The Evidence

First, you're entitled to fair warning. As my review of James Bond Ultimate Edition (Volume 4) suggests, I'm imbalanced when it comes to James Bond. Judge Johnson (James Bond Ultimate Edition (Volume 2), James Bond Ultimate Edition (Volume 3)) is a righteous Bond freak with a great take on the franchise, but he's (arguably) healthier than I am. We're talking week-long trips to London with a signed copy of James Bond's London in hand, asking the clerks in shops like Dunhill and Turnbull & Asser for "James Bond's lighter" or "James Bond's Sea Island cotton shirt." Regular re-readings of the entire Bond canon from Casino Royale to "The Hildebrand Rarity." The other day, my wife asked me how to make a martini like James Bond would drink. Before I could finish the words "three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet" she called me a pedantic asshole and moved on. (By the way, you can't get Kina Lillet anymore, and Gordon's gin sucks.) Just wanted you to know where I'm coming from so you'll understand when I rank The Living Daylights over Goldfinger.

To judge the audio quality of this set, I began with the pre-credits sequence of The World is Not Enough. For several years, the speedboat chase in the Special Edition release has been my audio demo material. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix in the older release is superlative, with a enveloping stage, clarity, oomph, and enough sonic effects to give any production team pause. From the booming torpedoes to the high-pitched whine of the speedboat controls to the swooping waves of misplaced water, this sequence is a challenging test of separation, dynamic range, and positioning. I wondered whether the new DTS 5.1 surround track could possibly improve upon it; though audiophiles generally prefer DTS tracks, there is no technical reason why a Dolby Digital track can't match or exceed DTS.

In practice, the DTS is slightly more crisp and less mellow than the Dolby track, which boils down to a matter of personal preference. I prefer the Dolby Mix in this case because I'm used to its nuances, and the DTS track doesn't offer anything substantially better. In other words, they did an oustanding job with the original mix and DTS doesn't offer much improvement.

The Living Daylights, on the other hand, can stand some improvement on the original stereo mix. The soundtrack is music-heavy given that female lead Kara Milovy is a cellist at the Bratislava Conservatory (incidentially, this was Barry's last Bond score, and it is a love letter to music). Between Necros dishing out grenades and Kara strumming the cello, The Living Daylights has a demanding sonic field to convey. The previous release did a competent, unexciting job with this task. I'm generally against post-humous surround remixes, but in this case the new DTS mix provides a welcome boost in clarity and separation while retaining the feel of the original stereo mix.

As we move back further in time past the '70s and into the '60s, the DTS mix becomes less and less relevant. Goldfinger is a monaural film; does the artificially widened soundstage and slight boost in clarity justify tearing apart a superlative mono track? For its time, Goldfinger's brassy intro song, roomy sonic effects, and crackling dialogue were ear-opening. Nevertheless, if you venture to try the Goldfinger DTS 5.1 track, your ears will be opened, and then crammed full of throbbing motors, explosions, and gutsy vocals. I didn't like the change; it seemed too dynamic and cranked too loud.

As for Diamonds are Forever, no remix is going to solve the slight (but persistent) lip synch issues and generally blah sonic field present in the film. It just isn't a great sounding film, despite its Oscar nomination for Best Sound. The Bond team is superb when it comes to audio, so good for them, but I truly don't get the nod for this particular soundtrack. At least The Man with the Golden Gun has surreal funhouse laughter and lots of echoey, '70s-era gunshots.

All told, the DTS tracks are a welcome addition to the arsenal and do sound crisper, though The Living Daylights is the only film with a clear improvement from the DTS treatment. How do the visuals fare?

Again, the transfer of The World is Not Enough was already up to snuff, though it was a little dark, which rubbed out detail in low-contrast areas. Unlike Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough doesn't have any strange color pushes. The new transfer improves detail almost imperceptibly. Dark scenes get the most benefit, though the whole transfer has a slight warmth added throughout.

The Special Edition release of The Living Daylights was noticeably soft, with washed-out colors and a greenish-gray cast. The night scenes under the Ferris wheel in Vienna present a challenging contrast of blacks and jewel tones that the Special Edition struggled to meet. The improvement in this new Ultimate Edition transfer is immediately noticeable. Much of the softness is gone, replacing the haze with details I've never seen before in the rocks and buildings of Gibraltar. The red lights at the base of the rock have greatly improved saturation so that they look like red lights instead of reddish-brown spatter. If you've ever wondered whether there is actual nudity in a Bond film, the new detail in The Ultimate Edition of The Living Daylights definitively answers that question when Puskin's bodyguard barges through the doorway. Interior scenes still have a greenish-gray cast, but contrast and detail are much higher. And the Ultimate Edition finally meets the challenge of nighttime Vienna's blacks and jewel tones, although blues seem oversaturated in these scenes.

