Review added January 13, 2005.
Goldeneye
:: DVD Review |
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Studio:
MGM Home Entertainment |
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>> Review
Equipment |
Video:
2.35:1 (Enhanced for 16:9) |
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Length:
124
Minutes |
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbps) En/Fr/It |
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Subtitles: En/Fr/It/Du/Hu |
Dolby Digital
2.0 (224kbps) Hu |
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Disc Format:
RSDL DVD-9 |
Video Format:
PAL |
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Disc Capacity Utilised:
7.87GB |
Layer Change:
63:23 |
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Region Coding:
2/4 |
Average Bit-Rate (A+V):
5.50Mbps |
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:: The Film
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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.
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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.
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::
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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