The James Bond Collection, Volume 3

The James Bond Collection, Volume 3

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Movie Reviews of The James Bond Collection, Volume 3

Movie Review: Volume 3 of Bond DVDs Is the BEST
Summary: 5 Stars

The print for "From Russia With Love" is grainy. "You Only Live Twice," "Diamonds Are Forever," "Octopussy," "A View To A Kill" and "The Living Daylights" are all excellent. The deleted scenes from "Diamonds Are Forever" and "The Living Daylights" are very cool! The deleted scene from "A View To A Kill" is the best.

"A View To A Kill" is based on "Goldfinger" and John Gardner's "Role of Honor" this is one of Roger Moore's better James Bond movies. It is a big improvement over director Guy Hamilton's "Goldfinger" which tried to be humorous, but was not very successful in that department. Hamilton did finally succeed with his excellent "Man with the Golden Gun." It was a mixture of action and humor at its best.

"A View To A Kill" is the most luxurious looking Bond movie. Zorin's magnificent palace and stables are the type of boost that "Goldfinger" needed. Zorin, after Scaramanga, has got to be one of the best villains of the series. He's a real psycho. May Day, after Nick Nack, is the best henchman. She gives a real twisted 80's performance.

The opening pre-title sequence is one of the best. Bond is being chased down an ice-covered slope by Russian troops in Siberia to an exciting John Barry score highlighted by the Beach Boys' "California Girls" while he escapes on a ski mobile runner turned ski board. This is an excellent scene full of action and laughs. The Beach Boys' "California Girls" was a stroke of genius. John Barry really knows how to score a Bond movie! The getaway in a mini sub disguised as an iceberg was another stroke of genius. I was on the edge of my seat. Those were better ski scenes than those filmed in "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "The World Is Not Enough." They were close, but not quite as good as those in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" or "The Living Daylights."

Duran Duran's opening main theme is the best of the series. It was even better than Lulu's "Man with the Golden Gun." Maurice Binder's main titles were his best since "Man with the Golden Gun."

This film is just so great. Roger Moore looks younger in this one. I never saw him move better. I think these are the most stunts that he ever did in any Bond movie. The fight scene in Zorin's warehouse was one of his best. I like the way he lays out the guard on the conveyor belt and gets automatically wrapped like a corrugated carton. That was very cool.

The steeplechase scene was also great and real suspenseful. I didn't know that Roger could ride a horse like that. When he breaks away into the woods that was really well filmed just like the similar scene in "Moonraker." Very cool, that's all I can say.

The Eiffel Tower scene where Bond is chasing May Day through Paris in a stolen taxi, is one of the greatest scenes in the series. It was so funny. When Bond's taxi gets cut in half I thought he was done for. However, he keeps up with her and manages to crash a wedding on a moving barge. Crazy stuff! This kind of thing is what made the 80s so great!

Q had some of his best scenes in this film. The microchip briefing in M's office was good and reminiscent of "Moonraker" and "Octopussy." I liked Q's surveillance machine. That was very innovative. It was also good to see Bond, Moneypenny and M all at the races. General Gogol had some good scenes too. I like when he puts the cassette in the player in his car and it starts playing the Japanese Spa music. That was really funny.

The underwater scenes in this film were excellently filmed. I was holding my breath when Bond taps the tire of the sunken Rolls for air. That was very innovative. Zorin's San Francisco pumping station was also done well. When Bond was underwater I thought for sure he was going to get sucked in by those propeller blades. That was filmed as good as any underwater scene from "Thunderball," "For Your Eyes Only." "Licence To Kill" or "Tomorrow Never Dies."

The sets in this movie were great. The interior of Zorin's airship was very reminiscent of "Goldfinger" and "Diamonds Are Forever." Zorin's mine was one of the best sets from the entire series. Caves are cool, just like in "Live and Let Die" and "Dr. No." Just like SPECTRE, Zorin eliminates undesirables just like they were terminated similarly in "From Russia With Love" and "You Only Live Twice."

I liked the way they got the Russians involved in the plot. You can't have a good Bond movie without them. Not to worry, they show up again in "The Living Daylights" and "GoldenEye."

Stacey was the best Bond girl since Mary Goodnight. You really feel for her. I almost thought Bond was going to leave her in the elevator shaft the way she was screaming. Bond saves her just in time. She was also great in the fire engine chase and the ultimate battle between Bond and Zorin on top of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This film has it all: action, suspense, humor, laughs, terror, set designs, great underwater scenes and car chases. The only thing it lacked was exotic locales. That is what gives "Man with the Golden Gun" and "Octopussy" one up on "A View To A Kill."

Summary of The James Bond Collection, Volume 3

Octopussy, a colorful cold war thriller and one of Roger Moore's better Bond outings, stars Louis Jourdan as a corrupt Afghan prince and Maud Adams (making her second Bond appearance) as the ringmaster of an all-babe traveling circus team that unknowingly carries a nuclear bomb. Christopher Walken hams it up under a platinum-blond hairdo while his Amazon bodyguard, Grace Jones, growls through A View to a Kill, a silly but often visually impressive adventure that made it obvious Moore was too old and stiff to carry on the Bond legacy. The torch was passed to Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights, an attempt to clear away the camp elements of Moore's portrayal and return to a lean, hard-edged spy thriller for the post-cold war era. It lacks the larger-than-life characters and spectacle of previous Bond pictures, but Dalton was a tough, ruthless 007 and a worthy inheritor of the legacy, which was then passed on to Pierce Brosnan.

The DVD editions of the films each feature audio commentary by the director and key members of the crew, "making of" documentaries, and a host of stills, TV spots, trailers, and other supplements. --Sean Axmaker