Blu-ray Box Set Review: 'The James Bond Collection'
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On September 20, 2016, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and MGM released The James Bond Collection, a 24-disc Blu-ray box set which collects all of the EON/Danjaq James Bond films now in existence. Starting with 1962's Dr. No and continuing on to 2015's Spectre, this collection allows fans of Ian Fleming's famous creation, British Secret Service Agent 007, aka "Bond...James Bond" to bring home all of his various missions as recreated by six actors, many writer-director teams, and spanning over 50 years of globe-trotting spying, romancing, and using his "license to kill" in Her Majesty's Secret Service. (As of March 2019, this box set contains all of the Bond films to date; presently, director Danny Boyle of Slumdog Millionaire fame is working on the untitled film known as Bond 25, which stars James Bond No. 6 actor Daniel Craig and is due out in 2020.)
The James Bond Collection
This one-of-a-kind box set includes gorgeous Bond women, nefarious villains and charismatic stars, featuring Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. Experience BOND with this fitting tribute to the most iconic and enduring secret agent in movie history. - Package promotional blurb, The James Bond Collection
The James Bond Collection contains 24 Blu-ray discs (BDs) in three plastic multi-disc cases, with one film and its assortment of extras per BD. The cases are made of the traditional translucent blue plastic material and have simple white cover art that bears the famous 007 "pistol" logo and the years in which the films were released on the front and the titles of the films in the BDSs printed on the reverse side.
The 1962-1977 BD case consists of:
- Dr. No
- From Russia With Love
- Goldfinger
- Thunderball
- You Only Live Twice
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service
- Diamonds Are Forever
- Live and Let Die
- The Man with the Golden Gun
- The Spy Who Loved Me
The 1979-2002 BD case contains:
- Moonraker
- For Your Eyes Only
- Octopussy
- A View to a Kill
- The Living Daylights
- License to Kill
- Goldeneye
- Tomorrow Never Dies
- The World is Not Enough
- Die Another Day
The 2006-2015 BD set consists of the Daniel Craig Bond movies made after the retirement from the role by Pierce Brosnan. They are:
- Casino Royale
- Quantum of Solace
- Skyfall
- Spectre
My Take
The James Bond film series began in the fall of 1962 with the London premiere of Dr. No. As a result, the fourth most successful movie franchise (after the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and Harry Potter) in history predates me by a few months. I remember hearing about Secret Agent 007 as a child in Colombia and even getting a set of licensed 007 toys (including a toy pistol that looked like Bond's Walther PPK with a silencer), but didn't see my first Bond film (on TV) till Mom and I moved back to the States in the early 1970s.
As with any multiple-film series - especially one that has existed for over 50 years - with so many creative hands in the proverbial pie, the James Bond franchise tends to change its tone and level of realism, depending on who the lead actor is at the time and the producers' aesthetic sensibilities. Early on, the "Connery" Bonds tried to stick to Ian Fleming's gritty, somewhat grounded in reality style, but as the series progressed, it focused less on cloak-and-dagger and more on over-the-top archvillains either with ties to a ruthless secret organization known as SPECTRE or independent megalomaniacs intent on ruling the world. In addition, the tone of the films shifts with each Bond, alternating from straightforward-but-clever dramatics (Connery, Lazenby Dalton, and Brosnan) to tongue-in-cheek, almost hammy (Roger Moore) and doubles back to serious, almost dark and cold-blooded drama (Craig).
I've seen many of the Bond films on both the silver screen (mostly in the Moore and Dalton eras) and TV, but I have yet to watch all 24 of the EON films produced by the late "Cubby" Broccoli and his heirs, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. And until I purchased The James Bond Collection, I had only seen a few Bond movies on home media that belong to friends and family members.
Because I only got my set recently, I have only watched one film in the series: Dr. No and briefly explored the extra features of From Russia with Love. However, I can report the following:
The James Bond film series began in the fall of 1962 with the London premiere of Dr. No. As a result, the fourth most successful movie franchise (after the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and Harry Potter) in history predates me by a few months. I remember hearing about Secret Agent 007 as a child in Colombia and even getting a set of licensed 007 toys (including a toy pistol that looked like Bond's Walther PPK with a silencer), but didn't see my first Bond film (on TV) till Mom and I moved back to the States in the early 1970s.
As with any multiple-film series - especially one that has existed for over 50 years - with so many creative hands in the proverbial pie, the James Bond franchise tends to change its tone and level of realism, depending on who the lead actor is at the time and the producers' aesthetic sensibilities. Early on, the "Connery" Bonds tried to stick to Ian Fleming's gritty, somewhat grounded in reality style, but as the series progressed, it focused less on cloak-and-dagger and more on over-the-top archvillains either with ties to a ruthless secret organization known as SPECTRE or independent megalomaniacs intent on ruling the world. In addition, the tone of the films shifts with each Bond, alternating from straightforward-but-clever dramatics (Connery, Lazenby Dalton, and Brosnan) to tongue-in-cheek, almost hammy (Roger Moore) and doubles back to serious, almost dark and cold-blooded drama (Craig).
I've seen many of the Bond films on both the silver screen (mostly in the Moore and Dalton eras) and TV, but I have yet to watch all 24 of the EON films produced by the late "Cubby" Broccoli and his heirs, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. And until I purchased The James Bond Collection, I had only seen a few Bond movies on home media that belong to friends and family members.
Because I only got my set recently, I have only watched one film in the series: Dr. No and briefly explored the extra features of From Russia with Love. However, I can report the following:
- The films, even the oldest ones, have all been restored by a technique called the Lowry process, which is named after its inventor, the late John D. Lowry. This means that the image on movies that are now nearly 60 years old have clean, sharp visuals that allow viewers to see fine details such as grains of sand on a Jamaican beach or the weave of a fabric on Bond's tailored suits
- The sound quality is excellent, even on a modest 26-inch 720p HD TV with a soundbar attached to enhance the sound. On a 5.1 multi-speaker home theater set, it's spectacular
- Each film comes with extras that are mostly ported over from pre-existing DVD sets. These include behind-the-scenes featurettes made in the 1990s and 2000s, vintage promotional materials such as trailers, TV spots, radio ads, and even archival interviews
If you're a Bond fan but haven't bought any of the 24 films on Blu-ray yet, then this box set is for you. The current (2019) MSRP is $103.95, but Amazon offers it for 23% less at $79.96 plus sales tax.
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