The Man with the Golden Gun shows a similar improvement in detail, contrast, and saturation. Colors pop and the lush island paradise looks like a lush island paradise. The first reel is slightly rough, but things settle down quickly. This movie benefits from increased stability in the frame; Lowry's process makes the image rock stable. Diamonds are Forever also enjoys newfound stability and has no detectable edge enhancement, yet the transfer is very dark in outdoor night scenes and lacks contrast overall. Nevertheless, increased detail makes up for color biases any day.

The most dramatic improvement belongs to Goldfinger. The quality of the final projection print for this 1964 film was limited by the precision of the sprocket-hole alignment of three color masters. Film is essentially a big ribbon, and though the tension is tightly controlled at the point of duplication vibrations and misalignments can occur. But Lowry Digital has no such limitations. The color masters in this case line up 100% perfectly, which makes this scan of Goldfinger superior to the original master. No matter how many times you've seen Goldfinger, you'll see it anew with this transfer. Even this transfer is not perfect. Goldfinger's popularity must have left the masters with more than their fair share of dirt: slight edge enhancement is clearly discernable in the opening scenes.

As with the other Ultimate Editions, these new Lowry Digital restorations had BluRay in mind. If these Standard Definition transfers show such marked improvement, it means that the High Definition treatment will blow this Ultimate Edition away. If you distrust the future of BluRay and you want the best image quality available, this is the set to own. If you can hold out for the High Definition releases, you have to ask yourself how patient you are.

That does it for the technical discussion—except for one little annoyance: The trailer that plays if you forget to pull up the main menu is lame. This gee-whiz promotion of the Ultimate Edition restorations boldy exclaims that the Ultimate Editions are the pinnacle of DVD video quality. Why, then, is this "Ultimate" footage shown non-anamorphically in letterboxed format? Anyway, the heart of this set is the movies and bonus features (I used a list compiled by Dimitris Kiminas to describe the special features listed for each film). Let's take a look at the bounty offered in Volume One.

Goldfinger
If you took a poll for "Best Bond Film," the clear winner would be Goldfinger. There's little doubt that Goldfinger is the popular favorite, for reasons both sentimental and objective. It had the audacity to introduce a character named Pussy Galore. It gave us one of cinema's most recognizeable images, a perfect female corpse gilded in gold and left casually draped on the bed. It introduced the definitive Bond gadget, an Aston Martin DB5 with tire-shredders and ejector seats. Odd Job upped the ante for all subsequent quirky sidekicks. The sheer madness of attacking Fort Knox is icing on the cake.

But none of these trappings would be enough if the central tension wasn't compelling. Connery is at his easy best, casually slipping into bedsheets and violence with a roguish grin. Bond's manner infuriates Auric Goldfinger, which creates a simmering, escalating schoolyard rivalry that quickly turns nasty. Bond's grudging respect for Goldfinger's caper is unmatched in the rest of the franchise. In short, the two are equals. The laser table exchange is but one payoff of this rich rivalry:

"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No, Mr. Bond! I expect you to die."

Not until Goldeneye would we be treated to such a fine match for James Bond.

Yet in their sentimental zest for Goldfinger, people sometimes gild what should be shoveled out of the stall. I'm talking about some of the worst acting and plot holes in the history of James Bond, if not all of cinema. I'm looking at you, gangsters…"Hey, what's with that trick pool table?" I tell you. That trick pool table, and many minutes before it and after it, are horrific gaffes in screenwriting. Goldfinger hauls in the gansgsters, explains his plan in great detail, allows Mr. Solo to leave, kills him, then kills the gangsters. Why? So Bond (and by extension, the audience) can absorb the plan. Why not have Goldfinger explain it to Odd Job, or even directly to Bond?

While I'm griping, the ending of the film is atypical and unsatisfying. In the book, Pussy Galore is a trifle and there simply for conquest value. Bond hides a note in an airplane lavatory that tips Leiter off (remember that bad acting thing? Cec Linder's Leiter reeks). Bond sweats it out, but only because he is playing a chance. In the movie, Pussy is brassed up considerably by Honor Blackman and given more to do. This is great—but James Bond might as well be a bump on a log. He sits, watches the plot unfold, and waits to die. My problem isn't that Pussy saved the day, rather that Bond did nothing, made no sacrifice, which weakens his heroism considerably. To a lesser extent, Bond's direct disobeyance of M's orders in the opening scenes led to Jill's death. In the book, Bond's skirmish with Goldfinger is by chance, which complicates the later events without putting the blame directly on Bond.

Speaking of Jill, Shirley Eaton stole my heart in her scant few minutes. Is there a more pure flirt in the franchise than Jill Masterson? Her palpable relief at being out from under Goldfinger's thumb charges her lusty bedroom play with Bond. We're meant to fall in love with her, or course, because the script turns our love against us to reveal Auric's cruelty. The image of Jill Masterson suffocated by gold and left draped over the bed like a soiled sheet is visceral and metaphorical; an indeliable image. Goldfinger thinks of women as things, and will break his toys rather than let Bond play with them.

While Goldfinger provides some of the franchise's icons—from the villain to the henchman to the girl to the car—it tells a clumsy story and is full of irritations. It is deservedly in the upper tier of James Bond films, but gold-filtered hindsight has elevated it's reputation a little too high.

