“Of the three Blu-ray Connery Bond’s that I’ve covered to date, Dr. No (10.21) looks the best yet — which may sound surprising as it is the oldest film. Colors are vibrant and detail shows a good deal of gratifying sharpness. Black levels are pitch. The image overall is quite beautiful — far in advance of anything put to SD-DVD. It resides on a dual-layered Blu-ray and the feature takes up 28.5 gigs. It felt like I was watching this initial Bond entry for the very first time — what an addictive image!
“I am blown away by this image clarity, tightness and pristine contrast. Noise is minimal and grain is replaced with a natural smoothness that I assume moviegoers saw as well over 45 years ago. No DNR or edge-enhancement in sight — this image quality is marvelous.” — from Gary Tooze‘s recently-posted review on DVD Beaver.
A closing note for the 1.85 fascists who’ve been claiming that 1.85 was the norm going back to the early to mid ’50s. The aspect ratio on the Dr. No Blu-ray is 1.66 to 1 — hah! I recognize that the British were more into this aspect ratio than the Americans back then, but 1.66 was definitely a viable format at the time (i.e., one that hadn’t been dumped in the ’50s). If the 1.85 brownshirts had had their way, the image on this spiffy-sounding Blu-Ray would have been artificially shaved on the tops and bottoms. Everyone who spoke out in favor of Touch of Evil in 1.85 needs to strip their shirts off and beat themselves with birch branches.
