From Russia with Love [Blu-ray]

From Russia with Love [Blu-ray]
by Terence Young

From Russia with Love [Blu-ray]

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Blu-ray details

Actor: Daniela Bianchi, Sean Connery
Director: Terence Young
Brand: Sony
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Russian (Original Language); Turkish (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
Published: 2008-10-01
Blu-ray Release Date: 2008-10-21
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Fox/MGM
Product features:

Condition: New
Format: Blu-ray
AC-3; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Dubbed; Subtitled; Widescreen

Blu-ray Reviews of From Russia with Love [Blu-ray]

Blu-ray Review: From Russia, in Blu
Summary: 4 Stars

From Russia with Love is Connery's second go at playing James Bond, and in my opinion the best movie in the entire series. It includes everything one could want in a Bond movie - foreign locations, beautiful women, a great villain, and lots of thrills and suspense.

While Dr. No set up the premise for the Bond universe, From Russia with Love expanded upon it. People were shown to be mere pawns in a larger game (which is heightened by the fact one of the main characters is a chess grand master) and the series' most prolific bad guy is introduced: Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

For those not familiar with Blofeld, he's the inspiration for the character of Dr. Evil, as well as Dr. Claw. Bald with an affinity to Persian cats, Blofeld's face isn't revealed in the first of his six Bond appearances, but his presence and importance as the protagonist to Bond's side are certainly there. As with most Bond films the story isn't the high point; basically, a Russian defect wants to give the British a piece of decoding technology, and will only give it to Bond. Bond sets off to pick it up, the bad guys try to stop him, and there you go. Generic story aside, what sets the movie apart and makes it a BOND experience is the style and action on the screen.

When it comes to the actual cinematography and action sequences, From Russia With Love kicks it up a notch from Dr. No. While it doesn't get to the grittier levels portrayed later in the series and ultimately by Daniel Craig's Casino Royale, the film is brutal even compared to some of today's similar genre titles. In other words, the action is top notch, you'll hold your breath plenty of times, and as I'm sure you're aware, the women and more...intimate scenes are some of the more shocking from its time.

By now I'm sure all Bond fans have seen this numerous times on DVD, and likely even own a copy. So what does this new Blu-Ray release have to offer? For starters, the video transfer is on par with Dr. No. With earlier films it's hard to make a great transfer, and once again the guys at the Blu-Ray lab (or office?) bring their A-game. The picture is clear, the lines are crisp, and the colors are bright. While the 2003 Ultimate release already looked great, this new offering trumps even that. It won't threaten to blow up your HDTV with how good it looks, but strangers to the Bond franchise will be very surprised if they watch this and then find out it was filmed in the 1960s.

If the video upgrade and remastering can be compared to the Dr. No release, so too can the audio. Working with a mono track from back in the good ol' days didn't give the techies a lot to work with, but somehow they came away with a lossless 5.1 HD track which sounds so much better than the source material I'm amazed it's the same thing. Much like the other older Bond releases put out on Blu-Ray this one suffers from imbalanced audio levels, so you're going to have to adjust the audio in periods of heavy action or heavy dialogue to catch it all. A frustrating thing to do, but it's worth it to get the 5.1 track over the original.

Sadly, the regular emission of any Blu-Ray specific extras is felt in From Russia with Love. All of the extras come ported from the 2003 Ultimate Collection release, but they don't get the same re-re-treatment as the film itself, leaving several of them looking even more dated. There's the Declassified Vault, which largely looks at Ian Fleming and the pre-production of the film; Mission Control, which shows several scenes from the Bond films ranging from features on the women to the gadgets; the Mission Dossier, which has the From Russia With Love related behind-the-scene looks; the Ministry of Propaganda, which collects original trailers; and the Image Database, which provides still shots of the actors, locations, set, and production crew.

I've said this on all of the Bond Blu-Ray reviews thus far (with the exception of Die Another Day), but if you're a fan of James Bond with Blu-Ray capability, this is a must-own. From Russia with Love has never looked, sounded, or been presented in a better way. It's the ultimate Bond experience, and a release anyone who worked on the film should be proud of.

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Description of From Russia with Love [Blu-ray]

Synopsis:
Item Type: BLU-RAY DVD Movie
Item Rating: PG
Street Date: 10/21/08
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: no
Subtitlesno
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.

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