GoldenEye: Ultimate Edition (1995) |
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GoldenEye: Ultimate Edition (1995) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Action |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Director Martin Campbell and Producer Michael G Wilson Credits Deleted Scenes-With Introductions By Dir. Martin Campbell Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Anatomy Of A Car Chase: Remy Julienne Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Anatomy Of A Stunt: Tank Versus Perrier Featurette-Building A Better Bond: Pre-production Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Goldeneye: The Secret Files Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Goldeneye: The Secret Files-Crew Featurette-Location Scouting With Peter Lamont Featurette-Making It Small In Pictures:Derek Meddings Featurette-The Return Of Bond - Start of Production Press Event Storyboards-Pre-title Sequence Featurette-Making Of-Directing Bond: The Martin Chronicles Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Optional Segments By Martin Campbell Gallery-Photo-Various Music Video-Goldeneye - Tina Turner Featurette-World Of 007 - A Documentary Featurette-The Goldeneye Video Journal Featurette-Promotional/ More................ |
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| Rating | ? | ||
| Year Of Production | 1995 | ||
| Running Time | 124:20 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
RSDL (61:04) Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Martin Campbell |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Pierce Brosnan Sean Bean Izabella Scorupco Famke Janssen Joe Don Baker Judi Dench Gottfried John Robbie Coltrane Alan Cumming Tchéky Karyo Desmond Llewelyn Samantha Bond Michael Kitchen |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $19.95 | Music |
Bono Eric Serra The Edge |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Greek Hindi English Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | Yes | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Goldeneye was the first Pierce Brosnan Bond film in 1995 and quite possibly the best of them. Some even consider it the best Bond film ever. Goldeneye was a stunning return to form for the series, both critically and at the box office, coming as it did after the Timothy Dalton films and a 6 year break due to a disagreement between Danjaq and United Artists. It has previously been released twice in Region 4, once in 1999 and then as part of the special editions in 2001.The reviews of the previous versions can be found here and here, the second one containing an excellent plot summary. This new version is significantly different to both previous releases. The main differences can be summarised as follows:
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| Original Release | Special Edition | New Ultimate Edition |
| Video Transfer | All on one layer but well reviewed at the time | RSDL and extremely well reviewed at the time | Very clean from a film artefacts perspective but I have some problems with it (See below). |
| Audio Transfer | Reduced bitrate Dolby Digital 5.1 (384 Kb/s) | Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) | Remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and DTS 5.1 (768 Kb/s). |
| Version | Cut version for BBFC | Uncut | Uncut |
| Commentaries | One | One | One |
| Other extras | Theatrical Trailer | Reasonable selection of making of, featurettes, music videos etc | Everything from the previous edition plus many new extras on a separate disc |
This is a top flight Bond film featuring excellent villains including probably the first one who could be described as both sexy and completely evil, some fantastic action sequences and stunts, a great new Bond, excellent casting (even Minnie Driver strangling her cat), and the usual cars, girls, gambling and humour.
In the Bond series, this film is notable due to the first appearance of Dame Judi Dench as 'M' and also the first (for a long time) without titles by Maurice Binder as he died in 1991. The title sequence used, however, certainly keeps to the pattern he developed. One element of this new film which got some of the fans jumping up and down was the different style of score from what had previously been used. Eric Serra's score is more modern than previous scores but to my mind does an excellent job. Another interesting change for this film is that the team created their own new movie studio on the site of an old Rolls Royce factory, thereby moving away from Pinewood.
Great Bond film.
The video quality is disappointing considering the excellent reviews given to previous versions.
The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.
The Lowry restoration process has certainly resulted in a very clean and clear image throughout. The sharpness, however, was somewhat variable with the occasional scene such as the one around 44:00 featuring M and Bond having an argument being a little soft and showing some grain and even mild macro-blocking in backgrounds. Generally, however, the transfer was very sharp. The shadow detail was excellent. It should be noted that despite having the same aspect ratio, the pictures are quite differently cropped between this and the SE version, with less picture being shown in this version.
The colour was excellent and, to my eyes, natural throughout.
The main problem I have with this transfer is the introduction of quite noticeable aliasing and jagged edges which occur regularly. Most occurrences are mild, however considering that this was not present on previous versions of this film (based on the previous reviews) this is quite disappointing. Examples can be seen on the Aston Martin grille at 12:30, 14:00 and 16:40, buildings at 16:20, a roof at 21:01, buildings at 25:15, a grille at 33:38, a computer at 49:25 and a plane at 91:25. Additionally, the dam in the opening sequence has quite a few jagged edges and shimmering. This list is not exhaustive but indicates a level of aliasing and shimmering which is not acceptable when this is marketed as an Ultimate Edition. If this was just a normal release of a 10 year old film, I would not make such a big deal out of this problem, but considering this was not a problem on the other film in this new edition which I have reviewed, Octopussy, and was not a problem on previous releases of this film, I think my disappointment is justified.
