I broke down and got Bond 50 on Blu-ray. It's the boxed set with all 22 official Bond movies in two hardcover booklets. I don't like buying complete collections that will become obsolete in a year or two due to additional movies being released, but this time I figured… what the hell. I've avoided buying the movies because I didn't want the other boxed sets they offered before, and even though the movies are now available individually, I didn't want to shell out tons of money cobbling everything together before they go out of print. Bond 50 was the easier way to go. For now. On one hand it was probably short sighted because I'll most likely get these movies again in some form. But on the other, I finally have all the official movies and the collection itself looks great. Every disc has its main Bond Girl next to the sleeve and they did a excellent job of making a custom menu for each movie. There are only two exceptions. Quantum of Solace didn't get a Bond 50 menu and the vacant sleeve for Skyfall doesn't have a Bond Girl next to it. In fact, I'm wondering if they'll make a Bond 50 disk for Skyfall. I doubt it, but who knows. The boxed set released in North America, from what I've read, is also lacking an unedited version of Casino Royale as well as the documentary Bond Girls Are Forever, which was released with the Casino Royale 2-Disc Deluxe Edition. Doesn't matter though since the documentary keeps getting re-edited every few years with each new movie. The set is loaded with other bonus material though, supposedly 119 hours worth, and what little I've seen is in standard definition. I wish the set included Never Say Never Again and the two earlier versions of Casino Royale since MGM seems to have the rights to those, assuming I've heard the convoluted story right. Oh well. I'll have to find them individually. Never Say Never Again won't be easy since it looks to be out of print and those selling it are charging a lot. Anyway, I look forward to watching at least Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace before Skyfall's North American release.
I'm still saving up for mine, but my roommate got this set when it was released and has thus far been very pleased with it.
I don't have time now with all the Halloween films, but I wouldn't mind watching all the films again over a couple months after seeing Skyfall.
All they need to do is make the front of the disc match really, the rest of the Skyfall box doesn't matter so hopefully this fairly small step will be taken. The menus weren't created especially for this set by the by, they're reused from the 2006 DVD's (though this is the first time [i}Casino Royale[/i] gets one. Apparently because they had to repress it anyway due to including most of the stuff from the two disc Blu Ray. Shame Quantum didn't get similar treatment). As I understand it the films that were released on Blu Ray a few years ago had their special features updated with the documentaries made into HD and widescreen and given new opening and closing credits to match. The films that are débuting in this set though have only had straight imports of the DVD content. The "Inside" docuemntaries are all very good and well made (especially for the late '90's, I think Bond was the franchise to push the boat out on special features for every film in the series) with lovely old Patrick Macnee narrating. Oh, and b warned. Sir Roger's face in A View To A Kill in HD is scary as hell. He looks like one of those toffee coloured thousand year old corpses that get dug out of a peat bog every so often.
I read a few reviews of Bond 50 and a number of people were complaining that only the UK set had a longer uncut version. I looked into it further and apparently the movie had parts cut out in various markets due to the graphic nature of the scenes, but there was a British TV edit that put back most or all of what was taken out. It seems that this version made it to the UK set. The North American set does include deleted scenes as extras though, so maybe what was taken out is there. I haven't looked into that. When I made my post about the bonus material being in standard def, it was because I looked the Gladys Knight and Chris Cornell videos and they didn't look the best. Then I sampled some more of the documentaries after seeing your post, some from the Roger Moore era and some from the Pierce Brosnan era. They looked alright. They were either HD or just looked good with upscaling. Some items are a bit grainy of course, but what can you do with decades old documentary footage that probably wasn't shot well or looked after in the first place.
I bought this set on Amazon (the price/disc is so low, you'd have to hate the films to not jump on this deal) and am burning through them like candy. Wanted to see if anyone else was discussing this. I wonder if there is any interest in a watch-thread?
I have considered getting this set, but it would mean double dipping, which I might do should it come down even further in price.