New Special Features

• "On Tour With The Aston Martin DB5" (11:13)
For sheer kitsch value and retro auto-erotica, this segment is a hoot. Watch as crowds are dazzled by the revolving radar dish hidden inside the side mirror. Thrill with the throng when the Aston Martin extends her tire shredders, bullet screen, or machine guns. This featurette runs past its stale point, but it is a great reminder of how impressive Bond's gadgets were in the day.

• "Honor Blackman Open-Ended Interview" (3:48)
Between The Avengers and Pussy Galore, you might not know that Honor Blackman has a sweet side (albeit, a very odd one). Her personal magnetism comes through clearly in this concise, telling interview. She looks great to boot.

• "Sean Connery From The Set Of Goldfinger" (3:03)
Unlike Honor, Sean's personality is always front and center. This interview is remarkable for the restraint he shows when answering blithe questions. He discusses his packed schedule and the effects James Bond has on his personal life, but he is always the same Sean Connery we know today.

• "Theodore Bikel Screen Test" (5:23)
Theodore Bikel has probably been in your favorite TV show. He once read for the part of Auric Goldfinger. Bikel has a much different take than Gert Frobe so it is hard to picture him in the role, but this screen test is charming and shows more faithfulness to the book than does the final shooting script.

• "Tito Vandis Screen Test" (3:59)
Tito Vandis has probably been in your least favorite TV show. He too once read for the part of Auric Goldfinger. Vandis lacks the presence of either Frobe or Bikel, yet his screen test is a riot.

• "Exotic Locations"
The Ultimate Edition bonus discs have been reorganized somehwat. The archival featurettes have been listed under the subheading "Declassified." Another subheading details the guns, girls, villans, gadets, etc. in each film. Part of that et cetera is Exotic Locations, and these featurettes are new. They basically detail which locales were used to shoot each film. This will probably interest geography buffs, but these encyclopediac breakdowns get lost in all the pomp and circumstance for me. There is one for each disc, and they are all as forgettable as this one.

Diamonds Are Forever
Interestingly enough, the producers were desperate enough brush On Her Majesty's Secret Service under the rug that they paid Connery an unheard-of contract to return for Diamonds Are Forever. Interestingly enough, Willard Whyte is based on Howard Hughes—specifically, on an oddball dream that Cubby had about Howard Hughes. And interestingly enough, Miss World of 1953, Denise Perrier, bares her breast in Diamonds Are Forever's opening scenes; the first outright nudity in a Bond film.

Yet Diamonds Are Forever isn't interesting at all. In fact, it is nearly robotic in its ineptitude.

The trouble with Diamonds Are Forever is that it's a conscious clone of Goldfinger. After an alarming decline in box office receipts between You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the producers were tripping over themselves to repeat their early smash hit. The problem is that films are creative endeavors, and creative people hate copying their own work. Boredom and the rote mechanics of making a Bond film color every frame. Bassey's theme song performance is forgettable. The exchange between M and 007 about port vintages (while at the home of a noted commodities expert concerned that smuggling will destablize British currency, even) has none of the sizzle of the "disappointing brandy" exchange from Goldfinger. In this one, Bernard Lee rolls his eyes and huffs in a fit of pique while Connery recites the vintage with a stone face. It is embarassing—but not as embarassing as Bond's perfuctory flirtation with Moneypenny.

As each homage to Goldfinger mounts, so falls Diamonds Are Forever. Plenty O'Toole is no Pussy Galore (though wouldn't that be an epic matchup!). The Ford Mustang Mach 1 is no Aston Martin DB5. Neither is the Moon Buggy. Norman Burton is no Cec Linder. And Charles Gray's Blofeld is no Goldfinger.

For that matter, Charles Gray's Blofeld is no Blofeld, either. He is smarmy, effeminate, and completely ineffective as a bad guy. The queer henchmen duos (Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, Bambi and Thumper) leave little impression, to say nothing of the generic hoods Bond faces at every turn.

This lackluster display isn't entirely Cubby's fault. Fleming's Diamonds are Forever is a dull read without much screen-translatable plot. The basic story is the same, with Bond impersonating Franks to infiltrate a diamond smuggling ring. But Fleming's novel is full of dated, fawning fascination with Americana, particularly American gangsters. It has an Old West town with a steam locomotive, which might have been cute. Wint and Kidd at least make sense in the book; a homoerotic pair of football teammates who attack after yelling out the play.

None of this works as a Bond film, so they had to fill the run time with something. Who better than Bond's arch nemesis Blofeld? What better story than diamonds smuggled to make a giant, death-wielding space ray—in order to start an atomic auction? These stakes are absurd. The James Bond franchise finally goes over the top, flattening everything in a whoosh of deflation.

