You know, this movie is really not as bad as I remember it.
Roger Moore returns as Bond in The Man With The Golden Gun, his second outing as British super-spy, 007. I’ve never been a big fan of Moore’s wimpy, jocular characterization but his sense of suave doesn’t seem to get in the way here. This isn’t one of the “great” Bond’s but it far out-performs Moore’s later, geriatric efforts in Octopussy and A View to a Kill. He’s on point. Ready for business. And up against one of the coolest villains in Bond history – Dracula!
All right, I’ll fess up. Any affection I have for this movie comes as a result of being a Dracula fanatic. Christopher Lee, most famous for his portrayal of the undead Count in Hammer‘s series of horror films, cuts a fantastic, villainous figure no matter the film franchise: Evil wizard Saruman in Lord of the Rings, Sith Lord Count Dooku in Star Wars or tri-nippled hitman Francisco Scaramanga in The Man With The Golden Gun. The man is legend.
Britt Ekland and Hervé Villechaize round out a fairly strong cast (strangely, they would re-team on the 80s TV show, Fantasy Island) who manage to keep the pedestrian plot from sinking into complete malaise. The Man With The Golden Gun is not great cinema. The script is lazy, falling back on Bond and action/comedy cliches. But somehow, the dynamic personalities on-screen keep me interested. Keep the film alive!
The disc, like most of the FOX/MGM James Bond efforts on Blu-ray, looks better than ever! This isn’t a revelatory transfer, like Dr. No but crisp and balanced in every way. Colours seem true and and there’s a lot of detail to appreciate up on the screen. I would say, it’s so true to the film elements, in fact, that Scaramanga’s third nipple has never looked more fake than on Blu-ray!
Extras on this disc, like the Licence to Kill Blu-ray, reviewed earlier on The Blu-ray Blog are plentiful and echo the previously released DVD:
• Audio Commentary Featuring Sir Roger Moore
• Audio Commentary Featuring Director Guy Hamilton and members of the cast and crew
• Guy Hamilton: The Director Speaks
• Roger Moore and Herve Villechaize – The Russel Harty Show
On Location with The Man with the Golden Gun
• The Road to Bond: Stunt Coordinator W.J. Milligan, JR.
• Girls Fighting Featurette
• 007 Mission control: Interactive Guide into the World of The Man with the Golden Gun
• American Thrill Show Stunt Film
• Double-0 Stuntment: A Look at the Greatest Stunts and Stunt Performers in the Bond Films
• Inside The Man with the Golden Gun – An Original Documentary
Related posts
]]>
Weird…
This movie kicks my ass. Timothy Dalton kicks my ass. What was the public thinking back in the 80s, not turning out in droves to support the man in his second outing as super not-so-secret British agent James Bond? How were we not pining for him to return in a third film? How did we end up going from a balls-to-the-wall (minus the Wayne Newton factor) revenge thriller to the more anaemic Brosnan outings? Urgh…Thank M for the coming of the current Daniel Craig era.
Craig and Dalton have a couple of things in common: they both play Bond like a bad-ass. And that really works for the series. In fact, it’s the factor that people find most attractive about the latest films. You feel like no one in their right mind would mess with Craig. And I can safely say the same for Dalton. Dalton looks perpetually on-edge, even when smiling. Like he’s ready to snap your neck at the drop of a hat. Hell, I’d be afraid to even shake the man’s hand! If he has a failing in the performance of the character at all, it’s that he is perhaps the least charming of all the Bonds. He always seems less keen on a magical night under the covers and more interested in feeding crooked DEA agents to sharks, pulping henchman to a fine dust or setting drug czars on fire. But honestly, as a Bond fan, I’m more interested in his bad-assery than his romantic encounters. And this film delivers in spades.
Bond is out for revenge. His best pal, American CIA agent Felix Leiter is fed to the sharks and left for dead on his wedding day. Following the trail of the drug czar responsible, 007 kicks so many asses on US soil that MI6 yanks his licence to kill. Yeah…like Bond needs a licence. He enlists the help of gadget guru, Q, a hot CIA pilot (Carey Lowell from Law & Order!) and the girlfriend of the man he’s hunting (Talisa Soto – married to Benjamin Bratt from Law & Order!) to satisfy his thirst for dead bad guys! Exciting? You betchca!
