DVD Review

Cast

Synopsis

Billionaire industrialist Max Zorin plans to corner the world computer ship market by destroying Silicon Valley and only James Bond can stop him.

Film

When a silicon chip is recovered from the frozen body of 003 in Siberia, the British discover it is identical to a prototype designed to withstand the intense electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear blast. The British suspect that the billionaire industrialist Max Zorin is leaking details of the design to the Russians so Bond is dispatched to his chateau to investigate.

Arriving at the chateau Bond is initially interested to learn why Zornin's mediocre horses manage to win so many races. It is there that he discovers strange goings on in his stables and that his doctor, and close companion, Carl Mortner have developed a untraceable steroid to give their horses the final boost they need to win a race. However, this is only small fry to Zorin and his bigger plans in America.

Bond discovers that in a world with a computer chip glut, Zorin is manufacturing and stockpiling silicon chips and, mysteriously, drilling near the San Andreas fault. With local fishermen reporting dwindling stocks and oil field owner Stacey Sutton being hounded to sell her worthless wells, Bond suspects that Zorin is attempting to destroy silicon valley and corner the market in computer chips.

The picture is bright and colourful with a high bit-rate throughout the film. There's no sign of artifacting or outlining along with very little picture noise or imperfections. However, I thought that the daylight pictures tended to be a little too bright and washed out at times, although the darker and night time scenes were excellent.

Fortunately, the sound is vastly improved on the previous film Octopussy with the excellent Duran Duran soundtrack booming out in all of the channels. The surround channels are used extensively throughout the film and even before you've had the chance to sit down and open a bottle of beer the rear channels are brought into life. The dialogue is wonderfully crisp and clear in the centre and is perfectly balanced between the action effects. This is quite possibly one of the best Bond soundtracks.

As usual the menu system is nicely animated and scored, although as the Bond series continues the menu systems are being more and more unimaginative and I get the impression that the menu systems are designed in a hurry.

As usual the extras are plentiful but on the rather poor side. I was looking forward to the usual excellent documentary narrated by Patrick Macnee, wondering what he'd have to say about himself. But, no, shock horror, it was narrated by a woman! Even more disappointing was the extremely boring drone of an audio commentary with only the occasional interesting quip from John Glenn.

Fortunately, Patrick Macnee is not totally forgotten as he narrates the interesting documentary "The Bond Sound" which ventures into one of the most recognisable, and dramatic, movie scores. There's even a deleted scene which is so good it should have been in the movie.

This is Roger Moore's best, and final outing, as 007 and he choose the best time to hand in his famous Walther PPK and call it a day. Roger was starting to look a bit too old for the womanising agent, especially when some of the Bond girls could have been his daughter, something which he freely admitted in the documentary.

There's plenty of the usual one liners, with one in particular worth a mention. Whilst talking to a young lady returning from an early morning horse ride she exclaims "Yes, I really enjoy a good ride in the morning". That definitely raised an eye brow from a certain secret agent. However, there's still one thing which puzzles me about Bond - why the hell would he want to bed Grace Jones!? 

Extras

Reviewed by: Simon