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The Movie:
Although I don't know who exactly produced this documentary or when, it's now being released by Fox Lorber seemingly to go closely with the video release of "The World Is Not Enough", which comes out around the middle of May. It's actually not a bad documentary at all, and certainly better than some sort of "unauthorized" documentary. This one actually seems quite legitimate, with interviews from such Bond contributors as Bond producer Michael G. Wilson.
This "story" traces the history of the series, showing off scenes from many of the Bond movies and also offering viewpoints on the strengths of the various Bond actors, as well as comments from a couple of the Bond stars themselves.
I'm not a huge fan of the Bond series, but I certainly find all of them entertaining and "The James Bond Story" was really a treat - it goes through the history of the series up to the newest films quite well, and the interviews provided some great details about the series.
The DVD
VIDEO: This is actually a very nice presentation from Fox Lorber. Although the clips from some of the older Bond movies and interviews have a few scratches and marks on them, the general feeling of the image quality on the documentary as a whole is very clean and adequately sharp. The entire documentary remains letterboxed at about 1.85:1 or so, although a clip or two is 2.35:1.
SOUND: The audio for "The James Bond Story" is fairly basic. The narration and the interviews are the main element of the presentation and both remain clear and easily understood. Clips from the movies also sound very good. No problems at all, and I was pleased with the end result for the sound.
MENUS:: Nicely done animated main menus, with the score playing in the background. In addition, there is animation when a choice is made from the main menu.
EXTRAS: Trivia game, filmographies, weblink, and production credits for the documentary.
Final Thoughts: Not bad at all - a fine documentary taking an in-depth look at the series, and although the DVD doesn't contain a wealth of features, the $19.99 price tag is very nice, indeed.
Documentary Grade:B+
DVD Grade:B
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