And Dalton’s bad-assery has never looked better than on this Blu-ray disc. Licence to Kill comes to high-def in a nice, if far from perfect 2.35:1 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. I have the old DVD set that includes this film and I can safely recommend this new Blu-ray edition as an upgrade. You’re just not going to see as great a leap in quality as you did in previous Blu-ray Bonds (Dr. No left me breathless!) but if you don’t own a copy of Licence yet, this is an easy buy. You kind of need to own this, in fact, if you’re any sort of Bond fan.
The bonus features are all ported over from the DVD set. Nothing new here, as far as I can tell. The studio has, however re-constituted the old ‘making-of’ docs for all the Bond discs into hybrid SD/HD pieces. All interview footage remains SD (as it was shot) but all film stills and movie cuts have been upgraded to HD and look fantastic. Here’s a list of extras:
• DECLASSIFIED: MI6 VAULT Deleted Scenes With Director John Glen Introductions
• Audio Commentary featuring director John Glen and cast members
• Commentary featuring producer Michael W. Wilson and crew members
• On the Set with John Glen Featurette
• On Location with Peter Lamont
• Ground Check with Corky Fornoff Featurette
• Bond ’89
• 007 MISSION CONTROL Interactive Guide Into the World of Licence to Kill
• Inside Licence to Kill
• Production Featurette “Behind the Scenes”
• Kenworth Trucks Featurette
• Gladys Knight “Licence to Kill” Music Video
• Patti LaBelle “If You Asked Me To” Music Video
• Original Trailers & Photo Gallery
• Image Database
Related posts
]]>
Valkyrie (2008, Blu-ray released May 19, 2009 – MSRP $39.99)
I think I’ve got a lot of Tom Cruise baggage. That must be it. I’m not sure if it’s the scientology, the Nicole Kidman-break-up or the uber-fake, aggressively-jolly persona he puts on for the media but damage has been done to my perception of the man. And that damage, of course, carries over to my desire to see him in films.
So, there I am, holding the Valkyrie Blu-ray in my hand, considering whether it might not be better to pass the disc off to someone else for review, when my roommate storms in, “Is that Valkyrie? Oh, sweeeet! Put it on!” And just like that, it was out of my hands.
Clearly I can’t be left to make these movie-watching decisions for myself. Valkyrie is phenomenal and I’m glad I had the chance to see it. Let me be more specific – the Valkyrie Blu-ray presentation is phenomenal. The film itself is quite wonderful, able to wring suspense from a plot whose ultimate conclusion we’re intimately familiar with (The story is based on real events and follows a conspiracy by officers of the SS to kill Hitler. Do they succeed? Uhhh…) What I found striking about the experience was how it was able to completely win me over and make me forget about my preconceptions of film and star. I’m not just talking about the filmmaking chops of director Bryan Singer and his accomplished cast and crew here but raving about the overall quality of the disc. It looks vivid, colourful and full of detail, sounds clean, punchy, dynamic and really assists in bringing the film to life for home video. I’m finding more and more that when a Blu-ray disc is well produced, transfered with care and given the sparkle of something freshly minted I become more immersed in the experience. In fact, I’m finding more often than not that my home video experience is superior to that of my theatrical. And in this case, it was enough to make me forget that I was watching Tom Cruise.
Valkyrie is a strong film on it’s own, despite the awesomeness of the disc. Cruise does a remarkable job, disappearing into the injured soldier turned conspirator role (portraying a man he bears a striking resemblance to) and holds his own against powerhouse performances by the likes of Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard and more. Equally remarkable are the commentary tracks, one of which sees director Singer and Cruise entertaining the notion of changing up the United Artists logo, a company now owned by Cruise. The package of extras on the disc is simply outstanding: The aforementioned commentary tracks, a handful of featurettes and sit-down interviews capped off by a brilliant two-hour History Channel-style look at the history of the nazi party and the officer’s conspiracy to remove Hitler from power and save Germany, Europe and the world from his tyranny.