RRP £14.99 Lowest New Price £4.47

Suitable for 15 years and over MGM Entertainment Release date: Monday 20th of October 2008 Starring: Gottfried John, Tcheky Karyo, Pierce Brosnan, Desmond Llewelyn, Michael Kitchen, Director(s): Format: Box set, PAL, Region code: 2 Running time: 124 minutes

RRP: £14.99
An excellent package for an excellent Bond film - but a flawed transfer
Review date: 2008-11-03 Rating: 8 out of 10

After six years in limbo as EON and the new owners of MGM/UA found themselves and the series locked in legal action at lawsuits, Timothy Dalton decided too much time had elapsed to renew his licence to kill, ushering in the Brosnan era. At the time hailed for `saving' the series (just as Dalton and Moore had been before him), the star's own bitter feud with the producers and the success of Daniel Craig in reinventing the role seem to have combined with disappointment with some of Brosnan's subsequent Bond films to the point where it's harder and harder to find any Bond fans with a good word to say about his tenure. But in 1995 GoldenEye was certainly welcomed with open arms and blockbuster business and it holds up remarkably well.

If there's a problem with Brosnan's take on Bond, it's that there really isn't much of one. He looks good in the suits, does what's required but where every other Bond actor brought something new or of their own to the part, Brosnan is more of a composite of previous Bonds, an across-the-board demographic-pleasing but nothing radical Bond, veering more towards the unflappable suavity of Roger Moore than the danger of Connery or Lazenby or the gritty bleakness of Dalton. But then, if Brosnan brings nothing new but his face to the part, in many ways, like The Living Daylights, GoldenEye is a kind of transitional Bond film rather than anything as radical as Casino Royale, the old Bond formula recognisably in place with all the surface gloss and expected ingredients but with a post-Cold War spin to dust off some of the more clichéd aspects.

While the plot isn't exactly realistic, revolving around a scheme to use a stolen Russian electromagnetic pulse satellite weapon to wreak a lucrative revenge for past wrongs done to the villain's family, the treatment isn't as over the top or as arch as it could have been (for that, you need to see Brosnan's final outing, Die Another Day). The writing is much stronger than usual, the film plot-led and finding a good mix between the action you expect and some insights into the characters you don't, for the first time in the series' history the leading ladies really do have decent roles, and Martin Campbell's direction is particularly powerful: while it is a little short on long shots, betraying his TV background, it's got none of that going-through-the-motions feel to many of the more prolific Bond directors' efforts. Terry Rawlings' editing is also interesting and often highly effective, while even Eric Serra's much criticised score - that hideous post-title sequence car chase aside - is often stronger than it's given credit for even if it is perhaps too giant a leap from the traditional Bond sound for most purists.

If the film is still highly enjoyable, the Ultimate Edition DVD, however, is a definite mixed blessing. The new extras are particularly good - 4 deleted scenes and several new featurettes, including ones on the tank chase, car stunts, model work, pre-production, location scouting and Campbell's directing (which much footage of him in a bad mood on a particularly bad day). There's also the press conference introducing Brosnan, the original TV promo `GoldenEye - The Secret Files' and all the extras from the original release (though c Curiously the extra TV spot from the laserdisc release is still is missing). It's also uncensored in the UK this time, Xenia's headbutt restored (though the alternate shot replacing it in the UK version is now gone). All of which SHOULD make this a perfect disc - with one notable caveat. Unfortunately the new transfer is not, with the picture wildly overcropped - it's still in the 2.35:1 ratio, but top, bottom and both sides have been cropped, which is very noticeable on the computer readouts in the film. For that reason, if you aren't bothered about the extras you might want to stick with the previous special edition, which IS in the right ratio.