Casino Royale (1967) [Blu-ray]

VIDEO:

Casino Royale (1967) arrives at blu ray with MPEG-4 AVC 1080p 2.34:1 encode. The bit rate was actually quite high at AVC 36 MBPS on a BD-50 disc. Consider the age of this movie, the picture actually looks very smooth and film-like. Black levels are excellent, especially in all the scenes in the casino with all the gentlemen in their tuxedos, or the Berlin sequences, with its many dark interiors. Detail is generally quite good, but the image is somewhat soft, which maybe due to the original design of the photography. (4/5)

AUDIO:

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless track sounds terrific. The beautiful music of Burt Bacharach floats in the air and never intrudes into the action of the movie. I still own the original motion picture soundtrack vinyl album, which was considered as an audiophile collector's item in the past. Of course, listening to Dusty Springfield's rendition of The Look Of Love is also worth the price of admission. This song, by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics) was nominated for an Oscar as Best Original Song, but lost to the song Talk To The Animals from the movie Doctor Dolittle. (4/5)

MOVIE:

With gadgets, gaming and girls galore, this movie is a brilliant parody of - itself. The outstanding part of this movie is the casts, including David Niven, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, Joanna Pettet, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, Charles Boyer and John Huston.

TRIVIA:

It has a budget of $12 million, but grossed $41 million worldwide, which is considered outstanding at that time.

Did you know that Peter Sellers and Orson Welles hated each other so much that the filming of the scene where both of them face each other across a gaming table actually took place on different days with a double standing in for one the actors.

When "Bond" (Terence Cooper) throws down the Chinese girl during his anti-female training, he ends the conflict by saying "Sayonara", which is actually Japanese.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I personally like to collect all the James Bond movies on blu ray. Just like the other Bond film Never Say Never, this film is usually not included in the James Bond box set collection. And,one also really cannot compare this to Daniel Craig's Casino Royale: two completely different films. This film is wacky with lots of cameos from major movie stars. The video is adequate while the music of Burt Bacharch is very special. Recommended.

I previously had this movie on DVD [2002 edition]. First thing I did notice was the packaging was different. Blu-ray looks a bit more professionally done [also has the right length of the movie on back].

I won't go much into the movie except to say that it had it's problems. 5 directors, $12 million to film, fell behind schedule, some scenes rewritten, could get certain characters casted [those asked declined], etc. Even Peter Sellers left at one point. The track Look of Love was almost pulled from the movie. Ironically, it was the only part nominated for an Academy Award.

The picture looks quite decent but I don't think they really did much between the 2002 DVD and this release. As an example, early on, something [hair? thread?] is stuck on a spot for a few minutes around the exploding birds scenes.

In term of exras, this is a bit of an odd thing. The blu-ray is listed as a "Collector's Edition" and yet, excluding the trailer, the extras differ from the DVD edition. The DVD edition features a 20 minute featurette called Psycadelic Cinema which is a "making of" featurette. The blu-ray has a new "making of" featurette that lasts almost 42 minutes. The DVD edition features the original black and white live TV show Casino Royale from 1954. This feature is not on the blu-ray. Unsure why those on the DVD never made the blu-ray edition considering the blu-ray can hold quite more [and is labelled the "Collector's Edition"].

Those who are into James Bond will still enjoy the movie even though some can't call it an official Bond movie. Aside from the regular jokes and a few inside jokes there is one character called Goodthights. Later on in the Roger Moore years there would be a character called Goodlove. Both actresses who portrayed them didn't care for the names when interviewed years later.

Also note that Ursula Andress is in this movie was also in Dr. No. Like Dr. No, there were issues with her German accent. While it was used in this movie, her voice was dubbed in Dr. No.

Note: Like another reviewer, I could not watch the movie on my Toshiba blu-ray player either. Instead I used my computer. [My rating isn't affected by this issue.]

This movie was not really worth watching. Certainly wasn't your normal James Bond movie. Didn't even finish watching it. Can't reommend it.