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Review added January 13, 2005.                       Goldeneye :: DVD Review  

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Studio: MGM Home Entertainment >> Review Equipment
Video: 2.35:1 (Enhanced for 16:9) Length: 124 Minutes
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbps) En/Fr/It Subtitles: En/Fr/It/Du/Hu
Dolby Digital 2.0 (224kbps) Hu Disc Format: RSDL DVD-9
Video Format: PAL Disc Capacity Utilised: 7.87GB        
Layer Change: 63:23 Region Coding: 2/4
Average Bit-Rate (A+V): 5.50Mbps  
     
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:: The Film ::

 
 

>> Skip to Audio/Video Details

Goldeneye, the first of Pierce Brosnan's outings as James Bond, was widely hailed as the franchise's saviour in 1995, renewing the aging series' popularity after several rather stale entries in the late '70s and '80s. It's an assessment I agree with, following on from Licence to Kill, the film that very nearly succeeded where so many Bond Villains had failed: in finishing off James Bond once and for all.

Goldeneye brings to the table the traditional Bond ingredients of fast cars, big explosions, high-tech gadgets, beautiful women and snappy one-liners, but updates them with a few '90s sensibilities, as well as adding a little something that seems lacking from Brosnan's subsequent films. Perhaps the film's makers were aware that the future of the Bond franchise and the success or failure of Goldeneye were one and the same, spurring them to put in that little bit of extra effort.
 



Or perhaps it was the generous six years available for the film's producers to iron out the franchise's wrinkles. In any case, Goldeneye's story is nicely streamlined, its main characters all genuinely interesting and appealing, and its pace admirably brisk. Goldeneye was also directed with an unusual amount of flair, the lack of which is one of my biggest issues with many previous (and subsequent) Bonds. As Bond films are essentially constant revisions of the same story, the areas available to distinguish one Bond from another are somewhat restricted, but Goldeneye has certainly succeeded.
 
  :: Video ::
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MGM have an uneven record when it comes to DVD, but their consistency when it comes to the Bond franchise is well known. True to form, Goldeneye is given the royal treatment, with a very good anamorphically-enhance 2.35:1 transfer that sits just shy of reference quality. In terms of sharpness and colour reproduction this is a superb transfer, rarely falling short of razor-sharp, with an admirable level of fine detail.

Goldeneye's ecclectic colour scheme is also superbly rendered on this DVD. The opening montage alone contains some dazzling colours that would have lesser DVDs curled up in a corner whimpering, but all are handled with ease here. Blacks are very good, but not as saturated as those in transfers of newer films, and occasionally a little noisy, with low-level digital crawl. Shadow-detail is very good, but also suffers from some low-level noise. Film artefacts are present but minor, as are minor digital compression artefacts on uniform flat surfaces such as walls and occasional film grain.

I noticed a few minor motion blurs in the film's first twenty minutes (9:41 and 14:57 for example), although whether these are a problem with the DVD or the original compositing I couldn't say. In any case, these will pass by most unnoticed. For some reason, rather than English subtitles, I was treated to French subtitles explaining the film's various time frames and locations. Most distracting. Perhaps a player problem (I would be interested to hear whether others have experienced this problem), but using the original burnt-in subtitles rather than player-generated text would eliminate this sort of problem entirely.
 

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  :: Audio ::
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Like the film itself, Goldeneye's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is very well designed and constructed, with some creative design evident. Like any modern Bond soundtrack, we are treated to an expansive front soundstage, huge dynamic range, clear dialogue and an almost constant onslaught of discrete surround effects bouncing around the front and rear hemispheres.

Goldeneye also includes a superb contemporary score from Eric Serra that fully utilises all five channels. I know some dislike Serra's work here (and in general), considering it too generic. It does bear a remarkable resemblance to much of Serra's other work, and his score for The Fifth Element is a virtual carbon-copy of Goldeneye's score, but I thought it greatly enhanced the soundtrack. The LaserDisc of Goldeneye had a notoriously bloated bass presence, and while the DVD sounds more restrained in this department, it is still too bass-heavy in several scenes for my taste. Action sequences are always well supported by the bass present, though.

Taking away from the soundtrack somewhat is distortion in the main channels during more dynamic effects, such as at 37:15 (surround channels), 76:28 (front channels), 77:04 (right surround channel), 116:13 and 119:07 (surround channels). Overall this is a very good soundtrack and really a lot of fun to listen to.
 

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