The James Bond Collection, Vol. 1 (Special Edition)

A serious presentation for owning the collectionMGM offers a new chance for 007's fans to have the complete collection by presenting the complete collection in three sets (except Never Say Never Again, available at Amazon for $13).I do not agree with various comments from other reviewers complaining about the bad marketing of MGM, since they have already presented the movies in singles and in three sets before. And by presenting them, once again, with improved quality and logic price in three packages, there is no harm at all.What is beautiful in James Bond movies is the concept. The imminent illusion of the "non-reality" in all his movies is something comfortable to every potential viewer. No one would be offended by the unbreakable hotshot imperialist; timely, everybody would enjoy the sophistication, manners and cold-blood brutality of a professional spy (and gentleman) mastering the world and women' hearts.There is always something new in every movie, the sequence of the incidents, the very well woven plots and the presentation of psycho genius personalities or pathetic authoritarian leaders or governments. All are offered in new ways, new places and from different points of view that would necessary put you in suspense. The British sense of humor and the mysterious touch added to the colors of the hero have a lot of show-off in comparison to American-made movies, where heroes are presented from reality and where "nobody care if you believe it or not".My best movies are "Diamonds Are For Ever", "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Die Another Day"; but I always have a reason to watch other titles for the 10th or 20th time (I already saw "Die Another Day" for three times).Probably, it is the best collection ever made to date, so if you believe that action movies are an important part of real Cinema, and that real entertainment is a just aim of it, I believe that you are having a very good chance to have the best of it in a very reasonable price. I am personally grabbing the chance to replace my old VHS collection with this sophisticated DVD one, I started with the first set and I am buying the other two, one in every next month.

Here's the unfortunate thing: MGM/Danjaq basically revised all of these films in 2005 for the Ultimate Edition DVD releases, and subsequent Bluray editions. The Lowry "restoration" process entirely changed color palettes, dramatically altering the color schemes of many parts of the films, removing any trace of filmlike grain, and digital retouching all over the place, conveniently removing wire lines for models and redoing special effects and title sequence opticals 40+ years after the fact. Instead, the new "restored" versions have traded the REAL look of the older films, warts and all, for a sharper, "modern" picture that is removed from how the movies were actually seen when released.Having the opportunity to recently actually see some of these films in their original state--on original Technicolor 35 mm prints in a real movie theater--I can say now that the UE/Bluray versions of these movies are a sham. The worst offenders of the Bond restorations are the new '60s movies versions (although most of the other Bond films also got "redone"), removing all the grain and tweaking colors so that the Connery classics look like "they were shot yesterday" on HD video. But they weren't, and that is the problem--they were shot 50+ years ago on film, in a certain hyper-real, glamorous, larger-than-life style. The newer DVD editions have traded this in for an image that is sharper and "cleaner", but is more muted and "flat" than initially intended as a result.Luckily, you can still grab the movies in these original "Special Edition" versions if you look. There are a few minor transfer issues here and there--speckles and some occasional dirt--but they are minor and barely noticeable, and at the time of their original release, MGM had made new transfers for many of them from the best unretouched elements they had, or apparently ported over a bunch of THX transfers as well minus the fanfare. On a good upconverting player, they look great. Colors are much truer, and various filter effects and opticals, such as in the title sequences or effects shots, look as they did on the original film prints. I've always considered the Bond series fantastic entertainment, as well as a cultural barometer of advancing filmmaking techniques, fashions, and the society of the time. These DVDs, possibly inadvertently, let you see all of that.

As another has commented of the euro version being released in its entirity and the north america and canada version obviously being released in the usual 3 sets is some what disturbing. Why our market is being played with by production seems unfair. I would also prefer to have the entire set in one box...and also be able to purchase the entire set at one time. To sum it up I too am disappointed in MGM regardless of their reasons.However, I am pleased to report to you that in my opinion the new dvd collection is superior to anything I have seen before. I have entire collection in VHS and as dvds came out I started to rent the dvd versions to see the difference between the them. Seeing a remake of a film on dvd you still see the old film specs that pop up on the screen, but the resolution of the dvd vs vhs helps to make it all the more clearer. I don't know if MGM has improved their production on the dvds but it almost looks like the new one look better then the ones I rented...I am please with the product as I have no problems to report at this time.I certainly hope that these messages make there way to MGM so they won't upset their fans in delaying releases of sets 2 and 3.

Great set of movies. I like the variety - some older ones and some newer ones along with the different Bond actors. The special features are very interesting. Not sure if it was my DVD player or one of the DVD's but I got some "stuck" spots for a few seconds while viewing - not a big deal, but a bit surprising for a new DVD, IF it were related to the DVD.