The Films
The three films in this volume include three different Bond actors including Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Pierce Brosnan. Chronologically, Goldfinger comes first, so I’ll begin with it.
Goldfinger is Bond’s third outing on the big screen and pits Connery as 007 against Gert Fröbe, who plays the diabolical Auric Goldfinger. Goldfinger is hell-bent on destroying the world economy by harvesting the gold at Ft. Knox. Bond begins his investigation of Goldfinger at the direction of MI-6 who suspects Goldfinger is up to no good. As he works to thwart Goldfinger’s plan, Bond encounters the silent killer Oddjob, whose hat has a razor sharp brim. Pilot Pussy Galore works for Goldfinger and is the Bond girl this time around.
Goldfinger is considered by many as one of the very best Bond films and it’s easy to see why. It has an excellent plot, interesting characters, and all of the girls and gadgets you’d expect from a Bond film.
Next up is Moonraker, starring Roger Moore. This 1979 Bond film takes the action across several locations around the world, as well as into space. Moonraker is one of those Bond films I haven’t seen as many times as a lot of others, and I’m not sure why, I really like it. In Moonraker, Bond is tasked with finding a missing space shuttle that was hijacked in flight over the Atlantic ocean. The 747 transporting the space shuttle was found crashed and destroyed, but the shuttle itself has gone missing. Bond’s investigation leads him to Drax Industries, a massive multi-national corporation that built the shuttle (named Moonraker actually). He visits the American base of operations for Drax Industries which is also the location of the Drax estate. It’s here that Bond meets Hugo Drax, the incredibly wealthy owner of all things Drax. Bond’s investigation takes him to Italy, Rio de Janeiro, and eventually into space as he and undercover CIA agent Holly Goodhead must keep Drax from poisoning the world with a rare, but fatal orchid plant.
I find Moonraker to be a very good and fun Bond movie and it remains one of my favorites.
The last film in this set is The World Is Not Enough. Starring Pierce Brosnan, this Bond adventure has Bond playing bodyguard to a billionaire heiress after her father is killed by a bombing at the MI-6 building. Robert Carlyle plays the villain known as Renard, who cannot feel pain due to a bullet that is lodged in his brain. Renard is a nuclear terrorist who is determined to destroy Europe and disrupt the world’s oil supply. The World Is Not Enough isn’t Brosnan’s finest effort, and it’s a pretty straight-forward Bond adventure that isn’t too high on my all time favorite Bond list. That’s not to say it’s a bad movie though.
Bond On Blu-ray
The previous Bond movies on Blu-ray have been very impressive. The work that has gone into restoring the older Bonds and bringing them to HD is nothing short of excellent. That’s the case again with this box set as all three films look simply outstanding. From the scenic views of Rio de Janeiro and Italy from Moonraker to the crisp modernness of The World Is Not Enough, the video quality of this box set is sweet. The DTS-HD 5.1 audio tracks are superb as well and make for a truly enjoyable experience.
And for extra features, there are a ton, just like the previous Bond Blu-ray releases. Frankly, my only complaint about the Bond Blu-ray releases to this point is how they’re split into volumes instead of having just one massive box set, but I’m sure that’s coming. Anyway, the features are:
Goldfinger:
-Audio Commentary with Director Guy Hamilton
-Audio Commentary with Cast And Crew
-Sean Connery On the set of Goldfinger
-Screen Tests with Theodore Bikel And Tito Vandis
-On Tour With the Aston Martin DB5
-Honor Blackman Open Ended Interview
-007 Mission Control: 007, Women, Allies, Villains, Mission Combat Manual, Q Branch and Exotic Locations
-Making of Goldfinger
-Goldfinger Phenomenon
-Original Publicity Feature
-Theatrical Archive
-TV Broadcasts
-Radio Communication
-Image Gallery
Moonraker:
-Audio Commentary with Director and some members of the crew
-007 In Rio – 1979 Feature
-Bond ’79
-Ken Adam’s Production Films
-Learning to Freefall Sky Diving Test Footage
-Sky Diving Storyboards
-Circus Footage
-Cable Car Alternate Storyboards #1 and #2
-007 Mission Control: 007, Women, Allies, Villains, Mission Combat Manual, Q Branch, and Exotic Locations
-Inside Moonraker
-Men Behind the Mayhem – A Special Effects Documentary
-Trailer
-Image Gallery
The World Is Not Enough:
-Audio Commentary with three members of crew (Lamont, Arnold, Armstrong)
-Deleted And Extended Scenes
-The Boat Chase
-James Bond Down River (1999 Feature)
-Creating An Icon: Making the Teaser Trailer
-Hong Kong Press Conference
-007 Mission Control: 007, Women, Allies, Villains, Mission Combat Manual, Q Branch, and Exotic Locations
-Making of
-Bond Cocktail
-Tribute To Desmond Llewelyn
-Music Video by Garbage
-Secrets of 007: Alternate Video Options
-Trailer
-Image Gallery
All three Bond films contain the same style of menu that the other 20th Century Fox Bond Blu-ray releases have as well. With that, let’s get to the summary…