Connery is obviously not engaged with the role, but he makes some scenes work. For example, he is knocked out and dumped into a crematorium. His cool mixture of resignation and quick thinking is prototypical Bond, as is his breezy exit. It is one of the few moments of actual suspense in the series. But even Connery's brief moments of charm cannot salvage a series in creative turmoil. Diamonds are Forever goaded Cubby and friends into making the drastic choice they feared most: selecting a new Bond.

New Special Features

• "Lesson #007: Close Quarter Combat" (4:20)
Essentially and extensive "Behind the Scene" featurette, "Lesson #007: Close Quarter Combat" shows the great planning and care that went into the rather dull elevator fight scene between Bond and Peter Franks. It is more interesting than the fight itself, showing the zoo that surrounds any given movie scene.

• "Sean Connery 1971: The BBC Interview" (5:00)
In contrast to Connery's blunt-but-restrained interview in 1964, this one is raw. The interviewer asks piercing questions about money and Hollywood power plays, and Connery is forthright about his ambitions. His confidence is as confident as can be without becoming sheer egotism and the dialogue reveals much about Connery's mindset at the time. Well worth checking out.

• Alternative Angle Scenes
Along with the expanded scenes below, these alternative angle scenes (Elevator Fight (2:36), Las Vegas Car Chase (4:26)) basically show more footage from the cutting room floor of some key scenes. Sometimes the final version is shown in split screen. I dutifully watched them, but never saw anything that made my eyes widen in excitement.

• Expanded Angle Scenes
Fight with Bambi and Thumper (3:24), Moon Buggy Chase (3:14), Bond Arrives On Oil Rig (1:53)

• Test Reels
The Satellite Test Reel (1:54) pimps the space effects and is dull. The Explosion Tests (1:53) form a dark, apocalyptic tableau of burning bodies, radioactive arrays of missiles, and animated atomic blasts that rival any industrial music video.

• Expanded Scene: Oil Rig Attack (2:20)
Basically, this scene shows frogmen jumping into the ocean from helicopters and floating beside what look like large Christmas presents.

• Deleted Scenes
From extra death and sex to the notable return of Plenty O'Toole (which explains her later death), these deleted scenes are actually interesting.

• Photo Gallery
Introduction, Sean Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, The Supporting Players, Diamond Settings, Diamond Glamour, Behind the Scenes, Where is Blofeld?!, 007 On the Moon, On Location, Titles

• "Featurette-Exotic Locations"

The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun is a like it or loathe it affair. For many reasons the film is lackluster on an objective level. The solex agitator subplot is superfluous and poorly integrated with the central mano a mano plot. The film has perhaps the poorest production values in the series (AMC Hornet, anyone?). It is misogynistic and dull, with behind-the-scenes problems that color what's on screen. For these reasons and more, The Man with the Golden Gun is fairly maligned.

Yet the film has kitschy elements that inspire a disproportionate level of like or loathing in Bond fans. The funhouse with a statue of Roger Moore is one. Knick Knack, played by a famous little Frenchman named Herve Villechaize, is an absurd, yet complex, addition; he blends in with some garden statues, naked and wielding a trident. There's the 360 degree spiral roll and the flying AMC. How about kung-fu schoolgirls? Or a reprise from the worst character this side of Jack Wade, J.W. Pepper? In a word, The Man with the Golden Gun is tacky. This tackiness inspires perverse joy in some misguided souls.

Even with its overall malaise and velvet Elvis asthetic, The Man with the Golden Gun is not Moore's worst Bond effort. Bond's strongarm approach to Andrea Anders (Maud Adams, Octopussy) is laced with misogyny, but is oddly compelling. His exasperation with Knick Knack is a running gag that works. And let's not forget the film's strongest asset, Brit Ekland. True, her character was grossly miswritten, which makes Mary Goodnight among the most annoying Bond Girls in the series. Yet their incompetence could not mask Brit's stunning form and natural appeal. Even when acting like a ditz, she is beguiling. Had she been given a modicum of grace by the screen writers, Mary Goodnight could have been one of Bond's hottest conquests.

The Man with the Golden Gun also creates more icons for the Bond franchise. Scaramanga's titular Golden Gun, assembled from innocuous items he carries around in his pockets, is an enduring gadget that was referenced in In the Line of Fire. Phang Nga Bay's majestic islands give us some of the best travel footage in the franchise. And though the finale was flubbed, the image of Bond and Scaramanga pacing off in a shoreside duel is arresting.

Let's talk about that last item for a moment. Fleming's novel The Man with the Golden Gun sketches a brutal, repugnant character. Scaramanga is freakish and freakishly talented. Bond works himself into a blood lust for the man, which makes the showdown tinged with malice. It is one of the few occasions where Bond wants to kill someone.

The directors begged Christopher Lee to downplay Scaramanga's repugnance and establish himself as an equal to Bond. As a result, Lee and Moore's confrontation feels like two catty members of the garden club sitting down to a distasteful social obligation. Bond seems like an ill-mannered guest to Scaramanga's thinly polite host. Their showdown is pedestrian as a result. Had Lee been allowed to let his menace through, and had Bond been given reason to hate the man, this could have been a marquee matchup. And the less said about the painful solar compound, the better. It exists only to be blown up. Between the lackluster duel and the obvious explosion fodder, the end of The Man with the Golden Gun reeks.

