The Film

Director Lee Tamahori cranks the needle way past 007 in a thrill ride overstuffed with over-the-top Bond fixtures.

The Sight & Sound

Both the picture and sound (including the interaction graphics) are as sharp as a razor — on the right kind of home theatre, you’d swear you were back in the movies with every explosion.

The Extras

The DAD double disc is packed with features. There’s an extras-only disc with mini-doco breakdowns of some of the best scenes (with commentaries by the crew involved), snippets of information on the gadgets, even short commentary sequences on some of the tricks used to create the signature title sequence and the use of digital grading.

The movie disc contains the (audio and visual) commentaries that are the real treat. The ‘MI6 datastream’ superimposes tidbits of information about the production over the film.

Pierce Brosnan and Rosamund Pike (Miranda Frost) provide a sparse and mostly anecdotal commentary. It does give you an insight into how big effects/stunt movies like this are put together — neither actor even needed to be there during the big action sequences.

But director Tamahori and producer Michael G Wilson come to life during their commentary — explaining everything about every scene and giving you an inside view into the trickery involved.

The Worth

After an early stumble with Brosnan in 007’s shoes, Tamahori and writers Purvis and Wade have not only brought Bond back into his own, they’ve sent him into the stratosphere.

4 out of 5

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2003 at 12:00 am and is filed under DVD Reviews, Film, Filmink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.