Brikar

Casino Royale
Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelson, Judi Dench
Written by: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis
Directed by: Martin Campbell

MOVIE
I've already had a review thread for the movie, so I'll just say this: the movie stands up to repeated viewings as a tense, highly entertaining action-thriller. Daniel Craig proves himself an excellent Bond, and I look forward to seeing him in the role again soon.

VIDEO
"Casino Royale" has a sharp, bright transfer. There are a few scenes that are more difficult to judge because of obvious stylistic choices - the opening black and white sequence is intentionally grainy and gritty looking, and a scene later on when Bond is poisoned has some nicely smeared, blown out brights. There are some halos, most noticeably during the opening credits, but the rest of the movie looks great with strong colors and blacks.

AUDIO
Daaaaaaaamn. I've seen fans on the Internet complaining about the R1 release's lack of the DTS audio track from the R4 release. But to be bluntly honest - fuck that. The 5.1 Dolby track on "Casino Royale" really kicks. Right from the opening roar of the MGM lion, "Casino Royale" sports rock-bottom bass and great audio positioning. Sound effects and ambient noises come from all sides. Dialogue is never lost, though there's little of it during the movie's lengthy (and awesome) action sequences. David Arnold's best Bond score since "Tomorrow Never Dies" comes through crisp and clear as well, and Chris Cornell's opening song "You Know My Name" thumps.

EXTRAS
There are three main features on the 2-disc "Casino Royale". The first is a 30 minute documentary on the casting of Daniel Craig as the new James Bond and the conception of the film. The second is about the stunts of the film, and how the crew attempted to make everything "real" instead of resorting to the usual digital trickery (something that plagued "Die Another Day" quite a bit). Both of these are well-done, and feature plenty of behind-the-scenes and interview footage. Daniel Craig gets in a few zingers that are quite hilarious. I still feel like I could have seen much more about the making of this film, however.

The third feature is longer and split into parts, a piece about the franchise's Bond Girls over the years. Hosted by Maryam D'abo from "The Living Daylights", it explores the legacy and characters of Bond's many sexual conquests - both villainesses and heroines. This feature was obviously produced for television, and still includes the bumpers where we are told that the program will return after some commercials. It's interesting, but includes very little concerning "Casino Royale", though there are a few bits where we see that some of the Bond girls don't feel that it's quite the honor it's made out to be.

We also get Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" music video, which is fairly useless. There are also trailers for "Rocky Balboa," "Spider-man 3", "Spider-Man 2.1", "Premonition" and "The Holiday". Curiously, and disappointingly, there are no trailers for "Casino Royale". It's too bad, really, because CR had some pretty damn cool trailers.

GRADE:
Movie: A
Video: A
Audio: A+
Extras: B
Overall: A

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Closet Racist

Sold. Was only going to buy the recent and future remasterings of the Connery years but I'll be watching CR tonight.

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Brikar

I also have all 20 recent "Ultimate" edition box sets - those remasterings are totally worth it. The picture quality is excellent, and the DTS tracks are phenomenal.

__________________
"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

http://olympusmans.blogspot.com
http://benforrealz.blogspot.com