The latest three-pack edition includes once again one film from Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Pierce Bronson. The three-packs come in a slipcover that reveals a special designed box that has the famous barrel of the gun with a hole that reveals a silhouette shot of bond on the cover. Inside the box is a nice black book like presentation where you can turn the pages to reveal a disc on one side and a summary of the film and the breakdown of the extras. It’s a nice way to package the movies even if it’s not in chronological order. However you do also have an option to pick up the films on blu-ray separately as well. It all really comes down to a preference on how you want to collect the films. Amazon is also offering the cool tin container instead of your plastic cases, that Best Buy previously offered in the first two volumes, if you go the individual route.
Goldfinger is the Sean Connery film offered in this edition and in my opinion best of the Connery films. You have all the elements that make a perfect Bond film from the best bad guys, to the double entendres for the girls, Q and his fun gadgets and of course the Aston Martin. Connery and the producers seem to finally really understand the character and are firing on all cylinders at this point. Along with this classic we have a wealth of bonus material included on the film. Goldfinger has two commentary tracks one with the classic Bond director Guy Hamilton to one featuring members of the cast and crew. The rest of the bonus features are in five categories. Declassified: MI6 VAULT includes screen tests with actors Theodore Bikel and Tito Vandis that could have been casted for Goldfinger. There are some classic featurettes made and created during the time period including “Sean Connery from the set of Goldfinger,” “On Tour with the Aston Martin DB5,” and “Honor Blackman Open-Ended Interview” (that is set-up with staged questions that a reporter can recite and make it sound like they are really interviewing the actress who portrayed Pussy Galore in the film). 007 MISSION CONTROL includes everything from options to view the title sequence with out the text to focusing on key elements from the film. Mission Dossier has great featurettes entitled “The Making of Goldfinger,” “The Goldfinger Phenomenon,” and the “Original Publicity Featurette.” Ministry of Propaganda has all the theatrical trailers, radio and TV promotions and even a radio interview with Sean Connery in 1964 and is again an Open-Ended Interviews again. Last but not least we have the Image Database that is broken down by several categories that cover everything from behind the scenes to portraits of the stars.
Moonraker is the Roger Moore bond film offered in this edition. I was a little surprised they didn’t choose The Spy Who Loved Me instead considering this is the continuation of the appearance of the bad guy Jaws (Richard Kiel). Regardless, Moonraker continues on Moore’s more tongue and cheek portrayal of 007. This was made in 1979 and you can clearly see the influence Star Wars had on the producers. This is the only James Bond film in space and a lot of the Austin Powers parodies can be seen coming from this film. This film also includes two commentary tracks one with the director and the cast and crew and one very special one by Sir Roger Moore himself. As with all of these blu-ray editions, the bonus material is broken down into five categories. Declassified: MI6 VAULT includes classic featurettes from 1979, storyboards, sky diving tests and circus b-roll footage. ). 007 MISSION CONTROL again includes everything from options to view the title sequence with out the text and categories that focus on key elements from the film. Mission Dossier includes two featurettes, “Inside Moonraker – An Original Documentary” and “The Men Behind the Mayhem – Special Effects Documentary.” Both are wonderfully done and a wealth of information. Ministry of Propaganda surprisingly is sparse with only one theatrical trailer entitled the “Release Trailer.” Still the commentary on the trailer is pretty funny in a bad funny sort of way. This is really worth watching for the cheese element of it all. Image Database rounds out the bonus material with the images broken down by several categories that cover everything on the film.
The World is Not Enough is the Pierce Bronson bond film featured in this collection. This is Bronson’s third appearance as the British Spy and sadly the last appearance of Desmond Llewelyn as Q who would die later that year in December of 1999. This film features one of the hottest Bond girls Denise Richards as the nuclear physicist Dr. Christmas Jones and one of the best actors to play a bad guy, the almost engaging Robbie Coltrane, as a Russian mafia heavy named Valentin Zukovsky. This film as with the previous two includes two commentary tracks one with the director Michael Apted and one with David Arnold, Peter Lamont and Vic Armstrong who are the composer and crew of the film. The bonus material is broken down into five categories and like the other two films contains hours of material. Declassified: MI6 VAULT has some of the best and rare material available from any previous Bond release. For the first time you have “Deleted & Extended Scenes with Introductions by director Michael Apted.” “The Boat Chase Introduction With Director Michael Apted” that includes alternate takes and an extended cut of the opening boat sequence. All of these unfortunately are not HD quality nor have they been color corrected. Still it’s great to get the opportunity to see unreleased and extended scenes for the first time. One hopes they will consider doing this with more of their Bond titles in the future. There are also a “Hong Kong Press Conference” and a couple original featurettes. 007 MISSION CONTROL offers the same as the other two titles including the title sequence with out the text and categories that focus on key elements from the film. Mission Dossier includes “The Making of The World is Not Enough,” “Bond Cocktail,” “Tribute to Desmond Llewelyn” and “Music Video: "The World is Not Enough" by Garbage.” “THE SECRETS OF 007” gives some key insights n how some of the classic scenes were made in the film. Ministry of Propaganda again only has only one released trailer. The Image Database again completes the bonus features with a collection of behind the scens and promo photos for the film.
As you can see MGM has given everything including the kitchen sink when it comes to delivering these James Bond films. MGM has always taken great care in their James Bond series for the home market and these blu-ray editions are no exception. MGM has once again out done themselves with their latest James Bond Blu-ray Collection Three-Pack, Vol. 3. Do yourself a favor and pick it up to add to your collection.
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