James Bond Ultimate Sean Connery - Dr.No/From Russia With Love/Goldfinger/Thunderball/You Only Live Twice/Diamonds Are Forever (Box Set) (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
Soundtrack	Outstanding

Advantages:	All of Sean in one box
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is a real treasure trove for Bond fans….

Sean Connery was the original Bond and this box contains all the Connery Bonds in the 2 disc format that was recently released. But be aware that this does not contain Never Say Never Again (1983) as this was not deemed an official entry.

This is classic Bond without any doubt. And even today they are still memorable, watchable and very enjoyable. Each film has been re-mastered digitally which means that you get a better picture, Dolby sound and a whole host of extras, in fact the extras are better than the previous release 4 years ago as more stuff has been added.

The quality of each film has been improved and to watch Dr No which was made in 1962 with this high quality shows how much work was done on each film, on the Dr No disc there is a documentary about the process and the depths they went to achieve this standard, this alone give some staggering figures on what was done with all 20 films.

We've all seen the films a number of times on a Bank Holiday and we all know what happens in them as there is a generic formula so I wont trudge through each film individually, but suffice to say that the first three films Dr No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger do stand out above the rest as it was with Goldfinger that the formula was injected and as with You Only Live Twice the plots of the films start to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Especially with the gadgets and the stunts involved in the story.

The majority of the music in the box set is composed by legend John Barry and is recignisable as a Bond music, Shirley Bassey is on the soundtrack of two of the films. The Dr No soundtrack was composed by Monty Norman.

The method of direction accounts for a lot of the suspense/ action as well as you see different styles of story telling coming through, for example comparing Lewis Gilbert directing You Only Live Twice and Terence Young directing Dr No. Even though these films are just 5 years apart, you can clearly see the evolution of the franchise and how far it had come even then.

The documentaries on the second disc reflect this and take information about the films a stage further, not only do they tell the story from the idea and production stages but also follow it through to the Premier and afterwards with the actors and writers themselves with new interviews and footage from the time obatined by news fottage. They have even included items that you would normally get to hear about as they would not be considered "customer friendly"at the time. Most notably about incidents on set such as Helicopter crashes, the story of Sean Connery resigning from the role of Bond uncovers the process that the producers went through to find a replacement.

Every aspect is covered in the documentaries including profiles of Ian Fleming and the producers of the films as well. Michael Wilson does the narration on the newer extras that were not present on the previous release that I have mentioned. Patrick Macnee from The Avengers narrates the documentaries and conveys the stories with some style.

As I said earlier the quality of the films have been improved so much compared to previous releases, no crackles no hairs and so on, so if you have a big screen TV, this will be a match made in heaven. The sound of the explosions and gun shots on a sound system will be satisfying to say the least. It is only the quality that has changed, the films have not been "upgraded" I the way that Star Wars has been and all deleted scenes included are still kept separate.

Artwork and presentation is very effective due to its simplicity on the box and shows Connery in his prime in the iconic Bond pose, each individual disc has disc printed pictures related to the film as well. The menu stylization is unique to each disc, the pictures from each film have been added as background and the music from each film plays over the menus although the animation remains the same which does add a nice touch.

I have this already and am very happy with this as it is does look good on the shelf. Look around for the prices as they do fluctuate between vendors, this is not only good value for money as you get 6 films but also get double the amount in extras as well.