You Know His Name: Review for “Casino Royale: Collector’s Edition” DVD

Posted on October 31, 2008

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that those money hounding fiends who market the 007 merchandise that we die hard fans crave have released a new Casino Royale DVD to coincide with the release of Quantum of Solace. But this is actually a blessing. The last DVD featured very little, for lack of a better word, features; only a msuic video, two documentaries and a special, Bond Girls Live Forever, were included. There are so many good things about this new collector’s edition. The menus, which were extremly bland and not at all in the style of a Bond DVD (especially those overly risque ones from the 2006 Ultimate DVDs), have now reached my approoval. Falling cards depict certain scenes from the film. Also available on the first disc are two brand new commentaries. The first one features director Martin Campell (also director of Brosnan 007 film GoldenEye) and producer Michael G. Wilson givig delicious anecdotes on the prduction and the story. The second gives a slightly more technical look at the film. The second disc thankfully gives you those features from the last DVD (Yay!, I’m not completely wasting my money buying this!). The title song is, admittedly, probably my favorite. Chris Cornell gives this rocking movie a rocking new title track with a classic title: “You Know My Name”. The third disc contains “Over 7 Hours of New Bonus Features”. And it is true to its word (no, faithful readers, I did not digest all the features in one sitting), with about four new documentaries, three featurettes, filmmaker profiles, and storyboard sequences. “The Road to Casino Royale” is a fascinating documentary, chronicling how long it took to actually make one of the best Bond films of all time. It has a segment featuring the lesser known of the James Bond actors: Barry Nelson. Barry Nelson starred as “Jimmy Bond” in a CBS presentation of the novel in 1953. It is not well remembered. “Ian Fleming’s Incredible Creation” talks mostly about the literary Bond, a perspecitive that is sadly left out of most Bond DVDs. “James Bond in the Bahamas” takes a very interesting look at the history of Bond…in the Bahamas! With breath taking visuals, this doc is really something to look forward to. “Ian Fleming: The Secret Road to Paradise” talks about how Bond ended up in the Bahamas in the books and in the movies. The four documentaries are very well put together and all together entertaining. (Extra: John Cork, author of James Bond: The Legacy and James Bond Encyclopedia, wrote and directed all four of these docs.) The featurettes on the Venice scene (“Death in Venice”) and the Madagasgar scene (“The Art of Freerunning”) are very interesting. The storyboard sequences are cool and the filmmaker profiles are a delight. The deleted scenes are good, but there’s very little to be witnessed. The DVD also comes witha free ticket to the new 007 film. Overall, this is one of the best releases of a Bond film ever. Then again, you can always bet on Bond.

Features: A+

“You KNow My Name”: A

Film: A

Overall: A+

For full details about the new James Bond blu-ray discs, visit mi6.co.uk