With its third nipples, trident-wielding midgets, and kung fu fighting, The Man with the Golden Gun packs a potent dose of '70s kitsch. Ekland and Adams are easy on the eyes and Moore is a decent Bond. But fans of the serious James Bond have good reason to be disappointed by this missed opportunity.

New Special Features

• Audio Commentary with Roger Moore
The slate of new extras for The Man with the Golden Gun isn't all that impressive until you factor in Roger Moore. A perfect gentleman with a sense of humor, Moore gives his all in discussing the film. He has some flattering words for his fellow cast members and shares some of the discomfort involved with shooting the film. He also discreetly addresses the feud between Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, who left the team after this film. If Moore has some static moments in the commentary, he makes up for it with wit and charm.

• Roger Moore Interview from The Russell Harty Show (2:51)
This disjointed series of clips is most interesting for showing us the times. In many ways, this The Russell Harty Show excerpt shows us that Bond promotion hasn't changed much in three decades. On the other hand, '70s cheese is in full effect.

• "Girls Fighting" (3:29)
This behind-the-scenes featurette shows some incidental damage and gives us a better appreciation for the staging of a fight scene. It is basically an alternate angle that shows where the blows actually "land."

• "American Thrill Show Stunt Film" (5:03)
This heavy dose of 1970s car love shows the dramatic formation of the 360 degree barrel roll that so dazzled audiences of the live stunt show. Oozing machismo and faux danger, this clip is a riotous blast from the past.

• "Guy Hamilton: The Director Speaks" (5:04)
Guy provides a condensed take on the Bond series. His insights hit home, such as when he explains that the formula doesn't automatically lead to a successful film; the Bond team is never lazy and never rests in pursuit of excellence. Though brief, this featurette is well worth a listen or two.

• "The Road To Bond: Stunt Co-ordinator W.J Milligan" (8:01)
If you didn't get that The Man with the Golden Gun is all about stunts, this featurette should get the point across.

• "Exotic Locations"

The Living Daylights
There seem to be two camps when it comes to Timothy Dalton: those with a vague recollection of "some other guy" who did something Bond-related (but very un-Bond like) in the '80s, and those who know precisely who Dalton is, what he did, and have an opinion on his take. The first camp glazes over when the second camp mentions "the books" or "faithfulness to the character," while the second camp vigorously thrashes in an unending, scorching debate.

Both camps have become, whether through indifference or overexposure to the facts, desensitized to the sheer bravery of Dalton's risk. Timothy Dalton stood in the path of a jaggernaut—a well-oiled, lucrative, painstakingly marketed, world-recognizable, decades-old film franchise with clearly established conventions—and turned it aside with a raised hand. "We need to get back to the character," he said, "millions and formula be damned." No witty banter, no casual womanizing, no mindless killing. The branch had grown very far from the trunk, turning a fallible, human, and tired agent into SuperSpy. Dalton perceived that the cartoonishness of the character could not support its own weight. He insisted on portraying a man who killed only with studious (and often contemptuous) intent, one who did what he did for a barely perceptible higher purpose no matter the personal toll. In short, Dalton went directly against the grain to play a grim, emotionally distant weapon, one without time for pleasure. And Dalton's take, though unpopular, paved the way for Brosnan's dark edge and Craig's lance-like approach to James Bond.

What would happen to Dalton if he was wrong? Would he piss off millions of people, and relegate himself to dark, cerebral roles in fringe films? What if he were right? He'd preemptively save the life of cinema's most popular franchise. As it turns out, both things happened, though it took the slow, sad deterioration of scripts during Brosnan's increasingly wasted tenure for the producers to face up to their jinxed spy capers. Dalton did save James Bond—and he became unpopular in the process.

Dalton's Bond begins kicking ass immediately in an introductory shot that rivals Connery's famous "Bond, James Bond." Unlike Connery's mocking repartee in a high-stakes game of Chemin De Fer, Dalton's intro is silent and depends on screen presence. As a fellow 00 tumbles to his death, Bond takes in the scene. He surmises foul play and coils grimly. In that instant, you know that this Bond will not be stopped. There is no sympathy in Dalton's Bond, only effectiveness. The ensuing chase scene is worthy of any other pre credits sequence in the franchise.

Dr. No is the only pure Bond film, but The Living Daylights gives us the purest take on James Bond. There are three reasons for this. First is that the source story is a short, concentrated character study. It is mostly internal, wherein a surly James Bond mulls over the task ahead of him and plays out several imaginary scenarios to pass the time. With the possible exception of You Only Live Twice, "The Living Daylights" is the clearest written distillation of what it means to be Bond. That's well and good, but "The Living Daylights" is also Fleming's greatest short story, one that rivals his novels in detail and depth. This enthralling read dumps years of nervous energy and misspent anger directly into your brain. But the translation of Fleming's cerebral story to screen belongs entirely to Dalton. His every grimace, impatient gesture, and studied grace when approaching the firing position tells. But dialogue is where Dalton truly shines. The venom in his comebacks to Saunders are as effective as the words themselves (even where Fleming would have used an expletive): "[Stuff] my orders. If M fires me, I'll thank him for it. Whoever she was, I must have scared the living daylights out of her." What, no witty throwaway line, like "She should have used her bow" or "I'd rather have taken her out for a drink?"

