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Blu-ray Review: SPECTRE
2015 Blu-ray, DVDs, and movies in review
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SPECTRE

Blu-ray review by David Blackwell

 

DETAILS: 148 minutes, featurettes, video blogs, gallery, theatrical trailers, digital HD copy

VIDEO: 2.40:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen) 1080p High Definition

AUDIO: English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English 5.1 Descriptive Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 DD

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

 

STUDIO: MGM/ Columbia Pictures/ Eon Productions/ Danjaq Inc

US theatrical RELEAS DATE: 11-6-2015

Blu-ray/ DVD RELEASE DATE: 2-9-2016

James Bond (Daniel Craig) is on an unofficial mission from the previous M (Judi Dench) to kill Marco Sciarra in Mexico City during Day of the Dead.  It sets off a chain of events as he attends the Sciarra’s funeral, saves Sciarra’s widow (Monica Belucci), and stumbles upon the organization of Spectre where the leader (Christoph Waltz) has ties to James Bond’s past.  The British government security council is thinking of dismantling the 00 program as MI-5 and MI-6 are merging as James Bond tries to figure out what Spectre’s big plan is as he finds it linked back to his recent enemies including the organization Quantum. He must protect the daughter of Mr. White as Bond will come to face one of his most infamous enemies.

 

SPECTRE does get some things right as the opening sequence in Mexico during Day of the Dead is one of the highlights of this latest James Bond movie before it goes into the opening credits sequence which is full of octopus, smoke, and skull porn as it shows stuff from this movie and the past three films to a new James Bond theme sung by Sam Smith.  I like the lyrics and music to that song, but I wish they got someone better to sing it.  SPECTRE does a good way of tying together the previous three movies into the newest movie while playing on the theme of whether James Bond (the blunt instrument) belongs in today’s world of terrorism, drones, and surveillance states (aka George Orwell’s 1984).   SPECTRE does play off sometime like the greatest hits homage to other James Bond movies of the past while trying to be in with the gritty nature of the last three while trying to be more fun like the James Bond movies before Daniel Craig came in to play 007.

 

SPECTRE isn’t the worst or the best of Bond movies where the best moments of SPECTRE are in the first 90 minutes.  It plays like LICENSE TO KILL which is an entertaining and yet not as impressive follow-up to the movie that came before it (THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS).   They also do the Bond is being tracked thing again (Bond was implanted with a  tracker in CASINO ROYALE and he has smart blood in this movie).  Bond goes rogue is a repeated theme used before in LICENSE TO KILL.  The expectations from SKYFALL are so high and the script is a blend of many rewrites and so many cooks in the kitchen. The plot involving Spectre and the reveal of a certain bad guy to be Blofeld could have used more fleshing out since SPECTRE seems like all setup with not enough pay off by movie’s end.   I hope the next James Bond movie (the 25th in the series) can bring out a classic James bond movie whether Daniel Craig returns for one more movie or they cast someone new as 007.   I enjoyed SPECTRE, but I feel a little disappointed by it even though I will see it again at some point.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

SPECTRE: BOND’S BIGGEST OPENING SEQUENCE- a detailed behind-the-scenes look at what went into prepping and shooting the Day of the Dead parade sequence that opens up the movie

 

Also on the disc are the theatrical trailer teaser, two theatrical trailers, a photo gallery and the online video blogs (DIRECTOR- SAM MENDES, SUPERCARS, INTRODUCING LEA SEYDOUX AND MONICA BELLUCCI, ACTION, MUSIC (the Sam Smith song), and GUINNESS WORLD RECORD for biggest cinematic explosion).  Also included in the case is a code to download and/ or stream a digital HD copy of SPECTRE.

 

Target offers a bonus DVD which has a featurette FROM TITLE SONG TO TITLE SEQUENCE on the title sequence and the Sam Smith song that plays during the title sequence (blame the Bond producers accepting sam Smith's offer wanting to do a Bond song when he approached them), the Same Smith music video- WRITING'S ON THE WALL, and THE SHADOW OF SPECTRE featurette where SPECTRE co-writers Robert Wade and Neal Purvis examine the history of Spectre in past Bond films).

 

FINAL ANALYSIS: SPECTRE is a flawed James Bond movie with a number of issues and disappointing climax and an opening scene which the rest of the movie doesn’t even live up to or even top.  The extras are pretty slim and it makes think there will be a double dip for SPECTRE in the future.

 

This review is ©2-19-2015 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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