8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
The Best James Bond set on the market.
Date of Review: Aug 19, 2008
The Bottom Line: You won't find a better James Bond boxed set. The picture quality and sound will amaze you. Just like watching the originals in the theater.
So far, this is by far the best boxed set of James Bond films to come out. It is fairly pricey, but if you are a James Bond fan the quality of the DVDs is amazing when you see the restoration. Sean Connery James Bond movies look like they were made a few years ago. There are tons of extras and deleted scenes including documentaries on the making of the picture, the location, interviews and screen tests. If you enjoy finding out about the movie as well as watching it, there is an entire DVD of specials with each 2 disc movie set.
This is commonly referred to as 'The Monster Set' but the packaging makes it less bulky than you would expect. It is worth it to buy this James Bond set over the bootlegged sets on EBay that were made from Japanese market sets. To my knowledge, nobody has bootlegged a James Bond Monster Set because the packaging is so complicated. Each of the 4 boxed sets come with a little booklet for the movie. Unfortunately, the movies are out of sequence in their different sets, which comes from the fact that the sets were originally sold individually and the company didn't want people to pick and choose only early or only later James Bond movies, so each had some new and some older films.
If you can get around the fact that the set has no sequential order, and the fact that it gets hard to put the DVDs in the box with the booklets once the booklets get a little dog eared, the box fits nicely into a DVD collection. I would prefer that the cases be actual DVD cases instead of the semi-flimsy and cheaper slim cases, which break easier. Standard DVD cases might take up more room but would be better than the slim cases, in my opinion.
The quality is amazing on these films. They look as though they are being shown on the big screen. They were also remastered in terms of audio and play nicely on surround sound. When James Bond is in a bar, you can hear the people talking, etc. on the back speakers while talking comes from the front for the main actors and gunshots seem to travel from one side to the other.
The menus are easy to use and there is a disc with a feature film and one for the many special features. I am not exactly sure how many hours worth of special features there are per movie, but I am guessing at least an hour or two with a good variety.
When this set was originally released, it was sold in 4 parts. Each part cost $69 - $79. When it was originally released, the 'Monster Box' of all 4 sets was sold for between $250 - $275. There was some back lash against this set because people had bought previously released boxed sets in other releases where the re-mastery and restoration was not as good years before. You can generally find these on Amazon for around $110 - $170 currently. Around Christmas-time I found them for around $100. I am not sure if there is a big counterfiet problem with these as there is with many other movies. Having said that, I probably would not buy one of these sets off EBay or from a seller in China. I don't believe there is a problem with fake Monster Box sets, but you can never be too careful. You don't want to lose out on the quality if you buy a fake set.
The sets include Casino Royale in a standard DVD case that is packaged separately. Unfortunately it is only available in wide screen, to my knowledge. You will get the two disc set with special features of Casino Royale, but it will not match the packaging for the rest of the set. I am not sure if they will repackage the sets when Quantum of Solace comes out and is released on DVD.
A bigger and better Bond set will be released at some point, but for right now this is the best James Bond boxed set that you can buy. It is worth paying $150 or somewhere around there on Amazon because you will be getting all the movies. At this price, it will cost you around $10 or less per movie. For all the extras and the quality you will receive, it is worth it.
This set does not include the Sean Connery James Bond picture that was made in the 1980s. That was made by a different studio using the James Bond character. It was not reviewed very well as far as James Bond films go, and will probably be the last time another studio makes a James Bond film. You can probably find the DVD somewhere, but I am not sure if it has been released. Also, there is a James Bond film from the 1960s called Casino Royale that was technically the first James Bond film. It stars Peter Sellers and Woody Allen as the villian. It is a far fetched comedy version that is more like Austin Powers than a James Bond film. Obviously that is not included in this boxed set either.
Stay away from those boxed sets released in Japan, the other James Bond series that was not restored as nicely, or any of the bootleg James Bond movies or the single movie releases that do not have special features. This Ultimate Edition 'Monster Box' set is the one that you want for your collection.