There are 11 subtitle streams including English & English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read but a little summarised. Two of the other streams are commentary subtitles.
The layer change occurs at 61:04 and was not noticeable during playback.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour | |
| Grain/Pixelization | |
| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
The audio quality is excellent.
This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and an English DTS 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 768 Kb/s. There is also a commentary encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kb/s. I watched the entire film in DTS and compared the Dolby Digital in a number of key scenes. Both are excellent, however I felt the DTS was more dynamic, with a bit more LFE which made it even more "in-your-face". There is excellent stereo separation with many right to left effects in addition to the excellent surround usage (see below).
Dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times and there was no problem with audio sync.
The score of this film is by Eric Serra who as discussed above was the subject of some disappointment by long term Bond fans who felt the score was too modern and different from other Bond scores. This score can stand on its own merits however and adds significantly to the film, especially the action scenes.
The surround speakers are put to excellent use throughout this film providing aggressive surround effects during action scenes and immersive atmosphere otherwise. Standout sequences included the helicopter scene at 69:00 and the tank scene at 78:00.
The subwoofer was also well used adding significant bass to the many explosions, train crashes, tank squashes and of course to the music.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
| Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
| Surround Channel Use | |
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| Overall | |
There are copious extras spread over two discs. I will mark extras which did not appear on the previous releases as **NEW**. Subtitles are available for nearly all the extras.
The menu was very nicely designed, reminiscent of the Bond movie opening credits style. I did find them slightly non-obvious in terms of finding all the extras especially the four pages of extras under Declassified MI6 vault. On these pages look out for the > on the bottom of the menu which leads you to three extra pages of items.
This commentary appeared on the previous versions of the disc and I found it quite enjoyable compared to other more recent commentaries I have heard.
DVD Production Credits
Four cut scenes are included in this section, all of which are non-essential but some are good for a laugh. 16x9 enhanced. The scenes are
Short featurette about the opening car chase between Bond and Onatopp featuring interview footage with the stunt co-ordinator for the chase. 4x3
Interesting featurette hosted by the director and featuring footage of the stunt being filmed on their studio lot and interview footage with the second unit director. 4x3.
A featurette made before production started to raise media interest in the project. Includes footage of the announcement of the new James Bond and details of the new studio built especially for the project. 4x3.
A worthwhile and reasonably interesting making of featurette which covers the new studio, Pierce Brosnan, budgets, effects, miniatures, props, locations and how specific scenes were put together. Includes interviews with important cast and crew members.
Featurette focusing on the supporting cast showing behind the scenes footage and interviews. Includes coverage of Dame Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane, Famke Janssen, Sean Bean, Isabella Scurupco, Alan Cummins & Desmond Llewellyn.
Another interesting extra which consists of film taken by production designer Peter Lamont as he scouts locations all over the world. It is accompanied by his commentary.
A short tribute to miniature maker Derek Meddings who died just after production wrapped, featuring the work he did for the film.
This is footage of the press event to launch the production featuring the cast and crew plus backstage footage. OK.
Introduced by the director, this shows the opening sequence in storyboards.
Featurette on the director including a lot of behind the scenes footage of him spitting the dummy about things going wrong. Quite amusing and certainly refreshing to see something which is shown warts and all. Includes interviews with cast, crew and the man himself.
Two segments of the previous featurette with Martin Campbell commentating over them. In one he discusses why he was so annoyed and in the other talks about his DOP, Phil Meheux.
This fairly pointless set of extras consists of highlights from the film separated into small segments and categorised into 007, Opening Titles, Women, Allies, Villains, Mission Combat Manual, Q Branch & Exotic Locations. The only thing I noticed that wasn't in the film was a version of the title sequence without text.
This sub-menu includes a number of quality featurettes which all appeared on the special edition. Specifically they are:
This sub-menu includes two trailers and 12 TV spots for the film, all of which were included on the special edition.
This is a large selection of image galleries on various topics. The photos included are stills from the film, publicity material and behind-the-scenes shots. The galleries are presented with one text page each describing the topic and are timed rather than requiring you to click through each photo. There are segments on the stars plus scenes, girls, extras and publicity.
There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
These new Ultimate Editions are the same globally except for colour system differences and subtitles. Draw.
The video quality is disappointing.
The audio quality is excellent.
There are a huge array of high quality extras on this 2 disc set.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output |
| Display | Sony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC). |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX-511 |
| Speakers | Monitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Yamaha YST SW90 subwoofer |