Many people praise Daniel Craig as finally returning the character to us. Ironically, Craig's take is often dependent on contrast with the franchise's cartoonish formula to be effective. In part, we know Craig's Bond is different because he doesn't give a damn whether his martini is shaken or stirred and knows nothing about fashion; in other words, his Bond is the anti-Bond. With Dalton, you knew he was Bond because he regarded you like a tuxedoed mantis would a bug, and the cold set of his mouth meant business, and because he offered a secret smile of self-congratulations when he'd economically dispatched a foe. Craig does some of these things. He offers his own style of physical intimidation and brute curiosity in search of the truth, and his is an impressive debut. But it isn't as brave or as total as Dalton's re-writing of The Franchise.

Fleming's story was cerebral and brief, both of which shorten the possible run time of a movie adaptation. After a stellar pre-credits sequence and phenomenal interpretation of "The Living Daylights," what follows? The franchise's most complicated story, one that depends on quick thinking and actual spy work to uncover. Though The Living Daylights is on my short list of Best Bonds, even I must admit that this sinuous story is hard to follow and often slow. It deals with deception: Bond deceives Kara (Maryam D'Abo), Koskov (Jeroen Krabbe) deceives Bond/Kara/Pushkin, Puskin deceives Koskov, and so forth until everybody is dead—or at the concert hall in formal dress. The Living Daylights takes us through arms deals, drug deals, KGB defections, the mujahadeen, kidnappings, assassinations, and wargames until the central plot becomes hazy.

Hastening the film's decent in the popularity polls are irritating and/or incompetent villains. Jeroen Krabbe's buoyant villany works in The Fugitive, but grates in The Living Daylights. When he prances in place and kisses Bond on both cheeks, I want to reach into the screen, shove him back into his seat, and make him get serious. But I'll take three Koskovs over one Brad Whitaker. Krabbe's prancing is extremely irritating, but Joe Don Baker's slack-jawed slouching is downright painful. He accentuates every word with overplayed gestures that reek of discomfort, like he is trying out for a school play and has a bad case of jock itch. Joe Don Baker's continuing work in the franchise is a sign of the apocalypse. At least The Living Daylights was decent enough to give us Necros, one of the baddest adversaries Bond has ever faced. When he waltzes into the Bladen safehouse and dishes out a rain of destruction, you're watching an action movie masterpiece.

Lest we rail too hard against the villains, let's not forget the forgettable heroes. Maryam D'Abo is an attractive, poised woman who could have been an amazing Bond Girl. Poor costume choices and an over-earnest script turn her into a petulant pawn. The best Bond Girls give men ungentlemanly urges, but D'Abo is never allowed to express her natural sex appeal. (Look at the D'Abo in the screen test playing Tatiana Romanova for a beguiling Bond Girl.) Saunders is well played by Thomas Wheatley, though his character is a whiny bureaucrat and thus not likeable. Robert Brown's M still can't erase the memory of the irascible Bernard Lee. Art Malik's mujahadeen leader Kamran Shah channels Koskov and prances about like a loon before becoming serious and dull. Even the redoubtable John Rhys-Davies suffers; the key player was supposed to be series regular General Anatol Gogol (Walter Gotell), which would have given the plot instant credibility. Gotell's health prevented this. Puskin is a last-minute fill in and never precisely fits, which Rhys-Davies echoes with a bad case of eyelid flutteritis. John Terry gives Cec Linder a run for worst Leiter, and there is a notable absence of desireable, available women.

Despite its often slow plot, excrutiating villains, and bland heroes, The Living Daylights is jammed full of classic Bond moments. Those who say Dalton is humorless obviously overlook his bone-dry running riff on the cello that Kara insists on bringing with her. (And for humorless? Check out Diamonds Are Forever.) Indeed, The Living Daylights is probably the funniest Bond of them all if you appreciate subtle humor over puns. The ice chase sequence is both exciting and funny, while the Bladen Safehouse fiasco is superlative. There's another impressive fight in an Afghan jail and a breathtaking aerial fight. Though it fails utterly because Joe Don Baker has the gravitas of a schoolboy on a sugar high, the ending sequence is a welcome change from elaborate stainless steel compounds that get blown up by space-age technology.

The first 50 minutes of The Living Daylights is the best Bond movie. The remaining 80 minutes could stand some improvement, though plenty of great scenes lurk there. Dalton's take was impressive enough to usher in the darkest Bond film of them all, Licence to Kill. If you liked Brosnan's darker moments or Craig's spin on the character, you should write Dalton a thank-you letter.

