise.

The selection of movies gets this set three stars. The extras boost it up to five. A nice average of four stars is what we end up with. Definately worth owning! July 20, 2008

Bond sets

This purchase completed my collection of the newly released James Bond DVDs. They're all beautifully done (some restoration involved) with fun extras and info. If you're a Bond fan, these are highly recommended (and it's less expensive to buy them in the sets than to buy them separately).James Bond Ultimate Edition - Vol. 3 (GoldenEye / Live and Let Die / For Your Eyes Only / From Russia With Love / On Her Majesty's Secret Service)James Bond Ultimate Edition - Vol. 4 (Dr. No / You Only Live Twice / Octopussy / Tomorrow Never Dies / Moonraker)James Bond Ultimate Edition - Vol. 2 (A View to a Kill / Thunderball / Die Another Day / The Spy Who Loved Me / Licence to Kill) July 18, 2008

Nice Selection of Bonds

This set is a nice smattering of Bond films I would have picked up individually otherwise, including the one I needed to replace because our VHS tape of it had developed terrible tracking problems on the top of the screen. So, voila! this set made an ideal Father's Day gift for my hubby and gives us other Bonds we do not own. Amazon's 2 day shipping was perfect. Good quality on the films, too. July 12, 2008

The Ultimate Sets are the way to go! Dump the Special Editions when you can!

After waiting for a very long time to acquire the Bond Ultimate Edition sets at a reasonable price, I finally ditched my Special Editions in favor of the new ones. I, perhaps like many others, was always reluctant to give up my Special Editions because frankly I spent a lot of time and money putting the original, Special Edition set together.

After watching the Special Edition and Ultimate Edition of "Dr.No", I finally realized how "ultimate" the new discs are. Gone are the film scratches, imperfections and faded colors that plagued most of the Bond early films such as the Connery & some of the Moore films. The new Dolby & DTS 5.1 surround sound are fantastic! The 1962 "Dr. No" looks like it was filmed yesterday. The special features on "Dr. No" includes a segment on the outstanding work put into the frame by frame restoration. A truly tremendous effort and much appreciated!

I like the slim-line cases for the new sets. My entire Bond collection now only takes up less than half the space on my shelves than it did before. Although I tend to agree with other reviewers that it's kind of cheesy how the booklets for each film are stored in the box and not the individual cases, the overall quality of the DVD's negate any negatives. I spend more time watching the films than browsing the booklets. Forget buying any of the Ultimate Editions individually which are single discs because the DVD's in the Ultimate Edition box sets are double-disc sets. One disc for the feature film for optimized quality and one disc for the special features.

I'm not bothered in the fact that all films in all four volumes are not packaged chronologically, since I went through the same process when I purchased the Special Edition box sets. I understand the studio's logic for "mixing it up", since a chronological DVD order would mean more popular sales for the Connery sets and lower sales for the Moore/Daulton sets. I'm a fan of all the Bond films as I appreciate all of the different actors from Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Daulton, Bronson to Craig and for what each one of them has contributed to the Bond Legacy. Many thanks to Daniel Craig for resurrecting this franchise with his outstanding debut in "Casino Royale". Looking forward to "Quantum of Solace" later this year.

VOLUME 1; This is the volume that will be a safe choice for anyone of some interest for Bond. Perhaps for casual fans that are interested in purchasing only one volume then this is the one to get. "Goldfinger" is clearly one of the most, popular Connery movies with many iconic moments such as Mary Masterson's gold, painted body & the big laser machine that's about to zap Connery's private parts. "The World is Not Enough" is a visual pleasure because it has some of the hottest bond girls, Denise Richards & Sophie Marceau. "Man with the Golden gun" has one of bond's greatest adversaries played by Christopher Lee. "The Living Daylights" has the impressive debut of Timothy Daulton. I thought Daulton was a good Bond as he brought a seriousness back into the role after the frequent comedic moments of Moore. Although it has some humorous moments, Connery's last film "Diamonds are Forever" is nonetheless satisfying.

If you want to own all twenty-one Bond films you must by;
James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set

OR

James Bond Ultimate Edition - Vol. 1 (The Man with the Golden Gun / Goldfinger / The World Is Not Enough / Diamonds Are Forever / The Living Daylights)
James Bond Ultimate Edition - Vol. 2 (A View to a Kill / Thunderball / Die Another Day / The Spy Who Loved Me / Licence to Kill)
James Bond Ultimate Edition - Vol. 3 (GoldenEye / Live and Let Die / For Your Eyes Only / From Russia With Love / On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
James Bond Ultimate Edition - Vol. 4 (Dr. No / You Only Live Twice / Octopussy / Tomorrow Never Dies / Moonraker)
Casino Royale (2-Disc Widescreen Edition) May 14, 2008

No Order to these movies

I don't like these 007 box sets for one reason only. I would love to have seen these movies in the order they were made, not jumping from one actor to another actor playing the same part in the same box set. It makes it MUCH less enjoyable. December 13, 2007

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