New Special Features

• "Happy Anniversary 007" (47:56)
I don't know why EON loves these encyclopedaic clip shows so much, but "Happy Anniversary 007" is yet another "Best of Bond" mish mash. Casual viewers may get a kick out of it, but I don't.

• Silver Anniversary Featurettes
Cubby Broccoli (1:27), Maryam d'Abo (1:15), Around The World With James Bond (1:31), The New Bond Car (1:58)

• "Timothy Dalton: The New James Bond/Vienna Press Conference" (4:34)
This archival footage shows just how hot the spotlight can get for the new James Bond. I lost count of the camera flashes and the forced smiles from Dalton and D'Abo.

• Dalton and D'Abo Interviews (5:29)
On the other hand, Dalton and D'Abo are approachable in the more relaxed interview setting. She is radiant and lucid while his tight smile gives way to actual discourse.

• "Timothy Dalton: On Acting" (6:53)
Dalton shines in a more intimate one-on-one setting. I don't want to give anything away except to say that if you're a Dalton fan who feels the man got the short end of the stick, you may get a lump in your throat watching this candid interview.

• Deleted Scenes with Introduction by Director John Glen
Introduction (0:09), Magic Carpet Ride (1:36), Q's Lab-Extended Scene (00:48)
These scenes are nice for the sake of completeness, but were rightfully cut.

• "The Ice Chase Outtakes" (8:04)
Deleted footage with voice-over narration by John Glen, "The Ice Chase Outtakes" are not as exciting as what made it into the movie. Glen's recollections about the scene are worth listening to, however.

• "Exotic Locations"

• Photo Gallery
Introduction, Timothy Dalton, Maryam D'Abo, Introducing the New 007, The Villains, Allies, Gibraltar, Czech Mate-Vienna Gambit, Death to Spies, Afghanistan, Hercules, Behind the Scenes, Exotic Beauty, Marketing

The World is Not Enough
The World is Not Enough has the opposite problem of Goldfinger. While people love Goldfinger's strengths enough to forgive it its glaring weaknesses, they despise The World is Not Enough's weaknesses enough to overlook its strengths.

The biggest weakness is not Denise Richards per se, but Denise Richards as a ludicrous character with a ludicrous name who has no bearing on the plot. I love watching her butt ascend the ladder in those tight military-issue shorts as much as the next bloke, but her raison d'être is scant even for a Bond Girl. During the raid on the caviar plant she's so superfluous that they make her sit awkwardly in the corner, as though they forgot Christmas Jones was a character when they were blocking the scene. Her lot doesn't improve much from there.

Now that we've unwrapped Christmas (wink wink), will we allow her to overshadow one of the more mature entries in the series?

The pre-credits sequence in The World is Not Enough is outstanding. Bond ogles a "perfectly rounded" Maria Grazia Cucinotta while trading witty repartee with a bunch of thugs. A mystery is introduced that ties in with the movie proper. Bond uses gadgets (and handy bodies) to get out of a jam in high style, fluttering to the street while stunned pedestrians stare.

Then The World is Not Enough pulls off a rare coup. After some erotically (and politically) charged banter with Moneypenny (and one of the Brosnan era's few comfortable exchanges with M), Bond is pulled into an even bigger action setpiece. Fighting through his own back yard in an attempt to save Sir Robert (David Calder), Bond launches into an aggressive speedboat chase through the Thames. If you're an action movie fan, this chase scene is probably stamped into your cerebral cortex—and if it isn't, it should be. From the depth charges and machine guns to the "motorboat in the cafe" sequence, it offers enough explosions and tinkling glass to satisfy any action afficionado. The sound peple even threw in details like the pop of Bond's shoulder dislocation. This is hands down the best pre-credits sequennce in the franchise.

So much for the explosions and destruction of British property. Does The World is Not Enough have any substance to offer, any brash Bondisms?

Why yes…yes it does. After the credits (which are eye-popping) there's a somber funeral scene and an even darker mission brief. Bond confronts two women. The first is M, and the sparks fly furiously. The second is Dr. Molly Warmflash (Serena Scott Thomas), whom Bond seduces with criminal ease and much stroking of silk-clad flesh. If you're counting, that's a brunette, a redhead, and a blonde that Bond has hit on in quick succession. The aforementioned blonde and redhead have a meow moment as Dr. Warmflash presents an impressive three-dimensional bust of Renard (Robert Carlyle, The Full Monty) after clearing Bond for field work. This short sequence, from funeral to briefing, packs more innuendo and darkness than most Bond films ever muster.

But the best pair is yet to come, and I'm not talking about Denise Richards. The World is Not Enough gives us one of James Bond's most complex and engaging friends in Valentin Zukovsky, a welcome reprise by Robbie Coltrane. He capitalizes on his roguish charm from Goldeneye and assumes more screen time. When Bond barges into Valentin's casino, we feel the same comaraderie Bond must feel. Likewise, Valentin's later sacrifice is all the more touching because we've come to know him.

We get a complex friend, and also a complex foe. Sophie Marceau is arresting as Elektra, the scarred daughter of the late Sir Robert King. Not only is Marceau beautiful and sensual, she can act. Her character arc is not written particularly well, which makes her eventual demise anticlimactic. But when she's on, Marceau charges the screen. Elektra's plan is straightforward and brutal, but most importantly, achievable. This ranks it as one of the most chilling of dastardly plans—even if its subtlety doesn't make it as memorable as gassing Fort Knox.

It is difficult to overstate Sophie Marceau's presence in the film. Brosnan's chemistry with her is tangible, and she makes a lackluster Robert Carlyle seem tougher. Dame Judi Dench squares off with her as though with an equal. Even Robbie Coltrane gets a boost in her presence. She gives a generic (but perfectly executed) aircraft/ski battle extra oomph; her last-minute character study of a frightened kidnap victim makes the scene work. Later, when Bond is convinced of her guilt, she still manages to cast doubt. In short, Elektra is an elite Bond villain with the proper mix of arrogance, surety, vulnerability, and charm.

Sadly, Robert Carlyle is sorely misused as Renard. Neat idea: give a baddie a bullet that erases all feeling, making him stronger and tougher than any other man. Give him a complex emotional entanglement to boot. Yet Carlyle is never given a clear direction to take the character, so his melancholy, would-be threats seem like rejected Eeyore monologues.

Between Christmas Jones's superfluous jiggling, Renard's introspective musings, and Elektra's unchanneled haughtiness, the last third of The World is Not Enough collapses into self parody. The submarine fight sequence offers nothing we haven't seen before in action movies, which translates to boring. The only emotionally relevant moments in that last third are when Valentin gets it and when M witnesses the final exchange between the star-crossed lovers, Bond and King—and M shouldn't even be there, no matter what the stakes. By the way, how sexy is Elektra straddling a tied-up Bond and getting off on his impending death?

With (mostly) complex characters and more darkness and maturity than is typical of James Bond films, The World is Not Enough is worthy of Bond's family motto. It has several great (and one bar-setting) action sequences. Between Sophie Marceau, Denise Richards, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Samantha Bond, and Serena Scott Thomas, the film rockets up the eye candy chart. M, Valentin, and even Sir Robert King make great allies. These strengths should not be overshadowed by poorly directed roles for Denise Richards and Robert Carlyle (both of which could have been great if used judiciously), nor by a script that collapses in on itself in the final act.

New Special Features

• "Creating An Icon: Making the Teaser Trailer" (4:25)

• Interviews from Hong Kong Press Conference (9:46)

• The Thames Boat Chase, including:
—Introduction by Director Michael Apted (1:09)
—Extended Scene (8:07),
—Expanded Angle View (6:09)
—Alternate Angle View (6:09)
—Original Scene (6:09)
The Thames boat chase is the best action setpiece in a franchise known for action setpieces. This extensive extra provides the theatrical edit (confusingly named "Original Scene," the first serious take on the scene ("Extended Scene"), a split-screen view that shows all useable footage from the six cameras ("Expanded Angle View") and an alternate cut of the scene taken solely from unused footage. Each version is compelling in its own way, but the Extended Scene is truly remarkable. We see several amusing ideas that were distilled into the final cut, with some shots that are superior to the final cut (including a first-person view of the oncoming sunseeker which obliterates a pier).

• Deleted Scenes with Introduction by Director Michael Apted:
—Meeting Renard (2:44)
—DB5 at King's Funeral (0:28)
—Oil and Blood (1:52) with optional commentary by Director
—Static Charge (1:08) with optional commentary by Director
Deleted Scenes are typically dull affairs. "Umm, this was cut for time reasons" is the refrain, and the scenes usually deserve their resting place on the cutting room floor. But Apted's introductions are meaningful and entertaining, while the scenes themselves reveal some of the themes that shaped The World is Not Enough. The subtle mystery of who is good and evil is reinforced by these scenes. I'm floored that Oil and Blood didn't make the final cut.

• Extended Scenes with Introduction by Director Michael Apted:
—Bond Tries to Stop King (3:18)
—The Things We Do For England (1:47)
Again, these extended scenes are actually interesting. Apted is quite good at explaining his rationale in interesting terms.

• Alternative Scene with Introduction by Director Michael Apted: Trouble in the Pipeline (1:14)
For once, Apted has little to say aside from "we liked this location." Yet the scene is as interesting as the rest.

• "Exotic Locations"

• Photo Gallery
Introduction, Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Denise Richards, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Goldie, Bond's Team, Behind the Scenes // Bilbao, Behind the Scenes // Q Boat, Behind the Scenes // Baku, Behind the Scenes // Ski Chase, Behind the Scenes // Nuclear Testing Facility, Costume Designs, Production Sketches, Marketing

Case Number 11377

James Bond Ultimate Edition (Volume 1)

All Rise...

Editor's Note

The Charge

Opening Statement

Facts of the Case

The Evidence

Closing Statement

The Verdict

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